Here are my practice notes...

Saturday, January 19, 2008

A great turnout of 18 coaches and wrestlers – and a hard aerobic workout…

Mike Smith
Dean Sherratt

Phil Staniewski
Ilya Abelev
Nick Sutherland
Nicole Curry (Spartans)
Xavier Ouellet (Spartans)
Conor Stinson O’Gorman
Connor Rockwell
Matt Tattersall (Spartans)
Eamonn Stinson O’Gorman
Thomas Hadwen
Paul Hadwen
Samuel Hadwen
John Goodyear
Javad Ghorbani

After a long warm-up and conditioning period, Mike concentrated on defenses to leg attacks.

Monday, January 19, 2008

We had a full house with 22 coaches and wrestlers!

Clint Kingsbury
Dean Stinson O’Gorman
Courtnay Lafond

Ben Sayah
Ilya Abelev
Mathieu Deschatelets
Javad Ghorbani
Mariano Santo
Phil Staniewski
John Goodyear
Conor SO
Jairis Bali
Michio Clark
Thierry Whalen-Robinson
Matthew Tattersall
7 small Chelsea kids

We did a warm up - 25 minutes
Technique - routine 20 minutes

I then went over the defence/counter to aggressive overhook positions:
We then worked from this position at 50% resistance - I then introduced how not to let the over-hook come in on a under and over position where you can attack the double leg.

I then went over how I set up my double leg attack from the arm drag position and then explained how it could be done many ways other than an arm drag.

We then ended - I gave them an early finish.

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Quite a good turnout with Dean Stinson O’Gorman, Dean Sherratt and Chris Schrauwen coaching:

Mike Carrier (St. Pats)
Sheldon Lecombe (Saint Pats)
Ali Houmani (Saint Pats)
Mariano Santo (St. Pats)
Sum Yavari (Brookfield)
Conor Stinson O’Gorman
John Goodyear
Ilya Abelev
Samuel Hadwen
Thomas Hadwen
Paul Hadwen
Jared Semenchuk
Phil Staniewski

Dean reviewed previous work:

-Arm drag to Double Leg takedown
Using an arm drag will move your opponent off to your side, creating a good angle “turning the corner” for a strong double leg attack.

-Defence to a Double Leg takedown
You throw your hips into your opponent and put weight on him. Be heavy on the head and try to work the head so it’s buried in against your stomach “circle to the head”. Peel your opponent’s hands off your legs and get ready to circle and get the takedown yourself.

-Gut Wrench (Brock variation)
Chris Schrauwen reviewed this gut wrench variation. The key point that he emphasized (and which I had missed in earlier exhibitions of the move) is that you can tighten the gut wrench a lot more by starting on the opposite side from your intended direction, slip your arm through and lock it there…then as you slide across to your “take off” point, the lock will naturally tighten even more, giving you a huge amount of pressure with which to turn or tilt your opponent. If tilting, hooking your opponent’s leg will suspend him in place and prevent him from rolling over onto top of you.

Thursday, January 24, 2008

We had:

Clint Kingsbury
Courtnay Lafond

Ben Sayah
Matt Deschatelets
Ilya Abelev
John Goodyear
Jairus Bali
Neil Judge - new guy, came once before (80kg)
Jared Semenchuk
Nils Rohde
Michio Clark
Javad Ghorbani
Mohammed Assadi
Connor Rockwell

We worked on technique, i did some scouting for them and had them focus and correct some things...
We did situations live –high crotch, single and double
We did full speed technique - 30 sec goes - 4 high crotch 4 single and 2 doubles

We then did 1- 20 min match followed by 5 min rest…then 1-10 min match.

We did a cool down with stretching and then I spoke with all about the tourney.

Saturday, January 26, 2008

We had four wrestlers and Clint entered in the Ontario Junior’s in Orillia.

At practice, we had 8 attending:

Dean Sherratt

Samuel, Paul and Thomas Hadwen
Mustapha Khalil
Matt Lessard
Joshua Wilson
Emily Bekolay

+ 2 on-lookers

After a warm-up, I reviewed recent ground work:

-Two variations of the laced ankle, and
- The “Brock” gut wrench (both used as a tilt and as a full gut wrench)

…and finished with a series of 3 minute matches:

Monday, January 28, 2008

We had: 12

Clint Kingsbury
Joe Greer
Ilya Abelev
Phil Staniewski
Michio Clark
Emily Bekolay
Nicole Curry
Javad Ghorbani
A kid from St. Pats
Thierry Whalen Robinson
…a large guy - new 120kg? Spoke to you last week
…and a guy - Neil Judge about 85kg

We worked technique after a tough warm up - mostly shadow wrestling.

