So as those who follow me on Facebook know, Carson won his first match last night getting both his first varsity win and pin. Some quick back story, wrestling is brand new at Decatur. Their coach is a great guy and he's learning on the go with this. He's so busy trying to build this thing from the top down and he's going it alone. He gives the kids advice as he can, but he's still learning himself about the nuances of the sport. There's little things like having a full lineup in all weight classes so you don't concede too many free points to the other team. That also requires participation. If you don't get a 120 to try out, you can't fill that void. He's doing a good job and he's clearly learning on the go. One of the smarter things he's done is to shuffle his 220s. The older boy is a junior and a state qualifier. Carson is a freshman and basically has to do 'the ugly' work. Even though the program is new, he's the only freshman on the varsity. It's been tough because he was supposed to spend the year on JV learning the sport. Instead, he's kinda been thrown to the wolves and is learning in a trial by fire. Instruction usually comes after the match and in 30 second lessons before coach has to get to the other match. Anyway, Carson was down there with his technology (like kids these days do) and he saw your comment about 'sweep the leg.' He didn't totally know what that meant, but he said after that it reminded him of all the times I've told him to take out the opponents pivot foot to control the lower body. He didn't really know that they were the same thing. You saw the match in the video, he took the kids leg. He's always as strong, if not stronger, than the guy he's wrestling so he threw the kid on his back. He didn't know what to do. You can hear me in the video hollering about moving his feet while the bench was hollering at him to simply put his shoulder into the guy. He didn't realize that he had the guy pinned. The only real instruction he normally gets is to '1. not get pinned and 2. draw the match out as long as possible earning as many points as you can for the team.' He saw your comment after the match that he 'swept the leg!' and he came over to me saying "ohhhhhh! so that's what that means!!" He was laughing because he didn't know what that was, but he remembered what you and I had been saying. When he saw the kids leg in front of him, he just grabbed and flipped him. It's literally like watching the light bulb going off. So good job Coach Krebs for making the impact from 800 miles away that no one was able to do standing next to him! One of the funniest things that the video didn't catch was his coach's reaction. That was Carson's 7th varsity match. 5 of the 7 guys he's wrestled are in the top 10 in the state and very good. The other guy was a team captain. This was the first guy he wrestled who was just 'a good, average high school wrestler.' The way the match had gone, coach figured they were going to lose. With Carson pinning him under 30 seconds, that put the team in a position to win. Our heavy pinned their heavy and we looked to be taking the win before they allowed them to reschedule the 160 match. For whatever reason, the 2 teams decided not to contest it. They went ahead and wrestled it and our guy lost, thus giving the match to Fultondale. What's killing us is that we don't have any representation in the 1st 5 weight classes (106, 113, 120, 126 and 132) We did have 3 guys wrestling there earlier in the year but they've all been kicked off the team because they simply could not contain themselves. They were little dudes from the football team. They were throwing vicious elbows and headbutts. Either getting DQ'ed or penalized was a frequent thing before coach had to let them go. Now, we hope to have to win the middle and heavy weights to even have a chance. Anyway, while the team celebrated, the coach just laughed. He didn't stop laughing. After the match, I was on the way to the can when he looked at me with out-stretched arms like 'what the hell was that?' I just made the same gesture back because I don't know either. On the way back to the bus after the 2 matches, coach asked me 'where the heck did that come from? I've been waiting for him to make an aggressive move since the start of the year!' I blamed you guys on the internet.
I saw the FB post and Coach George's comment. I didn't realize how significant that was in the outcome. Corey, are you sure the Godfather didn't make Carson's opponent an offer he couldn't refuse? :lol: Congratulations to Carson on his first (of many) pin. Godfather, when is the DVD entitled "Wrestling Tips" coming out? :lol:
My guess is Coach Krebs' next wrestling lesson for Carson will be teaching him the "New Jersey Chokehold".
HAHA! Sid, yeah, it can be important. your base is everything and if you can take that away, you're in the driver's seat.
You have to keep it simple with new guys. From the still photo I saw on FB it looked like he took the guys right leg with his left arm. Technically he got a single leg takedown. He got two poinst for that and then the pin followed. If he wrestles a guy who stands tall tell him to just tackle him... wrap him thigh high, put him on his back and move immediately to whatver side he is comfortable working from. That's a double leg takedown. Has he learned the crossface yet?
One other thing. You must get him a the DVD of the movie "Vision Quest" with Matthew Modine. Also, his Ipod must have the song "Lunatic Fringe" in it. It is mandatory listening pre-match.
