Kratos Catch Wrestling

Performance psychology is a big part of our preparation. We pay particular attention to create our ‘performance personas’ after a super serious conversation on this for a catch wrestling bout ended with “or you could just pretend you’re Kratos!” It got me thinking.

If Kratos were a catch wrestler, what kind of competitor would he be? What lessons could we draw from a character renowned for his strength, determination, and warrior spirit?

Please note, this is just a bit of fun! It’s not meant to be a super in-depth breakdown. That would be great to do, though.

https://godofwar.fandom.com/wiki/Kratos

"The hands of death could not defeat me, the sisters of fate could not hold me”-Kratos

STRENGTH!

Kratos has this primal, fluid kind of physicality. By mortal standards, he is massive, but in context, he is just as often physically much smaller than his opponents and has to use agility to win.

He definitely has a ‘feats of strength/test your might’ kind of vibe to him. So, I don’t think that he would do much ‘bro-split’ type training. I actually think his strength work would be a combination of strongman (big boy sandbags), very specific types of calisthenics (not ‘tricking’!), and heavy weapon drills like mace and club flows.

Basically, I think he would work out with us! He would definitely enjoy our ‘12 labors’ program. If he did train with us, maybe we could finally get the 130 kg Atlas stone up the bloody stairs.

“My strength doesn’t come from my body, but both are borne from discipline….” -Kratos

He’s a Spartan, and with snake pit-style Catch wrestling, matches are 10 minutes. so some long-distance running is going to be happening. I’m not going to get into whether people should be doing longer ‘cardio’ sessions for combat sports or how periodization can be structured. It’s a big subject. In my opinion, done correctly, it can be very effective, and I think Kratos would do it. Build that base!

I do think he would also do much shorter, insanely intense, ‘gas tank’ sessions, particularly closer to a competition.

To build godlike stamina, deliberate intensity is needed. Ask your coach what pace, time etc is expected. Don’t work kind of hard, for kind of a long time. If it’s high intensity, you should be working so hard that you couldn’t possibly go for longer. If it’s low intensity, you may feel like you can go forever.

SKILL!

"Precision, boy. The true skill of a warrior lies in the precision of his actions, not the force of his blows."-Kratos

Kratos definitely gives me strong ‘drill the fundamentals unto death’ vibes (he was a Spartan, after all!).

This includes learning all the various holds, locks, and takedowns you would expect… but I reckon he will be all about that heavy collar tie game. Constant snap downs to a… firm… front headlock game (I’m pretty sure you grovit a Cerberus hound thing in God of War 1 if you?).

If they defend the front headlock, he has a blast double that Jordan Burroughs could only dream of.

His upper body clinch stuff is going to be all about suplex/lat drops… obviously.

Kratos is focused, decisive, and all about forcing errors. In offense, I think he would be relentlessly switching between cross-face variations and various tilts on the ground.

While he’s giving them a taste of his forearms, he will be looking for the first available cradle. Cradles are ridiculously powerful if you know how to do them. They work in Catch wrestling, BJJ, and MMA. They are almost unfairly easy to get to from almost any position (when you start seeing them, life will never be the same!), and almost always lead to a pin or submission!

Be like Kratos, learn to cradle—PROPERLY! If you can’t trap someone in the cradle for at least a long 3-count in practice, it’s not ready for competition.

Defensively, Kratos's agility allows for granby rolls and inversions, but aggressive bear crawls, quad pods, and combinations like sucker drag-sit through-reshoot feel more like him. Combine these with short, tight sit-outs, split stance or bridge get-ups when opponents get behind him, and Kratos becomes harder to pin down than Medusas hair bun on a windy day.

Remember, when scrambling, combinations are key and chaos your friend. You have to keep moving.

WILL!

“The true measure of a man is not in the number of his enemies, but in the strength of his resolve." -Kratos

Strategic aggression! Kratos was a general (as well as a literal god of war!), so he adapts to different challenges well. Frankly, for a character known for his ‘Spartan rage’ and physical approach to various family issues, he displays consistent problem-solving skills.

If he is going to be your inspiration, make sure you aim to emulate more than just his pecs and become versatile in your approach.

Be ready to switch strategies if one isn’t working. In practice, guys who are good at pressure and like to dominate often get tunnel vision. The number of times I get locked in and forget that being aggressive can sometimes mean running around to the other side, false retreats, etc., rather than just more of the ‘I WILL BREAK YOU!’ style pressure I love so much… a good corner team can really help with this.

Even though there are lots of similarities between BJJ and catch wrestling, Catch wrestling FEELS like it’s a much closer relative to an MMA fight than BJJ. (I don’t think one is ‘better,’ because I’m not an idiot. You need both for MMA. End of.) Basically, because of the pin.

Weakness lives in unnecessary choices. Decide, and once you have, act like you cannot change your mind even if you wanted to. You may be surprised at the clarity and power that will give you.

Without fail, when you absolutely CANNOT allow both of your shoulder blades to be down, you WILL find ways to stop that from happening. You WILL be harder to take down, you WILL create opportunities to escape before the position is settled. You will have to.

I think Kratos gets a large part of his willpower simply because, to him, there is no such thing as an ongoing choice. He makes a decision once, and it's final—there are no save files. While his motivation may vary slightly across games, he remains unburdened by doubts or introspection (until he becomes a single father to a teenage boy, then having the emotional awareness of a particularly chiseled toddler causes some issues).

He chooses. He acts. Full commitment.

That is what a Kratos mindset is to us. My partner in crime, Suzie, and I have committed to a BJJ competition at the end of November. Frankly, it’s an awful time to get back into competition. Yet, anytime the doubts land on us, they simply slide off. Our decision is locked, eliminating internal debate and making it easier to stay the course.

“Once you decide to shoot boy, just do it and do it HARD. Play it right to the end and don’t second guess. A lack of commitment isn’t pacing yourself, it is WEAKNESS . “ -Kratos (probably)