Thanks man! Yes this is actually meant to be revisited over and over. One of the biggest issues with teaching people these days is that they always want something new. I don’t even think they care how effective it is. It’s the fetish of knowing more moves. But in my experience that isn’t what wins matches. Do you need to know 10 mount escapes or like 1 that’s your go to and 1 more if that’s not working? I would say it’s best to be amazing at one than kinda ok at 10. Same goes from a lot of positions. Being effective in every one of those positions is what will carry you forward. The amount of bullshit out there is scary. I refuse to be part of it. I am showing you all what made me a successful wrestler and even as an old ass broken man, what keeps me being successful in BJJ. It’s all the same, just different rule sets for scoring and that changes the strategy. For example in judo, I am not going to try to submit my opponent from side control or mount, because the rules let you win by pin. When the pin (osaekomi) is on, I am a fool if I let him get any space because I want to submit him. This is why in judo, you see arm bars and chokes from the back, not mount, because that’s not playing to the strength of the rule set
Thank you so so much for all the work you share with us, Joseph. I started wrestling 2,5 months ago and your videos have been of TREMENDOUS help. I'm learning a ton. PRICELESS information. Can't believe we get this for free. Again, thank you so much!
Thank you! I have always coached to help people and never expected money in return. So much knowledge was given to me freely, so I always felt the need to pass it on. Now, if this channel blew up and some money came in, I wouldn’t be disappointed, lol. Actually, it would allow me to do more of it. I am glad it’s working for you. Please let me know if there’s anything in particular you would like to see
@@josephbreza-grappling9459 Man, that's incredible. I deeply appreciate what you do. And I hope that you get the recognition you deserve. I'll keep learning and will let you know if there's something I need help with. Again, thank you so much!!!
Coming back to this video again after doing wrestling for 5 months. Didnt understand much abt the importance of stance back then. Recently i somehow remembered you said “believe in your stance”. When i feel that things don’t feel right, i check my stance and normally it is out of position lol. I adjust and things feel smooth. Stance really is everything, doesnt matter if i am shooting / moving around/ scrambling or what. Thank you. Great content than those fancy stuff
It really is everything. You have to be aware that most people on the internet don’t give a shit about you learning. They just want to make money. So they will show people like Adam Satiev wrestling and pretend like you can emulate what he did. 99.999% of people on the planet will never be able to emulate that. There’s a reason nobody has. Most of these breakdown channels are run by people with zero wrestling experience. So they don’t know what they don’t know about wrestling. Other than myself, the only person that I know of who does breakdowns and actually wrestled is EarnYourGold. And you can tell, because we don’t just narrate what is happening but explain when, where, and why you would do things as well as other options. Stance is the most important thing, because my job is to weaken your stance/position, so that I have an easier time and better chance of taking you down. If he can’t disrupt my stance, then his shot attempts will be stuffed and give me the counters. Pretty simple but not easy. You need to work on it forever. But none of these breakdowns people actually go into detail about it, because it won’t sell them views. Instead they give you rare shit and highlights of throws to keep you glued to their channel and lie to you about what wrestling is really like. All highlights are like that. Judo is jacket wrestling but when you look at highlights all you see are these perfectly executed throws that don’t happen all that often in tournaments. In tournaments most of the time it’s a low level throw to a pin attempt-ie jacket wrestling.
Just found your channel and am super excited about it. I've been doing BJJ for about a year now and our classes are pretty big with limited matt space, so we are normally starting on the ground. One of the biggest holes in my game is wrestling and starting on the feet. Your videos have been super helpful so far, and I look forward to diving deeper into the Chanel.
Great video because both beginners and experienced athletes could learn a thing or two. I've been wrestling for years but always looking to make small adjustments. Thanks, man!
Thank you! The fundamentals done well are what wins matches. You can and should always work on being an absolute master of the fundamentals. I am still not a master-it’s a lifelong process I have a love/hate relationship with the internet’s excessive access to information, because I feel a lot of it is misleading. Fancy highlight reels are what gets views and it’s not realistic. Nine times out of ten, the execution of the fundamentals are going to be what wins matches. And so the viewers don’t get an accurate representation of what wrestling really is. They ought to attend highschool and/or college wrestling tournaments to get more exposure to actual wrestling. They will then see why I teach what I teach
@josephbreza-grappling9459 You sound like a tremendous teacher. I hope your channel blows up, you deserve it, man! I have studied from a variety of grappling styles for 20 years - jiu jitsu, Judo, freestyle & Greco-Roman wrestling, and catch. If there's one lesson I've learned, it's that balance and posture are EVERYTHING, and you can never stop optimising yourself.
