Category Archives: Wrestling

A Single Leg is Hard to Finish

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I tweaked my hip yesterday and was limping all day like an old wise judoka. Add to that a lack of sleep due to a bunch of deadlines and stress at work, and I was a damn mess (and missed the usually very good competition training session at Marco’s). When I’m mentally drained in that way, I’ll drill at home and watch some instructional videos on the same several positions I’ve been working on over the last year. Here’s one: the single leg.

Look at 5:50 in the following video. It’s two minutes of AJ Agazarm trying to finish a single leg on Victor Silveiro in a brown belt match-up at the 2013 Pans.

I see this kind of battle a lot, especially at the lighter weights, and especially in no-gi, but it really spans all weight divisions and styles. As is often said in wrestling, the way to win this battle is early aggression. It’s best to attack in combinations before the opponent gets a chance to establish good balance on the one foot. For this reason, I don’t like the single leg in training. If the training partner doesn’t want to go down, there often isn’t a nice and controlled way to put them down. I like to work technique that don’t hurt people, because I want to get a lot of reps in, and it’s easier to get reps in when the other person isn’t being destroyed in the process.

A lot of jiu jitsu guys (Marcelo Garcia is a great example) like the “running the pipe” finish. I think it’s effective, but it never clicked with me the way the “sweep the leg” finish has. Kolat shows a good version of it:

Here’s a nice set of 9 videos on finishing single leg takedowns:

The way to finish a single leg is simple: (1) keep them moving, (2) combine attacks, (3) aggression. All that is a lot of work. I like to think of the single leg finish as almost a position in itself, and like any position my goal is to make sure that I’m expanding less energy than my opponent. I think I’ve often fallen victim to that adrenaline rush that goes with the feeling that I’m very close to taking the guy down. There is no “almost” in grappling or life. You have to do the smart thing up until the very end. Don’t throw technique and sense out the window just because you’re “almost” there.

The Strategy of Unceasing Aggression

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aggressionAs I gradually improve my jiu jitsu game, I notice my movement getting slower and more subtle. Understanding the tiny details and timing that make certain guard passes or sweeps work allows me to improve position without wasting energy. All that is a good and natural part of jiu jitsu growth, but it worries me in that I’m neglecting the thing at the core of any combative sport: aggression. I don’t mean aimless aggression, I mean keeping the kind of pace that allows me to stay one step ahead of my opponent (in competition) the whole match.

I’m distinctly aware of situations when I fail one attack and before continuing to the next I’ll take a little 1-2 second breather, not because I’m forced to, but because… well… there’s still a lot of time left on the clock and the guy I’m going against is pretty good and aggressive, and I surprised that the previous attack failed… and more excuses like that. That’s good in training, because training is about learning, but in competition it does nothing but gives my opponent the opportunity to start attacking as opposed to defending my attacks.

Anyway, aggression is not a simple switch you can just turn on. A lot of NCAA wrestling programs specialize in building aggression through intensive training (sparring and cardio) to basically give the wrestlers the confidence that they can push the pace the whole match and not crash in the process. It takes a lot of work to build that confidence. I think most people (including myself) are simply afraid to embrace this strategy. Unwilling to pay the price of going balls-to-wall. And so we point out that there are “smarter” ways to win. While that’s true, too often “smart” somehow begins to mean “passive”. It’s impossible to deny that in competition there are times when relentless aggression is necessary. Again, I don’t mean spazzing all over the place. I mean chaining together endless sequences of attacks without a pause in between until your opponent makes a mistake.

But as I said, it takes a lot of work to build that mentality, and that work takes a toll on your mind and body. Many of us love jiu jitsu, but have lives outside it. And a Dan Gable work out every day is just not something that a human being can manage without dedicating their whole mind to it. So most recreational competitors such as myself have to find a balance. In a way, it’s depressing to know that I’m not doing everything I would need to in order to win. At the same time, it’s a reminder that FOR ME winning gold at IBJJF events is not the most important thing. By the way, when I step on the mat at a tournament, I’m there to win, period. Put in an another way, I’m there to have fun, and to me winning is fun. Losing is not fun. I believe I have a chance at beating any purple belt out there today. And when I compete that’s what I go to do. But I have to be honest with myself about my preparation and only train as hard as the rest of my life affords but not less than that!

