How Wrestling Changed the World

[@SenseiSeth]

Want a sweet pair of Hayabusa Gloves?? Go to www.hayabusafight.com/products/t3-boxing-gloves?variant=29618349473905&a_aid=senseiseth&a_cid=594eb496 or use code senseiseth10 for 10% off!!

[@darioruiz5326]

There are a lot traditionals wrestling sports I would love it if you could talk about the "lucha Canaria" you will be very surprise you should check out the fight "volquete y regalado" it is f****k crazy, by the way I m from the canary islands so yeaaaaah please talk about our sport man.

[@HeartlessKnave]

They have Black Friday on, I already dropped $300 on stuff that's on the way. 😅

[@SenseiSeth]

@@HeartlessKnave before this or because of it?? I just saw they have way better deals than my link 😂

[@FuryoTokkosho]

Mikhaila Peterson Fuller On How An All Meat Diet, did you check it out yet?

[@FuryoTokkosho]

Or The Game breaks down his diet en route to The Show of Shows: Triple H's Road to WrestleMania, ever seen how far this man can jump with a weight that sumotori has?

[@dogma-z4r]

Sensei Seth has entered his wrestling arc

[@marginal-original]

He entered it when started sumo(he s really god btw)

[@Sensei_Frog]

Thaswatamsayin

[@kapothegod]

that was long ago when he got interested in sumo

[@philipgarrett5009]

Have just discovered wrestling this year and have been trying to describe how I felt about it this last few weeks.. .. then you go and bring this fabulous video out !

[@mxvrdahegaouwu7577]

"Seth the Grappleth"

[@XarkoCZ]

Sumo changed this man forever.

[@SenseiSeth]

Probably, honestly

[@Ninjacob00]

@@SenseiSethI remember Ramsey had a video Q&A talked about how grappling is a human’s native martial art, hands were made to grip, hold, and squeeze, not strike

[@cloudmaster182]

​@@Ninjacob00 yep he has talked a lot about how natural and instinctive wrestling is

[@Buphido]

@@Ninjacob00 and it makes a lot of sense if you look at what happens when we punch with full force. I believe that's one of the things he mentioned, but if humans were made to strike as a means of attack, our little fingies wouldn't shatter if we do. But unfortunately, human hands are fragile, while they in turn are evolutionarily built, over thousands of years, for gripping. Also, if you look at our closest relatives in nature, then the way they attack, too, is either by wrestling or by hitting stuff with sticks. I wager striking only became a thing because hitting things with sticks was so effective, and so we developed an inclination to hit things even when sticks weren't available. But it just wasn't meant to be.

[@Luc-1991]

@@Ninjacob00 they're probably also made to strike tho. I don't know if our hands would've evolved this way if it was only to grab.

[@ethan_erwin]

I wrestled in high school, I was honestly ashamed of it bc everyone would make fun of me for it. I was pretty good and ended up going 41-8 my senior year and got a college scholarship. I appreciate you making this video to show people that wrestling isn’t “gay” but instead the backbone of martial arts.

[@nicholasneyhart396]

Same, I am a fat angry goblin that wrestled in school and a few years in college as well as doing judo just as long. Half the football team shit on me and my friend luke for wrestling, but and the end of the day we were fat angry manlets that were stronger than people twice as big.

[@rns7426]

😂 football players, pure footballers, get it handed to them on the mat when they bother to step on it by guys half their size! Out of all the grappling though, wrestling is definitely the gayest😂 At least in Judo you can’t feel any erections through the gi pants! (Some grappling humor)

[@nicholasneyhart396]

@rns7426 True that football players get the breaks beaten off of them in wrestling, but in me and my friends case we started wrestling in 5th grade and started football in 8th.

[@ethan_erwin]

@@nicholasneyhart396 I’ve played football since I was 5. So I know exactly how they feel about it lol. They ended up respecting it, there was never a tackle I missed if I got a hand on whoever was running the ball.

[@salvadorromero9712]

I will guess that you folks who were actually ashamed of wrestling (as a very partial excuse) grew up in the South or possibly West, where wrestling culture would be so weak (always odd to me, and a damn shame from a talent pool perspective) that it would be considered something of an unfamiliar oddity. In the Midwest or Northeast (and I grew up in the 1990s) ofc you get the gay jokes about wrestling because _come on_ , but it is about the most tolerable form because it is mixed with _immense_ respect. It is enough to dissuade some kids from coming on board in the first place but pretty much _never_ enough to put even a scratch on the attitude of someone who already wrestles.

[@adonislanzones]

At a biomechanical level we are ment to wrestle, as not only did it determine strength and power, it also allowed the loser to still be useful after the bout and not as injured.

[@PanicGiraffe]

If a man can hold you down...

[@GumiSumi]

@@PanicGiraffewhat could two do?

[@az9324]

It's sunnah to wrestle And prohibited to strike a person's face ❤ just saying The more you know

[@janitor1165]

I like that you touch on grappling being a way to settle disagreements without hurting the other person while learning more about each other through the process.

[@joshuabernardo4305]

But ...my pride... lmao

[@gozer87]

The German medieval masters wrote "All fighting is wrestling."

