How To Penetrate In Wrestling Video

Penetrating in wrestling ensures that no defense is safe. Learn how to attack from a wrestling coach in this video.

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Lower your level
Knee pound
Trail leg up
Pivot
Step up & across

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

BRANDON SLAY: Now, once we know what the five keys of wrestling are, head up, back straight, hips in, off our knees and pressure, once we know what those are, it is important to know how to attack our opponent, how to penetrate in to our opponent. And there are five steps to penetration. The first step that we always do before we penetrate, before we attack our opponent, step number one is we always have to lower our level. Here is the problem with a lot of guys. When we say lower our level is, most people see how low I am, like my butt here is almost touching my heel. So when you lower your level, you really have to get low. A lot of guys, when I say lower their level, they go like this, they go. Guys, this is not lowering your level. I do not have much power from here if my legs are not bent very much. Lowering your level, you have to relax your legs, relax your hips and just let gravity take you down. So step number one is always lower my level. And the reason I will lower my level is because every time I attack, I penetrate, I want to shoot up like a plane taking off. I always want to allow the plane to take off. I never want to land the plane. So if I want to take off, I have to get low to take off, correct? So step number one is lowering your level. Step number two is a little different than what some of you do, but step number two is I call a knee pound. There is a reason why I wear a knee pad on my lead leg. It is because if I am going to get really low, lower my level this low right here, if I am going to get this low, it is hard to take a big step, like this. See how low I am? It is kind of hard to step like this. So If I am going to get this low, instead of taking a step, I am going to pound my knee, all right? So what I do from here is, like, I jump as high as I can in the air and I am just going to land right on my lead leg. It is called a knee pound. Watch, I am going to go slow, again, like a plane taking off. Boom. See my momentum is already, continues to go forward. Head up, back straight, hips in, so I pound my knee. Number two, shooting up. The third step to penetration is I have to take this leg that is behind me, that is trailing behind me, it is called my trail leg, and I have to bring my trail leg up. Because if I do not bring my trail leg up, I am going to fall on my face. So the third key to wrestling, watch, is bringing my trail leg up. I want to bring my trail leg up here, to this little points, I am going to be on my whole foot and not on the ball of my foot, my whole foot. That little point is on my leg, shaped right here in a ninety degree angle, just like a squat position so I can be strong. So lower my level, knee pound, third is bring my trail leg up. Now, the fourth key to penetrating right here, fourth step to penetration is I am just going to take my knee pound foot, and just like a rudder on a boat, I am just going to pivot it towards my trail leg. Again, just like a rudder. I pivot it towards my trail leg to the outside, because this is going to prepare me to drive across at a tee, to drive across at this ninety degree angle, because right now I am ready to drive straight. But to finish this sharp, I turn my rudder; I pivot to drive across what we are going to call a tee, right here. That is the fourth step. Lower my level, knee pound, trail leg up, pivot. Now, the fifth step is I want to step up and across, because the fourth key to wrestling we talked about is staying off our knees. So I am going to step off my foot and step across at this tee. That is the fifth step of penetration, just like this. So here we go again. Lower your level, all right? Knee pound, trail leg up, pivot, step up and across.

How to Penetrate in Wrestling Video

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