@@jamesr2936 thank you man! Yeah, 100%, position is super super important. It’s one of the reasons I don’t like my wrestlers or BJJ guys abandoning the single leg for the bodylock, because you were in excellent position and taking away one of his powerful legs. Now you’re often reaching and out of position during the transition and giving him the ability to get his lift with the inside leg and use the overhook to break your posture. Most of the system I teach is from what I learned from my collegiate wrestling coaches. If you’re a greco guy, and have some years, then you probably heard of my collegiate coach, Andy Seras, who was the USA Greco coach for the world and Olympic teams. I learned a lot from him. My head coach, Brian Reardon, was also a master technician and strategist
@josephbreza-grappling9459 That's incredible that you learned under Andy Seras. It is apparent in your teaching that you've had some excellent coaches. I also appreciate your humility and that you are a lifelong learner. I always noticed the best wrestlers never stopped learning; arrogance gets exposed quickly. Glad I found your channel and I'll keep an eye for new content.
@@jamesr2936 I consider myself super fortunate to have worked with amazing coaches all my life. I am definitely lifelong learner-even in my profession, which is a neuroscience professor. I saw that the biggest hole in my game was my stand up skills with the Gi on. So I heard through the grapevine that the University I work at had some incredible judokas. That is when I started working with them. Now it is what I do for the vast majority of my training. It was a good move too. They are not all egocentric. They don’t “own” me-in fact my coach encouraged me to work with Jordan Preisinger and see whether he was comfortable with belt testing me. We do newaza under BJJ rules at the university judo club, but we do a A LOT of stand up judo too. I am learning super fast, because they are such good instructors. I love learning new stuff and man their understanding of using the jacket is like nothing I have ever experienced. So I will take this wherever it goes and hope for the best
Firstly absolutely 👍 brilliant channel really helpful and insightful! This video reminds me of a drill that I learned from Andy from school of grappling which is you win a point if you put your opponents hands on the mat and a point if you touch their knee , he said teaching this to kids enables them to instinctively learn through play
My son who started wrestling loves it and wants to get to the top! I want to help him and get involved by asking you two questions, since you have a lot of experience 1. what would be the most important things that make the difference between an average athlete and an outstanding one? 2. what should we focus on in the beginning, more to create a solid base? Thank you very much!
I’m super excited for you and your son. #1 has a lot of levels. In the beginning and throughout high school, grit and consistency are essential. Competing year around is crucial for becoming a state level competitor. When I coached kids regularly, every single kid who placed in high school states was first a state placer in freestyle and/or greco. That’s not because of raw talent. I had several state placers who were not gifted athletes, but they put in a lot of work. Wrestling is definitely a sport that rewards hard work. There is no substitute for competition experience. It will teach them skills about how to win that you just can’t get in a practice room. I don’t care what anyone says about competition being the same as a practice room. They are full of it and/or never competed themselves. In competition, you don’t get a do over like practice. That scoreboard doesn’t lie and it’s locked in time. And people don’t give anything up in competition like they do in practice. #2. Stance is absolutely the most important. If you have a solid stance (see my video on it) you will make your opponent get out of position by trying to get you out of your stance. They will get frustrated and take bad shots. It allows you to get close and attack elbows for control. Never shoot from distance. It takes you out of your stance. Conditioning is essential. Mental toughness that is built on conditioning is also crucial.
This is great stuff Joe! (And Dom!). Im 44yr old blue belt in BJJ and really want to improve my wrestling for BJJ as it sucks. I absolutely love how you focus on the stuff that works at all levels. I first heard of you from the course you did with Jordan Preisenger. When I have some extra dineros kicking around I will definitely be buying that. In the meantime I’ll be keying in on these awesome videos. Keep em coming!!
I know that I covered the down blocks on my wrestling for bjj instructional and talk about how it opens up stuff because he is out of position. At a minimum, I know that I talk about how when I pull on his head that I am getting him to over react and lift up, which is when I go under. Same concept
Great videos as always thank for the coaching. I find myself revisiting a lot of your content to find the missing details, just shows the depth of your instruction. Any chance on a solo drills video or shadow wrestling for those that don't have wrestling coaches irl lol
Thank you! Yes the details are what make these systems work. There are BJJ professors showing wrestling moves and putting out instructionals, but the details that actually make them work are lacking. A whitebelt can show a triangle from closed guard, but the details that set up the move-how to bait him into it, how he will react, what to do when he does xyz, how to react to that etc-is what actually matters. In this video, I mentioned how I used to essentially walk around my house in my stance and how I don’t ever come out of it-off shots, stand ups, etc. Positive mental visualization is a real thing. I trained myself to visualize someone in front of me and could see outside myself from like the top down. I would move and predict how he would react and “shadow wrestle” all the time
Hi coach, I’ve been thinking a bunch about using leg riding to pass half guard. I’ve found that fighting to upgrade position with my legs makes their hands come down, exposing underhooks and cross faces. I’d love too hear the opinion of a wrestler though. Thank you!