[@SenseiSeth]

Dangit, where were you while I was editing

[@cahallo5964]

​@@SenseiSethSpanish fencing masters said that if both fencers are equally skilled, the better grappler will win the match!

[@Innate-Charisma]

Where can we find more information about medieval combatants talking about wrestling? I’d love to read more about this … thanks!

[@gozer87]

@Innate-Charisma Fabian von Auerswald is one, Paulus Kal is another master. Jude Lew and Ott Jud are others. Jessica Finley has some great seminars on Ringen, which is what the Germans called wrestling.

[@Innate-Charisma]

@@gozer87 Thank you very much my friend!

[@chrisdonovan8795]

I'm 55 with 36 years of Judo experience. I need a hip replacement now after dealing with a popped labrum in 2007. Even now, I can lift a 215 pound man, and carry air conditioners down two flights of stairs. I also have bone spurs in my left elbow and some limited range of motion in some fingers. Yes, Judo caused some injuries, but it gave me much more. That's life, and I'm still winning.

[@Habitatti]

Hell yeah, man. Wrestling is life. Even the man himself, Marcus Aurelius, describes life as wrestling, rather than a dance, which is a more common analogy nowadays. I've been grappling for 16 years. Started out with BJJ and fell in love it immediately. It just felt right. Especially with what we now call Nogi. Back then it was Submission Wrestling, and it describes my expression of the art perfectly. I pride myself of being a decent wrestler and the best of times is, when I get to go with someone who has and actual wrestling or judo base. Afterwards we get to chat philosophy and technique. It's amazing how you can make lifelong friends by just violently hugging each other for a few minutes. Happy for you!

[@JoeyG-o8r]

Any tips for picking up wrestling at a BJJ school? I'm a blue belt trying to learn standup. I feel like wrestling is a lot rougher and I'm worried I'm going to hurt my partner because wrestling demands you power through things, unlike BJJ which is more about going "around" any walls.

[@Habitatti]

@@JoeyG-o8r You just gotta find the guys who want to wrestle too. Study tape, instructionals, youtube and figure it out. You can start out with e.g. basic pummeling, arm drags and chain them to single leg pick-ups. Also, learn basic defensive manouvers, like a down block. If I remember correctly, Randy Couture has a great video on pummeling and Marcelo Garcia definitely has a great stuff on arm drags. Most importantly, take it easy. Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast.

[@alexchirico3898]

Wrestling in middle and high school was one of the best things I’ve ever done for myself. If ur school has a wrestling club, sign up and never look back

[@LooneyTunes-x2z]

I wish I could have done Wrestling, but I live in England, where in my area, there's literally none, so I just chose Jiu Jitsu😅

[@حسینموسوی-ه9غ]

​@@LooneyTunes-x2z Thats a form of wrestling too

[@ChessAmplified]

I agree. Ive been doing kickboxing for 2 years and never caring about wrestling. About a month ago I tried MMA and realized how important it is to know how to wrestle.

[@axelstone3131]

For sport maybe.

[@catwithoutthehat]

​@@axelstone3131 it works in fights, twisting a punch into a chicken wing stops fights quick if not you can break shit, wrestlers know how to move, wrestling translates to fighting easily instead of on the ground you're just standing up and adding kicks and punches, the body still moves the same whether on the ground or standing up, a punch can also be turned into a big throw or avoided and taken straight to the ground, lots of way it translates, you already have speed strength and balance, I wrestled Greco folk and freestyle, never had much problems works better than karate imo

[@averagebros1]

@@axelstone3131somebody never met the early abrubtly

[@Herosoyyo2]

@@axelstone3131 Is this what denial sounds like? Thought it ran through Egypt 🤷‍♂

[@cloudmaster182]

​@@Herosoyyo2 thanks for letting everyone know you've never been in a fight, real or for sport

[@rohandodds852]

I am an anthropology student and a BJJ practitioner, and one day I am hoping to do a PhD on wrestling in its many forms and cultural manifestations. Admittedly, mainly as an excuse to grapple more. This video was my first experience with your channel, and the perfect place to start! The video was excellent and provided great inspiration to keep heading down this path. Thank you.

[@mengmao5033]

Which arts are you looking to study for that kind of thesis?

[@rohandodds852]

@@mengmao5033 If all works out and I make it to that point Senegalese wrestling (Laamb) would be my preference. Failing that, I have access to a supervisor with connections in Mongolia. All daydreaming for the moment, though.

[@AdobadoFantastico]

I'd love to read it. I'm an animator but anthropology has always been one of my favorite hobby interests and I trained bjj, competed in judo. Love wrestling. This is absolutely my shit, I really hope you see the value too I think it's super worthwhile. If you're not familiar with Jack Slack he's done some deep dives into martial arts history as well as general analysis. Check it out.

[@Swordsandstupidity]

Legitimately honored to be included in this group of absolute heroes you've worked with, and to lend my voice to this wonderful love letter to an art form that has defined much of my life. Solid work. Congratulations, man.

