Issue 099
March 2013
Kenny Johnson’s colour-coded Bolt Wrestling system is making the meanest of grapplers out of guys who haven’t grown up on college mats
In the ever-evolving double-decade history of mixed martial arts, strong wrestlers have always maintained their place at the top of the pile. From basic NCAA to All-American level, wrestlers have used their brute strength and controlling grappling to earn title after title in the MMA world.
Like jiu-jitsu players, you’d think every world-class wrestler who has found success in the sport would have all the tricks of the trade at their disposal, or at least the basics. But in the case of most competitive wrestlers, their repertoire is very often surprisingly small.
A wrestler’s skill-set generally depends on who they’ve been taught by and what their coach actually knows. Some coaches might be fond of powerful double-leg takedowns, whilst another may be totally against it, preferring their wrestlers to use the ankle pick. Unlike most martial arts, wrestlers don’t learn all the basic techniques first and grow from there.
Six-time Olympic hopeful and Train Hard Fight Easy magazine’s resident wrestling coach, Kenny Johnson, is looking to change this current philosophy through his wrestling-for-MMA system, Bolt Wrestling, designed to teach anyone who wants to strengthen their grappling for MMA or simply become a more rounded wrestler in general.
He explains: “My idea is that every wrestling coach should have a programme where everyone is in a progressive teaching system where we all know the same thing. I wanted to further grow the sport by growing the education base of the coaches and athletes.
“People would always ask me about what belt a fighter is in wrestling and I’d have to tell them there is no belt. If you’re a jiu-jitsu guy and you say you’re a black belt under Rigan Machado everyone knows what that means. But with wrestling you have to have a conversation with someone in order to get to the bottom of how good they are as a wrestler, which can be difficult if the person you’re talking to doesn’t speak English – and most of the people I train don’t.
“What’s needed is a simple, visual representation of skill level, just like jiu-jitsu. So I created the Bolt system for athletes and coaches of all levels to learn wrestling, and then in-turn teach wrestling, so they can progress the sport, and also have a visual representation of where you are as a wrestler. We refer to our wrestlers as ‘white bolts’ or ‘black bolt,’ depending on their ranking.”
As a former student of legendary wrestler Dan Gable, Johnson has helped improve the wrestling of some of the world’s greatest mixed martial artists, including UFC champions Anderson Silva and José Aldo, heavyweight contender Fabricio Werdum, the Nogueira brothers and former UFC light heavyweight kingpin Lyoto Machida, to name a few.
And even though he’s taught the Bolt Wrestling system to a number of noteworthy standouts, Johnson clearly considers his work with Bellator welterweight Paul Daley as some of his most impressive so far. Known by fans across the world as a violent and unrelenting striker, the only occasion when a fight would hit the floor with Daley would be if he put his opponent there via a thunderous left hook, or he faced a strong wrestler who took the Brit down with ease.
However, after being wrestled to the floor repeatedly by Josh Koscheck at UFC 113, Daley’s wrestling steadily improved, with many people noticing the difference in his takedown defence, all due down to Johnson’s coaching. “When Paul Daley fought Jordan Radev, at BAMMA 7, Radev couldn’t take him down. In fact, Paul took him down during the fight,” Johnson boasts. “Paul has only been taken down a couple of times since he fought Koscheck, in a run of 10 fights.
“I live in the US, but Paul flies me out to Nottingham, England, to help him train. He’s actually dedicated a portion of his life to learn wrestling because he wants to be a better mixed martial artist. He embraced it, and it’s worked.”
With plenty of mixed martial artists vying for his services, plus a number of Bolt Wrestling-affiliated schools opening across the globe – including one that has opened up in Brazil, and a DVD showcasing the techniques, Johnson’s wrestling world domination is quickly taking shape.
He adds: “People get it because everyone loves to have a system to learn, because they’re trained that way. Whether it’s boxing, Muay Thai, judo or jiu-jitsu, there’s a system. But with wrestling there is no system so my goal was always to create a standardised teaching system and a standardised learning system that wrestlers of all skill levels can learn and teach from.
“There are people now who are in the UFC that want to learn wrestling, but they can never have an accolade because there’s no programme for them to learn how to wrestle. This way they can learn and progress through a system that has the same colour code as
jiu-jitsu.”
Kenny Johnson’s
Bolt Wrestling Star Pupils
1 Anderson Silva
Even though he was taken down in his first fight with Chael Sonnen, and in the opening round of the rematch, Silva showed magnificent takedown defence against Sonnen during the second round, nullifying the Oregon grappler’s powerful double-leg shot.
2 BJ Penn
One of the best jiu-jitsu practitioners ever to grace the sport, Penn also has outstanding boxing, thus most of his opponents want to take him down. However, due to his almost inhuman balance and his later time with Kenny, Penn was able to defend the majority of takedowns in his career and maul people on the feet.
3 Lyoto Machida
Not only does karateka UFC light heavyweight Lyoto Machida have outstanding footwork, which baffles the majority of his division, but his background in sumo wrestling mixed with what he’s learned from Johnson has meant the Brazilian has only been taken down by the most elite of wrestlers.
4 Fabricio Werdum
The former Pride and Strikeforce heavyweight has always been a serious threat on the ground, but after spending an increased amount of time working with Johnson, he’s now added wrestling takedowns to his skill-set, meaning he can no longer just be a threat from the bottom but from top control too.
5 José Aldo
We’d all heard how incredible José Aldo’s takedown defence was, but we truly saw its mastery during his fight with Chad Mendes, where the longtime wrestling standout was simply unable to execute his game plan and hold Aldo down on the ground – thanks
to the early tutoring
of Johnson.