The most important part of being in the top half guard (or half mount as my coach calls it) is that you keep his back flat on the mat. That takes away a lot of his offense, because mobility is substantially decreased. Sometimes in the Gi, I will do the opposite. I will threaten a cross collar choke, which doesn’t actually work well from half mount, and that makes him bring is arms up to defend. Now, he has exposed his elbows and I can go under them, smash, and free my leg to 3/4mount. Most guys will bridge, which is the wrong thing, because now they will let go of my foot, which gives me full mount. Because I was already under his elbows, I can bring my knees up high to high mount. Now you have a number of awesome submissions with minimal effort. Whatever you are doing to scoop under the arms and get them over the head is fine. That’s the goal, because he can’t do shit to you from that position. Also, I’ve seen some amazing back takes from top half guard. The 10th planet guys have some great stuff from there.
Thank you for the reply! I train mainly no gi, so I can’t use the collar choke to make them move their elbows. I was thinking that leg riding (splitting the legs, making their hips face away from their head) could be a good way to do the same thing the collar choke does in the gi: force them to react and move their hands, exposing upper body grips
Being in top half guard is the same as the “Turk ride” in wrestling. You can use it to lift that leg hard and crossface to flatten them out. You can also get a head and arm choke and if done just right you can finish it. If they know what they are doing, they won’t let go of that leg even if you advance to 3/4 mount. At that point, you can start working under both elbows and smother until he gets desperate and tries to bridge. Then you’ll end up in full mount. Different way to get their in noGi vs Gi (from my examples) but accomplishing the same thing (high mount)
in highschool they told me to make sure your hand can touch the mat when ur in stance and it always felt too low and difficult to be athletic like that now in jiu jits I stand too tall so thanks for this video advocating for what felt intuitive to me before.
@@josephbreza-grappling9459 found your channel last night. I’m going to watch all your videos soon total Goldmine subscriber earned I’ve been doing jujitsu for six years and wrestling has always been one of my weakest areas.
Good stuff. That drill makes me worry tho. Seems like a snapdown overreaction that could get you caught if pulling up hard against a tie up becomes a bad habit.
That’s why you don’t pull up too hard and come out of your stance. It’s quite literally the purpose of the drill. And it was taught to us by my coach who was the head coach of the Olympic team. Lol A good partner will level change off the snap and you will in the process learn to keep your head in there so you don’t give up position. Good thing about wrestling is that it’s thousands of years old and so a lot of things have been figured out. So when you learn how to wrestle from wrestlers it’s important to trust the process, like how you would learn judo from judokas, and Jiu Jitsu from Jiujiteiros.
@TheRealNickG it accomplishes a lot of things, but the primary things are to establish discipline with maintaining a good stance while be absolutely exhausted. So we would often do these at the end of a practice. Because getting taken down in the 3rd period because you’re just tired is embarrassing. So you just work work work to maintain excellent stance and fundamentals. So many people ask me for more moves, but more moves don’t win more medals. More solid fundamentals win medals. So these drills really “drill” the fundamentals of position into your head. It needs to be automatic in a match. When you get exhausted you can’t think
@@josephbreza-grappling9459 Oh yes, I remember wrestling practice back in the 90's. We used to learn something new at the beginning of practice so our focus could be almost completely on technique details and then ratchet up the intensity for an hour running puke-a-tronic drills focusing on fundamentals and doing the techniques correctly even when tired. If we got too sloppy, coach cut it off and made us run even more than the usual two miles at the end saying that we must not be in good enough shape to wrestle correctly so there's not even any point.....Hey, thanks for the nostalgia of simpler times there buddy, and good luck!
@@josephbreza-grappling9459 Yessir, ive been doing jiujitsu for four years now and i've come to learn the battle starts standing at first contact. Wrestling is so important for grappling and I believe the two are unseperatible. Learning stand up has really raised my confidence when it comes to selfe defense, I like thinking about my Jiujitsu from self defense/MMA perspectives. I truly care more about becoming a better grappler than I do getting better at jiujitsu, in return this mindset has made getting to and staying in top positions easier, wrestling up easier, takedown defense has gotten alot better. Theres so much of the game you dont see if you choose to only be a guard player.
Thank you! Feel free to ask questions. I want to develop a community here where people help to learn from each other. I will answer any questions, but I want other people to feel free to jump in as well. It’s a learning community
If he is getting double underhooks on you when you shoot, then you’re shooting with your elbows flared out. Also, if he has double unders on you from that position (you have double overs), then sitting out is a bad idea. You will get put to your back. Maybe I am not picturing what you are saying correctly?
