Knee Wrestling in HEMA

Screen capture from YouTube, "Knee Wrestling, It's a thing" - Part 1 - Not fun, but necessary

I've been reading the Kindle version of Pietro Monte's Collectanea. As stated in the book description, "Monte, a courtier, soldier and scholar who won the respect of men like Leonardo da Vinci and Baldesar Castiglione, wrote the work in Spanish in the late 1400s, and later produced an expanded Latin translation. The Latin version, published in Milan in 1509, forms the basis of this translation." I bought the book because Monte devotes a good amount of attention to wrestling. He writes:

"In discussing physical exercises I put wrestling before the rest... No other skill -- neither throwing, nor acrobatics, nor play of arms, nor equitation [horse riding?] -- teaches us to temper and control our bodies like wrestling, and always to know how to respond where necessity arises." (Collectanea, Kindle Edition, loc. 2849)

Later in the book, Monte surprised me with the following text. (Emphasis added.)

"When two combatants come close together, fighting hand-to-hand, wrestling is a great help...

Above all we must learn not to fall onto our back, or if we do, we should get one hand under us, for we can use it to help ourselves turn and rise. We should take care not to fall extended but gathered, so that we can grasp the opponent by the legs, and help ourselves with our own.

To learn this kind of lesson more quickly, it helps to wrestle often, sometimes with both knees on the ground, sometimes with one up and the other down, according as necessity arises.

By practicing this way, that is with one or both knees on the ground, we learn how to protect ourselves from good wrestlers and often to throw them.

If we can catch them by the legs, we will certainly triumph. But if we fall to the ground we should extend one hand either forward or backward.

Anyone who is skilled in wrestling from the knees can guard against whatever situations may befall when combatants come to grips and fall to the ground. 

Also we should often fight with various scenarios, so that now one is underneath on the ground and afterward the other. 

This way in combat both of them are better able to keep their opponent under them, and to escape him when they fall underneath, and they can learn all the ways to fall and get up again." (Collectanea, Kindle Edition, loc. 4118)

This is extraordinary. Monte makes two important points. First, there is value in learning to wrestle from the knees, "with one or both knees on the ground." This is a constant debate in Brazilian jiu-jitsu schools. Many argue that "knee wrestling" is a "necessary evil" that seeks to prevent injuries associated with takedowns and throws. Others say that judoka manage to throw each other without excessive injury, so knee wrestling is unnecessary. Resolving that debate is not the point of this post. I simply found it surprising to see a late 15th - early 16th century opinion on the topic!

Second, Monte argues for positional sparring or drilling -- "we should often fight with various scenarios, so that now one is underneath on the ground and afterward the other." This is an important part of modern jiu-jitsu practice, because it forces training partners to begin in situations that they might otherwise want to avoid, such as being under their partner's mount.

Returning briefly to "knee wrestling," there are several videos on YouTube about the practice, but two that I watched recently (and from which I took the banner photo) can be found here and here.