Hidetaka Aso (麻生秀孝), 9th Dan Founder of Submission Arts Wrestling, was born in Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan in 1950.
Shihan Hidetaka Aso started training Judo when he was in high school.
To help his Judo skill, he started Sambo in 1971 when he was 21 years old, and around the same time, he started training in Wrestling at Japan Defence Force Academy.
He holds; Kodokan Judo 5th Dan, Japan Sambo Association 7th Dan, Japan Amateur Wrestling Association 6th Dan, International Karate Federation, Kyokushin Budo-Kai 8th Dan.
At the time, Sambo was still an unknown martial art in Japan, but he devoted himself to study techniques in order to improve his competitive ability.
He incorporated techniques from overseas athletes based on judo techniques and also made full use of original joint locks that he created himself, and made a name for himself in the heavyweight divisions of international competitions, where athletes from the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe were strong.
Sambo International Championship Results,
1978 Participated in the Soviet Union International (Tashkent)
1979 World Championships (Madrid) won prize
1982 San Diego International Won 8 Rounds
After many successful tournament achievements with Judo, Sambo, Sumo, and Wrestling, he started teaching his knowledge to young people.
He and his several students practiced and experimented their skills to be useful for real fighting.
He also trained catch wrestling with legendary catch wrestler “Karl Gotch” at the UWF Pro Wrestling gym.
And also trained Muay Thai with legendary Muay Thai fighter “Dieselnoi Chor Thanasukarn”.
And Incorporated the elements of them into his fighting system.
After a few years time, he named his club “Submission Arts”, and started his own martial art system with only several student with renting a small Judo dojo in 1986.
As number of students grew, he wanted his student to remember and to express that his style is grappling based fighting art.
So, in 1987, he decided to change the name to “Submission Arts Wrestling”(S.A.W.) and established it as a kind of competitive wrestling with the spirit of Budo.
He worked hard to organise, invite players, and manage the Sambo International Tournament in Japan as the executive director of the early days of the Japan Sambo Federation. (Later, he became the vice president of the Japan Sambo Federation.)
In the 1988 World Cup (Tokyo Tournament), he worked as the head coach of the all-Japan players.
He is the author of many textbooks, and chairman of prestigious martial arts federations and committees.
Shihan Hidetaka Aso is highly regarded as the master of the science of submissions.