[@GermanSausagesAreTheWurst]

Much like Seth, I was always a striker, but as I got older and learned more, I realized that what I thought were strikes were really locks and throws and what I thought were kicks were really foot sweeps and trips.

[@rlh8423]

❤

[@UdnaBaaz]

"Wrestling is meditation". This is a traditional saying in Punjab India.

[@alberta-t6c]

NO ITS ACTUALY IRANIAN but indians wrestled alot in their history

[@Littlepotatochip117]

Gsp was a striker that fell inlove with grappling . He became the goat

[@itzjudojeff]

Grappling has been such a positive influence on my life. I was a very timid and struggled with self confidence when I was younger, so grappling really helped combat this insecurities! Grappling is good for you mentally and physically, it’s just how it is! ❤🤷‍♂️

[@pingislife2653]

💯

[@joshbeambjj]

Such a good video, you really nailed it with your observations. The Gilgamesh story kinda blew my mind. And… I’m honored to have been included here 🙏 Looking forward to sharing the sumo video as well, thanks for coaching us there. Good stuff man!

[@andre.allday99]

W cameo and introspection! ++Sumo 🔥🔥

[@RollinBoy]

Wrestling is so natural, its in nature, Bear cubs, Lion cubs, Tiger cubs, Wolf pups wrestle. Pretty much every civilization had wrestling as a base for the military , there is this belief most Kung Fu was originally wrestling and I agree (I did Wing Chun and I always felt it was a blade art, the hand part is wrestling e.g Tan Sao, Fook Sao, Bong Sau.. all wrestling moves) A Renaissance Fencing Master (cant remember the name) once said in a rapier duel, all things equal, the better wrestler will KILL the other fencer.. IN A RAPIER DUEL!

[@sumotofu]

"Love isn't the work of the tender and the gentle; Love is the work of wrestlers." - Rumi Great video, it's been awesome to have you in the sumo community. Much love from Mighty Eagle Sumo!

[@NoForksGiven]

Every culture in the world, no matter how much contact they have with outsiders, will always invent 5 things: Archery Music Religion Language and wrestling

[@McFlubberpants]

Booze

[@ArkhBaegor]

I'm not even sure you can invent wrestling, wrestling is older than humans.

[@awstraliad]

@@ArkhBaegor I guess, but also wrestling is just an understanding of the strengths and limitations of the human body. All of these wrestling styles from around the world end up with very similar techniques because we're studying the same thing, the human body, although they don't share any cultural roots with each other, like the Aboriginal Australian wrestling style that mimics kangaroos fighting just happens to look a lot like Judo.

[@mikeCD62]

Archery did not independently arise in Australia or most of the rest of oceania

[@WilliamKeloren]

and weapon fighting (sword, sticks etc)

[@TheElbowMerchant]

Sensei Seth, you're speaking my language! I only cared about striking for a decade, then I got ragdolled in an MMA gym, and now I'm OBSESSED with grappling. Similarly, I genuinely wish my high school had a wrestling program because even though I was never particularly interested in wrestling, I would have signed up to give myself an athletic endeavor to pursue when the football season ended. Offensive wrestling is still the weakest part of my game, and striking is still my best, but I have grown to love and appreciate grappling more than I ever could have forseen.

[@tobysyoutubechannel420]

This is my favorite type of video! Entertaining, educational, investigative, and a little philosophical. Thank you!

[@chrisdonovan8795]

My experience started with Judo. I have the natural bias of my first love, and I can make good arguments for why it's great, but after dabbling in MMA, I learned the valuable lesson of respecting a skilled striker of any kind. One Judo brag though: Judo has a philosophical foundation that sets it apart. Judo is about the search for maximum efficiency and mutual welfare and benefit.

[@FlamosSnow]

Wrestling is literally one of the things which makes us human.

[@АлтайскийКазак]

Respectfully, I disagree. Many different types of marsupials, canids, felines, primates, reptiles, and rodents have been observed wrestling in a very recognizable way.

[@FlamosSnow]

@@АлтайскийКазак Yes, but I was going for a more philosophical/emotional response

[@dradamov]

@@АлтайскийКазак Maybe "making us human" as in being closer to our nature, jsut like animals are one with it always?

[@WilliamKeloren]

@@АлтайскийКазак I would say weapon fighting... it is as old as wrestling probably (yes i am counting sticks) and dueling sort of didn't end yet globally, but in e.g. Europe it ended with cold war basically? (last well known was was like 1967)

[@KriegerIngarten]

@@WilliamKelorenweapons are much more human

[@thepracticaldad]

I started BJJ two years ago at 41 and can honestly say I wish I'd been wrestling/grappling since I was a kid. Grappling is by far the most satisfying thing Ive ever done apart from raising a family.

[@mrcuddles2199]

16:51 I love this concept that if you injured your training partner, you may be responsible for that persons recovery and health. What better way to keep your ego in check and build camaraderie.

[@Sadbringer]

Hope to see more of your sumo adventures! As someone who's became a fan of it only about a year ago, I found your stories, retrospectives and insights on the sumo very interesting. It isn't something you'd get from professional Japanese sumotori, so I've been following your vlogs ever since I found this is the type of sports/martial arts you seem to be taking much more in-depth than the other ones. Whatever you are aiming at, I hope you'll achieve it with sumo!