Marco Perazzo suggested to me a couple of months ago that I should be doing a little Muay Thai as part of my training because he’s seen it help a lot of jiu jitsu competitors step up their aggression a bit. I think that’s very true, and this advice has been on my mind for a while. I haven’t added it to my training yet. I don’t like starting stuff and then stopping. So I’m always very cautious about adding new things.

This whole post came after I read the following Patton quote that is an absurdly blunt example of the kind of unceasing aggression that I was talking about:

“I don’t want to get any messages saying, ‘I am holding my position.’ We are not holding a goddamned thing. Let the Germans do that. We are advancing constantly and we are not interested in holding onto anything, except the enemy’s balls. We are going to twist his balls and kick the living shit out of him all of the time. Our basic plan of operation is to advance and to keep on advancing regardless of whether we have to go over, under, or through the enemy. We are going to go through him like crap through a goose; like shit through a tin horn!” – George S. Patton

Add Submission Grappling to the Olympics

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I still can’t quite believe that wrestling has been taken out of the Olympics. It seems to me that the “dream” of Olympic gold in the minds young wrestlers today has been silenced. But perhaps as one door closes another one opens…

The growing popularity of MMA throughout the world means that even the youngest wrestlers are becoming aware of wrestling’s next door neighbor: submission grappling. Guillotines, rear naked chokes, triangles, armbars, kneebars, toe holds, etc. are all lurking in the shadows. The counter-intuitive notion that you can dominate an opponent off your back is no longer so counter-intuitive.

Maybe taking wrestling out of the Olympics is the first step in the sport’s evolution. The second step would be to add submission grappling. The more I thought about it in the last couple days, the more the ADCC version of the event seemed like a very real possibility:

Jiu jitsu is a little too boring for spectators. MMA is a little too violent. No-gi is (in some ways) the perfect compromise.

The only concern I have is the very fact that any of these changes are happening. For 70 years (since 1936) no sport was removed from the Olympics. Why are these changes happening now. If it’s because of “money”, why does money all of a sudden gain the power to change something that was unchanged for decades? The Olympics needs to be a slow-moving organization. It takes 15-20 years for an Olympic athlete to achieve world-class level from an early age. Changing rules (or worse, changing sports) throws a wrench into that very delicate process.

“Manly” Sports: The Vision and Purpose of Modern Olympics

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Side note: I don’t know a better word than “manly” to represent the kind of activity that requires incredible physical fortitude. Nothing to do with men or women.

Wrestling (both freestyle and greco) is out of the Olympics in 2020. I’m at a loss of words.

crying-indianI feel like the old native american with a tear drop rolling down his face as he looks out over the land taken over by a very different civilization than the one he grew up in.

This USA Today article defends wrestling in a way that I would never defend wrestling, saying “sure wrestling isn’t popular, but it’s better than the following five sports that are still in: modern pentathlon, ping pong, race walking, trampoline, judo”.

Judo made it in their list of sports that no one cares about. That had me thinking all day yesterday. What if they are right? I live in a sports bubble where the “combat” sports are considered to be the purest representation of competition. I grew up in a world where the “manly” sports were at the core of the Olympics. My “manly” sports, I mean ones that have the most combative physical contact and/or require the most strength. In the winter Olympics it was hockey, and in the summer Olympics it was wrestling and weightlifting.

Perhaps, a lot of my views of sports has to do with the fact that I grew up in the former Soviet Union, or that I wrestled in high school and have participated in some kind of “combat” sport since age 12. But I also played tennis and chess for a long time, so I don’t know…

I have to step back and wonder how the rest of the world sees wrestling. Maybe the characteristics of a sport do not matter. What matters for the Olympics is that a lot of people do it and watch it. That way we get to see some incredible displays of will and skill. Synchronized swimming has been given as an example of ridiculousness, but those ladies probably practice as much as the wrestlers for their whole life. Maybe the activity doesn’t matter, and what matters is that we can excite a large enough percentage of the population to dedicate the first 20-30 years of their life to mastering this activity.

