training
thewrestlingpress.com
TRAINING for success
WITH THE bRITISH WRESTLING ALLIANCE
Words: Darren Wood
wrestling schools that these shores have to offer.
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Head trainer Chris Curtis has more than twenty years worth of experience under his belt and has trained some of the top talent the UK has had to offer, people like Bubblegum, Dean Allmark and Johnny Phere have all begun their quest to become professional wrestlers at the BWA.
The training school which is situated at Fitness First at Ravenside Retail Park, Victoria Road in Fenton hosts open training sessions every month for anyone who fancies giving wrestling a go.
“The first few lessons are what people probably feel is boring, repetitive and dull,” states Curtis. “Safety is very important so we show them how to take bumps, teach them break fall techniques and clinching, learning how to do the collar and elbow tie up.
“We do a lot of drills, showing the trainees how to do them and then they will go away and practice it. Repeating it over and over again until it is perfected.
“If someone is doing something wrong I will tell them, but I will also be constructive, saying they need to change certain things to make it look better.”
Curtis who is a certified 3rd degree black belt in the martial art of jiu-jitsu never had the intention of becoming a wrestler until one day when he was sitting down to watch ITV’s World Of Sport. “Wrestling just intrigued me,” said Curtis. “Some of the submissions in wrestling were quite similar to Jiu Jitsu and I liked not just the
30 WoRlDWiDe WReStlinG MAGAZine tWP
or over ten years the british Wrest- ling Alliance training school based in Stoke-on-trent has been building its reputation as one of the finest
physical aspect of wrestling but also the showmanship side of it.
“The more I watched wrestling, the more I fell in love and I started to attend shows at the Victoria Hall In Hanley, Stoke-On-Trent.
“There’s nothing like going to a live wrestling show, the buzz and excitement that surrounds it really is indescribable. I remember the first time I saw a show live. Going to the building, seeing the ring, the big bright light from the ceiling shining down on the two competitors in the ring, it was just like a magnet to me.
“I couldn’t take my eyes off the squared circle, around age 16 I knew this was what I wanted to do, it took me until I was 19 to pluck up the courage to go and train to become a professional wrestler.”
Curtis believes that there are a lot of companies who don’t really care about the wrestlers they are training at their schools and that is giving wrestling a bad name.
“Wrestling has to get rid of these promotions whose trainers at their schools don’t know how to train properly and only train them for a couple of months before booking them on a show in front of people. They will be inexperienced and are going to hurt themselves
BWA trainer Chris Curtis © tony Knox
www.tonyknox.org.uk
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