[@fabianbecker6266]

Well, I did not expect to learn so much when I clicked this video!

[@artyomtimoshenko2610]

9:07 I think wrestlers tend to have much more muscular builds because weight lifting is a necessary component of training while in other combat sports it is often a secondary activity.

[@Noah-pc6wq]

And strength in grappling is so much more directly correlated with success. Not to say that strength isn't useful in striking, it's just that striking techniques require relaxation and timing just as much as strength and explosion. You can be a stiff as hell grappler, and if you can out think your opponent and are monstrously strong, you can go far

[@jamierae5185]

I jumped between tonnes of martial arts but never stuck to any particular one. Then I went to an armoured knight fighting class for fun and they happened to be focusing on upper body wrestling. And the minute my arms started burning I knew I was addicted, I couldn't stop thinking about grappling for weeks and the days I wasn't wrestling that's all I'd imagine. I went on to do freestyle wrestling and sumo wrestling and have stuck to them for years. They've given me a community of good people when I felt at my loneliest and I always know I'm going to have a good time when I drop into class. I've become a wrestler for life!

[@bulletxwound3559]

7:50 my friend got me a pair of gloves for my birthday using you code. It's my first pair of hayabusa gloves and I love them.

[@blitzthekraken9832]

Seth, been watching you for a bit. Honestly, I tell this to the kido's all the time. If there is a bully incident, and the school has a wrestling team, they should be automatically be enrolled to wrestle on the team. They will learn a lot about humility. They will cry and hurt and realize that getting dominated sucks. There is only one team that will see very little fight time or bully time in school and that is the wrestling team. If the child is on the wrestling team, usually they don't want to fight at all, can they, yes, do they want to, usually not. They fight all the time and everyday. Their tired, drained, and most often then not, literally hungry and cannot eat.

[@fromolwyoming]

The martial arts school I went to was technically called "Freestyle Karate", but we did a bit of everything in there. Including a fair bit of wrestling/grappling. And while others preferred stand up styles (karate, kick boxing, muay thai), I preferred taking things to the ground. Because, like you said, you get a much more extensive workout than a lot of other things. And wrestlers' conditioning is top notch for a reason. Even heavyweights.

[@MichaelAres]

Don’t forget when Jacob wrestled the Angel in the Bible!

[@jeremykiahsobyk102]

"Israel" (Jacob's new name) literally means "wrestles with God"

[@101289teutonicguy]

There are like 6 wrestling matches in the bible

[@bentinho]

Great video Seth. As a life long striker I share many of the same sentiments and I'm lowkey jealous you get to try all these wrestling styles 😂. Looking back, I should've wrestled in school when I was younger also. But being in Iowa, I still learned a fair bit just interacting with people growing up and later was able to dabble in judo and learned quite a bit of sweeps and takedowns as a capoeirista (that was always some of my favorite stuff to teach too). Being a short big guy often going against/training with tall big guys---I love standing grappling and foot sweeps. I had just started teaching my son the basics this past summer (he's 9) and literally just enrolled him in wrestling club this week. Hoping he gets out of it many of the things you outlined here!

[@maxanderson3733]

Thank you for this man. I think this might be your best video yet. Thank you for giving me more motivation to keep grappling.

[@shemshem9998]

The wreslting people you are close to is so true lol. Getting picked up, being held in the air with a katagaruma (firemans carry) or a tsuri goshi. Or just a good hold and push each other a bit. Its not suprising to anyone to see me carry someone in my back and trying to run away with them

[@nitrox1613]

Wrestling being a human thing makes a lot of sense. Wrestling has been around for thousands of years around the world and in different religious texts. It also makes more sense for humans as we break our hands and knuckles punching but not with wrestling. Also animals like bears, lions, and cheetahs often wrestle with eachother as kids.

[@sesimie]

Seth! You introduced me to Lethwei (made an impact...pun not intended lol), to so many martial arts topics and your growth in grappling is such a treat! It's a true superpower and as you get older the ability to use leverage and fall properly is priceless.

[@Hapkumdo]

Bro, your videos are getting better and better - way to go! :D

[@Eri587]