@@josephbreza-grappling9459 IDK what the position is called but I get sprawled on after a bad shot and they're deeper than front headlock and are grabbing around my belly what I was told is to do a sit out either side. I think I got there from bad posture head down shots I know some front head escapes like try to fight for a single I saw that video with the options I also really like the sucker drag and dump combo but since they're around the body and not on chinstrap/choking position that eliminates the drap and dump and I was told the option from there is a sit out
I watched some wrestler explaining to me that you should be low enough that your lead hand fingertips barely touch the mat. What is your opinion on that
I’ve also heard people say that, but it’s not exactly true. It’s far more complicated than that. You don’t want to start off so much lower that he can just put you into a front headlock. You sort of want to be near where they are and then at the level change on the shot (see some of my other videos on shots off set ups), you definitely should be low. My collegiate coach liked a higher stance, like what Nick Suriano does. If your hands are low, but out front, then you have great defensive position
If you are in this good stance, do you think that you still need to level match if the opponent goes lower (as I hear many people say)? I don't mean when they are taking a shot, just if they are taking a lower stance.
If they drop their head lower than mine, the first thing I am going to do is check them. Snap down to see if I can get the front headlock. Then, if they overreact and lift up their head super hard, I can level change under them and penetrate deep off the shot
Lol! He’s Jordan Burrows, lol. Hard to emulate someone like him or like John Smith. There’s really never been any two like them. When coaching, you try to teach what will work for most people-not the freaks of nature. Like I always told my students would say that…you’re not him. I’m not him. Only 1 and 100 million are like him. He’s faster than everyone and his timing is unbelievable.
@@josephbreza-grappling9459 yup. I always tell myself "you are not him". He can do that , but it's not sure you can do the same thing as him. So you need your own skills, tactics, strategy. I once try emulate Jordan Burroughs. Guess what? It's freaking exhausted and his style is not compatible with me.
Isn't the squared stance vulnerable to the techniques like the snapdown? I thought the fundamental stance is in wrestling and grappling in general the staggered stance, no? Can you please enlighten me on that?
I lead my right leg, just not a ton like I did as a kid. I first teach it this way first, so that people can understand the importance of having a rock solid foundation. I am still leading my right leg, just not as much-and I use this when I am tired and need to defend. The snap down ONLY works when he is pushing/leaning. Check out video #13. I actually will have an easier time snapping him down if he has a staggered stance, because I will snap to the side where his leg is back. Really screws people up, because now they think they must be pushing too much. So now they stop pushing and then I use offense from video #14
I kinda did, but it was more about strategy, assuming people already knew how to do it. So, I didn’t go into any level of detail on the technique, but I show the kind that I like. That video was about managing the out of bounds so that you score on the edge where people tend to let up ua-cam.com/video/5nFoG9F8xmg/v-deo.html
It’s not necessary. You’re wrestling him not the mat, so your position is about getting an advantage on him. I have heard this for years and never understood where that came from.
Yeah, it’s amazing! But it shows how important it is to build those muscles and the timing of locking in position right when he starts to pull. It will be come automatic, and people will get themselves out of position while trying to get you out of position
Hey coach. In BJJ would you say it's applicable to switch your stances once you get different grips? I'm working on incorporating judo throws but closing the distance breaks my wrestling stance. I generally start out with a wrestling stance if my partner shares a similar head height.
You can’t force throws. They only work when he is pushing. You want to get him out of position my snapping him down and forcing him to get desperate. I hit judo like throws all the time in wrestling, but I wasn’t trying to make them happen, I just work on getting him out of position and then see what he gives me. If you’re looking for one thing then you’re likely telegraphing it and giving it away. If he is in a stance like you then snap him to a front headlock and take his back like I show on my channel. If he is backing away, then you have to use what I showed on a stalling opponent. Chances are that you will use a lot more osoto gari then you will uchi mata or hari goshi. Like I say in that video, if he is backing up, it’s osoto gari-if he is pushing then it’s hari goshi. If he bends over a lot at the waist, then you should snap him down
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Another fantastic instructional. I have to say I sometime forget HOW important the basics are. Good to see you bringing it up again.
Fundamentals win titles
Still revisiting all your old stuff, genuinely killer content and great teacher.
Thanks man! Yes this is actually meant to be revisited over and over. One of the biggest issues with teaching people these days is that they always want something new. I don’t even think they care how effective it is. It’s the fetish of knowing more moves. But in my experience that isn’t what wins matches. Do you need to know 10 mount escapes or like 1 that’s your go to and 1 more if that’s not working? I would say it’s best to be amazing at one than kinda ok at 10. Same goes from a lot of positions. Being effective in every one of those positions is what will carry you forward. The amount of bullshit out there is scary. I refuse to be part of it. I am showing you all what made me a successful wrestler and even as an old ass broken man, what keeps me being successful in BJJ. It’s all the same, just different rule sets for scoring and that changes the strategy. For example in judo, I am not going to try to submit my opponent from side control or mount, because the rules let you win by pin. When the pin (osaekomi) is on, I am a fool if I let him get any space because I want to submit him. This is why in judo, you see arm bars and chokes from the back, not mount, because that’s not playing to the strength of the rule set
Thank you so so much for all the work you share with us, Joseph. I started wrestling 2,5 months ago and your videos have been of TREMENDOUS help. I'm learning a ton. PRICELESS information. Can't believe we get this for free. Again, thank you so much!
