Becoming Dynamic:
9/12/09
One common trend that you will notice among higher level wrestlers is that they are all very dynamic. They have LOTS and LOTS of moves that work against top level competitors, and they are able to execute these moves from a variety of positions. Anyone who is trying to become better at wrestling should spend time focusing on expanding their repertoire of high-level moves. There is no such thing as knowing too many moves, in fact, the more moves you know, the better your general understanding of wrestling and body mechanics will be.
Learning from coaches:
If you want to expand your repertoire then you need to get new coaches, lots of them. The more sources you have to learn high-level moves, the better. Even if your HS has an amazing coach, there are still plenty of techniques which he does not know. No one knows everything.
It is important to learn from different coaches who have different coaching strategies. When I go to scrimmages, I can usually deduct what team an athlete wrestles for by watching the way that he moves. By focusing on a variety of styles, you will become a hybrid wrestler who can throw, defend, attack, score on top and bottom, stall, etc. You need to learn to attack from all possible positions, not just the ones your team focuses on.
Learning other styles:
Freestyle wrestling, Greco-Roman wrestling, Boxing, Grappling (Brazilian Jiu-jitsu), Judo, etc. will help a wrestler with folk style wrestling. There are so many positions/ideas that are more important in these styles that focusing on them will help you when you encounter them in scholastic wrestling.
I definitely suggest learning freestyle and BJJ, the others, although optional, will also help. Learning BJJ was one of the best decisions I ever made. It was very natural due to my wrestling background and helped me enormously with my crab-ride. Jiu-jitsu made me more comfortable in awkward scramble positions, and more importantly than anything, it shed clarity on my understanding of body mechanics.
Learning Nonsense moves:
It is more important to learn Upper-level moves but you should strive to LEARN EVERYTHING, even the moves that suck. Knowing a spladle, knowing a cutback, knowing a front-flip off the high single, etc. will add to your repertoire so that you can recognize when these moves are used against you. This will allow you to be ready with the proper response. It will also enable you to innovate by expanding your general knowledge of awkward positions.
Summary:
You need to be nasty everywhere. Get sick at throwing, become amazing at scrambling, have a ridiculous offense with under-hooks, over-hooks, Russians, two on ones, etc. Be able to turn everyone on top, and be able to escape every time on bottom. Be able to score from the outside. Be able to finish every shot. Become Dynamic. If someone else has a move that looked good, STEAL IT. Copy and paste the best moves into your repertoire. Use mnemonics to make sure that you remember all of these moves (article on mnemonic support systems coming soon. It is very comprehensive and I am trying to make it as clear and concise as possible).
There is no ceiling to how good you can become or for how much you can know. HS national champions get tech’d in the first period when they wrestle at higher levels. Average Varsity wrestlers can dominate in JV, average JV wrestlers can dominate in middle school, average college wrestlers can dominate in HS, and average international wrestlers can dominate in college. Stop comparing yourself to the competition and start comparing yourself to what is possible.
Additional:
I just wanted to add that you should not try to master one thing before moving on to the next (throws, shots, top, bottom, etc.). Attempt to learn everything simultaneously. This will slow down your learning for each individual area, but will greatly increase the speed that you learn overall.