Long comment. In my opinion wrestling IS life because striking IS death. Whenever i heard people said that we were made to wrestle i think sure but to me people wrestle because they want to get away from striking on instinct and i don't say this as an insult to wrestlers and grapplers, i love judo to death but what i have notice is that whenever there is true conflict, like is time to hurt someone, nobody wrestles, regardless if they are animals, kids, adults or professional fighters, even if they are actual wrestlers, when is time to hurt someone, people will strike because striking hurts and wrestling can hurt but most of the time you're going to be fine, injuries and wrestling can happen but even if you go all out in wrestling is hard to geniunely hurt someone and i know you are thinking about takedowns in concrete, sure that will hurt but the ability to pick someone up and slam them into their head is very fucking hard, even when competent wrestlers fights, things like suplexes, slams and throwing someone into their head is rare, it doesn't happen often but in striking if you go hard, someone is going to get hurt yes or yes, it is impossible to do striking hard without hurting someone and because of this i think people instinctibly wrestle, because you can playfully wrestle and even if it escalates the likelyhood of injury is low but if you strike, even if it starts playfully if it escalates, someone is going to get hurt after a certain point. Even in videos of animals fighting, yes animals do wrestle but if you look closely, when animals fight to actually hurt each other they might wrestle but they are also striking, tigers, bears, chimps, if they are capable of using their limbs to hit, they will hit and even biting i think is closer to a form of striking than to wrestling because in striking you shove your fist on the opponent to cause damage and when an animal bites they are shoving their teeth in the opponent body to cause damage. So to summerize, yes i do think people need to know how to wrestle but to me in the most primal level striking is what nature intended we use for violence. I perfectly understand that this wasn't the point of the video but whenever i hear that we are made to wrestle and not strike i think that's wrong, we were made to do both but one is more violent than the other.

[@boxingbull523]

I agree. Both Striking and wrestling is standard. Especially with weapons.

[@boxingbull523]

@@ascended496 true but, punching isn't the only strike we use. Palm strikes, knees, kicks, knife hands, hammer fist. That don't hurt those soft hand bones.

[@Eri587]

@@ascended496 I 100% agree that we evolved to hold things and if anything we are made to fight with weapons BUT the same type of grip strenght required to hold a stick, a baseball bat or a sword handle is the same grip require to make a fist, when you squeeze something you are holding that's the same grip that when you squeeze your fist, only difference is that you don't have something in your hands, anatomycally is the exact same thing. And the movement required to throw a rock or a spear happens to be very close, almost identical to a strike too, so we definitely have the anatomy to strike. If we weren't evolved to hit with our hands we simply would not be able to do it but we can, for thousands of years on top of fighting with weapons we have also fought with our fists, an animal like a dog can't genuinely strike at all so even though they have claws like felines, they can't use them but many other animals can and they definitely use them. Primates too, they do wrestle but again, my point was never that wrestling doesn't happen with animals or people, is that the notion that we were only made to wrestle is wrong. Hand injuries don't happend every time you strike, that's just an absurd lie, hand injuries happen but not upon every single impact, ancient greeks already had boxing and they didn't exactly had boxing gloves. The comparation i made with animals is that more often than not when animals play they wrestle but when they want to hurt eachother they use their other tools like claws and teeth and sure they might do wrestling moves but what they use to hurt eachother is more similar to striking.

[@Goiaba308]

One small reason is to get away from striking. Specially against taller oponents, you're either need to be more skilled or eat punches, so wrestling against that is better.

[@ascended496]

@@Eri587 This comment is going to be way too long but It seems KZbin didn’t like my comment about animals “unaliving each other” but my main points were 1) The Ancient Greek argument doesn’t work as they always used hand protection. 2) animals always use grappling as the foundation of their fights. The lethality of bites and claws is added on top of it. Other Primates, our closest relatives, grab and claw and bite. But their fights are grappling based. 3) The fact that we can punch doesn’t mean we evolved to do it. If that were the case our hands would like very different. The knuckles did not evolve to be used as weapons and neither did the hand. For example we can play instruments and write but nowhere in our evolutionary history was it favored. The same way that sure, punching uses the same mechanics as throwing an object but that’s simply because our hips and shoulders adapted to propell objects accurately at high speeds, we simply used it to propell our hand at high speeds, the problem is the knuckles and hand werent intended to be used as weapons which is why they are so injury prone, without modern medicine a broken bone in our hand can mean you can’t hunt and forage effectively which would selectively favor those with more durable hands. The problem is hand injuries from punches are still so common that it effectively rules out the use of punches in early humans from an evolutionary stand point the genes for weaker hands would be weeded out, for example tiny bones and ligaments running directly over the contact points but they weren’t and our hands are still as injury prone as samples from 50,000+ years ago In reality the only part of our body that evolved to be used as a weapon are our teeth but tbh they are merely a remnant of our earlier ancestors as we developed tools that do what our canines do but better, also remember that humans are more social than all other animals so that would make up for a lot of our physical short comings. We didn’t need crazy sharp teeth to fight because there’s 5 of us all throwing and smashing rocks at our enemy. If we look at all prehistoric human remains (those who were “unalived” due to combat) they have injuries due to blunt force trauma to the skull, such injuries cannot be created by the human hand as again, it’s too fragile and weak, they were created by rocks. It really goes to show that humans rarely fought without weapons and if they did they wouldn’t risk such devastating injuries to the hand. That being said in a real fight, life or death, humans do whatever it takes to cause as much harm to the other person as possible, striking is very much so the most effective way to do that, even without weapons, but grappling is how basically every fight ends up with literally every animal on earth. This was supposed to be a summary but I rambled for too long lol. My main point is the fact that there is no evolutionary evidence favoring making the hand more robust makes it very unlikely that it was a primary weapon for early humans and therefore we did not evolve to throw punches.

