American Combat Association

Randy "The Natural" Couture is "moving away from a jiu jitsu mentality" and says ""I'm working on my ground fighting with Neil Melanson, doing a lot of catch wrestling," Couture says. "Moving away from a jiu jitsu mentality, looking more through my wrestler's eyes, catch wrestling and submissions as they come from wrestling positions, which has been a lot of fun for me, and that's been an ongoing process for the last seven or eight months."
 
As a company that promotes catch wrestling as a sport we commend Randy for his conversion but many people we consult with aren't surprised.  "I never thought of Randy Couture as having a jiu jitsu mentality.  Randy has proven himself over and over again as a great wrestler" says legendary catch wrestler Billy "Pops" Wicks.  ACA President Matthew Granahan shares Mr Wicks sentiments. "I'm a huge fan of Randy Couture and always have been.  Historically when you look at Catch Wrestling, as I did writing Rough and Tumble with Erik Paulson, it is the grandfather of freestyle.  Therefore Randy already knew alot of the techniques and setups.  Randy has an outstanding trainer in Neil Melanson. When Randy talks about setting up submissions from wrestling positions that is exactly what Kamal Shalorus has taught me and what I in turn teach my fighters.  It's alot easier to teach an amateur wrestler submission wrestling than it is jiu jitsu because they know how to wrestle already.  If you can't wrestle you can't be a submission wrestler however if you can't wrestler you can learn bjj.  That is why I believe bjj is so popular.  It's a very effective style but for a wrestler you can't go wrong training in catch wrestling and because less people train in catch you can often surprise your opponents."
 
For a video highlighting Randy's training for his upcoming battle with Mark Coleman check out this link:
http://www.mmafighting.com/2010/01/20/randy-couture-moving-away-from-a-jiu-jitsu-mentality/