In the above video, Freddie Conrad joins Brown Belt World Champion Giancarlo Bodoni to show some wrestling tricks for BJJ. Bodoni is a prolific competitor throughout the colored belts and currently has several DVDs or downloads available through BJJ Fanatics. It’s no secret that wrestling and BJJ are more alike than they are different and with wrestling being the older sport, there are always things that BJJ competitors can take from the other art.
Now, of course there are blatant differences between wrestling and BJJ in terms of the actual rulesets. As a result, grapplers who spend a lifetime training under only the one ruleset can find themselves at a disadvantage competing under a different one. Look no further than Bo Nickal coming up short against Gordon Ryan at Third Coast Grappling 3, or Ben Askren struggling to live up to the hype at ADCC 2009. Regardless of how elite wrestlers can sometimes struggle when taking on matches under BJJ rules, those willing to dedicate time to BJJ can work a wrestling background and gameplan to near-perfection like Nick Rodriguez at ADCC 2019.
Too many people get sucked into a debate over which art is superior or which one would win under which rules but realistically it’s all about individual style and ability. Grappling is grappling and the only thing that matters when two competitors meet is how good they are, not what style of grappling they do. Wrestling is never going anywhere and BJJ is a sport that’s rapidly on the rise so no matter which one you do, it makes sense to cross-train the two and see if you can learn a few things.
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