[@chrisricetopher21]

Bro. You deserve a trillion more subs than you have at present. Keep it up. We all love you and you’re gonna get your reward for all that grindin!

[@gabrielvaleri4755]

2:45 you got REALLY ahead in time, in Ancient Greece we also got Heracles and Theseus who basically wrestled creatures and the whole greco-roman wrestling and pankrate that existed back then

[@carlosmonteonjr]

7:20 as a wrestler, I heard nothing wrong with “hello, high crotch!” until you started laughing 😂

[@napalminthemorning8309]

I still remember my freshman year, our first practice of the actual season. Up until then, it had been preseason conditioning and I always felt like a failure that would never be up to snuff. First actual practice of the season, we took it a little lighter and just drilled techniques and went live almost the whole time. Then we played “King of the mountain” where you wrestle until the last man standing. Whoever wins keeps wrestling non-stop until they lose, and if they don’t lose their multiple bouts, they’re “King of the Mountain”. I was King that day, and I walked home from practice with pride. No one beat me and I suddenly felt invincible, not insecure. Wrestling changes lives.

[@EqualizerCombatives]

We are designed for grappling, no matter how ancient boxing is, our hands are for gripping, grabbing, pushing, pulling

[@giovonnielewis4329]

I think striking came from weapons combat.

[@albertosara416]

This reminds me not long ago with the whole Jeff Nippard drama about getting attacked by this other guy at a gym, Eric "Dr. Density" Bugenhagen suggested they should have tussled. Just wrestled it out to show who's better, a very gentleman's way to solve the issue. That stuck with me a lot, and this video really made me reflect on it some more. Wrestling really is a lot more than just a way of fighting other people

[@af4396]

I've never enjoyed striking arts. I think the reason is that 1) it doesn't feel natural to keep distance and play a striking game and 2) to actually settle the fight you have to commit to strikes that can hurt your opponent badly. Grappling allows you to have full control while dialing between 1 and 110%, even with full resistance. Heck, you can dominate without even going for any subs. It's just so natural. Also, at least in most first world countries, striking isn't really the best self defence unless you think the only self defence is against people with knives and body armor that want to kill you and for some reason you've got a good shot at winning because you're on your feet and throwing puches like Batman, apparently.

[@mattmax8599]

Wonderful video! Love the history and the culture of grappling. It is more than just smesh. In its highest form its art, control, and even friendship!

[@37PTL]

Thank you for posting a video. Making a great example of why wrestling is part of a human life, especially in the animal kingdom. Wrestling is everything to me. I found out that wrestling has been here for a long time, ancient times. Wrestling or Grappling is considered the most dominant and part of our instinct within every species on the planet. In the animal kingdom it is considered the highest form for dominance and leadership. Whether it's greco-roman, judo, jujutsu, bokh, folkstyle, kushti, sumo, etc. 'Wrestling/Grappling is life."

[@jalenlaughlin6524]

Thank you so much for making this video! Wrestling was dying and was on the verge of being removed from the Olympics in 2020 and 2024, and now it is one of the fastest growing sports in the country. Videos like this help break down the stigma around the sport and show why it can be so great. Also I didn’t realize how much of my communication with my friends is walking up like Daniel Cormier and grabbing them so thank you for making me aware of it 😂

[@fardhidahmed6003]

Yo Seth, huge respect for all the amazing content you’ve been dropping, your deep dives into grappling styles are on another level. But there’s one major gem you’re sleeping on: Kurash. Trust me, if you haven’t looked into it yet, you’re missing out on something that could completely change the way people think about grappling. Kurash is ancient, like over 2,000 years old, and it’s built on straight-up power, efficiency, and real-world effectiveness. The whole thing is about throwing your opponent to the ground while staying on your feet with no crazy ground game, no wild submission attempts. Just pure control, balance, and leverage. You get them on their back quick without wasting any time or energy. And the best part? It works in ANY situation, whether they’re wearing a jacket, a T-shirt, or even no shirt at all. Doesn’t matter. You stay on your feet, you dominate, and it’s effective every time. What makes Kurash so deadly is its simplicity with no complicated grips or flashy moves. Just get in close, control the body, and throw. It’s like if grappling had a fast-forward button; everything’s direct, to the point, and designed for real-world situations. No fluff, no filler, just brutal practicality. This is one of the most underrated grappling styles you’ll ever come across, and it’s been working for thousands of years... there’s a reason it’s still around. I guarantee your audience will flip when they see you break down Kurash. It’s like the missing piece to the grappling puzzle, they won’t even see it coming. You’ll be introducing something that’s been around forever, but no one’s really talking about it. This is an opportunity to bring something raw, real, and effective into the spotlight. Trust me, people will eat this up. I seriously think this would be one of your best videos yet straight to the point, powerful, and incredibly practical. What do you think? This one is too good to ignore.

