Catch Certified

Catch On the weekend of April 26 and 27, Mr. Jesse Marez of the Training Mat became a certified Level 1 Coach of Scientific Wrestling/Authentic Catch-As-Catch-Can Wrestling. What was so special about this was that legendary AT Show Wrestler Dick Cardinal was on hand to coach, teach, supervise and authenticate the audit.

From the historical wrestlers of the past such as Frank Gotch and Farmer Burns, to the Legendary Frank Gotch, to his students such as Fujiwara, the sport of Catch Wrestling is alive and well at the Training Mat in Moreno Valley. Mr. Marez has personally trained with not only Mr. Cardinal but Billy Robinson as well.

Catch

Billy Robinson trained at the Billy Riley's famous Snake Pit, in Wigan, England. Apart of being one of the important "shooters" of the shoot style movement, Billy Robinson began training youngsters in catch wrestling at the UWF Snake Pit in Japan. The UWF in Japan even had wrestlers like Yoshiaki Fujiwara who traveled to the Snake Pit in Wigan to learn! Billy Robinson has contributed immensely in training several Mixed Martial Arts legends including Kazushi Sakuraba and Josh Barnett.

We are proud to be an affiliate of Scientific Wrestling and having our own "Toe Hold Club" at the Training Mat in Moreno Valley. We will strive to keep this rich tradition alive and well. Special thanks to Jake Shannon for bringing this all together and making this opportunity possible.

Great Year For The Mat Kings

Mat Kings The wrestling team at Martin Luther King High School had a very strong year thanks to the hard work of their coaches. Here are a few of the highlights.

The Training Mat's own Jesse Marez and Ruben Ortiz coached King to 3rd Place at the Orange County Wrestling Championships.

Right to left:
Alex Alvarado 3rd place, Ryan Rosales 1st Place outstanding Upper Weight MVP, Christopher Long, 2nd place, Coach Marez, Cole Anderson 1st Place, Coach Ruben Ortiz, Cole Tenney 3rd place from the Orange County Wrestling Championships at Savannah High School in Anaheim, 2008.

Advanced Conditioning

Class For those who survived our eight week program they have a lot to be proud of. They went through a very unique and demanding training program that pushed every student to their limit. This enabled every student to find and train at a level that matched their physical condition, and in this way every student could train hard and archive better results. To see photos click here.

Class The interest in this class has been so favorable that we are offering additional training to students and non-students alike who would like to either continue their training or try it out for the first time.

Youth Summit

On March 20th the Training Mat took part in the 8th Annual Youth Summit. This event brought together hundreds of high school aged men and women from throughout our region to participate in a forum designed to educate them on important social issues and to impact them in positive ways. We would like to thank to Rodrick Bush and Regina Fresquez for volunteering their time to assist at the event. Their help was invaluable. And a special thanks to the staff of the Youth Summit for their professional conduct and excellent support for making the event run as smoothly as it did.
To read what the Press Enterprise had to say about the event click here. To the photos click here.

Summit Summit