National Capital Wrestling

From OFSAA to beyond

dean sherratt — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 23:06:00 +0000

In the lead-up to OFSAA we had our largest turnouts of the year. In fact, February's turnout was the heaviest in our recorded history. While we have wrestlers preparing for Nationals, we are also evolving to post-season, concentrating on technique and reinforcing the efforts by our newer wrestlers.

Monday, February 18, 2008

26 attended practice; we had:

Clint Kingsbury
Dean Stinson O’Gorman
Courtnay Kingsbury
Chris Schrauwen

Ben Sayah
Matt Deschatelets.
Ilya Abelev
Mike Carrier
Eamonn SO
Connor SO
Scott Doucette
Sarah Stringer
Nicole Curry
Emily Bekolay
Thierry Whalen Robinson
6 from Chelsea
Nils Rohde
Ali Houmani
Ivan Toshev
+2 others

Technique

…Then fine tuning techniques - focus on foot work, hand position and closing the distance.
…Then we did
3 matches:
-7minutes
-10minutes
-10minutes

(PS Clint went 3 in a row.....)

Saturday, February 23, 2008

We had 15 for a post-Cities practice…

Monday, February 25, 2008

Notes from "Big Dean"

10 kids plus me - 5 from the Spartans, plus Ben, Phil, Jairus, his friend John, and Thierry. Worked on the over-under series, incl. throws and then scrimmages.

Tuesday, February 26

This was our traditional "Pre-OFSAA" practice held at Algonquin and we invited any OFSAA-bound wrestler to attend:

We had 17, led by Clint Kingsbury and Mike Smith...
Dean Sherratt
Chris Schrauwen
Mike Carrier

Ben Sayah
Mike Carrier
Celeste Antoft-Finch
Sarah Stringer
John Goodyear
Ilya Abelev
Mariano Santo
Matt Lessard
Connor Rockwell
Sean Ryan
Mathieu Deschatelets
Tomio Clark
Michio Clark

OFSAA Results (February 28-29)

A great result for Ottawa, possibly our best in history:

John Goodyear, 77 kgs, GOLD
Sarah Stringer, 57.5 kgs, GOLD
Ilya Abelev, 61 kgs, BRONZE
Nigel Sayah, 72 kgs BRONZE

Also…

Alan Walsh, 41 kgs, LBP (also Tsunami), BRONZE
S. Sabourin, South Carleton 5th
Kellie Heney, South Carleton, 4th

Also…

Celeste Antoft-Finch (Brookfield) 0-2
Fadhl Abu Ghanem (Brookfield) 0-2
Sherry Sheritan (Brookfield) 1-2
Sabrina Romolock (Brookfield) 2-2
Scott Doucette (Brookfield) 1-2
Nick Bradley (All Saints) 1-2
Emily Bekolay (All Saints) 3-2 - top 12
Mariano Santo (Saint Patrick’s) 4-2 - top 12
Michio Clark (Colonel By) 3-2 – top 8
Tomeo Clark (Colonel By) 3-2 – top 8
Chris Galley (Canterbury) 0-2
Chris Peters (Canterbury) 0-2
Sean Ryan (Canterbury) 0-2

Saturday March 1

Practice was cancelled by “Big Dean”…with only six attending (us and four kids)

Monday, March 3

Algonquin cancelled (post-OFSAA)

Tuesday, March 4

6 attended

Wednesday, March 5

Algonquin cancelled (snowstorm)

Thursday, March 6

We had a good turnout of 12…

Saturday March 8

14 attended for a great technical practiced led by Mike Smith…

Mike Smith
Dean Sherratt
Chris Schrauwen

Sarah Stringer
Brian Nolet
Mike Carrier
Chris Galley (Canterbury)
Phil Staniewski
Conor Stinson O’Gorman
Nicole Curry
Amy Laidlaw
Jason Papailiadis
Matt Lessard

We started by doing wall to wall “foot sweeps” and “double legs” against partners.

The practice was devoted to the “other options” than the gut wrench and cross ankle which are the highest performing moves on the ground.

If these two options are being stopped by a tenacious opponent, then you should have a third option and tilts can be very effective.

First, you need to keep your weight on your opponent, either resting on his legs or covering his back. You start the tilt by grasping his wrist, cupping all your fingers around it to get the strongest hold and then leaning your forearm against his triceps which will already start to turn him as he pulls up on his far hip…Grab that far hip and keep your knee into his near side to prevent him from moving. Roll him to his back and use your near leg to grasp his nearest to keep him immobile for 2 + 1 points.

When the offensive wrestler is fighting for a wrist, the defensive wrestler will often counter by “swimming” the arm around, behind and straight out again. Your “counter to his counter” is to straight arm it behind as it reaches that position of his rotation and pull it across and plant it against your opposite side, pinning it there. Move up on your opponent, to his middle back and step over on his caught arm side, circling to the head till he moves to his back. If he keeps fighting, grasp his chin as a further form of “persuasion”. If caught like, this, your only defence is to crawl forward to give extra room for you to trap your caught arm.

If he is successful in “swimming his arm straight” that, in turn, will open up that side to a tilt. Hook your hand on his opposite armpit and tilt towards the straightened arm while blocking that side with your knee. In this case grab the two points and go back to on top since you are in a vulnerable position yourself.

Mike’s technique of brilliance is based on a greco-roman move and can be described as a “reverse head and arm”. Again, based on your opponent keeping his arm straight (to fight off an attempt to grasp his wrist), you overhook his other arm and underhook his straight arm. Sit-out and roll over, keeping your body tight to his – the power for this sit-out is provided by the inside leg. You will rotate him over and expose his back for two points.

We went with three period matches, followed by a series of offensive/defensive matches.

Monday, March 10

22 attended…a great post-OFSAA practice led by Clint Kingsbury

Clint Kingsbury
Dean Sherratt
Dean Stinson O’Gorman
Mike Carrier
Chris Schrauwen
Dennis Walker (observed/Spartans)
Nick Bradley
Michio Clark
Jason Papailiadis
Nicole Curry (observed)
Mike Carrier
Thierry Whalen Robinson
Ben Sayah
Sarah Stringer
Chris Galley (Canterbury)
Celeste Antoft-Finch
Conor Stinson O’Gorman
John Goodyear
Brae Walker
Keil Walker
Tate Walker (observed)

Clint’s emphasis was not so much on teaching new technique, but to give a wrestler options when an intended move doesn’t work or only partially.

For example, the offensive wrestler executes a duck-under but is caught half way, with his opponent’s arm pressing down on his head. You can still succeed in this move by grabbing the near leg and far waist and drive forward, hooking the far leg to finish a takedown.

If you have cleared the head, but not been able to “turn the corner”…your opponent tightens his arm around your head. You counter explosively by moving your hips in closely to his, grasping his leading leg “elbow deep” that is, wrapped thoroughly…use your free hand to grasp his hip and you can lift him up into the air, taking him down to table on your outstretched leg.

Clint’s third technique was most interesting and unique. You start by taking a two on one, but move in frontally to your opponent, popping your head underneath his caught arm while retaining the two on one. If you move in tightly, you can use your head and his trapped arm to lift him up off the mat, drop to your knee and finish like a “no leg fireman’s” carry on the side of the two on one.