Thank you! I have always coached to help people and never expected money in return. So much knowledge was given to me freely, so I always felt the need to pass it on. Now, if this channel blew up and some money came in, I wouldn’t be disappointed, lol. Actually, it would allow me to do more of it. I am glad it’s working for you. Please let me know if there’s anything in particular you would like to see
Keep watching for more high level instructions.
@@josephbreza-grappling9459 Man, that's incredible. I deeply appreciate what you do. And I hope that you get the recognition you deserve. I'll keep learning and will let you know if there's something I need help with. Again, thank you so much!!!
@@dominicmagliocco7523 Of course! It's a privilege!
@@a.m.4479 thank you for your support brother. I’ll keep on posting and we will see what happens.
Just making my way through your videos now and have already learned so much. I enjoyed this fundamental style video and would love more.
I am glad you’re finding it useful. Thank you for your support!
Coming back to this video again after doing wrestling for 5 months. Didnt understand much abt the importance of stance back then. Recently i somehow remembered you said “believe in your stance”. When i feel that things don’t feel right, i check my stance and normally it is out of position lol. I adjust and things feel smooth.
Stance really is everything, doesnt matter if i am shooting / moving around/ scrambling or what.
Thank you. Great content than those fancy stuff
It really is everything. You have to be aware that most people on the internet don’t give a shit about you learning. They just want to make money. So they will show people like Adam Satiev wrestling and pretend like you can emulate what he did. 99.999% of people on the planet will never be able to emulate that. There’s a reason nobody has. Most of these breakdown channels are run by people with zero wrestling experience. So they don’t know what they don’t know about wrestling. Other than myself, the only person that I know of who does breakdowns and actually wrestled is EarnYourGold. And you can tell, because we don’t just narrate what is happening but explain when, where, and why you would do things as well as other options.
Stance is the most important thing, because my job is to weaken your stance/position, so that I have an easier time and better chance of taking you down. If he can’t disrupt my stance, then his shot attempts will be stuffed and give me the counters. Pretty simple but not easy. You need to work on it forever. But none of these breakdowns people actually go into detail about it, because it won’t sell them views. Instead they give you rare shit and highlights of throws to keep you glued to their channel and lie to you about what wrestling is really like. All highlights are like that. Judo is jacket wrestling but when you look at highlights all you see are these perfectly executed throws that don’t happen all that often in tournaments. In tournaments most of the time it’s a low level throw to a pin attempt-ie jacket wrestling.
Just found your channel and am super excited about it. I've been doing BJJ for about a year now and our classes are pretty big with limited matt space, so we are normally starting on the ground. One of the biggest holes in my game is wrestling and starting on the feet. Your videos have been super helpful so far, and I look forward to diving deeper into the Chanel.
I am glad to hear that! Keep working at it. Make sure to work on your stance more than anything. It’s the most important
Great video because both beginners and experienced athletes could learn a thing or two. I've been wrestling for years but always looking to make small adjustments. Thanks, man!
Thank you! The fundamentals done well are what wins matches. You can and should always work on being an absolute master of the fundamentals. I am still not a master-it’s a lifelong process
I have a love/hate relationship with the internet’s excessive access to information, because I feel a lot of it is misleading. Fancy highlight reels are what gets views and it’s not realistic. Nine times out of ten, the execution of the fundamentals are going to be what wins matches. And so the viewers don’t get an accurate representation of what wrestling really is. They ought to attend highschool and/or college wrestling tournaments to get more exposure to actual wrestling. They will then see why I teach what I teach
@josephbreza-grappling9459 You sound like a tremendous teacher. I hope your channel blows up, you deserve it, man!
I have studied from a variety of grappling styles for 20 years - jiu jitsu, Judo, freestyle & Greco-Roman wrestling, and catch.
If there's one lesson I've learned, it's that balance and posture are EVERYTHING, and you can never stop optimising yourself.
@@jamesr2936 thank you man! Yeah, 100%, position is super super important. It’s one of the reasons I don’t like my wrestlers or BJJ guys abandoning the single leg for the bodylock, because you were in excellent position and taking away one of his powerful legs. Now you’re often reaching and out of position during the transition and giving him the ability to get his lift with the inside leg and use the overhook to break your posture.
Most of the system I teach is from what I learned from my collegiate wrestling coaches. If you’re a greco guy, and have some years, then you probably heard of my collegiate coach, Andy Seras, who was the USA Greco coach for the world and Olympic teams. I learned a lot from him. My head coach, Brian Reardon, was also a master technician and strategist
@josephbreza-grappling9459 That's incredible that you learned under Andy Seras. It is apparent in your teaching that you've had some excellent coaches. I also appreciate your humility and that you are a lifelong learner. I always noticed the best wrestlers never stopped learning; arrogance gets exposed quickly.
Glad I found your channel and I'll keep an eye for new content.
