Combat Submission Wrestling Seminar – July 2011

Tuesday 12th July saw myself and Peter Squire travel from Chelmsford to Aldershot to attend a Combat Submission Wrestling (CSW) seminar given by Erik Paulson, and hosted by Terry Valler’s JKD and MMA Academy.

Erik Paulson is one of the World’s most highly regarded Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) coaches, who has experience in many combat sports, and CSW is his own unique blend of these arts. Additionally, Erik is also a Full Instructor in Jeet Kune Do and Kali under Guro Dan Inosanto.

The seminar kicked off with a dynamic warm-up, starting with speed developing exercises and footwork drills.

Hour one of the seminar consisted of a section focusing on Boxing ‘tricks’, before working a three for three hit and defend partner drill.

Focus was then switched to the ground game, and Erik offered up some excellent flows and series from different reference points, including some excellent and surprising escapes and submissions.

The last half hour consisted of floor-only sparring, where I tried to remember and use as much as I could from what I had been shown during the seminar.

After the seminar I was honored to be invited to go as part of a group to dinner and was lucky enough to sit and chat with Erik about Martial Arts and life in general.

A big thank you to Erik and his wife for travelling to the UK to give the seminar, to Terry Valler for hosting him and, as ever, to Peter Squire for being my ever-willing training partner.