WRESTLING'S RENAISSANCE: Leon Ville's 1891 Grappling Manual

Before the turn of the century there was no sportive wrestling in France. The British and Americans were in the midst of expanding upon the legitimate (and fierce) sport of Catch-as-catch-can wrestling developed by J. G. Chambers, but in France there was no interest in this time-honored martial art at all. The French word for grappling, lutte, had come to be associated solely with carnival shows, acrobatic displays put on by beefy individuals to dupe yokels out of their money through elaborate, thoroughly rigged betting schemes.

Léon Ville, likely inspired by the robust wrestling culture of the neighboring Swiss as well as the success of the Anglo-American catch style, made it his personal mission to revive wrestling as a legitimate sport. Toward this end he evoked the esteem in which this martial art was held among the ancients, and saw it as an excellent means of toughening up the younger generation - yes, even then the younger generation were thought to be too soft.

Why choose wrestling to build a nation of warriors? Because, says Ville: “It brings all of the organs equally into play, none of them being developed at the expense of the others.”