My first time on the mat was something rather memorable. I was in kindergarten. Clad in blue jeans and a t-shirt my parent brought me to my first PAL wrestling training. My memory of it has grown fuzzy over the last 38 or so years but I do remember the Coach and or assistant running over as I put my partner into the Boston crab like I was a young Bret Hart. I quickly learned that was the wrong thing to do. I learned my lesson and moved on.

When I was in 4th grade I participated in a rather well put together and orchestrated after school programs focusing on Judo that operated our of my local high school’s wrestling gym. The program lasted for a good number of weeks and my brain immediately clicked when he began referring to the limbs being “levers”. This is something that would stick with me for the rest of my life.

When I started training in Karate (Shorin-Ryu) I already had a decent concept of ground fighting from my previous exposure to wrestling and judo. To my delight my new karate instructor was a former wrestler and believed that a solid grappling and ground fighting toolbox was necessary for realistic self-protection. I had joined this school just prior to UFC 1 and he was already attending in Gracie seminars to fill in what gaps he felt may have been in our tegumi.

I stayed with this school until i reached my early 20’s and moved on due to politics and internal stagnancy. I was weeks away from my nidan but I didn’t care. Fuck belts.

Shortly after I joined and extremely small and private MMA team that operated out of a BBJ gym after hours. At this time MMA was “illegal” in New York. It was hear that I sank my teeth into Western and Bare Knuckle Boxing, Muay Thai and, it was my official introduction to the art of Catch-as-Catch Can Wrestling. My coach had his instruction from an old Hooker but I lay no claim so I will not name names.

CACC has remained a staple of my self-protection training and instructions for almost the last 15 years. I put my full faith behind it. Accentuating my Catch knowledge with judo, and BJJ I felt like I had something reliable. Something that I felt could perform with the right intent more often than not.

Come 2024 and I have my fucking mind absolutely blown.

Through the legendary weasel Mr. Terry Trahan I was lucky to befriend a man by the name of Joseph Killion. I affectionately refer to him as, “Coach K” and will continue to through out this article.

Being familiar with my background due to the circles we run in he was excited to tell me about this project he had coming up. He was producing a series of instructional videos which shared what he had developed as a methodology of teaching the carnival style (read hooking, ripping, etc.) of CACC taught via methodology rather than technique after technique. He decided to break the body into zones and instruct to on how to negate your fear of attack them based on the characteristics of the limb/joint you may get a hold of.

These videos are truly next level and I will not stop promoting them.

Coach K was also a man who came into my life when I didn’t know I’d need someone like him. He had been an equal part mentor and friend. I owe him more than he’ll ever realize.

Nobody owns this shit. Carnie is for everyone.

If you’d like to learn Coach K’s approach to Carnie, click here.

#istandwithsgtkillion