[@cubandarknez]

I agree that a big thing about wrestling is that it can be most easily adjusted to avoid injury while still remaining interesting as a physical contest

[@777orment]

Good video! I’ve been wrestling for the first time in my life (sophomore year HS) and even though I’m not great I can attest to the primal benefit to wrestling

[@TheHenaxe]

Even now in my our late 20's early 30's still nothing feels as natural as play wrestling with my brother, or my friends, it just connects you to a person in a way very few things can

[@PaladinJackal]

Seth you still need to make a video trying out just normal wrestling. Freestyle or Folkstyle. Even Greco Roman would be cool too

[@hennysaud4867]

I’m in my 40’s been wrestling since I was 8. I’ve always considered Wrestling the original martial art and I appreciate hearing similar from a professional perspective.

[@geniusondrugs3769]

Yo Seth, I love the timing on this, as I myself am transitioning from a background of mostly Krav Maga and Boxing/Kickboxing to training BJJ and Judo as well at the moment. I was super bummed out about not being able to find any videos online on what principles and mechanics one can transfer from striking to takedowns/defense and which ones were drastically different; sorta like a “guide on grappling for strikers” y’know? I’d love to hear your take on this, and I’m sure there are a lot of people in your community who are going through something somewhat similar. Thanks and osu!

[@alfredoatencio7961]

Love these videos. Always pumped when I see another one came out

[@Wagyu_Jubei]

When you did the episode about Judo and several about Sumo, I knew you were always a grappler. You’re a natural. 😊

[@drr398]

Freestyle wrestling is truly amazing I hope you dedicate a video to it sometime they train like monsters

[@Budsport_TV]

Love your videos Seth. You have truly grown into a great storyteller over the years.

[@lugaruclone]

What you say about being humbled... one of my favorite life experiences is when I was studying Japanese Kempo there was a kid who was a black belt in other stuff but was a white belt in Kempo and studied with us. One time he threw a strike at me while sparring and I did a perfect deflection... then 3 more punches landed on my torso in the same breath. It was a moment of realizing even at my best, I got a super long way to go... and in a controlled environment sometimes being massively outclassed can be liberating.

[@KlausBeckEwerhardy]

So, people like to hug. One way, or the other. But more seriously, nice vid. Really philosophical.

[@chaselachapelle939]

Super cool video and sentiment - wrestled for about 10 years and completely shaped my life perspective

[@julianmartinez4655]

Dude love your vids you helped me stay motivated with my wrestling keep up the good work 🙏

[@pranakhan]

Damnit, dude. This hit me at an interesting point in my life. Was considering going back into Tuishou, or grappling in another system through that foundational lense. At 45, I had limiting beliefs that kept me from it. At 47, I guess I better start ASAP. I have to up the conditioning, get that in line for the Spring. Thank you, I think?...

[@christopherburns6403]

One of my only regrets is not wrestling in highschool when my friend told me I should join the team. I thought I was too late to join and I would be too far behind but if I had just jumped into it I could have given it a shot and really grown as a person and martial artist. It’s hard to learn to wrestle as an adult but I’m trying!

[@crispybacon9917]

Wrestling is life because it's the one martial art everyone can just do

[@dusandragovic09srb]

It's hard to wrestle when you're spinning on a ball called planet Earth. Especially in Australia, that core is on fire.

[@russellinator]

I did wrestling in High School, and I 100% agree with this videos message.

[@ME_YA4P]

My dad always tells me about how as a kid I would come sit next to him and start pushing him, and he'd think "oh boy, here we go again..." and then we'd wrestle, and he would always marvel at how happy it made me, so even though he thought it was exhausting after a long day of work, he'd always acquiesce anyway. I think there's a skinship in wrestling that young men absolutely need.

[@What-he5pr]

Exactly

[@JoeyG-o8r]

Yea boys for sure, but even my daughter (3yo) asks to wrestle me sometimes. It's so funny, she's asks politely and then starts to circle me with the WILD look in her eyes before taking her "shot". Sometimes even my one year old daughter will dive onto my back as a sort of "sneak" attack. Kids love rough housing haha.

[@korpzmarcelfranca6825]

Why just young men?

[@JoeyG-o8r]

@@korpzmarcelfranca6825 girls shouldn't fight.

[@schwindsichtigaderechte5293]

I love how much you get into this! Someone should make an anime about your wrestling journey!

[@KLargo-z3s]

In Bible in Genesis, Jacob wrestled with God

[@jacobharris954]

My name is Jacob. Me challenging god to sparring match so hilarious and any guy with same lol

[@ranfan1820]

And he won, in a sense. God couldn't overpower him physically so he had to use his power to break part of his hip.

[@jacobharris954]

It makes sense why mom named me Jacob, she saw fighter in me lol

[@HerrZenki]

in my father's time, whenever there were some disputes, wrestling was considered as a way to settle things ....which is no more different than solving a dispute by "trial by combat" of a different time

[@because_the_internet]

"Gilgamesh. A King, at Uruk!" - Captain John Luc Picard

[@sirseigan]

17:30 the backhold of the Scottish highland is identical to some folk-wrestling rules in the Nordic countries which in turn are of the same tradition as Glima, the Icelandic wrestling, which have several different "starting holds" (the most known is the trouser/belt holds). One Swedish/Finnish folk-wrestling variant have a double grip in the front of the collar (l you grab someone hand lift them up against a wall) and it is called "kragkast" (collar throw) or "krag tag" (collar hold). Yet another one has the same starting as Judo. And there were more variants as well. Then, while maintaining the starting position of the hands, the goal is to get the other person on the ground - "simple" as that. Sadly extremly few Nordic folk-wrestling tradition have survived the 1900s and right now the few tradition that still exists to some degree are usually bundled up with Glima (which make sense as they are part if the same tradition).

