How To Down Block In Wrestling Video

Work on down-blocking as a line of wrestling defense. Learn basic wrestling moves, defenses, and attacks in this video from a wrestling coach.

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Watch lead leg
Keep arm down
Reach with opposite hand

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Brandon Slay won the Gold Medal in Freestyle Wresting at the 2002 Olympic Games in Sydney.

BRANDON SLAY: The next step to down blocking is that it may seem simple now just kind of down block whatever arm the guy is attacking me with but it could become more complicated because the next question someone may pose is, "How do I know what arm he's going to shoot with?" In general, when I'm wrestling my opponent, whatever leg that he's leading, if he's leading his right leg here, in general, he's going to attack with his right arm. That's his punch arm, that's his attack arm. If he's leading his left leg, most of the time, 90 percent of the time, he's going to attack with this left hand, with his left arm. So when I walk into the mat, if I've never seen him wrestle before, I walk into the mat and I look and I'm, "Ooop," he's leading his right leg, he's probably going to attack me with his right arm. That's how I know as a wrestler which arm to keep down. So we talked of our hands as our first line of defense, head as our second line of defense and these are my arms. So now this allows me to know which hand I'm going to reach with. So I have two hands so I know I have to keep this same side arm down for my down block defense so I only have one other hand so now I know what hand to reach with. So again, hand--thumb down as we mentioned, second line of defense is my head and third line of defense are my arms. So now when Robert goes to attack me, down block. I could totally keep him off my legs. Hand, head, he goes to shoot, down block. He goes to shoot again, down block. It's just like a fence post, you see that? Go shoot again, down block. And because my thumb is down, I can feel him coming every single time. Because my head is in good position I can stop him from getting to my legs. Because my arms is in great position, I totally keep him off my legs.

How to Down Block in Wrestling Video

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