Most wrestlers have a favorite position, either standing, down in the referee’s position or up in the referee’s position. However, a fighter wants to be strong in each of these positions. In fact, a fighter wants to dominate these three positions. How can you get this? We are going to explore.

Standing

The first thing to consider in the standing position is one’s posture. Your stance should be quite low and wide. You want to have a stable base and yet be very mobile. You want your head upright and your shoulders straight. Obviously, you don’t want to be staring at your feet. You want your eyes to focus on your opponent’s body. You want to be something on the balls of your feet. You don’t want to be hot on your heels. You must have your hands raised in front of you to avoid being knocked down. You should never stand up straight and leave yourself open to a takedown from your opponent. You must use a comfortable but effective posture. You need a posture that allows you to both attack and defend. This is basic information.

Lee Roy Smith (brother of John and Pat and a fighter and trainer extraordinaire in his own right) notes: “To successfully execute takedowns, you must control the contact. Your bindings or setups will determine whether you can successfully execute your takedowns. Therefore, the Configurations should not be overlooked. They are an integral part of gaining control and achieving the takedown. “

You can control your opponent’s reaction in various ways. Controlling your opponent’s response gives you an advantage. For example, if you lower his head, you know that he will raise it again; then you shoot after he reacts.

Ways to control contact

• Pull – He pulls back.
• Push – He pushes back.
• Roll your shoulders. He turns back.
• Pump and Pretend – React because it thinks you’re going to shoot.

Coach Tommy Pavia likes to talk about making an opponent “heavy” on one foot. By grabbing an opponent’s arm and pulling it forward, for example, you can force your opponent to bring the leg towards you that you want to attack.

Two-time NCAA wrestling champion Cary Kolat emphasizes that lowering your opponent’s head too much to tire the back muscles and eventually the leg muscles to wear them down. Also, hitting your opponent’s head down takes his sight off and you may be able to capitalize on his reactions as he tries to get back up. Turning your head down can disrupt your posture and position.

There are many tethers that a fighter can use to move his opponent and set up takedowns.

Common ties include:

• Neck tie and elbow
• Double elbow tie
• Underhook and overhook
• Double bicep loop
• Russian tie or two against one

You probably know that you need to use movement and level shifting to execute successful takedowns. You never want to back down or retreat. You may be called for a delay. You want to move from one side to the other without crossing your feet and moving forward in a stalking way. You need to control your opponent’s movements and determine where the action is going on the mat. Also, a good time to shoot is after you’ve blocked an opponent’s shot or immediately after you’ve blocked a takedown attempt. Shot reps are very important.

Your most common takedowns will be doubles and singles. They are basic and work a significant percentage of the time. You need to train doubles and singles often. There are several ways to set up these takedowns and finish them. You need to know how to perform a high crotch, ankle pick, and other takedowns as well.

It’s important to learn to finish low and cut the corner because you won’t always be able to lift your opponent’s leg off the mat. You can capture a leg and still get caught on the mat. You have to stand on your toes, maybe snake their leg, and grab the near or far ankle as you cut the corner and twist to score. Being stopped momentarily does not mean that you cannot finish the shot and score. Practicing this position is very important.

You should also have at least a rudimentary knowledge of pitches and pitches. You need to know how to perform a headlock, a hip toss, and an arm toss. Sometimes the opportunity to pitch or pitch comes up when you didn’t even have that scenario in mind.

You, of course, also need to defend yourself from takedowns. Expansion is basic but absolutely essential. You need to stretch out and take off your opponent’s hands. Your legs go back and your hips go in. You may also need to make crossovers and whizzer. You perform a crossface by extending your legs back, reaching your opponent’s face, grabbing the far arm, grabbing the near ankle, and circling behind. This is a basic material but important to know and perfect.

Top position

When you are in the top position, you want to control your opponent and prevent him from running away or backing off. Also, ultimately, you’ll want to put him on his back to score points and pin him down.

Dan Gable (The essentials of Dan Gable’s wrestling DVD) and Art Keith (author of Successful fight) both emphasize being able to flow with your opponent’s movements. Holding onto your opponent tightly is not necessarily the most appropriate way to control your opponent from above. Art Keith likes to talk about keeping an opponent “on your lap” to maintain control of his hips. Dan Gable likes to compare flowing with your opponent to riding a wild horse. You need to be “in tune” with your opponent and anticipate his movements.