Big Dean finished with speed/water drills, two sets of three minute matches and conditioning…

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Yesterday was good.

Clint Kingsbury
Mike Smith
Chris Schrauwen
Ben Sayah
Matt Deschatelets
Ilya Abelev
John Goodyear
Mike Carrier
Sarah Stringer
Michio Clark
Nigel Sayah
Jason Papailiadis - Colonel By
Celeste Antoft-Finch - Brookfield
Nick Bradley - All Saints

We worked on specific technique - going through each more 10 times each - under my direction with as many setups as possible.

High crotch, single, double, head and arm, front headlock, shoulder throw, fireman.

Then we did parterre technique - followed by parterre wrestling scrimmage - then conditioning.

To the eve of Cities and Departure for OFSAA!

dean sherratt — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 19:16:00 +0000

Here are my notes for February to the Eve of Cities...February 2-17, 2008

Saturday-Sunday, February 2-3, 2008

At the Cadet Juveniles:

Ilya Abelev won two gold medals!!!
Nils Rohde got 4th
Sarah Stringer got 5th
Mike Carrier got 5th
Michio Clark got 4th
Emily Bekolay was in the top 8

Wednesday, February 6, 2008

We had a huge turnout, boosted with contingents from Colonel By, Saint Pats and Brookfield…

Clint Kingsbury
Mike Smith
Dean Sherratt
Chris Schrauwen

Ali Houmani
Mike Carrier
Ben Sayah
Mathieu Deschatelets
Javad Ghorbani
Michio Clark
Jairus Bali
Ilya Abelev
Sum Yavari (Brookfield)
Michael Leff (Brookfield)
Celeste Antoft-Finch (Brookfield)
Joshua Fagan (Brookfield)
Admed Awad (Brookfield)
Sarah Stringer
Marie Gihozo (St. Pats)
Mariano Santo
Samuel Hadwen
Paul Hadwen
Thomas Hadwen

Our focus was primarily devoted to developing options off the two on one. Of course, the most common is a two on one to a single leg, but what we wanted to do here was consider other, more interesting and point-scoring variations.

Saturday, February 9, 2008

The largest turnout this 2007/8 Season!

Clint Kingsbury
Dean Stinson O’Gorman
Dean Sherratt
Chris Schrauwen
Jason Kirby

Connor Rockwell
Sarah Stringer
Mathieu Deschatelets
Michael Leff (Brookfield)
Scott Doucette (Brookfield)
Conor Stinson O’Gorman
Som Yavari (Brookfield)
Nils Rohde
Joshua Clarke
Eamonn Stinson O’Gorman
Javad Ghorbani
Nicole Curry
Matt Doull
Matt Lessard
Shamarke Debalke
Ben Sayah
Phil Staniewski
Celeste Antoft-Finch
Stephane Bernadel
Stewart Wilkinson (All Saints)
Sean Ryan (Canterbury)
Nebras Kouvieh (Brookfield)
Mohammed Alasaad (Brookfield)
Chris Galley (Canterbury)
Rony Khacshour (Brookfield)
Samuel Hadwen
Paul Hadwen (observed)
Thomas Hadwen
+ 1 other…

Clint worked variations of the fireman’s carry which was followed by extensive scrimmaging (“par terre”) and six groups of “King of the Mat”)

Monday, February 11, 2008

There were 20 at practice led by Clint Kingsbury.

Tuesday, February 12

A much smaller group (day of East Championships) led by Mike Smith

Ben Sayah
Mathieu Deschatelets
Ilya Abelev
Nicholas
Trudy - she is new
Som Yavari (Brookfield)
Jairis Bali

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

We had another excellent turnout of 25, especially with a good contingent of Spartans from Chelsea.

Clint Kingsbury
Dean Stinson O’Gorman
Dean Sherratt
Chris Schrauwen

Ali Houmani
Sheldon Morgan
Celeste Antoft-Finch
Sarah Stringer
Nicole Curry
Michio Clark
Mike Carrier
Javad Ghorbani
Brian Cohen
Connor Rockwell
Mathieu Deschatelets
Janice Thibodeau (St. Pats)
Conor Stinson O’Gorman
Brae Walker
Tate Walker
Keil Walker
Som Yavari (Brookfield)
Thomas Hadwen
Paul Hadwen
Samuel Hadwen
Marie Gihozo (St. Pats)

Clint introduced the importance of good wrist control in hand fighting…it is especially good at neutralizing the strength of a stronger opponent but even if your wrists are held, it can also be used to your advantage.

One way to twist free is to rotate your wrists to weaken his grip. Another is to use one hand to grasp your opponent’s other wrist and use that double strength to free your other hand…from that you should try immediately for a “two on one” since it is already partially set up.

Clint also reviewed good technique when you are snapped down to your knees. Coaches will tell you to pull down on your opponent’s elbow but not explain why you want to work the elbow. You should actually pull up and flay the elbow so you can pop your head to that side with the space that you create…then shoot for a high crotch on that side with your free arm.

We also went over trying to rescue a blocked double leg that got stalled (for example, your head is not well enough placed for you to turn the corner and drive him to the side). What you need to do is to pull that knee up (on the head side) to block (but not hook) your opponent’s leg and drive him right into your leg to take him down. Your head will shift from the side to your opponent’s abdomen to do this as you switch directions from your initial double leg…

Head snaps don’t work well without a good set up. You may get an opponent off balance but you can’t count on such good fortune. A good way to do so is to go for a fake single leg…that is not a feint where you touch and pull your hand back…You grasp your opponent’s leg till he pulls it back, putting all his weight on the back leg…NOW you have a head snap set up with your other hand…

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Last night we had:
Clint Kingsbury

Matt Deschatelets
Ben Sayah
Ilya Abelev
John Goodyear
Malcolm Cundell
Miles Cundell
Javad Ghorbani
Mike Carrier
3 St. Patrick’s guys
Rony Khacshour (Brookfield)

I gave speeches to them on Parterre wrestling and the importance. We did lots of technique and then the practice was centered on Parterre transition
No scrimmage.

Saturday, February 17, 2008

Another record turnout this year with 35 coaches and wrestlers participating!

Mike Smith
Dean Stinson O’Gorman
Dean Sherratt
Chris Schrauwen
Jason Kirby
Marc Griplas

Geoff Griplas
Ben Sayah
Mathieu Deschatelets
Chris Peters (Canterbury)
Brandon Rendon (Canterbury)
Sean Regal (Canterbury)
Chris Galley (Canterbury)
Sarah Stringer
Michael Leff (Brookfield)
Celeste Antoft-Finch (Brookfield)
Rony Khacshour (Brookfield)
Scott Doucette (Brookfield)
Nick Bradley (All Saints)
Nils Rohde
Matt Tattersall
Matt Lessard
Mustafah Khalil
Youssef Awada (LBP)
Connor Rockwell
Xavier Ouellet
Nicole Curry
Philip Staniewski
Eamonn Stinson O’Gorman
Conor Stinson O’Gorman
Shamarke Debalke (Hillcrest)
Marie Gihozo (St. Pats)
Tate Walker
Keil Walker
Haven Halter

This was a practice devoted to cardio, defenses off bad shots and then lots of scrimmaging:

“Big Dean” handled the introductory cardio and then Mike Smith took over.

