A couple of ideas, since some of you are open to improving and want specifics.

The biggest thing you need is a very active drilling partner who let's you score but is working some defense to force you into that second third and fourth move. The partner who just muscles out of situations doesn't help, but the partner who flows and makes you work is extremely valuable. In this way drilling involves the defensive guy and gets both guys working. Not just one guy going through his move three times.

Problem: kids become proficient at drilling and look great in the room but those moves never show up in matches.
Solution: Drill the reaction, i.e., Wrestler A shoots and backs out of his shot Wrestler B hits his shot and scores on the reaction. Drill at different speeds from super slomo to warp speed and with different levels of pressure from partner. Drill with various reactions from opponent--i.e., underhook to snapdown is countered, to knee pick is countered to hc and you score and finish. Don't always let the offensive man know what reaction is coming, he might score on the second or third or even fourth move. You got to teach kids to chain wrestle.
Problem: wrestlers get into the hand fighting game and can't score on one another in practice.
Solution: Wrestler A has to shoot every 10-15 seconds for a two minute go. Wrestler B can try to tie-up and stifle A's shot attempts. This leads to more shots and offensive thinking.
Problem: can't finish takedowns in competition.
Solution: On all levels, finishing shots is a problem. We don't spend enough time on finishes. Again, an active partner can force a double leg into a single to an iranian circle back to a dump.
Problem: Kids don't want to tie up and handfight. A lot of kids don't understand how much you can wear the other guy down and get him out of position with good hand fighting skills.
Solution: Drill handfighting live everyday, maybe at the end of practice. Go three one minute sessions where each guys is going all out to try and shove the other guy out of the circle or off his feet with snaps or 2-1s, or underhooks, etc. No shots needed. Teach your guys how to GET THEIR HANDS ON THE OTHER GUY AND CONTROL THE TIE.

Drilling the right way is harder than wrestling live. And, much more beneficial.

What drills do you use effectively from neutral?

You hit the nail on the head. Joe is always commenting on how important the right drilling partner is to him. When Joe comes back to work with his old high school, I hear feedback that Joe drills faster and harder than most high schoolers wrestle live.

We also talk alot about the four pillars of championship wrestling: strength, speed (pace), quickness, and mental accuity. All are important and should be balanced to be successful.

WOW ... a worthy post by Gutwrench1 ... I knew it was possible! :-)

Exactamuendo ... your partner is CRITICAL to any success you have in wrestling! A partner who won't let you get away with the same sloppy technique everyday but yet one who will not try to win practice.

You and your partner owe it to each other to make each other better. You owe to your partner to share what they are doing right and what they are doing wrong!

About once a week in my practices we actively share. For instance, we will have just completed a mini grind match (maybe 10 minutes) and after the match we sit down with our partner and have a visit. We talk about what worked, what didn't, and what we can do to get better!

Too often wrestlers treat drilling like drudgery and they merely “go through the motions.” We need to teach our wrestlers to drill with a purpose. Nothing in practice should be thought of as a task.

And, I like Joe's idea of four pillars of CHAMPIONSHIP wrestling!

Okay gut, I've stayed out of the other posts simply because I've felt like you enjoy irritating others rather than helping, but this is/was a beneficial post. To often partners allow partners to finish bad shots and this attributes to bad mat habits. We tried to really stress motion, limited hand fighting, and level changes at the end of last season and seemed to be more successful at regionals (success being a relative term). Problem is we are so young that we don't understand how to chain wrestle effectively without either letting bad shots in, or defending all shots entirely. I have modeled what I wanted but I'm looking for any hints for quicker improvement. Suggestions from anyone would be appreciated and suggested neutral technique tapes too. I'm leaning towards the Lehigh series if anyone has opinions on that.

Thank you gut for finally offering something positive rather than just trashing KS wrestling.

Drilling was the biggest difference for my high school team when my freshman year we finished last in our league and the next year we finished 3rd in league behind the state champion team and the 3rd place team. The biggest change we made that year was proper drilling and I lost more weight, got more tired, etc during the drilling time than during the live wrestling. Because yes you can stall during live wrestling. You can't stall when you have to finish 10 takedowns in 1-1.5 minutes.

Gut, I am still seriously interested in when you are going to put on a takedown/hand fight clinic. I think that it would be beneficial.

