JONES COLUMN, Continued from page 26


on him with counter offense. TOP DEFENSIVE AREAS OF CONCENTRATION 1.Mentality 2.Stance 3.Head Blocking Opponents Shot 4. Controlling the Tie Up 5.Leg Defense 6. Defensive Tactics MENTALITY OF GOOD DEFENSE Here are the two most important mentalities of defense. While you are winning by a point with a short amount of time on the clock your mind set is, “I’m winning and you can’t score on me. I dare you to score on me. I dare you to try. You can try to score on me all day but there’s no way you can. Come on give me your best shot.” While doing this stay intense but relaxed…especially your arms. Don’t panic, control the center of the mat, stay in a good blocking position, relax and defend. Remember, he can’t score on you. Just because he’s going hard at you and attacking you relentlessly doesn’t mean you need to panic.


Hold your ground and swat away his attempts at taking you


down. Remember, you’re in the lead, you’re the better wrestler, and there’s no way he can take you down. No one can. Finally, language in your head. Here’s what you say to your-


self. “Block and attack. Head block his shot. Stay on the offense, counter offense, stay on the offense, head block his shot, counter attack, counter attack, defend his attack, offense, defend his attack, head block his shot, relax my arms, stay intense. Block and attack.” Your mind should defend but stay on the offense. STAY DOWN IN YOUR STANCE With Americans, it all starts with stance. We must clean up


our stance to improve our position. Most importantly, we must change our philosophy on stance and the way we learn to teach it. The way we teach it is to keep your head up, elbows in, bend your knees, and reach for your opponents head. Currently, most American wrestlers are too upright in their


stance and since we have such an aggressive nature we tend to wrestle with our faces up reaching or lunging towards the oppo- nents head or shoulders often extending ourselves. This is a mistake. We must start by checking our stance when we walk up to the line to start or restart the match. We need to start by leading with your head, hands in your lap, and think of getting in a blocking position.


Once you are in your stance, make contact by touching your head with your opponents head first and then reach for your opponent’s hands and wrists first. Don’t lunge for your opponent on the whistle and only rarely reach for his head first when your opponent isn’t ready. Once you’ve started by controlling his hands or wrists, work your way up his arms until you are controlling his elbows, biceps, shoulder, or collar tie position. When you lead with your head, don’t lead with your face. You will get your teeth knocked out.


Also, when you’re in your stance stay as small as possible, keeping your arms and neck short. Don’t get extended in your stance and don’t reach. Once you’re in your stance and know there’s no way your opponent can attack you start to threaten him by giving your opponent short fast fakes that keep him on the defense. Get him to react to you.


Also, eliminate or drastically reduce the amount of times you come out of your stance or bouncing around to shake it out or have a mental reset. Eliminate mental reset shake outs and stay


38 USA Wrestler


in your stance at all times.


Know the very best wrestlers in the world break all of the tra- ditional stance rules. Often the best foreign wrestlers in the world are bent over at the waist, legs completely straight, hands by their knees, and bodies very relaxed. HEAD BLOCKING YOUR OPPONENT’S SHOT Americans are accustomed to allowing wrestlers to shoot in on their legs and then defending. Although a possible good folk- style strategy it is poor percentage freestyle strategy since the opponent can finish on you by pushing you out of bounds even when he’s in on an extended shot. Remember, a bad shot in folkstyle can be a good shot in freestyle. So the most important thing a wrestler can do to defend is not let him on your legs and then defend but instead block his shot with your head. In other words, head block his shot. To head block a shot you must get in a blocking position by leading with your head first. When you’re opponent shoots, drop your head into a blocking position. If done correctly, he will shoot directly into your head. Really what often happens is your opponent will let up or not even shoot if he knows he’s going to run into his head. Why? Because he’s scared it’s going to hurt. That’s good! Now he’s scared to shoot on you. When head blocking, think of using the space between your forehead and the top of your head to block his shot. Have him shoot into your forehead. Believe me it will hurt him more than it hurts you. Also, when you block with your head, your hands should drop to the mat and you should either land on your knees or sprawl. Think of dropping into a four-point stance or bear crawl position when your opponent shoots. This is a comfortable skill for foreign wrestlers but very unusu-


al for American wrestlers. Remember, hold your ground while using this tactic. LEG DEFENSE You could write a large book on this area so I’ll just briefly go


over it.


The preferred strategy is not let a wrestler on your leg. If he does get on your leg, understanding fundamental leg defense is critical.


When a wrestler is on your leg, whether it’s high crotch or sin- gle leg, knowing how to use your hips, where to put your hands and how to work your way behind your opponent is essential. CONTROLLING THE TIE-UP Understand that when I say hand fighting that includes con- trolling the tie-up. Hand fighting isn’t always having busy, mov- ing hands but also getting a hold of your opponent to stop him from moving, putting him in a position of danger or making him vulnerable to attack.


If you can control the tie-up, it makes it virtually impossible to


attack you. As Americans, we’ve focused so often on having busy hands and hand fight hard. That’s good. However, to be complete, you must be able to control a tie-up and control your opponent for periods of time.


Learn how to control the fingers, wrists, elbows, collar tie, two on one, seatbelt, underhook, and double underhook without always changing the tie-up. OVERALL DEFENSE TACTICS


Just as much as having good technique you must have good defensive tactics. Start by staying down in your stance and get in a good block- ing position. Start with your head in a blocking position, control the center of the mat at all times, control the tie up, circle to your opponents back leg, keep good head position, and control the shooting hand.


I’m going to say it again, stay down in your stance and don’t reach.


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