Like I said, right now I’m the crying Indian, in a state of disbelief, grasping at random clues in attempting to understand where our culture is drifting.

I leave this post with a few stats selected from this NWCA wrestling facts page.

Scholastic Wrestling

  • Scholastic wrestling ranks 6th of all boys’ sports in terms of participation at the high school level with over 272,000 nation-wide (behind football, basketball, baseball, soccer, and track).
  • Since 2002-03, the number of high school wrestlers has grown by over 30,000.
  • Over 10,400 schools sponsors wrestling which is the highest ever.
  • In 2008/09, 42 new wrestling programs were established in Arkansas and the Arkansas High School Athletic Association became the 49th state to sanction a high school state wrestling championship currently, Mississippi is the only state that does not.

Collegiate Wrestling

  • Intercollegiate wrestling has over 100 years of competition.
  • Collegiate wrestling typically ranks in the top 5 in revenue production of all NCAA Championships (2009 NCAA Championships set a NCAA attendance record).
  • 81 new intercollegiate wrestling teams (all divisions) have been established since 2002.
  • Wrestling has very modest start-up costs and needs.

International Wrestling

  • Wrestling was included in the ancient Olympic Games, and was one of the select sports included in the first modern Olympic Games in Athens, Greece in 1896.
  • Over 135 nations sponsor a wrestling federation.
  • Wrestling is one of the top three medal winning sports for the United States.

Technique Beats Strength, Conditioning, Experience, and Heart

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A Culture of Heroic Grit

There is a romantic belief in sports in America (and everywhere really) that the “fighting spirit” or the will to win can overcome any obstacle. Heart and grit are the stuff that great sports movies are made of. And indeed, to me, that’s why I love sports, and that’s why I participate in sports. It’s a chance to test your ability to overcome the mental blocks of fear and exhaustion. Athletes like Frank Molinaro are the perfect representatives of grit like that, willing to take their body and mind to places most people, even top athletes, are not willing to go:

Technique is King

Still, I believe that technique is king, and will overcome that kind of grit in the long term. I think the more productive “heart” and “spirit” come out in the relentless dedication you show to the development of technique over a period of years. It’s the willingness to put in thousands of reps in drilling each small part of a technique, the transition from one part to another, under various resistance levels, alone or with a partner. You have to engage your mind by learning from your coaches, from instructionals, from books, from YouTube. The result is a constant evolution of your drilling and your training.

The Goal is Effortless Domination

The goal is not to work harder than everyone else. The goal is discover the timing and mechanics at the core of the sport by relaxing and keeping your mind open to change and learning. I personally don’t like the term “flow rolling” that’s often used to describe the kind of training where you move from position to position without using much force in resisting the positional progression of your training partner. I think it’s extremely valuable to roll at 100% while moving exactly as you do when you “flow roll”. That might sound contradictory, but to me it’s not. My goal is to effortlessly trick my training partner into being defenseless for a split second. I fail often of course, but the point is that I’m constantly moving and learning the precise timing of when I can fake a movement that will create an opening for an easy guard pass, back take, sweep, submission, etc.

I want to learn to be always a split second ahead of my opponent without having too use strength, quickness, or flexibility.

The Sage of Drilling

johnsmithIn wrestling, I think many people idolize Dan Gable for the relentless nature of his spirit. His mental breaking point is far above almost any other athlete in history. Like everyone else, I look up to him, but I can’t see his obsession as prescriptive for others to follow, perhaps because nobody else has that kind of superhuman mental fortitude. For me, the person I study and try to imitate in training and in life much more than Gable is another wrestling legend: John Smith. He is a 4-time World champion and a 2-time Olympic champion. He is a big proponent of drilling for two reasons: (1) fastest way to improve and (2) longevity. Here is a long quote from him that I like to re-read often:

“Drilling is the key to wrestling success and to longevity in the sport. Drilling has to become habit forming. Drilling wasn’t natural for more, I’d rather just go in a room and spar hard. I just wanted to shake hands and go! But drilling has to take place for you to get better. I couldn’t do a better leg lace or gut wrench without breaking down the move, seeing how it works, studying it and drilling it, over and over and over.

