Fury Drill – Build Technique and Intensity

Intensity is essential for strong conditioning, winning tough matches and it supplies the “X” factor needed to find your way through the tough situations in our sport. But intensity by itself is not enough. The athletes who reach the highest level also know how to execute nuanced techniques while the adrenaline is pumping, and that is where the Fury Drill comes into play. The Fury Drill combines a series of techniques, all of which are essential to winning tough matches, into one crucial situation. This creates athletes who execute technique when their conditioning has been pushed to the max, the … Read More

Tips on How to Drill Properly

Getting the most out of every practice requires moment by moment effort and the formation of dozens of habits. But once these habits are in place, wrestlers are in prime position to reach new levels of conditioning and technique. There are many aspects to proper drilling. Diligence, maintaining proper position, and striking a balance of intensity are just some of them. This holds for both the wrestler who is attacking and his partner. If the formula is correct both men will develop feel, and improve with every repetition. Take advantage of every moment with my insights into proper drilling, and … Read More

2 Wrestling top position Tactics – That Hard Nosed Wrestlers Use To Win Wrestling Matches

“Baseball is 90% mental. The other half is physical.”   -Yogi Berra, 13 Time World Series Champion As implied by the above quote, attitude, as opposed to technical knowledge or physical talent, is what wins in the most intense competitive moments. Skill and talent may the determining factors between elite and inexperienced athletes, but if two comparable wrestlers are facing off, a slight edge in desire can overcome a world of knowledge or athleticism. The wrestling top position is one of the crucial manifestations of this determination. Even though it is not as reliable a source of tangible points as … Read More

Bad Drill – Bring intensity, conditioning, and technique together

An important part of wrestling training that is often overlooked is the bringing together of skill, technique, conditioning, and intensity into a single scenario. Where the rubber meets the road, you could say. The bad drill is a an ultra high intensity scenario where wrestlers learn to execute at a high level while putting their conditioning to the test. This sounds simple, but getting athletes to bring every facets of it together is surprisingly tricky. Key elements to this drill are understanding power shots, knowing how to lay hands, finding angles, and never breaking contact. Once all these aspects come … Read More

Quick Score Drill

Strong position isn’t just the core of good wrestling defense, it is a suffocating force which leads to snap downs, reshots, and quick scores. The quick score drill is a great tool to ensure wrestlers are always on the attack. By using opponent’s poor shots as a source of go-behinds, and other wrestling counter offense, wrestlers learn to attack from all positions, and avoid falling into a defensive mindset. Keys to this technique include proper head position, hand position, and movement. Once these things are in place, any attempt to attack the properly positioned wrestler results in quick takedowns. Learn … Read More

Dan Gable’s Intensity, Likability & Subtle Genius

I was going through some old boxes and came across a few memorable photos. When I looked at them, I began to chuckle because several curious things stood out to me… The first is the team picture is from 1996, when I was a Senior at the University of Iowa. At the top of the picture you can see “The Box.” There were numerous reasons you could end up in “The Box,” but if you were in there, you could go ahead and assume that you weren’t getting the job done in some fashion… It could be in the wrestling room, the class … Read More

How To Become A Better Wrestler – 4 Steps To Bridging the Gap From Beginner to Elite Wrestler

How To Become A Better Wrestler? Transitioning From College & International to Coaching Youth & High School was difficult! I asked myself… What were the important differences between elite college wrestlers and most youth, middle school, and high school wrestlers? What were the similarities? Establish a Goal. I determined my goal(s) to be: Develop each wrestler to their full potential (on & off the mat) Be sure those that were willing and able to wrestle in college, would be physically and mentally prepared for the challenge. Also, those that don’t want to wrestle in college should be prepared and motivated to … Read More

Demon Drill

It is one thing to teach wrestling technique, but it is quite another to place that technique in an effective system that wrestlers can understand and take advantage of. The Demon Drill is a competitive scenario (or wrestling game) with clearly defined rules designed to bring a wrestler’s offensive tools together. There are a lot of wrestling drills that develop skills, the Demon drill is different because it teaches wrestlers to chain moves together while developing their overall positioning. Instead of developing one skill at a time, the Demon drill brings together a lot fundamental skills, and cannot be executed … Read More

Front Headlock Torture Series

Though it is not technically essential for success, more wrestlers will point out the front headlock position as the one that changed their careers than any other offensive technique. There are a variety of front headlock series, but once you have the technique to master one of them, you have the keys to a tougher attitude and a punishing style of wrestling that is very difficult to defend. Once the defending wrestler has been pulled down to the mat, the offensive wrestler focuses on the elbow, prying it backwards in a way that is not a problem for referees, but … Read More

Dan Gable Practice Planning Secret

Dan Gable talks about his practice planning strategies when he was a the coach of the Iowa Hawkeyes, where he won 15 National Team Titles. He says that he would map out 365 days all leading to the NCAA Championship and plan his peaking strategy specific to the team he was going to have.  When it came to planning out his practices he wouldn’t go into great detail but he would assign each day either “Dependent” or “Independent” . He felt that the main goal when constructing a great team was to turn them all into coaches and leaders so if he … Read More