[@archangel98632]

MORE historical martial arts and experience! 🙌🙌🙌

[@daleybrennan9867]

This is a really great video, Seth. Thank you!

[@amokbel]

Such a good video. I’ve been thinking about similar concepts in the past few weeks.

[@PuertoRicoChico]

An F bomb in a sensei Seth video? We have entered the attitude era. Excellent.

[@SenseiSeth]

Dang I forgot to bleep it 😂😂

[@kaizentsb]

As a mixed martial artist our coaches always tell us that we humans are meant to grapple now i understand why. Good video Seth

[@andre.allday99]

Awesome video! History, philosophy, wrestling, humor. A+++ 💪

[@dann8855]

This is great but where do you go to wrestle once you’re out of high school?

[@thesurfingpotatohelo6697]

This was an amazing KZbin video. Keep up the great work

[@sargecad3t]

Not wrestling in high school is one of the greatest regrets of my childhood. I'm learning to wrestle now but it's much harder as an adult.

[@adamthatguy454]

That's a pretty cool look at grappling. Some very interesting takes on things.

[@gmkgoat]

“Subscribe or I’ll grip you” Wrestler Seth, probably

[@EliteBlackSash]

Then you read the Bubishi and realize… Karate really mostly comes from Chinese & Okinawan grappling (which includes strikes). Wrestling / Grappling is really the root of most. There’s wrestling on the walls of ancient Egypt, along with stick fighting and clubs. Where I’m from Wrestling is a required activity for males in high school. The girls do one segment of the year in field hockey and the guys do wrestling. I learned to respect it because the smallest guy in class became our best national competitor, he is the coach there right Now over 20 yrs later. He was also my partner in gym 🤦🏽‍♂️ which means I always lost or just survived with no offense but not getting pinned either lol 🤦🏽‍♂️

[@MasterPoucksBestMan]

Speaking of Scottish Backhold wrestling, I just got home from a local Scottish Highland Games event. They used to do Backhold wrestling there but unfortunately not this year. Wrestling is certainly instinctual to humans but so is striking. The instinctual strike is a hammerfist, however, rather than a punch with the knuckles. You can even see this with toddlers and also untrained people under stress. A downward hammerfist (or ice pick grip stab, or strike with a stick) uses the same body mechanic as grabbing a tree branch and pulling your body up into the tree using the entire posterior chain of the back. There were even studies done showing that the human hand evolved to make a fist so the fingers are all braced together during striking.

[@MasterPoucksBestMan]

I tried to post the link to the study but apparently KZbin doesn't like links so it keeps denying the comment. It's easy to search for it online though.

[@Strangingness]

I'm in the camp of a Guy who liked striking more but when I actually tried grappling I fell in love with how technical and mentally stimulating it was. When You get a take down on someone or submission, You not only feel manly and strong. But smart af too 😂😂

[@broenslee1981]

❤ your content Seth! Happy weekend everyone

[@AKZ2006-g2g]

Seth should try freestyle or Greco next

[@Bjorn_R]

10:41 "Nothing should go wrong" saw a dude getting caught in a footlock he barely had time to tap before the other dude broke his leg. Yeah, that took the top of my motivation to do Bjj for a while...

[@JJxInfinity]

I mean yeah but that was intentional 😂

[@ihatepolice5459]

hey man just train with people you trust do drills and if they seem crazy don’t roll with them

[@Tanuvein]

I really wished my school had wrestling when I was young. We did it for a week and I loved it but the only sports we actually had were basketball and football.

[@dirtygeazer9266]

Look at sensei Seth never too late

[@theandredgex]

"We are supposed to be grappling!" - Sensei Seth 🤜🤛 It just makes more sense to me on an evolutionary perspective, where if there was a conflict in your tribe where you know everyone, it would too bad to hurt each other through strikes and then the hole tribe would lose either or both members skills at the next hunt or whatever physical activity. With wrestling, you have more control before submitting someone, and if they go unconscious it's not as bad as a knock out.

[@twobirds01]

The wrestlers always grabbing eachother is so true, we have a family friend that played basketball, and he always got mad at us when we would come mess with him he always says “why’re you wrestlers so touchy!!”

[@JivecattheMagnificent]

The "goddess" at 2:18 is likely a depiction of the Lamashtu, a kind of vampiric being that kills children in the womb. Fun fact, the demon from The Exorcist (Pazuzu) was often called on by people to protect their homes from the Lamashtu as the two were enemies. This stone carving is often mistaken for a depiction of Lilith.

[@aidenwilson9874]

Great video Seth, I’m a big fan of yours

[@August-dq1cj]

One of the best things I’ve ever heard was from my high school wrestling coach. “You say I can’t do something I make you a liar”