That’s when you improve your techniques. Someone who doesn’t spend time doing that and drilling isn’t going to improve. For longevity, drilling is very important, if you want to stay in the sport for many years, then you have to stay healthy. Constant sparring and live goes can beat your body up pretty bad. After the world championships, I would drill for three months, with very little sparring. That’s when I got better, and I also stayed injury free.”

Madness of Excellence: Find and Embrace the Crazy

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The inspiration for this post, Joe Rogan, reminds me of Ron Paul in that he connects to the truth of any matter with pure unabashed common sense. The man makes some good points on a wide range of topics, even if they do come from a far away universe of psychedelic mushrooms, conspiracy theories, and a podcast sponsored by a plastic vagina and “cognitive-enhancement” pills.

He finds a poetic way of stating the brilliant and the obvious: you have to be crazy to be the best. Statistically speaking, most people will not be the best at anything they set their mind to. But you can still learn something from the idea that madness seems to accompany excellence. I think there are several reasons this is true:

  • Madness as an effect of greatness: First and foremost, I think that obsessive pursuit of excellence is going to have practical consequences. You will socialize with people less. You will relate to people less. You will have a less balanced view of the world. That’s a spiral that’s hard to get out of, and eventually leads to a kind of mild madness.
  • Madness as the CAUSE of greatness: As silly as it sounds, I think you have to convince yourself you CAN be the best, before you can ever put in the immense amount of work required to even just be good. At least that’s how it seems to be. In Wrestling Tough, I think one of the Brands brothers talks about having to delude yourself into believing you’re unbeatable when you step on the mat, and all you have to do is wrestle your best like you’ve done thousands of times in practice. Simple.
  • Crazy helps silence the rational brain: In many ways, the brain is a whining bitch. The question of “why the hell am I even doing this?” is the one that makes most people quit at any level. The problem is that this question has no good rational answer, much like the question of “what is the meaning of life?” So the moment you let your brain think about philosophical crap, you lose. I think that embracing the crazy helps keep the rational brain away. It’s a kind of active meditation.

Drilling Advice from Wrestling: Importance of a Good Partner

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The first, last, and only step in drilling is you just need to do it. Before you think how to do it, you need to shut up and drill. Everything else will fall into place. That’s the rule I follow with most things that are unpleasant in an objective-sense but are good for me in the long run. On any given day: do first, think later. Thinking is easy and fun, so I’m sure I’ll get that part done.

But thinking, planning, and evolving the drilling program is still important. So, I’m always looking for advice from experts on the subject. While it’s of course great to get advice from top BJJ competitors (e.g. Jordon), it’s often good to turn to related grappling disciplines. There are a lot of good wrestling articles on the subject. For example: How to Drill in Wrestling.

I’d like to focus on one piece of advice in the above article: Don’t Lag

One of the worst things you can do as a drill partner is be lazy. Whether it’s getting up off the mat or transitioning between partners/drills: Never take your time. Understand that time is valuable. The more time you waste, the less you and your partner will develop as wrestlers. You should be eager to drill, and try to get as much done in the time you are given. The best wrestlers don’t waste any time, so you shouldn’t either. If ever you don’t “feel like” giving a 100% effort in your drills, it’s probably time to find a different sport.

 

There are two practical pieces of advice here that I think are really important, and that I unfortunately fail at sometimes. The first is that as a partner you should never lag behind. You should almost take pride in being able to return to the original position as quickly as possible.

