mighty training - how they used to train by dave turton : SFUK

Nathan has asked that I write a little about the training methods of some of the 'Old Time' Wrestlers.. especially their strength training and conditioning methods. I hope you find the results as interesting as I did when I first saw them all those years ago.

First just a little about my involvement with the wrestlers of the past eras..Both Amateur men and the Pro's.. Most trained in the same gyms anyway.

In the late 50's to early 60's, I attended "Heywood Grammar School", in North Manchester.

Here we had a 'Gym Teacher called "Mr Fenton" ('Titch Fenton' to us, for the obvious reasons).. He was about 30 years old, 5ft 4 inches and about 9 stones.. However, as well as being excellent at most sports, he was also a former international Wrestling competitor..

So, he taught us young 'Bucks' (I think that's what he called us!!).. WRESTLING.(Olympic Freestyle)`

I ended up on the School's wrestling team, and had (if my memory can stretch that far back), about 20 or so fights for the school (average results, won some, lost some ..!)

Anyway he kindled my love for the grappling arts, and when leaving school in 1964, I sought out other forms of grappling.. Judo, Ju-Jitsu, and Free-Style wrestling..

Eventually I ended up as a young (about 19 ish), fit, and full of himself wrestler, and also a Brown Belt in Ju-Jitsu and Orange Belt in BJC Judo ..

So I went to WIGAN .. Home of the "Snake Pit" ...Genial Host was "Billy Riley"...

As this isn't an auto-biographical article, I will simply comment on the training.. First and foremost, was the massive difference in "Intensity".. Something I had never witnessed before (or a lot since)..

Billy had TWO main rules .."You can't work too hard" & "I'm always right"

Confession time here .. I didn't last long in Wigan.. Too young and incapable of taking the punishment.. However it boosted my interest.

From here. I trained at Harold Wrigley's in Failsworth, and several others for periods ranging from one session to several months.

The wrestlers I mixed with were in the main 'Professional' .. on the old circuit. Although a lot of their stuff was obviously 'show' they had a considerable range of techniques (some a bit suspect).

Some of the guys I was taught by, trained with or simply 'mixed' with include .."Bert Royal & his brother Vic Faulkener" .. "Marc 'Rollerball' Rocco" .. "Harold Wrigley (Rasputin the Mad Monk)

"Billy Howse".. and others.

I had many conversations with lots of the old top guys, and even spoke to Hackenshmidt, Assirati, and others on the subject of training for Grappling.. This is a resume of what I learnt..

FIRST : DIET ..

I had to smile when someone of the SFUK Forum site asked about "Diet"..Other than Hackenshmidt, no-one else I spoke to gave it much in-depth thought. 'Hack' was just about a vegeterian, although he loved fish, eggs and dairy produce, albeit in small amounts

It was he, who told me Nature's simple rule

"Try always to eat your food as near to possible how Nature makes it...."

He went on to say .. Apples not Apple Pies.. Meat not processed, Whole Veg not 'mangled'

plus plenty of eggs, milk etc.. No cakes, Pies, Biscuits and lots of water.

Mind you another one of his sayings showed his thoughts on 'real' food..

"A wounded soldier may need Chicken broth to get well, but needs the whole chicken to fight on"

Pretty straight forward stuff.. mInd you food had little in the way of additives etc back then.

The more 'modern' (modern in the 60's) men liked beer or ale, plenty of meat, and weren't TOO fussy.. One Top Class Pro Heavy (actually Billy Howse of Bolton) once answered my 'food' query

with the comment ..

"Whether it's covered in Fur or Feather, or Scales or Leather..

If it doesn't bite back .. I'll eat it !!

They genuinely believed that you needed the fuel to burn off.. that's it really.

Admittedly a few studied nutrition etc etc, but these were in the minority.

Very few would even know what Vitamins and Minerals were.. But they DID know good food when they ate it.. And by God they ate it.

SECOND : WEIGHTS.

Other than ex-bodybuilders who went into the 'mat game', very few were big on weights as such. Now those who had a bit of a 'rep' as having good physiques, still trained fairly often with the the 'iron pills'.. But this was often more 'cosmetic' than anything else.

Ex Mr Universes such as "John Lees", "Earl Maynard", and other Physique champs like "Spencer (The Body) Churchill.. still used weights.. but again NOT often for their strength development in grappling, usually just to keep looking good.

I can only quote the following wrestlers or trainers etc here..