@@jamesr2936 I consider myself super fortunate to have worked with amazing coaches all my life. I am definitely lifelong learner-even in my profession, which is a neuroscience professor.
I saw that the biggest hole in my game was my stand up skills with the Gi on. So I heard through the grapevine that the University I work at had some incredible judokas. That is when I started working with them. Now it is what I do for the vast majority of my training. It was a good move too. They are not all egocentric. They don’t “own” me-in fact my coach encouraged me to work with Jordan Preisinger and see whether he was comfortable with belt testing me. We do newaza under BJJ rules at the university judo club, but we do a A LOT of stand up judo too. I am learning super fast, because they are such good instructors. I love learning new stuff and man their understanding of using the jacket is like nothing I have ever experienced. So I will take this wherever it goes and hope for the best
Firstly absolutely 👍 brilliant channel really helpful and insightful! This video reminds me of a drill that I learned from Andy from school of grappling which is you win a point if you put your opponents hands on the mat and a point if you touch their knee , he said teaching this to kids enables them to instinctively learn through play
Great video! Love the focus on fundamentals
My son who started wrestling loves it and wants to get to the top! I want to help him and get involved by asking you two questions, since you have a lot of experience
1. what would be the most important things that make the difference between an average athlete and an outstanding one?
2. what should we focus on in the beginning, more to create a solid base? Thank you very much!
I’m super excited for you and your son.
#1 has a lot of levels. In the beginning and throughout high school, grit and consistency are essential. Competing year around is crucial for becoming a state level competitor. When I coached kids regularly, every single kid who placed in high school states was first a state placer in freestyle and/or greco. That’s not because of raw talent. I had several state placers who were not gifted athletes, but they put in a lot of work. Wrestling is definitely a sport that rewards hard work. There is no substitute for competition experience. It will teach them skills about how to win that you just can’t get in a practice room. I don’t care what anyone says about competition being the same as a practice room. They are full of it and/or never competed themselves. In competition, you don’t get a do over like practice. That scoreboard doesn’t lie and it’s locked in time. And people don’t give anything up in competition like they do in practice.
#2. Stance is absolutely the most important. If you have a solid stance (see my video on it) you will make your opponent get out of position by trying to get you out of your stance. They will get frustrated and take bad shots. It allows you to get close and attack elbows for control. Never shoot from distance. It takes you out of your stance. Conditioning is essential. Mental toughness that is built on conditioning is also crucial.
@@josephbreza-grappling9459 Thank you, very much!!!
This is great stuff Joe! (And Dom!). Im 44yr old blue belt in BJJ and really want to improve my wrestling for BJJ as it sucks. I absolutely love how you focus on the stuff that works at all levels. I first heard of you from the course you did with Jordan Preisenger. When I have some extra dineros kicking around I will definitely be buying that. In the meantime I’ll be keying in on these awesome videos. Keep em coming!!
Thank you! I appreciate it. We are the same age. Dom is 51. Just keep moving or you’ll lock up, lol
Such a gem to find this channel ❤
Thank you! I’m glad you enjoy the content
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Excellent!
Stance is everything! Position before takedown, before position before submission!
Great video. Do you have a video on Down blocking and reshooting from the knees?
I know that I covered the down blocks on my wrestling for bjj instructional and talk about how it opens up stuff because he is out of position. At a minimum, I know that I talk about how when I pull on his head that I am getting him to over react and lift up, which is when I go under. Same concept
Great videos as always thank for the coaching. I find myself revisiting a lot of your content to find the missing details, just shows the depth of your instruction. Any chance on a solo drills video or shadow wrestling for those that don't have wrestling coaches irl lol
Thank you! Yes the details are what make these systems work. There are BJJ professors showing wrestling moves and putting out instructionals, but the details that actually make them work are lacking. A whitebelt can show a triangle from closed guard, but the details that set up the move-how to bait him into it, how he will react, what to do when he does xyz, how to react to that etc-is what actually matters.
In this video, I mentioned how I used to essentially walk around my house in my stance and how I don’t ever come out of it-off shots, stand ups, etc.
Positive mental visualization is a real thing. I trained myself to visualize someone in front of me and could see outside myself from like the top down. I would move and predict how he would react and “shadow wrestle” all the time
@@josephbreza-grappling9459 Thanks man keep up the awesome content!
@@Sjman548 thank you for your support!
Love these!
Hi coach, I’ve been thinking a bunch about using leg riding to pass half guard. I’ve found that fighting to upgrade position with my legs makes their hands come down, exposing underhooks and cross faces. I’d love too hear the opinion of a wrestler though. Thank you!