Initially starting off a bad shot that doesn’t reach the legs the defensive wrestler should put weight on his opponent with his chest but keep his legs clear from any possible reach or re-shot. He should keep his hands on his opponent’s back or size his armpit or triceps, but not drag them on either side of his opponent since this will set up a reversal, often in the form of a sit-out. From there transition to a head and arm where you grasp your opponent’s chin (gluing your elbow to your ribs in the process so he can’t shove his buried head out) while grasping his triceps. Pull up on his triceps while driving away from them and pulling slightly back to extend him forward (“taking one of his four legs off his chair”)…you will drop your opponent right to his chest and from there circle for a takedown.

If your opponent is dogged and keeps following you, then prepare to “put on the breaks” and shuck him by with your “chin” hand.

We had two sets of scrimmaging…first a challenging set of an initial winner (in a group of 4 or 5) taking on all comers after that…and then the next heaviest in the group following suit so each wrestler fought for four-five minutes straight against constantly fresh wrestlers. In the group that I followed several wrestlers distinguished themselves…Mathieu Deschatelets, Matt Lessard and Chris Peters all wrestled well right to their last matches.

Then we broke up into three groups of “challengers” who would challenge any wrestler in their group.

Into February!

dean sherratt — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 00:09:00 +0000

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.

Into 2008, the NCWF and post-tournament practices

dean sherratt — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 14:35:00 +0000

John Goodyear will be featured tomorrow, Friday 18 January, 2008 on Channel 22 at 6:30 High School Sports Zone - Rogers have done an episode on his high school wrestling career and have filmed him at various tournaments including at our recent festival.

Here are most 2008 notes - as you can see, turnouts have been explosive on both sides of the NCWF - especially because of good appearances by Saint Patrick's HS and All Saints.
Thursday, January 3, 2008

We had our first practice of the year, getting 10 attending (including two new wrestlers):

Clint Kingsbury
Dean Sherratt

Amy Laidlaw
Nigel Sayah
Ben Sayah
Stephane Comte
Michio Clark
Alex Basset
Malcolm Cundell!
Miles Cundell!

Saturday, January 5, 2008

We had another good practice with 14 coaches and wrestlers attending…

Clint Kingsbury
Dean Stinson O’Gorman
Dean Sherratt
Chris Schrauwen

Paul Hadwen
Thomas Hadwen
Xavier Ouellet
Sarah Stringer
Celeste Antoft-Finch
Conor Stinson O’Gorman
Matthew Tattersall
Mike Tremblay
Chris Pike
Brian Cohen

From our standing drill, Clint reviewed and reminded wrestlers of the importance of good body position in single/high crotch and double leg attacks. In particular, he stressed the fact that head and body position shouldn’t change during execution as the head sticks to the opponent’s body like glue while the legs do all the movement. If the head is in really deep, your opponent’s ability to cross-face is very limited – when shooting you must seize and hold the caught leg tightly (“own” the leg). You are also looking in the direction of the intended movement. Finishing the single or high crotch led to a discussion of tripping. It is essential that you remain balanced and strong (and not over-extended) when attempting a trip – an inside trip is OK, but not a trip to the far side or one that is over-extended. Clint demonstrated how a bad trip can result in your opponent countering with a cradle created by your own move.

Then we went onto set-ups – only about 20% of shots can be successful if not preceded by a set-up. You will need to be very fast and very strong (especially fast). Therefore, set-ups are essential and keeping in contact with your opponent’s wrists, arms and head (but not the neck which can set up a countering shoulder throw). To be avoided are attempts to control a head and arm while moving behind your opponent – this essentially leads your hips on his and sets up a disagreeable head and arm throw by your opponent!

Monday, January 7, 2008

Monday, we had 6 from the Spartans (Conor SO, Conor M, Eamonn, Tate, Keil, and Brae) plus 6 NCWC regulars (Ben, Matt, John, Pike, Emily, and Ilya). Clint and Big Dean coached.

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

We had a small gathering of about 6 coaches and wrestlers.

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Chris Schrauwen and Dean Sherratt coached a large gathering of 19 wrestlers…

Paul, Thomas and Samuel Hadwen
Tunkay Sipahi, new, about 200 lbs
Mike Carrier (St. Pat’s)
Ali Houmani (St. Pat’s)
Mariano Santo (St. Pat’s)
Dustin Biggs (St. Pat’s)
Marie Jabuso (St. Pat’s)
Mathieu DesChatelets
Scott Doucette (helped coach)
Joshua Clarke
Connor Rockwell
John Goodyear
Ilya Abelev
Javad Ghorbani
Nils Rohde
Mike Tremblay
Sarah Stringer

We worked on primarily ground technique, including Chris’ variations of his leg ride and tilts, ending with extensive scrimmaging. Practice was light because of the proximity of the NCWF.

Thursday, January 10, 2008

We had a very small group of about 6 wrestlers and coaches practicing and then rolling up the mats for the Saturday tournament.

Saturday January 12, 2008

We held our 4th Annual Tournament, this one called the National Capital Wrestling Festival (NCWF)…

Here is the basic summary of turnouts from 2005…

Year 2008 2007 2006 2005

Venue St. Pats St. Pats Sensplex Sensplex

Open Boys 117 108 135 118
Novice Boys 106 90 117 106
Girls 78 71 74 60

Kids (Boys) 46 33 26 25
Kids (Girls) 21 13 20 20

Ottawa-Based Wrestlers 134 116 72 74
Ottawa % 37.2% 36.8% 19.4% 22.5%

Totals 358 315 372 329

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Well practice last night was very good.

First we came in and set all the mats up.... if you have mat tape we need some urgently...as well as that we need more medium and large knee pads.

…as for numbers:

Clint Kingsbury
Courtnay Lafond
Ben Sayah
Ilya Abelev
Mathieu Deschatelets
Javad Ghorbani
Mohammed Assadi
Mariano Santo
Phil Staniewski
Scott Doucette observed
Connor Rockwell
Nicole (from Chelsea Club) - grade nine
Mike Carrier

We worked technique after an intense warm up.

Then I went over the elbow control/pop to high crotch entrance that is turned into a single. This is done on your single side and is very high in the crotch versus the normal controlling of the calf that we do for traditional single legs

Then we went onto parterre. We worked on snap to head lock and then cross ankle pick and near ankle pick.

We followed it up with 3 matches on the feet - 6min each.

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

We had a huge turnout of 25 wrestlers and coaches, with good participation from Saint Pats, All Saints and Brookfield:

Clint Kingsbury
Dean Sherratt

Ben Sayah
Mathieu Deschatelets
Ilya Abelev
Javad Ghorbani
Celeste Antoft-Finch (cameo)
Ian Ballentine (cameo)
Scott Doucette (observed/assisted)
Miles Cundell (observed)
Malcolm Cundell
Mike Carrier (Saint Pats)
Sheldon Lecombe (Saint Pats)
Dustin Biggs (Saint Pats)
Ali Houmani (Saint Pats)
Lindy Spirak (Saint Pats)
Sum Yavari (Brookfield)
Nick Bradley (All Saints)
Fraz Abdulghafara (All Saints)
Kyle Wylie (All Saints)
Samuel Hadwen
Thomas Hadwen
Paul Hadwen
Josh Clarke
Josh Wilson

In preparation for the Guelph Open this weekend, it was a “singlet” practice devoted to warm-ups, technique and then extended four or six minute matches.

