Portland Youth Wrestling sent three wrestlers to the youth wrestling state championships held at Noble High School this weekend – Brayden Demers, Nick Penney, and Travis Soule. As usual, the sharks performed and represented their team well. Brayden wrestled hard and smart and showed great spirit. Nick and Travis both finished 3rd in their weight classes after tough matches.
All three wrestlers are getting ready for the New England Classic wrestling tournament this weekend.
Tomorrow evening is our youth wrestling banquet. We will meet in the wrestling room at 6 pm. There will be chairs set up for all the wrestlers and parents. We will take a few minutes to talk about the season and then we will call each wrestler up to receive a certificate. We will then have cake and ice cream and spend some visiting before we wrap things up around 7 pm.
Thanks to everyone for your support this season. I had a blast working with all the kids and I know Dave did too. I hope they learned a lot about wrestling and some other good lessons too.
Watching the NCAA Nationals wrestling tournmant this weekend I was struck by the wrestlers showcasing our favorite strategy for defense from the neutral position – the 3 Hs. Over and over I watched the wrestlers on the mat demonstrate solid head position, effective use of their hands and fast, powerful hip motion to counter offensive attacks. And I heard the announcers repeat, “head and hands, hips” like a matra.
The 3 Hs are a simple but effective way to remind our youth wrestlers how to defend themselves on their feet. Like many techniques, it’s challenging at first to counter their natural tendencies and get them to feel comfortable in these positions. But, after watching the best wrestlers in the country use this approach, I feel confident that our wrestlers will be very effective when they master it.
Here’s an overview of our approach:
Head: Wrestle close enough so your heads can touch and keep your forehead between your opponent and your legs.
Hands: Keep your hands up and on your opponent at all times. Use them from inside position, on his shoulders or on his head to stop his shot. Also use your hands to block his arms from grabbing your legs or to lock in a wizzer.
Hips: If your opponent clears your head and hands, use your hips to sprawl hard and drive him into the mat. Keep hip pressure on while you crossface or push down on the head and spin behind.
Three of our wrestlers made the lonely trek to Skowhegan this weekend for the k-8 tournament held there. Despite the early morning wake up and long drive, they made the most of the day and all three wrestled into the finals. Nick Penney and Travis Soule finished with 1st place medals and Carson Porter brought home second place.
Results from the 2010 Portland Youth Wrestling Inviational are posted under the tournament page and will stay there until next year’s tournament. You can also get them here:
Mite Division Brackets, Intermediate Division Brackets, Bantem Division Brackets, Novice Division Brackets
An effective way to counter an opponents position and pressure is by chopping his arms or going under them. We spend a lot of time with our wrestlers trying to give them a feel for both options. When their opponent is posting high on the arms or shoulders, we tell our kids to lower their level while popping the arms up for a score. When their opponent is lower on the arms, we tell them to raise their hands up and chop down with their forearms. This is especially effective if their opponent is pushing in. Chopping the arms with motion will either open their oppenent’s legs or cause him to lose balance and open up for a snap down or front headlock. This is a great handfighting technique for youth wrestlers because it encourages them to wrestle close and stay in their stance.
Go to the following page and click on “Arm Chop” to see how effective it can be. This page includes links to other great techniques as well.
http://www.themat.com/section.php?section_id=8&page=ta
Whereas Monday’s practice focused on wrestling from the neutral position, this evening’s practice was dedicated to wrestling on the mat. We did some good drilling but spent most of our time playing games and wrestling live. Practice started with a warm-up then relay races and as a special treat, Pat Cormier and Evan Michalski, two of our high school wrestlers, joined in the fun.
We continued with a drill that reminded wrestlers to get hand control, keep their head up and elbows in right off the whistle. Then, we took a new approach and had the wrestlers themselves demonstrate stand-ups and stand-up counters. I was pleasantly surprised at their enthusiasm and how well they showed each move. It went so well that I plan to let the wrestlers demonstrate technique in every practice we conduct in the future – youth and high school. We finished working on escapes with a game of King of the Mat.
After a short break we reviewed our main breakdowns again with kids demonstrating. They showed crossface-near ankle, tightwaist-far ankle, spiral and far ankle-far knee breakdowns and then we practiced each with partners. We reinforced this drilling with an extended session of live wrestling from the mat.
One of my favorite moments of the season was late in the live wrestling session when suddenly our younger wrestlers were asking to wrestle with teamates who were much bigger and older than them – teammates they rarely wrestled with all season. The joy and friendship I saw in that moment made me appreciate how far we had come as a team.
Wrestling from the neutral position is usually one of the first things we teach young wrestlers and for good reason. It’s the starting point for nearly all wrestling matches (formal or otherwise) and the better wrestler on his feet usually has a substantial advantage over his opponent in a match.
Our philosophy for wrestling in this position sounds simple – stance and motion, gain control positions and attack the legs – but execution on the mat is often difficult at first for young wrestlers. This has sometimes caused us to question our overall coaching philosophy. We believe in teaching a solid foundation of skills and techniques that our wrestlers can build on throughout their entire career. But, it can be difficult watching new wrestlers lose matches while struggling to execute a shot when their natural inclination is to stand up and grab and opponent by the head.
We have stayed true to our philosophy and the results are starting to show as our wrestlers are using more leg attacks and placing more consistently in tournaments. Here’s a breakdown of our approach to wrestling in the neutral position:
Stance: Every successful athletic motion starts with a good stance and it’s critically important in wrestling where speed essential and a proper stance is key to both offensive and defensive scoring.
Motion: Smart, tactical movement leads to offensive and defensive scoring opportunities. Proper circling, pushing/pulling, feints and level changes are all part of setting up an opponent and keeping him off balance to prevent his attack.
Control positions: Correct control positions (we work on wrists, inside position, elbow control and collar ties) enable wrestlers to move their opponents, create angles and clear their opponents heads and hands for leg attacks.
Leg attacks: Once they have a good stance, motion, and control positions, we want our wrestlers to attack with singles, doubles and leg snatches. Lowering levels, a good penetrating shot and simple finishes are all elements of a solid leg attack.
Last night we continued our recent focus on drilling and reviewing moves we learned earlier this season. We began with a review of scoring with and countering a cement job. This is a move we see consistently at youth tournaments and often fall victim to with our heads our down and our elbows are out. The wrestlers worked on clamping their elbows down and scoring with a dump or getting their heads up, hips down and going for a bear hug or leg attack. We finished with an “ear-to-ear” scramble game to build on the drilling.
Then, we moved to a review of wrestling close and gaining control positions in the nuetral position. We drilled penetration steps focusing on shooting through our opponent, double leg takedowns and countering doubles with a sprawl. We followed up the drilling with live takedowns in a game of “King of the Mat.”
Practice finished with a game of Sharks and Minnows.
It’s hard to believe the 2010 season is almost over. We have three more official practices – tonight, Wednesday (3/17), and Monday (3/22). Our season banquet will be held in the wrestling room on Wednesday 3/24. We will also have an informal practice on Friday April 2 for wrestlers competing in the New England Classic the next day.
These last few practices will be full of games, review and drilling the moves we learned throughout the year. Keep visiting the site all year for information about our camp, summer tournaments, practice tips, techniques and other wrestling information.
Recent Comments