Of course, you want to control some of your opponent’s movements and eventually take him down. Just like in the standing position, you must keep your opponent off balance. You can attack both the arms and legs in various ways to prevent your opponent from getting stronger and executing movements. Make your opponent carry your weight and carry him forward trying to carry as much weight forward as you can to bring him down. Drive your opponent’s body (i.e. weight) forward. This is the key.

Coach Gable prefers a technique he calls “jam and control.” When the whistle blows, you’ll want to push your opponent forward while making sure to keep your arms behind your opponent’s arms when performing the blocking action. Repeated hip thrusts may be needed to break your opponent’s position. Riding on your toes can give you more mobility and allow you to put more pressure on your opponent. You can run a spiral trip, cut an arm, grab an ankle, or do a cross trip just to name a few options.

Peg combinations include half nelson, arm bar, double arm bar, hammer lock, cradles, turks legs, and mounted leg pegs (turk, half force, guillotine).

Coach Guy Burdett recounted a story from his high school days on technique. He mentioned that a fighter who knows more techniques than his opponents has a superior advantage and is likely to win the majority of his fights. He related a story in which he got a video one summer that covered half nelson. Yes, everyone knows how to do a half nelson. It is one of the first moves a wrestler learns. But this video taught young Coach Burdett how to use leverage and angles to apply nelson half in ways he has never used before. Evidently his opponents had never learned about these particular half-nelson techniques, either because he pinned several of his opponents after the season began using something as fundamental as the half-nelson. The lesson here is to learn the correct technique for each move and grab and learn various ways to do those grabs and moves.

Lower position

When you’re down in the bottom position, your opponent very much wants to break him, flip him over, and pin him down. Don’t let that happen. Keep a fairly wide base with your arms slightly bent. Keep your weight fairly light in your hands. Blow up with the whistle and create a space between you and your opponent. Shift your weight towards your opponent and fight for manual control. Manual fighting skills and manual control are essential. Keep your elbows inward and have your opponent reach over or around his arms, not inward. If you grab a wrist, remove the hand from it. If his stomach is upset and he has a wrist, he may have to “swim” with his arm out to free it. If your opponent grabs an ankle, don’t try to advance. Put weight back on your ankle and remove your hand. You never want to rest your head on the carpet. They will call you for delay. It is absolutely necessary to return to your base. Its base consists of four supports or braces. These supports that I am referring to are, of course, his two arms and his two legs. If it breaks down, you should return to your base and position your hips under you to have a good center of gravity.

The hip hold is a very important technique to use when you are in the lower position. The hip hold creates a lot of space. You should practice hip hold exercises at every practice. The hip slam motion, of course, is commonly seen when a fighter executes a switch from below. One of my favorite moves in high school was a position change. I liked flipping a switch when my opponent was trying to bring me back to the mat.

The most common move from below is a simple stand-up. Stand-up is popular because it works. Keep your elbows in as you stand up and control your hands. Hip punch while wiping your hands and you’ll get out of there, scoring an escape point. It is also important to learn to change and sit outside. If you can pull off a granby roll (and you should be able to), you can earn points and maybe even get a pin. But scoring an escape point from a stand-up is much more common and generally much safer.

You never want to end up on your back, but occasionally it happens to even the best of fighters. For this reason, you need to learn how to bridge. An effective bridge can be the difference between being anchored and not anchored. Even if you don’t win the match, if they don’t pin you down, you can at least save your team some points.

Remember that the bottom position is not simply a defensive position. You must think offensively. There are ample opportunities for leaks and pullbacks from the bottom position. Although all positions require defense at times, you should always focus on being offensive and scoring even in late position.

A wrestler needs to frequently practice and exercise each position and various movements to be successful. So make sure you have a good knowledge base and that you know the proper technique.

Some resources to consider:

• The essentials of Dan Gable’s wrestling DVD
• Tom Brands Domination Pinning – Cross Wrist Serie DVD
• Situational fight from the bottom position John Smith DVD
• Successful fight by Art Keith
• Winning wrestling moves by Mark Mysnyk
• The wrestling exercise book by William Welker

A wrestler must master all positions (standing, up and down) if he is to be successful in wrestling.