Into November...6-22

dean sherratt — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 00:55:00 +0000

While we are dispatching two teams to Renfrew and the Quebec Open for Saturday November 24, Clint and I (and potentially other coaches) will be holding practice...a good opportunity for wrestlers who are left in Ottawa to get in some good technique.

Here are my notes from November 6-November 22...

Wednesday, November 7, 2008

We had 15 attending and participating…

Clint Kingsbury
Dean Sherratt

Matt Lessard
John Goodyear
Nigel Sayah
Ben Sayah
Sarah Stringer
Emily Bekolay
Mathieu Deschatelets
Nick Ghaeni (Montreal WC)
Mariano Santo
Youssef
Michio Clark
Brian Cohen, new, Greenbank PS
Nils Rohde
Jared Semenchuk

Clint demonstrated the “gut wrench with leg ride” and front headlock variations.

Thursday, November 8, 2007

Practice last night:

Clint Kingsbury
Ilya Abelev
Joe Greer
Jared Semenchuk
Phil Staniewski
Nick Sutherland
Michio Clark
Chris (Colonel By)

Small numbers, so we did experimentation technique. Just review all your moves but, try different transitions and look for other finishes and openings.
30min

We then moved in to drilling:
Making a clean leg attack, once in live - so the defensive person lets the offensive person in and then they go live wrestling until a point is scored (about 10 seconds each)
We did 10 high crotches
We did 10 singles
We did 10 doubles.

During the drilling I would intervene and make sure wrestlers were trying to change things and mix it up, not continuously trying failed attempts with out change.

We then did parterre wrestling
5 goes each.

Finally followed by 1 five minute match.

Saturday, November 10, 2007

We had 18 wrestlers and coaches, including a large number of younger wrestlers from Chelsea:

Clint Kingsbury
Dean Sherratt

Sean Ryan (Canterbury)
Nils Rohde
Ilya Abelev
Josh Wilson, new
Mathieu Deschatelets
Emily Bekolay
Eamonn Stinson O'Gorman
Conor Stinson O'Gorman
Matthew Tattersall
Xavier Ouellet
Alex Pepin, new PET PS
Brian Cohen
Mark Cohen
Ben Sayah
Amy Laidlaw
Jon Kazub

We divided into two groups...I coached the little kids with basic standing techniques and then had a session of "King of the Mat", followed by "British Bull Dog"

Monday, November 12, 2007

We had another good turnout with 19 wrestlers and coaches present and participating.

Mike Smith
Dean Sherratt
Chris Schrauwen

Marc Griplas
Geoff Griplas
Ben Sayah
Nigel Sayah
Phil Staniewski
Conor Assaly (Kemptville)
Josh Wilson
Sarah Stringer
Jairus Bali
Nils Rohde
John Goodyear
Haven Halter

Mike Smith worked mostly on ground moves…he argued (as I do) in favour of an active defense, even staying on base rather than being allowed to be broken down to your stomach. In the former case, your opponent can only gut wrench while in the latter he has many more moves that he can execute.

Mike then demonstrated his famous “Smith Half”, developed when he wrestled Greco-Roman and needed to develop stronger moves that attacked his opponent’s torso. To start, you want to have your weight on your opponent, typically your outside leg will straddle your opponent’s, knee on the inside and foot outside.

The move concentrates two arms against one of your opponent’s as you typically will move your left arm to the right side, pressing into the side of your opponent’s head while your left hand grasps it, underneath your opponent’s left arm. Keeping weight on your opponent, you pressure up at the elbow and drive with your inside leg that has moved from the other side…Once you bring the caught arm above your opponent’s head, you transition to an ordinary half nelson, now swinging your outside leg over as you “t-off”, lift your opponent’s head and post with your free arm. The move is stronger the nearer you can work your opponent’s arm to his head…his counter is to plant his far ear to his far shoulder and increase the space between his head and your half…

Mike also demonstrated good use of “Zone” wrestling…how to use your attack leg and opposite attack hand to work your opponent into the zone and once there, attack since a leg attack that drives him out gains you a point even if you can’t complete the move to a takedown. Your opponent will want to circle out and you must block these attempts to keep him pressed into the zone.

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

It was great last night. 11

We had:

Clint Kingsbury
Guest: Evan MacDonald
Joe Greer
Ben Sayah
Mathieu Deschatelets
John Goodyear
Phil Staniewski
Josh Clarke
Courtnay Lafond
Michio Clark
Ilya Abelev

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

We had a very heavy turnout of 23 coaches and wrestlers, including four girls and several younger wrestlers:

Clint Kingsbury
Joe Greer
Dean Sherratt

Justin Millar
Josh Wilson
Mathieu Deschatelets
Sarah Stringer
John Goodyear
Chris Schrauwen
Stacey Laviolette
Phil Staniewski
Christina Cain (came with Stacey)
Eamonn Stinson O’Gorman
Michio Clark
Nils Rohde
Ilya Abelev
Conor Stinson O’Gorman
Mariano Santo
Ben Sayah
Alex Pepin
Jared Semenchuk
Emily Bekolay

Clint introduced an interesting tie-up technique with a combination frontal wrist control/underhook move. This can be used as an alternative to other tie ups (e.g. two on one, arm drag). You grasp your opponent’s wrist with your outside hand, pulling it forward while underhooking the same arm with your inside arm. Your inside shoulder must pressure your opponent’s shoulder for this move to be effective.

This sets up a nice knee-tap finish, utilizing your outside hand which moves up from the wrist to the elbow and then to the knee.

If he tries to work behind you, that simply loads him on your hip and you can execute a perfect shoulder throw. If his leg is near, you can simply go for what is an “outside high crotch” with your outside arm.

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Clint Kingsbury
Ben Sayah
Ilya Abelev
Ivan Toshev
Sarah Stringer.
Michio Clark
Connor SO
Eamonn SO
Mike Tremblay
Matt Lessard

+ 8 little kids from Chelsea - I can not remember names

We worked on entrances to the legs, different set ups, strong body position, tenacity, relentlessness wrestling
We then did 3 - 5min matches…
- followed by parterre - gut wrench defense
- followed by high speed techniques 15 min - high crotch, single double

10 min conditioning at the end.

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Coaches: Dean SO
Wrestlers: Ben S, Mathieu D, John G, Ilya A, Scott from Brookfield, Mariano, Conor SO, Eamonn SO
Worked lots of situation drills, from various positions: body lock, clinch position, front head and arm, cross ankle, single leg.
Ground scrimmages, followed by cardio (burpees).

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

We had an excellent turnout with five wrestlers arriving from Saint Patrick’s HS.

This was a “singlet“ practice in preparation for Renfrew/Quebec Open/Ontario seniors.