The most important part of being in the top half guard (or half mount as my coach calls it) is that you keep his back flat on the mat. That takes away a lot of his offense, because mobility is substantially decreased. Sometimes in the Gi, I will do the opposite. I will threaten a cross collar choke, which doesn’t actually work well from half mount, and that makes him bring is arms up to defend. Now, he has exposed his elbows and I can go under them, smash, and free my leg to 3/4mount. Most guys will bridge, which is the wrong thing, because now they will let go of my foot, which gives me full mount. Because I was already under his elbows, I can bring my knees up high to high mount. Now you have a number of awesome submissions with minimal effort. Whatever you are doing to scoop under the arms and get them over the head is fine. That’s the goal, because he can’t do shit to you from that position.
Also, I’ve seen some amazing back takes from top half guard. The 10th planet guys have some great stuff from there.
Thank you for the reply! I train mainly no gi, so I can’t use the collar choke to make them move their elbows. I was thinking that leg riding (splitting the legs, making their hips face away from their head) could be a good way to do the same thing the collar choke does in the gi: force them to react and move their hands, exposing upper body grips
Being in top half guard is the same as the “Turk ride” in wrestling. You can use it to lift that leg hard and crossface to flatten them out. You can also get a head and arm choke and if done just right you can finish it. If they know what they are doing, they won’t let go of that leg even if you advance to 3/4 mount. At that point, you can start working under both elbows and smother until he gets desperate and tries to bridge. Then you’ll end up in full mount. Different way to get their in noGi vs Gi (from my examples) but accomplishing the same thing (high mount)
in highschool they told me to make sure your hand can touch the mat when ur in stance and it always felt too low and difficult to be athletic like that now in jiu jits I stand too tall so thanks for this video advocating for what felt intuitive to me before.
My Jiu Jitsu coach from my old school (who knew nothing about wrestling) told me this. I was like that is objectively wrong, lol
@@josephbreza-grappling9459 found your channel last night. I’m going to watch all your videos soon total Goldmine subscriber earned I’ve been doing jujitsu for six years and wrestling has always been one of my weakest areas.
Explained perfectly
Good stuff. That drill makes me worry tho. Seems like a snapdown overreaction that could get you caught if pulling up hard against a tie up becomes a bad habit.
That’s why you don’t pull up too hard and come out of your stance. It’s quite literally the purpose of the drill. And it was taught to us by my coach who was the head coach of the Olympic team. Lol
A good partner will level change off the snap and you will in the process learn to keep your head in there so you don’t give up position. Good thing about wrestling is that it’s thousands of years old and so a lot of things have been figured out. So when you learn how to wrestle from wrestlers it’s important to trust the process, like how you would learn judo from judokas, and Jiu Jitsu from Jiujiteiros.
@@josephbreza-grappling9459 Right, right like scarecrow drills and such. Makes sense! 👍
@TheRealNickG it accomplishes a lot of things, but the primary things are to establish discipline with maintaining a good stance while be absolutely exhausted. So we would often do these at the end of a practice. Because getting taken down in the 3rd period because you’re just tired is embarrassing. So you just work work work to maintain excellent stance and fundamentals. So many people ask me for more moves, but more moves don’t win more medals. More solid fundamentals win medals. So these drills really “drill” the fundamentals of position into your head. It needs to be automatic in a match. When you get exhausted you can’t think
@@josephbreza-grappling9459 Oh yes, I remember wrestling practice back in the 90's. We used to learn something new at the beginning of practice so our focus could be almost completely on technique details and then ratchet up the intensity for an hour running puke-a-tronic drills focusing on fundamentals and doing the techniques correctly even when tired. If we got too sloppy, coach cut it off and made us run even more than the usual two miles at the end saying that we must not be in good enough shape to wrestle correctly so there's not even any point.....Hey, thanks for the nostalgia of simpler times there buddy, and good luck!
@TheRealNickG sounds about right, lol!
Thanks alot this helps me with my jiujitsu.
That’s been my goal all along, so I am glad it’s working for you!
@@josephbreza-grappling9459 Yessir, ive been doing jiujitsu for four years now and i've come to learn the battle starts standing at first contact. Wrestling is so important for grappling and I believe the two are unseperatible. Learning stand up has really raised my confidence when it comes to selfe defense, I like thinking about my Jiujitsu from self defense/MMA perspectives. I truly care more about becoming a better grappler than I do getting better at jiujitsu, in return this mindset has made getting to and staying in top positions easier, wrestling up easier, takedown defense has gotten alot better. Theres so much of the game you dont see if you choose to only be a guard player.
Amazing video!
Thank you! Feel free to ask questions. I want to develop a community here where people help to learn from each other. I will answer any questions, but I want other people to feel free to jump in as well. It’s a learning community
Nice video not sure why I'm not explosive i was stuck under with double overs body lock tried to do sit out twice wasn't exposive enough
If he is getting double underhooks on you when you shoot, then you’re shooting with your elbows flared out. Also, if he has double unders on you from that position (you have double overs), then sitting out is a bad idea. You will get put to your back. Maybe I am not picturing what you are saying correctly?