I think one of the hardest things to do during wrestling practice is to have a 10 or 15 minute flow match. You're constantly moving, working moves from your feet and off bottom with your partner resisting you. I think this is harder than live wrestling.

And gut, when you talk about needing good partners, my coach gives a great example of this every year in one of the first practices. In our wrestling room we have all the state qualifiers, placers, and champions up on the wall. And he shows us that every year, the guys on the wall are the guys that worked out together pushing each other. It's very difficult to be successful without a good partner, very rarely do you see one really good wrestler on a team.

Gutwrench-

I have to agree about the workout partners. I have been with both good and bad, and been both good and bad. I know I have disagreed with you before, but this was one of your better posts. I agree with Pennywise about being more tired when you have to finish a set # of shots in so much time. I have found this beneficial as well. Our coach stresses level changes and control on your feet. We do drill on our feet over half of our practices and it shows as we had a kid with 129 takedowns this year. I am not a master from my feet by anymeans but I have compensated in other areas (yes riding) but I agree that if a kid cannot wrestle on his feet then he's gotta little chance. The coaches stress to not "go through the motions" and go full tilt at all times. I know there have been days when we live wrestled and I've got 100% with the kid who had 129 takedowns and we battle it out, then been almost too tired to walk, and I have to say that it's a good thing to be that way. On the other side of the coin you must have kids that are of about equal levels to go hard all the time or one kid usually dominates and the other will develope into a defensive wrestler.

I agree with Curtis here, almost all of our State qualifiers wrestle each other in practice day in and day out. 125,130,140,152,160 are all the state qualifiers we have/had on our team and we all wrestled together in practice and it showed. I can only think of 1 maybe 2 where good kids were the only kid on a team, this shows something.

As I'm sure you could imagine, we practiced takedowns a lot. That was probally the biggest reason of me getting 533 takedowns in my career.

Okay we get it already, , we know you TIED the takedown record

And they still haven't added me to the record books. Oh well. If only I could have wrestled you Alex, then I could have broken it easy. lol.

isn't that the truth? come 2nd period I would have rode you out and turned you for many backpoints, then eventually a fall, so your takedowns wouldn't have mattered, as I'm a riding stud

I would have taken you down so many times in the first though that I would have more than likely tech falled you. So it doesn't matter if you could ride me.

don't be so quick to judge, I can stall like it's nobody's business, so I doubt a tech fall would have been in order

those are the drills we do in practice everyday. plus we add in 1 minute of our 3 go to takedowns

the stuff he has listed above is good high percentage stuff that works, I will give that to him, but common sense would tell you that almost all high schools do this anymore, it's just a matter of who drills harder on a constant basis. I learned from a wrestler who was an All-American himself, his dad is a Hall of Famer both Coach & Athletic Director now for a National Championship program. He has told me before that you can win or lose matches on your feet, but being on your feet doesn't put them on their back to earn the fall does it?

Alex Ryan

Iadmit it was nice to see a positive post from gutwrench and he had some great ideas...Along with curtis I agree with the 15 minute period flow match...by mid season we go to an "easy day45 min match and change partners every period..sometimes I pick sometimes I let them...perhaps being a former college wrestler makes me harp on takedowns a bit too much but I want my kids to have at least 3 good takedowns and to stay off the head..we work set-ups not tie-ups...they hate everyday 10dbls to sprawl to reshot etc but it pays off in the end..or chain wrestling..something I learned from Coach Woodford was to call out the situations for instance High-C to step back to reshot to frnt headlock to drag out to firmans...another thing we do alot of is 30-60 second flurries or getting as many tkdwns as possible b wrestler A while wrestler B of course tries to counter...drill drill drill and drill some more...Coach Thompson at Labette said "a move must be practiced 1000X to be right and at least 10,000X to be done in a match"I took that to heart and so do my kids...sometimes I still do a dbl wrong but I keep practicing myself...Just ask Jason Pyle who his prcatice partner was during live wrestling..somedays he just hates me.hehe
Coach Brown

A truly positive post from Gutwrench...and it is the last time he/she has posted.

Gutwrench M.I.A.

M.I.A. - Making Incredible Accusations?
M.I.A. - Miserable Individual At-large?
...and didn't even say goodbye.