Clint Kingsbury
Dean Stinson O’Gorman

Sarah Stringer
Phil Staniewski
Ben Sayah
Michio Clark
Emily Bekolay
Josh Wilson
Youssef
Mathieu Deschatelets
Nils Rohde
Daniel Hood, new, formerly from Hillcrest (Algonquin)
Janice Thibodeau (Saint Pats)
Joey Henderson (Saint Pats)
Mike Carrier (Saint Pats)
Sheldon Major (Saint Pats)
Dustin Biggs (Saint Pats)

We split the practice up between the new wrestlers (who I coached) and the remainder, who Clint coached. My efforts were based on improving single leg technique and finishes, as well as ground moves (half nelson and counters, head and arm plus counters, laced ankles plus counters, an introduction to tilts).

Thursday, November 22, 2007

Clint Kingsbury

Ben Sayah
Mathieu Deschatelets
Ilya Abelev
Michio Clark
Jairus Grant
Matt Lessard

Technique which turned into water wrestling - 50%

Very good small group - we worked a lot on situations:
-high crotch from feet and from knees (both sides - strong and weak sides)
-single from feet and from knees (both sides)

6 goes of each.

We did many front headlock situations - working on proper execution and defense too

Full speed technique - high crotches, singles, doubles - 5 times 30sec

1 match - 6 min (2x3min)

Followed by a little conditioning.

MacMaster Triumphs!

dean sherratt — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 00:07:00 +0000

Ben and Mathieu covered themselves with glory at the MacMaster Tournament on the weekend, both emerging with three wins each and two medals...

Ben Sayah (65 kgs) won 3 matches and 1 loss - taking the Silver Medal
Mathieu Deschatelets (72 kgs) won 3 matches and 1 loss - taking the Bronze Medal.

Our practices are as scheduled this week:

Monday-Thursday from 6-8 pm and Saturday from 10-12 noon...

Here are my recent notes...

Saturday, October 20, 2007

An excellent turnout of 19 coaches and wrestlers, led by Mike Smith and Joe Greer:

Mike Smith
Joe Greer
Dean Sherratt
Dean Stinson O’Gorman
Chris Schrauwen

Ben Sayah
Mathieu Deschatelets
Nick Sutherland
Jared Semenchuk
John Goodyear
Nils Rohde
Jairus Bali
Nicole Sidebottom, new, girl from Bell HS
David, new from Chelsea
Conor Stinson O’Gorman
Eamonn Stinson O’Gorman
Haven Holder
Essam and Nuwh Charife (pronounced Noah)

We worked a lot on active ground defense, including a series of drills where we moved left right, forwards backwards, up to left or right knee, move back to sit on heels or sit-out.

Then we worked a lot on the gut wrench. Mike likes to have his near leg (say his left) straddle his opponent’s near left leg while his right is forward and pressing into his ribs. You want a deep entry of your left arm underneath your opponent’s torso – this complements Clint’s view that the left hand should go entirely underneath and lock up with the right hand held palm up. Mike wants you to press your right shoulder in the centre of your opponent’s back, literally overcompensating since there will be some slippage as you work him over. You should drive forward and to the right at a 45 degree angle, loading your opponent on your right leg as you drive with both legs coiled and bridging on your head.

We finished with several “King of the Mat” groupings…

Monday, October 22, 2007

Also we had:

Clint Kingsbury
Joe Greer
Dean Stinson O’Gorman
Ben Sayah
Mathieu Deschatelets
Marino Santos
Thierry Whalen-Robinson
Conor Stinson O’Gorman
Eamonn Stinson O’Gorman
Brae
Youssef
Michael Tremblay
Phil Staniewski - Mississauga
Nick Sutherland

14

We worked technique review then I had them do the techniques again but with 50% resistance so that the partner forces his partner to do the technique correctly.
We did parterre technique that led into parterre scrimmage (30min)

We then prepared for 5 matches.

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Last night was ok…

Clint Kingsbury
Joe Greer
Courtnay Lafond
Mike Smith - came late
Mathieu Deschatelets
Ilya Abelev
Sarah Stringer
Ivan Toshev U of Ottawa
Chris Pike

We did a less structured practice - a lot of technique.
I then showed some options on using wrist control with set ups and getting your partner off balance.
This let into 50% wrestling with good partnership which let into calm wrestling (meaning wrestling as loose as you can)

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Another “Singlet” Wednesday devoted to matches in preparation for the Concordia Tournament

Clint Kingsbury
Joe Greer
Dean Sherratt

Philip Staniewski
Mariano Santo
Indy Grant
Sarah Stringer
Ben Sayah
Mathieu Deschatelets
Ilya Abelev
Nick Sutherland
Jared Semenchuk
Sohaib Ashraf (Ronin)
Abdullah Faizullah (Ronin)
Nils Rohde

We did a series of six minute matches for the whole practice, after our warm-ups.

Thursday, October 25, 2007

The practice was good, there were 13 of us
Clint Kingsbury and Mike SmithIlya Abelev, Jared Semenchuk, Joe Greer, Ben Sayah (watched), Mathieu Deschatelets, Sarah Stringer, Scott Clark, Phil Staniewski, Ivan Toshev and Indy Grant...
Mike mainly ran the practice as Ben and I put up the foam - it was great…
Saturday, October 27, 2007

We had a great turnout of 26 coaches and wrestlers, as well as several parents at our first Open House:

Clint Kingsbury
Mike Smith
Joe Greer
Dean Stinson O’Gorman
Dean Sherratt
Chris Schrauwen

Geoff Griplas
Jason Kirby

Ben Sayah
Mathieu Deschatelets
Jared Semenchuk
Sarah Stringer
Conor Stinson O’Gorman
Eamonn Stinson O’GormanHaven Holder
Matt Tattersall
Ilya Abelev
Indy Grant
John Goodyear
Nick Sutherland
Nils Rohde
Chris McKenna (Canterbury)
Sean Ryan (Canterbury)
Shamarke Debalke (Hillcrest)
Bruce Gee (Caistor Valley)
Emily Bekolay (All Saints)

Sunday, October 28, 2007

As of right now this is who is going to Concordia Sunday

Clint Kingsbury - Head Coach
Courtnay Lafond - Assistant
Ben Sayah - wrestling
Mathieu Deschatelets - wrestling
Joe Greer - wrestling
Jared Semenchuk- wrestling
Indy Grant - wrestling
Ilya Abelev - wrestling
Michio Clark - watching

Here are the results…

Ben was 4 wins 1 loss - Bronze
Ilya was 2 wins 2 losses - 5th
Jared 1-2
Joe - 0-2
Indy Grant 0-4
Mathieu 0-2
John 0-2

Monday, October 29, 2007

Clint Kingsbury

Ben Sayah
Mathieu Deschatelets
Dean Stinson O’Gorman
Connor Stinson O’Gorman
Eamonn Stinson O’Gorman
Brae
Scott Clark
Ilya Abelev
Sarah Stringer
Phil Staniewski
Mariano Santo
Emily Bekolay

We did a fun warm up with lots of activities and test challenges.
Then I reflected on the tournament
I then went through each incident that was problematic at the tournament and we worked strictly technique and reactions.
Practice ended early due to the tournament on Sunday.