Corey, My dad in addition to being a football coach was an assistant wrestling coach in Norfolk, Va. The tidewater area of Virginia was a hotbed of high school wrestling as is central Pennsylvania. My dad was an asst. coach to a man named Billy Martin who was the "Bear Bryant" of wrestling coaches at Granby High School in Norfolk. He developed the Granby roll, which is where the wrestler on the bottom sits out and then rolls on his shoulders while holding the opponents wrist. It is a reversal move and has been in use in high school wrestling since the 60's. I wrestled in high school in Va. Beach but the bottom line is that if your son ever gets a chance to go to a camp in South East Va. or Central Pennsylvania he should go. Of course Iowa and the mid west is big in wrestling as well.
Keep the ideas coming guys! NO ONE in my family has EVER been on a wrestling team anywhere. We have nobody to give advice or tips to Carson, so your input here is invaluable. Thanks!
This is amazing! Who would think that Carson, who is the de facto mascot of the Skybox, since we've watched him grow up, would get very useful wrestling lessons from those here who have wrestled. This place sure is something special.
I only wrestled for two years on the high school team. I was a football player who was recruited to wrestle becuase they had a void at 178 lbs. I had won the school intramural championship as a sophomore at 165 . I did n ot want to wrestle varsity; I wanted to work to buy a car. But I got shamed into it by my friends. It was me or a forfeit. Most 178s are guys who just finished playing football at 190-205 and cut weight. I just finished playing football at 172 so I trained on pizza and Big Macs. My coach's pep talk to me before each match was the same. "Don't get pinned"! I was an average wrestler myself but I love the sport. My youngest son was much better. Our local high school team here in NJ is always among the state's best, currently #4 at 15-0. If I had one tip for Carson at this point it would be movement. Most big guys tend to circle each other in a pattern and usually counter clockwise. They also tend to be more upright than the lighter weights. Always keep your dominant leg back and move in and out while circling. When you move in the other guy will generally retreat and rise up at the same time. That is your moment to shoot. And once you go, go all the way. Wrap at least one leg and hang on, even if he pancakes out. Never stop in the middle of a shoot! Be aggressive!! You don't get paid by the hour.
:lol: George, your last paragraph above shows that you clearly have a coach's mindset. Think of how successful you could have been as a coach, surrounded by your assistant coaches, Luca Brasi, Clemenza, and Tessio. :lol:
Just for info for the non-wrestlers, a wrestling match lasts for 6 minutes. The practices and the matches are far more difficult than any other sport that I ever played. One word of advice though, DO NOT drop more than one weight class. Losing weight like some do in high school is not healthy.
haha thanks guys! George, yeah they've started teaching cross face and a few moves like that. As I said, the coach is learning on the go as well so it's a process for everyone. btw, LOL on the Vision Quest/Lunatic Fringe recommendation Wrestling was huge in the midwest. Iowa, MN etc just loved it and had massive crowds for matches. KP, thank you for the info! He's so busy with football camps in the offseason, I have no idea if he could ever even make it to one for wrestling. I'll look out for one though. Some programs here (Athens and Hartselle to name 2) have wrestling from the time they are wee little kids. Decatur is just starting this off, so the guys are way behind. All things considered, we're doing okay. Re: Movement: Something I've noticed about my son wrestling that is kind of unique. You see, he's left handed. Due to the circumstances of the divorce, he wound up playing for a lot of really nice guys who had their head up their ass, so they'd force him to do things right handed. The end result, is that he doesn't have a dominant lean. He's almost ambidextrous and works well going either direction and generating power from either back foot. He practices against guys much heavier than him so he does develop the lazy feet. I've even tried to point it out to him that the best wrestlers in the heavier classes are the guys who use their legs and feet as much as anything else. As KP mentioned, I'm really surprised at how much weight some of these guys drop. Carson was playing football at 6'1.5" 235lbs. He weighed in for wrestling at 210. The coach was happy because he gained a 220, but Carson almost didn't pass the hydration test. He didn't drop or cut the weight intentionally. Again, as KP mentioned, the practices are much tougher than anything else out there. He dropped that in less than a month. He still eats like a hoss. I think he's back up to 215 now, but he still enjoys the others suffering for weigh in while he's over there having pizza and hot dogs. Other guys are weighing in half naked and he's dressed like an eskimo carrying 10lbs of electronics with him. Unlike a lot of wrestlers, Carson has long muscle mass. He has a huge wingspan (that's my fault guys, I have gorilla long arms like my dad). As I've mentioned before, a lot of guys who look to be more fit than him try to out muscle him only for that to go horribly wrong. When he loses, it's on technique.. so any advice you can throw out, is greatly appreciated.
Long limbs and height in wrestling can be a tremendous asset if coached properly. I remember and All State wrestler out of Cleveland back in the day who wrestled 152 at a height of 6'1". He looked like a pipe cleaner but he was like a python. His ground game was unbeatable. He tied the strongest wrestlers up easily.
I bet, leverage is everything. It seems so tough to get the kids to understand that, unless they are smaller guys. For some reason, the smaller guys seem to grasp that pretty quick.
The tall guys should learn to use their legs to control the match. They usually are the best "riders".