#10: Hand-Fighting & Over-Ties

In wrestling, it's extremely important that you start to manipulate your opponent's movement. This not only sets up shots, but also keeps your opponent on the defense while you're being offensive. The more offensive you are, the less your opponent can be. You make him step, so he's constantly reacting instead of thinking of his own attacks. That's the idea, you want to dictate and dominate the match, and hand-fighting can be a huge part of that.

The goal is for our kids to eventually be able to improvise with these scripted motions. Putting six setups together to get a shot. Or, going from a setup, to a fake, to a setup, to a fake, to a setup, to a fake, to shot. In order to get shots on better opponents, especially at the college level, this is imperative. Your first shot will probably not land on a good opponent. Let's face it, after fifteen years of wrestling, you can feel a shot coming, so you must look for the second, the third, the fourth, etc, until one lands.

This is high level technique and the majority of wrestlers we teach this to are kids, but if they can master Hand-Fighting at a young age, think of how easy it'll be by the time they're in high school or college.