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Tuesday: 9
Clint Kingsbury
Dean Stinson O’Gorman
Connor Stinson O’Gorman
Eamonn Stinson O’Gorman - watched
Ben Sayah
Joe Greer
Ilya Abelev
Mathieu Deschatelets
Scott Clark

Warm up - intense, but quick

Focus of the practice was situations:
First was letting your partner get in to the legs via (high crotch, single, double) and then going live - we did 5 of each
Second was parterre wrestling - 5 goes with different partners.
Third were situations again, but this time one partner started with the leg(s) - depending on the action directed. - 10 goes

During the practice, I was scouting the partners and checking for problems, when I noticed a poor finish or just a lack of knowledge by one or both wrestlers on what to do - I intervened and corrected for every wrestler to see.

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Halloween!

But we still had 12 coaches and wrestlers out…

Clint Kingsbury
Joe Greer
Dean Sherratt
Chris Schrauwen
Courtnay Lafond

Sarah Stringer
Youssef
Ben Sayah
Jairus Bali
Philip Staniewski
Mathieu Deschatelets
Michio Clark

We initially concentrated on hand-fighting with the importance emphasized of getting the initiative first. By this, we are not talking about a leg attack right off the whistle or other move designed to get a fast point. Instead, it is a collar tie-up, shuck or attempt at early wrist control – anything that will throw your opponent off his game and force him to “catch-up”. This will also force your opponent to think on the spot and demoralize or make your opponent defensive minded. The first period should usually see about 20 seconds of this time of activity, leading to a shot once you have set something up. In subsequent periods, depending on how your opponent is reacting (tired?) a fast immediate shot can be effective and also recommended.

Thursday, November 1, 2007

Clint Kingsbury, Ben Sayah, Joe Greer, Jared Semenchuk, Mathieu Deschatelets, Ilya Abelev and a guy named Brad I believe.

Saturday, November 3, 2007

On the weekend of November 3, 2007 the NCWC/Algonquin College had two athletes compete in the first invitation tourney at McMaster University. This was the first year that a Varsity tournament was allowing College athletes to compete. Algonquin College sent Ben Sayah and Mathieu Deschatelets - Coached by Head Coach Clint Kingsbury

Ben Sayah (65 kgs) won 3 matches and 1 loss - taking the Silver Medal
Mathieu Deschatelets (72 kgs) won 3 matches and 1 loss - taking the Bronze Medal.

Saturday, November 3, 3007

We had 10 out for a practice coached by “Big Dean”.

Dean Stinson O’Gorman
Dean Sherratt

Sean Ryan (Canterbury)
Emily Bekolay
John Goodyear
Conor Stinson O’Gorman
Ilya Abelev
Chad Burnham (new, Algonquin)
Geoff Griplas

After a good warm-up, Dean took us through throws, concentrating initially on the shoulder throw (most preferred the Brock version where you drop to one knee) and then reviewed the double overhook throw as a defence to a double underhook applied by your opponent. By over-hooking and pressing your elbows tight to your body, you will force your opponent to break any hold he has around your torso…by throwing your hips in and dropping, twisting towards your head placement, you can take your opponent right to the mat (it also sets up a side pin if you retain control of your opponent’s arms or also a double grapevine for a pin if you just toss a leg over your opponent’s and grapevine both).

We had a series of three minute matches…

Monday, November 5, 2007
The practice was good last night. We had:
Clint Kingsbury, Ben Sayah, Mathieu Deschatelets, Ilya Abelev, Jared Semenchuk, Phil Staniewski, Jairus Bali, Emily Bekolay, Youssef, and Thierry Whalen-Robinson.
We did some heavy warm up with a lot of wrestling activities.
Then we did some reflecting from the tourneys, focusing on leg defense and parterre.
We did 7 sets of each: high crotch, single situations and then we did 6 parterre goes.

Concordia looms ahead on October 28, 2007

dean sherratt — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 23:17:00 +0000

I remind everyone that this coming Saturday, October 27 is an Open House...Here is the notice again...

Open House Saturday October 2710am - 1.30 pmAlgonquin Wrestling RoomInterested Wrestlers of male and female, all ages and abilitiesCome and join us for an Open Practice - you are welcome to participate or just watch!Parents are welcome to find out what wrestling is all about.Starting at noon after the practice join us for refreshments and information about the National Capital Wrestling Club.Meet the coaches, wrestlers and other parents
Our Tournament Season begins the day after the Open House with the October 28 Concordia Tournament in Montreal!

We have had some very good practices of late...

Monday, October 15, 2007

We had:

Clint Kingsbury
Joe Greer
Dean Stinson O’Gorman
Chris Schrauwen
Ben Sayah
Mathieu Deschatelets
Ilya Abelev
Conor and Eamonn SO
Brae
Sarah Stringer
Calvin
New guy - Phil
Chris Pike
Jairus Bali
14

We did lots of on your own technique.
Focused on hand fighting and control - push and pull

Then I went in to elbow control with defending the aggressor…meaning using his/her pushing to pop the elbow and hit the high crotch and/or double.
Using their momentum to take them down.

I then went over defense to the single.

5 parterre goes and 3 matches.

Tuesday October 16, 2007

Joe Greer
Ilya Abelev
Phil - Mississauga
Mathieu Deschatelets
Jairus Bali
Scott Clark

We had a small practice.
Joe worked on situations and defenses to fireman’s carries and also how to do it correctly.
Snapping drills with cross block (like we do off the wall.)
Situationals with conditioning in between (push-ups, sit-ups)
2 par terre goes and 4 matches on the feet.

Wednesday October 17, 2007

We had 13 coaches and wrestlers present:

Clint Kingsbury
Joe Greer
Dean Sherratt

Ben Sayah
Mike Tremblay
Matt Lessard
John Goodyear
Jairus Bali
Ilya Abelev
Mathieu Deschatelets
Indy
Jared Semenchuk
Thierry Whalen-Robinson

In preparation for upcoming tournaments, we had a long warm-up and a series of six minute matches with our wrestlers putting on their singlets. The matches were very intense and pushed our guys to the limits. Most wrestlers were close in size to each other so they got a wide range of opponents.

There were several excellent matches…

John Goodyear against Ben Sayah…
Matt Lessard against Mike Tremblay (an excellent back and forth match with both wrestlers scoring very well. Matt got a great head and arm throw to a long pin while Mike was very good at breaking Matt down with reverse grapevines)
Ilya Abelev against Mike Tremblay (Mike took the first round while Ilya came back to take the last two)
Jared showed great strength and technique in his match against Joe Greer.

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Joe led the practice with 8 coaches and wrestlers.

Saturday, October 20, 2007

An excellent turnout of 19 coaches and wrestlers, led by Mike Smith and Joe Greer:

Mike Smith
Joe Greer
Dean Sherratt
Dean Stinson O’Gorman
Chris Schrauwen

Ben Sayah
Mathieu Deschatelets
Nick Sutherland
Jared Semenchuk
John Goodyear
Nils Rohde
Jairus Bali
Nicole Sidebottom, new, girl from Bell HS
David, new from Chelsea
Conor Stinson O’Gorman
Eamonn Stinson O’Gorman
Haven Holder
Essam and Nuwh (pronounced Noah)

We worked a lot on active ground defense, including a series of drills where we moved left right, forward backwards, up to left or right knee, move back to sit on heels or sit-out.

