Last week I left this one out….


but ‘heavy hands’ is a meme in wrestling circles that is loaded with misconceptions.

For instance….

If you go for the head – get heavy – all the time and right away…

your higher level opponents can pick you apart.

Last week I previewed this briefly with a wrestler at ACE…

And this week, I will be covering it extensively.

You can discover the keys to exploiting every wrestler that gets “heavy” with hands, as well as learning how to safelywork your opponent’s head without leaving yourself open to their attacks.

If you haven’t done so already, you can join us here.

Somewhere there exists a video of this but for now I’ll just have to recount it for you….

Eons ago in a gym not-really-that-far-far-away…

I was wrestling in a college tournament against a bruiser.

This kid was big, strong, and athletic – and in the opening moments of the match, he grabbed me and threw me violently to my back.  It was all I could do to keep from getting pinned.

There’s a moment, and again, if I had the video you’d see it, that I look around and see that I am a mere foot away from the out of bounds line.  At the moment I started scrambling furiously to force us out of bounds (was I fleeing?  Meh.)

I survived it – got out of bounds – and earned myself a fresh start.

Now, way behind, I started the slow journey back.

Escape.

Takedown (I don’t remember how I got him down).

Escape for him.

Now I was closing the gap, but I needed another takedown to tie it up.

I tried the only thing I could think of at the time.

I STOMPED my foot.  HARD.

He didn’t budge.

Years later we would run the tape back over and over again and laugh at my set-up attempt, the big foot stomp.

But in the moment it was serious business.  Stomping my foot was all that came to mind.

I don’t know what I was thinking.  Maybe I was hoping that he would just disintegrate on the spot. 

I can assure you that he did not disintegrate.


Somehow I forced the match to overtime.

No score first period.

One quick escape in the 2nd period.

A quick escape in the 3rd period.

Overtime ends.

They brought us to the center (this was in the day when a match could be decided by criteria instead of a wrestling conclusion)…..

And raised his hand.

It would have been my 3rd title in 3 years at that tournament.

After a few minutes, a wrestler from a rival school came over to me.  

“My coach said you should have won by criteria.  They raised the wrong hand.  Tell your coach.”

I approached my coach and relayed the message.

He blew it off.

“You wrestled well but you lost.”

I told the wrestler what he said and he took it back to his coach.

Then that coach sent for me.

I  talked to him and he told me this:

You should have won on the 19th criteria.  You escaped 1 second faster than him in overtime.

He then huddled with another coach on the tournament committee….

They called me back to the center….

And raised my hand.

It helps to read the rulebook front and back.

Now for the point of this story…

If I had just had a more effective set-up than the STOMP….

when action happens fast, and you’re in the middle of the match, and there’s no time to think…

your quick instincts that you developed here must kick in.

Or, if you didn’t develop them here…

Maybe just stomp your foot.

Randy

The horror unfolded before my eyes….the crowd let out a gasp.

There he was, trapped underneath with no hope of scoring on yet another Dead Shot.

Oh, he started off the match with plenty of power and intensity.  Pushed his opponent around, grabbed his head and gave it a tug…

It certainly looked like he was about to dominate this match.

Then it happened.

As I looked on in horror, I thought to myself, even Jack Sparrow couldn’t revive that shot.

Its a familiar scene in gyms all over the country:

Dead shots that score no points.  

Attacks that result in:

• getting stuck underneath and punished by his crossface and hips
• a complete miss of the leg
• athletes getting to the leg, only to be overpowered.

Many blame these factors:

• your opponent was too strong
• your opponent was too fast
• your opponent is just too good.  You shouldn’t expect to score on him.

When I tell folks that you can overcome these factors, I often hear something like this:

C’mon Monte Hall, you can’t “look behind door #2” and fix the opponent being stronger, faster or better!

And they’re right.

But you can overcome these factors – and wrestlers do every day.

Here’s how:

• possess the skill to position yourself so you can’t be easily attacked
• develop the skill to put your opponent on defense immediately using very effective and specific methods
• be able to handfight and break your opponent (note:  grabbing the head is NOT handfighting)
• have the skill to dynamically attack your opponent 5 ways

Even more:

• eliminate the opponent’s speed advantage with a finely tuned setup series that forces him to learn right into your shot (making YOU “faster” and him slower)
• eliminate his strength advantage by grabbing the leg in the exact and precise position that allows you to fight the weakest joint in the body, and avoid the strongest muscles in the body
• curtail his athletic advantage with a finely tuned, precise finishing series that consistently stymies even the top wrestlers

Although Jack Sparrow had to develop his highly effective (yet unorthodox) ways over many years, your ability to score from your shots can increase dramatically in just 4 days.

Warning:  It will take actual training – it won’t be enough to just see it or have some celeb in a clinic go over it and sprinkle his magic pixie dust on you and fix it.