@@josephbreza-grappling9459 IDK what the position is called but I get sprawled on after a bad shot and they're deeper than front headlock and are grabbing around my belly what I was told is to do a sit out either side. I think I got there from bad posture head down shots I know some front head escapes like try to fight for a single I saw that video with the options I also really like the sucker drag and dump combo but since they're around the body and not on chinstrap/choking position that eliminates the drap and dump and I was told the option from there is a sit out
@dirtygeazer9266
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Love this :-)
I watched some wrestler explaining to me that you should be low enough that your lead hand fingertips barely touch the mat. What is your opinion on that
I’ve also heard people say that, but it’s not exactly true. It’s far more complicated than that. You don’t want to start off so much lower that he can just put you into a front headlock. You sort of want to be near where they are and then at the level change on the shot (see some of my other videos on shots off set ups), you definitely should be low. My collegiate coach liked a higher stance, like what Nick Suriano does. If your hands are low, but out front, then you have great defensive position
When it comes to attacking or being offensive is it good to be in the square stance? If so how would you begin your offense in a square stance?
It’s pretty unrealistic to think that I won’t trade one foot for the other when moving forwards or backwards.
If you are in this good stance, do you think that you still need to level match if the opponent goes lower (as I hear many people say)? I don't mean when they are taking a shot, just if they are taking a lower stance.
If they drop their head lower than mine, the first thing I am going to do is check them. Snap down to see if I can get the front headlock. Then, if they overreact and lift up their head super hard, I can level change under them and penetrate deep off the shot
@@josephbreza-grappling9459 Thanks for the reply, makes a lot of sense!
What about Jordan Burroughs stance? Is he wrong ?
Lol! He’s Jordan Burrows, lol. Hard to emulate someone like him or like John Smith. There’s really never been any two like them. When coaching, you try to teach what will work for most people-not the freaks of nature. Like I always told my students would say that…you’re not him. I’m not him. Only 1 and 100 million are like him. He’s faster than everyone and his timing is unbelievable.
@@josephbreza-grappling9459 yup. I always tell myself "you are not him". He can do that , but it's not sure you can do the same thing as him. So you need your own skills, tactics, strategy. I once try emulate Jordan Burroughs. Guess what? It's freaking exhausted and his style is not compatible with me.
Isn't the squared stance vulnerable to the techniques like the snapdown? I thought the fundamental stance is in wrestling and grappling in general the staggered stance, no? Can you please enlighten me on that?
I lead my right leg, just not a ton like I did as a kid. I first teach it this way first, so that people can understand the importance of having a rock solid foundation. I am still leading my right leg, just not as much-and I use this when I am tired and need to defend.
The snap down ONLY works when he is pushing/leaning. Check out video #13. I actually will have an easier time snapping him down if he has a staggered stance, because I will snap to the side where his leg is back. Really screws people up, because now they think they must be pushing too much. So now they stop pushing and then I use offense from video #14
@@josephbreza-grappling9459 wow great stuff thank you for the reply! You are helping a lot of people doing this :)
@@johnconor5485 that’s the only reason I do it, man! I just want to help give people the right information
@@josephbreza-grappling9459 cheers highly appreciate that
Could you do a video on the slide by?
I kinda did, but it was more about strategy, assuming people already knew how to do it. So, I didn’t go into any level of detail on the technique, but I show the kind that I like.
That video was about managing the out of bounds so that you score on the edge where people tend to let up
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Just quick question about this stance, should my hands be able to touch the mat with it or no. I'm guessing no but I wanna make sure
It’s not necessary. You’re wrestling him not the mat, so your position is about getting an advantage on him. I have heard this for years and never understood where that came from.
I just tried this stance drill with yanking. This really sux big ass. Everything was burning after 1 Minute
Yeah, it’s amazing! But it shows how important it is to build those muscles and the timing of locking in position right when he starts to pull. It will be come automatic, and people will get themselves out of position while trying to get you out of position
Would you maintain this same stance for bjj?
Somebody doesn’t have the instructional, lol
Hey coach. In BJJ would you say it's applicable to switch your stances once you get different grips? I'm working on incorporating judo throws but closing the distance breaks my wrestling stance. I generally start out with a wrestling stance if my partner shares a similar head height.
You can’t force throws. They only work when he is pushing. You want to get him out of position my snapping him down and forcing him to get desperate. I hit judo like throws all the time in wrestling, but I wasn’t trying to make them happen, I just work on getting him out of position and then see what he gives me. If you’re looking for one thing then you’re likely telegraphing it and giving it away. If he is in a stance like you then snap him to a front headlock and take his back like I show on my channel. If he is backing away, then you have to use what I showed on a stalling opponent. Chances are that you will use a lot more osoto gari then you will uchi mata or hari goshi. Like I say in that video, if he is backing up, it’s osoto gari-if he is pushing then it’s hari goshi. If he bends over a lot at the waist, then you should snap him down
@@josephbreza-grappling9459 Thank you so much. This advice is gold 🥇