Then we worked a lot on the gut wrench. Mike likes to have his near leg (say his left) straddle his opponent’s near left leg while his right is forward and pressing into his ribs. You want a deep entry of your left arm underneath your opponent’s torso – this complements Clint’s view that the left hand should go entirely underneath and lock up with the right hand held palm up. Mike wants you to press your right shoulder in the centre of your opponent’s back, literally overcompensating since there will be some slippage as you work him over. You should drive forward and tot eh right at a 45 degree angle, loading your opponent on your right leg as you drive with both legs coiled and bridging on your head.

We finished with several “King of the Mat” groupings…

To Mid-October

dean sherratt — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 22:08:00 +0000

Saturday, October 6, 2007

Joe Greer, Dean Stinson O’Gorman and Mike Smith led the practice…

Mike Smith
Dean Stinson O’Gorman
Joe Greer
Dean Sherratt

Jairus Bali
Justin Millar
Ben Sayah
Ilya Abelev
Sarah Stringer
Conor Stinson O‘Gorman
Eamonn Stinson O’Gorman
Nils Rohde
Jared Semenchuk
John Goodyear

Joe started us off with a new game “Chariots of Fire” where we wheel-barreled about the mat, the barrel trying to trip up opposing barrels. We then did a series of cross-blocks and down blocks – Joe emphasizing the importance of really dropping your levels in terms of how far down you shuck your opponent to be successful.

We continued the leg ride from practices earlier this week. A good way to work in a leg ride is off a defeated or fake gut wrench since your opponent’s counter is to pop his hip up, enabling you to sink your leg in. Once in, you need to push it as high as you can, for example by driving your knee high and nearly into your opponent’s ribs. Joe disagreed with those who argue that you need to lock your foot around your free leg (let’s say your right foot over your free left leg). Joe completes the move by collapsing the far left shoulder with his left arm while cross-facing his opponent over with his right hand and forearm.

Monday, October 8, 2007

Practice was cancelled for Thanksgiving!

Tuesday, October 9, 2007

We had:
Clint Kingsbury
Dean Stinson O’Gorman
Joe Greer
Ben Sayah
Chris Schrauwen
Courtnay Lafond

John Goodyear
Ilya Abelev
Indy
Adam (big)
Conor Stinson O’Gorman
Eamonn Stinson O’Gorman
Brae
Sarah Stringer
Mathieu Deschatelets
Mohammed Assadi
16 total

We did warm up.
Parterre move was the bent knee leg ride to possible gut wrench

We did 6 par terre goes

Standing technique Hand fighting skills - followed by intense 5 30 second goes for each partner.

3 matches

Hard conditioning for 10 min.

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Clint Kingsbury
Courtnay Lafond
Joe Greer
Ben Sayah

Mathieu Deschatelets
Jared Semenchuk
Nick Sutherland
Matt Lessard
Ilya Abelev
Landon Reading
Michio Clark
Thierry Whalen-Robinson
Michael Tremblay

We worked a lot of review technique, then hand fighting skills.
I worked on the snap single from standing.
Then parterre technique was the 'Deschatelets Leg ride' Ironic Mathieu is in the room...

We then did 5 parterre goes and followed by 3 matches.

Conditioning at the end....

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Clint Kingsbury
Joe Greer
Ben Sayah
Mathieu Deschatelets
Jared Semenchuk
Indy
Nick Sutherland
Sarah Stringer
Chris Schrauwen
Scott Clark
Jairus Bali
Mohammed Assadi
Josh Clarke

We did a personal warm up - I decided to have them work on their own thing.
Then i went over defense to 2on1 - with counter attack
-Defend 2on1 - go to under hook to single
Then to double
Then to knee tap

We then went over front headlock again - quickly (mostly for the big guys)

We then did 4 parterre goes,
Followed by;
3 matches…

Conditioning at the end…

Saturday, October 13

We had 12 attending and worked on scenarios with a two on one and underhook that lead to ankle picks…at the end, post-cheer, I distributed some nice “Talmon Sweet” apples to our members…

Dean Stinson O’Gorman
Dean Sherratt
Mike Smith (cameo)

Chris “Pike”
John Goodyear
Matt Tattersall
John Tattersall (Matt’s uncle)
Daryl Hartley
Ilya Abelev
Nils Rohde
Conor Stinson O’Gorman
Eamonn Stinson O’Gorman

Dean’s first move comes off of a partially successful duck under. He reinforced the need for a good duck-under to involve dropping levels as well as elevating your opponent’s arm. If you partially turn the corner, but can’t get all the way behind your opponent, you can turn this move into a successful takedown by lifting your opponent up by the near leg and far collar and tabling him on your extended knee.

Another option to have in mind is a fake or weak side duck under followed by a duck under on the other side if it is blocked (often blocking one side will open up the other).

We then moved to underhooks (assuming for example that you execute a left side underhook). If you can apply a left side underhook and grasp your opponent’s far wrist with your right hand, you can draw him forward and then shoot for an ankle pick by abandoning the wrist. Driving into your opponent, you can elevate his leg but you will often land in between his legs rather than swinging around to the outside (and thereby “t-ing off”).

Dean’s last move is one that he likes to utilize…From a two on one, you swing your near leg from front to back and slice your opponent’s near leg backwards as you ankle pick his far leg with your far hand.

We did an overhook/underhook situational before switching to matches…

Dean went for a 2 minute “greco style” match and then several sets of “freestyle” two minute matches…

Into October...

dean sherratt — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 00:16:00 +0000

Despite the onset of "September" sicknesses that have dampened attendance from time to time, we have progressed quickly with conditioning and picking up our technique...

As a reminder, we practice tomorrow, Saturday, October 6 but not Thanksgiving Monday, October 8...

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Clint, Mike, Joe, Ben, Mathieu, Sarah, Thierry, Courtnay, Landon Reading & Mariano Santo…

Practice was good, small but lots of focus.
hard warm up,
we did technique and then went into new/review move
-underhook knee tap from standing. very explosive move.

we did 8 par terre goes, getting better on the defense

3 matches, then we did jogging for warm-down/conditioning, but we did king of the mat-winner stays in during - i was picking people out continuously to wrestler the winner.
Joe was mostly the winner.

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

We had 9 attending…

Clint Kingsbury
Joe Greer
Dean Sherratt

Justin Millar
Matt Lessard
Khris Paquette (observed)
Mathieu Deschatelets
Ben Sayah
Joirus Bali
Adam

We went through a few situationals…single leg, high crotch and double leg takedowns and then concentrated on hand-fighting.

Thursday, September 27, 2008

Clint Kingsbury, Courtnay, Ben, Jared, Ilya, Michio, little Chris (Colonel By)
We did an extensive warm up made up of memory and activity.

- Sets of shadow movements: single, sprawl, high crotch, shoulder throw/roll, back extension, high hop, double leg, front roll, bunny hop.
It was interesting seeing them try to do it continuously in this order and remembering. They liked the challenge

We then worked on leg defense - single, high crotch and double - the entire practice. -

Saturday, September 29

We had 13 attending…

Clint Kingsbury
Joe Greer
Dean Sherratt

Ben Sayah
Nick Denis
Mustafa
Matthew Tattersall
Adam Wiacek, new Algonquin, about 180 lbs
Andrew Bujold, new, Algonquin, about 315 lbs
Ilya Abelev
Nils Rohde
Jared Semenchuk
Joirus Bali

This was a tough conditioning practice…warm-up, practice and cool-down all included.