The good news – you can get it this summer


PS:  Adopt the Attack System Mindset for maximum confidence:  every time they put their hands on you, you have a scoring opportunity

The decision is one that will be made a quadruple times this wrestling season by desperate wrestlers trying to eke out a win.

Its the Down By One scenario, which often looks like this:

You’re down by one in the top position in the third period.

Do you let your opponent go, or stay on top and try to turn him?

“Well, that depends”, you say?

And you’d be right.  It depends on factors such as:

• the time left on the clock
• How good are you on your feet, as well as…
• How good is your opponent on his feet?
• Are you confident in turning your opponent?

If number Four elicits an “eh”….

Now’s the time to change that.

This weekend’s Laser Focus Camp is all about the mat.  Getting out from tough leg riders when on bottom…

and Scoring when on the top.

Notice I didn’t say RIDING.

Equestrians ride horses.  Wrestlers TURN opponents.

When you master the art of turning quality opponents, it gives you the option to stay on a tough takedown artist, instead of letting him up and trying to beat him from his best position.


You can join us by going here while its still open, which won’t be long now

Randy

First time I heard this meme, it stuck like peanut butter to the roof of a dog’s mouth.

And it also fit what I do here to a tee.

This is Step one

My client had determined that this was the ideal path for his son to follow, in order to maximize his potential and experience the most success possible in this sport.

His success included:

• 4 trips to high school state
• 3 trips to the podium
• Ohio national team 5 years running
• Elevating his level to the top rungs of athletes in the nation
• Many more accolades than I can remember off the top of my head

If you only knew of his modest beginnings.

He started with me as a junior high farm boy still figuring out what a single leg was, let alone  having any clue about how to set up his opponent for an attack.

This boy started training with me very early in his wrestling career.

Once his dad saw the transformation (in just one personal training session)…

He made up his mind to F.O.C.U.S.

• Follow
• One
• Course
• Until
• Successful

In this era, where the temptation is to jump around to the next shiny training object, this young man understood the power of staying Focused on one winning system of wrestling.

The result was him to accelerating his skills rapidly in a powerful system.

Hence, when he hit the mats, he had complete understanding of how to put his opponent on defense immediately, and keep them there.

It was like wrestling on autopilot.

• No guessing what to do when the opponent threw legs
• No digging through the depths of his mind, trying to pull out a counter to the head tie
• No wondering what to do in ANY situation.
• Zero Analysis Paralysis
• Instinctively attacking and reacting

The Power of F.O.C.U.S. means you are READY Completely when the whistle blows.

To start your journey (or continue it if you are here now), go here and join me right before the season starts.

A loyal client recently shared this: 

“Many of the kids on our team have tried a variety of advanced training options…but they’re really not getting anywhere with their wrestling.  I recommend you because there is consistency to training in your system.”

Not only is this the Way of my Attack System Wrestling training…

It is also The Way to snag more success quickly.

Example in point:  Recently a wrestler trained to beat leg rides with my leg countering system. 
A few days later he was back in the room, sharpening his skill on those critical techniques while also expanding his knowledge base.

Fast forward a few more days and…you guessed it – this dedicated athletes was back for more and we re-enforced those critical skills once again.

As a result, he’s now able to react decisively and immediately to leg ride attempts (and when it comes to leg ride counters, along with a slew of other critical positions, there IS NO time to think.  You have less than a split second to react and win the position, or suffer the painful consequences).

This IS the way to more confidence, more success and more wins in the sport of wrestling.

It is also the Opposite of the usual, show and tell mentality on display most of the time, where the emphasis is on a different flashy move each time.

Those flashy moves…

• Look good on the Fakebook and the tweeter
• Won’t get you more wins
• Even the good techniques, the ones based in superior positioning and core skills that can net your more success, aren’t going to work for you without the consistency of internalizing that technique.

Finally….

This fall’s training camps are specifically designed with you in mind….

specifically, pointing a laser at your biggest flaws so we can create a roadmap to your quickest path to success.

It IS a different format than you’ll see anywhere else.

And it IS The ATTACK SYSTEM WAY.

Go here for all the juicy details


Randy

I was reminded recently of this meme:
 
Only a comma separates “Let’s go eat, Grandma” from “Let’s go eat Grandma”.

See how important the finer details are?

Grandma surely does.


Similarly in wrestling, one tiny missed detail can mean the difference between celebrating your trip to state, or missing out on the big show.

Such is the focus of many sessions in Attack Club East, Central Ohio’s longest running club.

One finer detail that most miss (which is probably going to be front and center on Day One of Attack Club East,, which is Sunday September 26):    

Scoring the easiest takedown in wrestling…namely, the go behind off your opponent’s shot.

And the finer detail (actually there are two of them) that most wrestlers miss, costs a ton of takedowns every season.

If you’ve ever attempted to spin behind and ended up getting taken down, you know of what I speak.

You can join us for ACE by signing up here

Randy

PS:  Special thanks to my friend Tiffany for the graphic.