"Bert Assirati" .. "Athol Oakley" .. "Zoltan Magyar" .. "Harold Wrigley" .. "Pete Lindop"

"Billy Riley" .. "Bert Royal" .. and a couple more..

The general feeling was, that weights were for weak men wanting to get a bit stronger, and once you had a reasonable amount of strength, then forget them.

They believed that weights 'isolated' muscle too much, and weights didn't "Struggle"

Bert Royal was almost contemptable in his view on weights.. He said ..

"Barbells are too bloody easy to lift .. they are balanced ..men aren't"

He would state an instance wherebye a top class weightlifter had come to his gym wanting to get into wrestling, and he put a 50 pounds disc on one end of a bar, and a 75 pounds disc on the other, the weightlifter couldn't move it.. Because he said he didn't know how to balance it.

Weightlifters spent too long getting their hands 'just so' on the bar..

"When you pick a man up .. how bloody balanced is he??"

Bert believed you got stronger by lifting and training with other wrestlers, and 90% of his partner exercises showed this. (more details later in this article..)

He did relent however if a rank beginner was .. "Treacle Bender"...(something I was first labled as by the way..).. A 'Treacle Bender' is someone who is so weak, that's all he can deal with.

So, beginners were shown fairly basic exercises done in ONE SET of TEN REPS, then each session you would push until you doubled the REPS to 20, then stick a bit more weight on.

"Presses", "Curls" "Cleans" & "Rows" .. That's all I ever saw done.

THIRDLY : CONDITIONING

The conditioning work was one of the most important aspects of the training.. And usually followed the same pattern.

Arm swinging stuff and body bending etc.. Then always neck to calves.. I can never remember doing it in any other sequence.

All exercises were done to a stop watch or timer .. not to Reps or sets. It was usually just one full set of "X" number of seconds/minutes.. A typical routine would be.

1. Neck loosening, turns and rolls 1 minute.

2. Bridging, with arms folded across chest, pushing always to have the forehead on the floor

at the top of the bridge, and just to shoulders touching at the bottom 1-2 minutes.

3. Holding the bridge with partner providing some resistance, usually by pushing onto your folded

arms .. continuous hold for 1-2 minutes.

4. See-Saw Neck lifts.. Hard to describe this exercise, but it was hell on the neck muscles.

Continuous reps for 1-2minutes.

5. Stood facing. palms touching, walking backwards and forwards whilst alternate pushing and

pulling .. we called it "PUMP & PULL."

6. In basic neck grips facing, using hands to 'force' their way through the guard.. Very hard work.

7. "See-Saw" body lifts .. works all the back muscles. 2 mins

8. Crutch hold carries.. Holding one partner in crutch hold, then walking, 1 min .. repeat for a

second 1 min with partner 'struggling'

9. Belly toss one minute.

Then specifics .. If a person had strong legs and weak arms for eg.. extra on those.. Usually lifting and throwing of partners, medicine balls, or hessian sacks filled with differing materials.

Gripping the sacks was great on the hands, you really had to work hard to keep your grip.

Leg work was always high rep free squats.. rare we used weights for these moves..

Using towels and doing bent over rows with a partner was very common..

Special exercises for grip development were great, especially the "Paper Roll" .. (ouch I can still feel it 30 years on..)

In closing .. most exercises were done to a time. not a number.. people were used 90% of the time and inanimate objects, but of unusual shapes etc, the rest of the time..

Expanders ( or 'strands' as they were more commonly known), I will do another article about, if the interest is there ??? ( yes there is! SFUK)

After the conditioning work, we then went on to basic grips and holds, which we practised for about half hour.. then counters to grips and holds.. again half hour.. finally what we called "Putting it together"..

We nearly always finished with a dry towel rub down, some used linament, others just dry towels.

There were no special 'Breathing exercises'.. In fact when I asked Harold Wrigley (Rasputin the Mad Monk.. Honest), about Breathing , he said .."Yes.. I recommend that you breath all the time"

The body was worked synergistically, as opposed to seperating muscles..Whereas a bodybuilder would know some wonderful exercises to, say put a peak on the Biceps, or develop the outer head of the Triceps etc.. The Wrestlers ALL believed in working the body as a whole.. not to segregate things too much...

So that's about it.. If you have any questions on this and other articles.. Let me have them please.

You can contact Dave Turton on the SFUK Forum or via email

31 May 2002

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