The second piece of advice related to that is that you should always be eager physical and mentally to drill. Drilling sucks. But it sucks exponentially more when one or both of the partners act like they don’t want to be there. On days when that’s the case, I try to fake it. I try to smile, pop up quickly, don’t act distracted, etc. One of the things I’m learning is that drilling is not just about the specific technique, but it’s also about helping motivate myself and my drilling partner to stick with it, to focus, and to finish the drilling session no matter what.

I don’t think I mentioned this on the blog yet, but I was lucky enough to win the “Drilling for Grappling Mastery” contest with the grand prize of an all expenses paid drilling/training trip to train with world champ Jordon Shultz. The following video is what won it for me. The editing is crappy, and you have to listen to me talk for a minute, but hopefully it’ll inspire you to take on a drilling challenge of your own:

Learn From Failure by Blaming Yourself

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I’m rereading Wrestling Tough (great book) and the story of Kyle Maynard (pictured left) hit me again, like it does every time I read it.

Kyle was born with severely underdeveloped arms and legs. So everything that comes easy to most people, Kyle had to figure out how to do in a completely different way. Wrestling was just one of the examples of that. His senior year in high school he finished the season with a 35-16 record. To me, this makes him one of the most incredible wrestlers in the history of the sport.

His description of what he took from wrestling is one of the great lessons of how progress is made through rigorous honest analysis of failure:

“Wrestling, as far as character goes, is foundational for any human being. You have to learn failure on a basis where you can only blame yourself. It makes the rest of your life a lot easier.”

In my eyes, focusing on failure in a quiet analytical way is the approach that works best for me. Of course, you also have to honor your successes. They provide the confidence needed to carry you through the plateaus and long stretches of hard work that don’t bring immediate positive results.

Don’t Count the Seconds

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This is probably old news to collegiate wrestling fans but I just saw the 2009 NCAA finals in the 149 lbs division between two undefeated wrestlers: Brent Metcalf and Darrion Caldwell. Metcalf is one of the latest in the long line of athletes that perfectly represented the Iowa Wrestling mindset.

Caldwell came out with an incredible (and to me, heartbreaking) performance to beat Metcalf. The match is worth watching all the way through:

Metcalf is an inspiration. He didn’t ever give up pushing forward, working for the takedown. And what was especially representative of that is the moment when Caldwell began celebrating early by doing a flip, Metcalf came at him anyway. Here’s a slow motion video of that exchange:

This was controversial at the time, and many people criticized both athletes. To me, I can’t help but draw inspiration and ultimate respect for Metcalf’s passion and determination.

In my own experience, I can tell a lot about where I am mentally from how I act during the last few seconds of a tough match or a cardio session. You have to push through and past the end with the kind of mindset that says you can go another minute or however long you need to. I know I’m mentally defeated if I’m counting seconds to the end.

Clearly, Metcalf was not counting seconds.

Training for Domination: The Frank Molinaro Approach

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I look to college wrestling for inspirational stories of athletes working harder than many believe is humanly possible. They train two or three times a day, at incredible intensity, while maintain a ridiculously low weight. Iowa wrestling represents that lifestyle completely, from Gable to Zalesky to Brands. But there are also wrestlers that pop in other programs that are shining icons of that hard working philosophy. A good example of that is Frank Molinaro of Penn State. Here’s him doing a nice circuit that’s designed to take his legs to exhaustion:

It’s clear that he has done this type of session many times before, and can effectively hit the wall and go past it pretty quickly. Workouts like that are just as much mental as they are physical.

As I see it, he is an example of a guy who is aware of his weaknesses, hates them, and works his ass off to eliminate them. I like that type of honesty in self-analysis in an athlete. This interview right after he won the NCAA title this year (after falling short the year before) is a great example of the honesty and toughness that he embodies:

He stepped up the training for his last college wrestling season and went from being good to being great, dominating most of his opponents, and going undefeated. He is definitely an inspiration.

And here is the finals match from the year before that Frank lost and arguably created the “Gorilla Hulk” of the 2011-12 season:

It’s painful to watch. Dake really stepped up for this match, and made a statement.