FILA grappling

In 2004, Jason Townsend and members of the Titan Wrestling Club based out of the Cal State Fullerton including Chris Carlino and Art Barker began developing a rule set and writing an official international rulebook. The wrestling club was used as a testing ground for the rules development and a series of test events were developed across the country under the organization, the International Submission Wrestling Association (ISWA). The ISWA headed by Townsend corresponded with GAISF[5] about their application for admission. GAISF then contacted FILA about the ISWA application for submission wrestling which led to FILA demanding a meeting with the ISWA in Abu Dhabi, U.A.E. At a private meeting between FILA President, Raphael Martinetti and Jason Townsend of the ISWA, Martinetti requested that the ISWA allow FILA to adopt the ISWA rule book and fold their organization into the newly created FILA World Grappling Committee headed by FILA representatives, Jean-Francois Court (France) and Anne Pellaud (Switzerland). The ISWA agreed that the best way forward for Grappling was under FILA authority. FILA and ISWA representatives met with Sheikh Tahnoon Bin Zayed Al Nahyan from Abu Dhabi Combat Club and other ADCC representatives including Guy Neivens and Renzo Gracie. FILA was unable to reach a deal with the ADCC and ultimately the ADCC never participated in the amateur development of Grappling within FILA. Jason Townsend was named Head of Grappling Panamerica on the World Grappling Committee within FILA's "Associated Styles" department.[6] FILA began developing their inaugural Grappling season in 2007. This culminated in FILA's first de facto World Championships in Antalya, Turkey at the 2007 World Wrestling Games. Team USA swept all 9 gold medals with an All-Star team including Jeff Monson, Ricky Lundell, Darren Uenoyama, and Felicia Oh.[7]

Since various forms of submission fighting are traditionally practiced both with and without gi, FILA implemented both trends in order to cover the full spectrum of techniques associated to each particular style. Therefore, FILA tournaments generally had gi and no-gi divisions to enable all submission fighters to compete to their highest ability no matter what their fighting background might be. The FILA grappling gi practitioner's uniform was similar to a judogi, but often with tighter cuffs on the pants and jacket. No-gi grapplers wore FILA-approved shorts and a tight-fitting sleeveless, short sleeve or long sleeve rashguard. Grapplers were not required to wear shoes during the match, but those who chose to wore FILA-approved shoes. [8]

The FILA grappling regulations were based on a progressive point system that encourages submissions over technical points. Points were awarded for takedowns and dominant control positions according to the following progression: side mount < full mount < back mount. Once having reached a position and secured it for 3 seconds, additional points could only be scored if a higher position is achieved. The progression was reset if the opponent managed to bring the fight back to neutral (be it standing or on the ground) or to score a dominant control position in his or her turn.

FILA grappling rules contrasted with wrestling's greater emphasis on takedowns, due to its radically different point-scoring system. This has led to greater time dedicated to training on the ground, resulting in enhancement and evolution of groundwork techniques by grapplers.

The World Grappling Championship was the most important of FILA's annual Grappling tournaments. The first of these competitions took place on in 2007, with the last taking place in 2013.

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