Erik Paulson, founder of the Combat Submission Wrestling Association
 

Currently Titan fitness has two coaches certified under Mr. Erik Paulson:  Michael Fusco and Bruce Lombard

If you haven't yet seen the first several minutes of Erik Paulson's "Greatest Hits" video (also known as "The GarageTape"), you may still doubt the incredible focus, strength, quickness, and sheer wealth of knowledge Erik possesses as a fighter. If, on the other hand, you have seen these fighting clips (and you've got to see them!), you know what we mean when we say that Erik is truly a great mixed martial artist.


Beyond his expertise as a fighter, however, Erik may be even more accomplished as a world-class trainer and teacher. Erik spends most of his year on the road traveling to numerous global destinations to offer his popular seminars, touching and changing many lives and opening many eyes. During the first half of this year alone (2001), Erik has already spent time in Australia, the U.K., Canada, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland and many, many U.S. cities.

Yet, Erik's appeal derives not from his reputation as the most famous, most intimidating, or most undefeated MMA champion. Erik receives so many invitations to give seminars because he is one of the few successful fighters who never lost his ability to work with all kinds of people, of all ages and backgrounds, performing at all levels. He is an amazingly admirable competitor, yet he is very much "an average guy" who knows how to teach, who totally connects with people, who motivates even the most obstinate students to believe that, yes, they, too, can excel. His seminars are fun, safe, exciting, exhausting, and on the cutting edge of modern training technology. Erik consistently observes, trains, experiments, and creates MMA technique to bring to his students and game.

As a little kid, Erik learned that he liked fighting more than most of his friends did, a fact which landed Erik in the principal's office, uh, more than once. His parents encouraged him to find a more constructive outlet for his youthful energy, enrolling him in hockey and other sports when he was only 6. His mom suggested judo lessons for Erik at age 8 hoping to find a sport that would wear her little ADHD boy out! Since that early beginning, Erik has built his fighting and teaching experience from a multitude of athletic disciplines, including BJJ, jun fan, jeet kune do, Filipino kali/silat, Indonesian silat, French savate, wing chun, aikijujistsu, tae kwon do, boxing, muay Thai, shootwrestling, and even (he must admit) high school gymnastics. Training in so many sports helped Erik develop his physical speed and agility as well as his huge repertoire of MMA techniques.

The biggest turning point in Erik's career came when the opportunity arose for him to become one of the first Americans to go to Japan to fight in what was then an all-Japanese sport - shootwrestling. After studying martial arts in California from 1986 to 1988, Erik was introduced to shootwrestling when his instructor, Yorinaga Nakamura, showed him some videotapes of Japanese fights. As Erik describes his decision to specialize in shootwrestling:

"I saw [the Japanese shootwrestling fighting tapes]. That's how I actually began. And I said, 'I am going to do that. I am going to fight in that someday.' I brought a tape home to Minnesota and showed my parents, showed my brother. He laughed at me and said, 'No way. You'll never do it. It's too serious.' I said, 'Well, that sounds like a dare and a bet.' So, I took the bet."

Erik fought in Japan for eight years, climbing back in the ring every two to three months to move higher in his weight class. After winning and defending the Worldwide Shooto Light Heavyweight Championship title, Erik returned his attention to training, teaching, and fighting in the U.S., even choreographing and performing the martial arts sequences for many Hollywood films and television programs.


In spite of all of Erik's success as a fighter and teacher, Erik's favorite daily activity is still his own training. Of all the mixed martial arts disciplines he could have chosen to excel in, Erik feels fortunate to have found submission grappling. "An advantage of being a shooter is knowing that you can fight stand up, you can fight grappling, and you can fight on the ground. You are a complete fighter. And it is one of the strongest fighting systems in the world."

The system is getting even stronger now that Erik is leading the way toward making submission wrestling one of the MMA sports growing most in popularity. With his CSW association to support his goals, Erik is helping hundreds of submission wrestlers around the world improve their fitness, focus, and fighting as they set and reach their own athletic objectives.

Submission grappling has become one of the most popular new sports to take the world by storm after Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Combat Submission Wrestling is one of the only gi-less organizations to give out rankings to its students. This discipline offers a quality tried, true, tested, and proven curriculum based on quality of an effective fighting system.

(Thanks to Karate Kung Fu Illustrated magazine, February 1997, and interviewer Derek Heidewald for the quotes from Erik.)