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SPORTS

Sports are more than just games. They form part of the fabric of our society. This is perhaps not as widely recognised as it should be. Sports enthusiasts can be broadly categorized into two groups, those who like to play sport and those who like to watch it. Those who watch sport often feel an attachment to the side that they support even if they have never met the players. Likewise those who play sport often feel an attachment to their supporters, playing not only for their own enjoyment but also for the enjoyment of those who are watching. This relationship between sports players and watchers is what holds sport together. You can guarantee that there would be no premier league football if there was no one there to watch it! Likewise there would be no premier league football if there was no one there who played. Sports represent something about human nature that brings people together and gives people a sense of identity. Sport can be broadly classified into two types, performance based sport and competition based sport. Competition based sport is where players compete directly against each other according to a set of rules and the spectators have no real say in who wins or loses the most they can do is shout encouragement. Examples of competition based sport include football, rugby, cricket etc. Performance based sport is where the players do not directly compete but instead perform to the spectators in an attempt to impress them. Examples include ice skating, ballroom dancing, synchronised swimming etc. Performance based sports are often more creative and less aggressive than competitive based sports and in many cases are just simply forms of dance.

Double Hand Grappling is an ancient sport. However Double Hand Grappling was probably invented deliberately by a people with an acute sense of social dynamics and probably did not evolved in a haphazard way. It is likely that these people recognised the limitations of conventional wrestling (conventional wrestling being prominent in ancient culture) and invented an alternative that was more interesting to watch and much less aggressive. Conventional wrestling uses a format that allows the players to compete without necessary damaging each other (although some injuries are inevitable). From a social point of view this is significant because although males may have disagreements it is important for the group as a whole that they resolve them without killing each other. Hence in any society none-harmful competition plays an important part of maintaining stability and preventing it from collapsing. However, as well as preventing a society from splitting apart there needs to be something that holds it together. Competition, in this case wrestling only expresses discord and does not express harmony. What expresses harmony at least in a physical sense is dancing. Again dancing, like wrestling, is highly prominent in ancient culture bringing people together to celebrate life. It is likely that Double Hand Grappling was deliberately invented in an attempt to fuse dancing and wrestling together into one homogenous activity. Combining the socially essential elements of harmony and discord into one art.

Double Hand Grappling

Now we are going to look at how Double Hand Grappling works to combine harmony and discord.

Figure 1	Figure 2
Figure 3

Figure 3 shows the kind of range at which two men would feel comfortable dancing at (eg. Capoeira). Figure 1 shows the range at which wrestling takes part. Figure 2 shows the range at which Double Hand Grappling is performed. As you can see the range in figure 2 is between the range in figure 1 and figure 3.

In the Double Hand Grappling formula the wrists are gripped in order to maintain the ideal range as in figure 2. Experimentation will show you that the cross grip configuration is more useful that the non cross grip configuration and that two grips are better than one in terms of being able to control your partner. Here are some examples of things that can happen within the Double Hand Grappling format. Also shown are the same movements demonstrated solo. The similarity between the solo movements of Double Hand Grappling and the solo movements of Karate is no coincidence!

EXAMPLE 1

EXAMPLE 2

CONCLUSION

Hopefully this has given you an idea of what Double Hand Grappling is like. But the best way to find out what Double Hand Grappling is really like is to try it. See our website www.ryoute.com for details about Double Hand Grappling courses and seminars etc. We look forward to hearing from you.

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