Then we went into showing faster transitions from underhook to leg attack - single leg attack on strong underhook side and high crotch on weak underhook side. This was mostly to benefit Ilya as he was making these errors at the tourney.

We then did high speed technique of using set ups underhook and 2 on 1
-2 times each then we did the same - but once the partner had the leg it was live
- 2 times each

Followed by conditioning - practice finished early.

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

We had:

Clint Kingsbury
Courtnay Lafond
Ben Sayah
Matt Deschatelets.
Ilya Abelev
Mike Carrier
Javad Ghorbani
Michio Clark
Nigel Sayah
Celeste Antoft-Finch
Connor Rockwell
New guy Shemil from Russia (from Saturday)

We worked technique after a hard warm up.

Then I went in to teaching the 'Cuban Arm Trap' - It is a way to run a tight waist to the trap arm... I then showed a variation of it with gut wrench to the opposite side.

We then did some par terre technique - working on smooth transitions- followed by scrimmage parterre - 2 times each.

We then did some standing situations - live from high crotch, single and then on the ground high crotch and single 2 times each.

Finally we did 2 matches - 1st match 6 min - 2nd match 12 min.

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

We had a great, well-attended pre-tournament practice with 23 participating:

Clint Kingsbury
Dean Sherratt
Chris Schrauwen

Ben Sayah
Mathieu Deschatelets
Ilya Abelev
Michio Clark
Sarah Stringer
Celeste Antoft-Finch (Brookfield)
Emily Bekolay
Fadhl Abu Ghanem (Brookfield)
Mike Carrier
Samuel Hadwen
Paul Hadwen
Thomas Hadwen
Phil Staniewski
Nils Rohde
Scott Doucette (Brookfield)
Joshua Clarke
Michael Leff (Brookfield)
Sum Yavari (Brookfield)
Tom Smith, new, about 180 lbs
Andrew Higgins, back, about 200 lbs

This was very much a pre-tournament practice with a lot of scrimmaging. Clint offered move by move advice as the wrestlers went through their routines.

Chest pressure, for example, is much more effective and safer in a single leg attack then off of a high crotch. He also noticed offensive wrestlers being thrown off their double leg attacks. The answer is to immediately “t”-off to take the defensive wrestler’s throw away. Once deeply caught, his immediate instinct will be to wrap his arms around your torso and then throw. By moving swiftly to the side, you prevent that obvious counter.

Saturday, February 2, 2008

We had a very good turnout considering the Cadet/Juveniles were taking place with two of our coaches and six wrestlers:

Mike Smith
Dean Sherratt

Samuel Hadwen
Paul Hadwen
Thomas Hadwen
Matt Lessard
Phil Staniewski
Xavier Ouellet
Celeste Antoft-Finch
Mohammed Assadi

Mike worked principally on finishing the single leg by elevating the opponent’s caught leg. When you grasp the leg, have your hand hold the heel while you trap the toes with your forearm so your opponent can’t twist free and escape. When you have a leg captured, you will want to crowd your opponent while he will want some space. To keep better balanced, he will also want to use his arms and hands to grasp you. Have your arms bent when holding the leg since a straightened arm has the least strength.

If your opponent keeps fighting and stays standing, you can ultimately move his leg up to your shoulder by lowering your level and shucking the leg over then resuming your ordinary height. In this circumstance, you can go for a pin by locking your arms around your opponent’s arm and head and then grinding him right to his back. A leg sweep is also highly effective in these circumstances.

In a general review of the single leg, Mike noted the necessity of always being lower than your opponent that means lowering your levels when you attack and doing so with your legs, not your back. Get inside control, e.g. head and biceps and shift your opponent so he presents your target leg. For an inside leg, bump your opponent’s stomach with your head…this will make his far leg heavier and near (target) leg lighter for your attack and easier to capture.

We then went live with partially completed single legs, then live ground and ended with two minute matches with a concluding round of King of the Mat.