Clint explored a number of themes in the practice…the first was the importance of planning a string of moves rather than just one at a time…for example, starting with a high crotch shot…be prepared to exploit typical weaknesses or counter your opponent’s typical reactions without having to stall your progress towards a takedown.

We worked a lot on good high crotch technique…always be light on your lead foot, quickly bring your trail leg around and keep your hands low on your opponent’s leg…i.e. below the knee. Some wrestlers will want to finish on their knees but Clint prefers to get back to his feet as he drives his opponent from the side.

A good counter to a high crotch is for you to hook your caught leg around your opponent’s lead or attack leg (while also leaning your weight into him). A counter to this counter is to plant your hand on your opponent’s upper thigh and then pick him right off the mat “high crotch pick”.

Also, in a single leg situation and your leg is caught and your opponent is in deep, grasp his lead leg while you kick back with yours. You will find that holding his leg will give you more power than just kicking alone…

Monday, October 1, 2007

We had me, Ben, Ilya, and Joirus Bali, Adam (big), Torn McFayden, Mooky Khalil, Sarah, Landon, Mathieu, Calvin and Courtnay
12 total.We did a lot of parterre technique, worked on transition and experimentation.
We then did matches 3
Tuesday, October 2, 2007

Dean Stinson O’Gorman led an excellent practice with 17 attending…

Conor, Eamonn, Brae, Josh Menezes, Kaitlyn Dewitt, Sarah Stringer, Thierry Whalen Robinson, Mathieu Deschatelets, Ben Sayah, Nick Sutherland, Chris Schrauwen, Ilya Abelev. Joe and I coaching. Two new guys showed up and want to join, both first-year students at U of O I think. Lots of work on the ground - various situational drills, emphasis on both ground defence and offence. A couple of standing matches at the end, followed by two intense games of British bulldog.

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

We had 11 coaches and wrestlers out…

Clint Kingsbury
Joe Greer
Dean Sherratt
Ben Sayah
Chris Schrauwen

Sarah Stringer
Calvin Bertrand
Matt Lessard
Mathieu Deschatelets
Jared Semenchuk
Mookey Khalil

We worked a lot on various options derived from the two-on-one and the shuck-down…

The two-one-one typically sets up a single leg attack if your opponent doesn’t attempt to counter. His counters will typically be to square up to the attacking wrestler and push against his head, shoulder or arm…In these cases, you can “counter his counter” by keep progressing into him, popping his outside arm up and lower your levels right into a high crotch. If he fails to make these counters, just proceed to a single leg.

The shuck down can often topple an unbalanced opponent right to his knees, but a good wrestler might recover and drop to a tripod position. A good exploitation of this position is to move to an “outside high crotch”. You will typically shuck towards one side…to exploit, you then step forward with your far outside leg (i.e. the other side) and high crotch “capture” that leg with your arms. You can finish by grasping his far ankle (if not too far) or reach underneath his torso with your near arm and drive him right to his back.

Another shuck can also set up a nice front headlock throw…

Thursday, October 4

We had:
Clint Kingsbury
Courtnay Lafond
Joe Greer
Jared Semenchuk
Ilya Abelev
Adam (Big)
Marc Griplas
John Goodyear
Joe Goodyear (watched)
Landon Reading

We worked on experimentation with techniques - transitions to the next step, to see what feels comfortable.
We worked on parterre:
I introduced the 'Leg Ride' we worked on this for 40min, as it is difficult if not performed properly

This was followed by 3 stand-up goes.

Mid-September Notes

dean sherratt — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 00:15:00 +0000

Thursday, September 13, 2007

We had a good night, mostly technique and situations, 2 matches.
I focused on parterre defense - especially gut wrench.
Me, Courtnay, Ben, Chris, Ilya, John, Mooky, Jamie, Sarah

Saturday, September 15, 2007

We had a very good turnout of 16 coaches and wrestlers:

Clint Kingsbury
Joe Greer
Dean Stinson O’Gorman
Dean Sherratt
Ben Sayah

Conor Stinson O’Gorman
Eamonn Stinson O’Gorman
Marc Griplas
Landon reading
Ilya Abelev
Mike Tremblay
Brae Walker
Mike Tattersall
John Goodyear
Nils Rohde
Nick Sutherland

Our practice centered on a series of scenarios based on standing wrestling:

“Single Leg – Pigeon-toed”
“High Crotch off the butt”
“High Crotch standing”

Monday, September 17, 2007

It was good both days.
.
Monday 17people
Me, Ben, Courtnay, Mathieu, Jamie, Sarah, Chris, Michio, Nick, Calvin, Indy, new people: Jairus Bali, Sean, Ryan (Kemptville) - Connor, Eamonn, Brae.

Each day was made up of a lot of Technique. drilling
we went over reactions - action re action of shots (re-shots)
secondary movements, what to do if you get stopped on the initial shot, single, high crotch and or double.
Monday we did matches,
Tuesday we did 15 par terre goes and no stand up matches.

Tuesday, September 18

11 people
Me, Mathieu, John, Michio, Chris, Jamie, Nick, Jared, Ilya, Mooky, Mike Smith

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Another impressive attendance of 18 coaches and wrestlers…

Clint Kingsbury
Joe Greer
Dean Stinson O’Gorman
Dean Sherratt
Ben Sayah

Mooky Khalil
Mathew Lessard
Neil Judge
Sarah Stringer
Jamie Helmer
Mathieu Deschatelets
Brae
Conor Stinson O’Gorman
Eamonn Stinson O’Gorman
Torin
Nick Sutherland
Ilya Abelev
Jared Semenchuk

The practice was devoted to the delights of the front headlock…This is a move that is popular at Brock University and can be an excellent counter to a botched shot by your opponent.

You must lock your hands around your opponent’s head and arm (typically his left arm). The best grip is palm to palm with “no thumbs” separately interlocked. The “chin arm” is glued to your ribs since your opponent can wreck the move by poking his head out. For that same reason, your “arm - arm” is also relatively tight and leaving no exploitable hole. You are pressuring your opponent and pressing your chin in the small of his back. The move is quickly executed once you get this set-up…You step into your opponent with your “chin-side leg” leading…the trail leg moves in immediately thereafter (giving you a “seated position”) as you heft your opponent up and throw him to your chin side. The pressure created is intense and your opponent will want to be thrown if the move is properly executed. It is important not to stop at the lock-up stage but throw promptly.

Your opponent’s options to counter are…free his head to either side, drop to the mat or pry your wrist from pressuring the side of his neck..

Thursday, September 20

We had
Ben, Me, Jared, Michio, Sarah, Nils, Jamie, Chris, Nick, Matt Lessard, Matt Tattersall...
Chris Galley - a new kid from Canterbury HS.

technique - showed how to get the trail leg for a high crotch.
showed arm drag to high crotch - review.
showed arm drag to single - new.

We did 15 parterre goes - working on parterre defence.
2 matches…

Saturday, September 22

We had 15 with Mike Smith leading…

Mike Smith
Joe Greer
Dean Sherratt

Nick Denis
Marc Griplas
Ilya Abelev
Sarah Stringer
Mathieu Deschatelets
John Goodyear
Haven
Justin Millar (new, St. Marks, grade 9)
Jairus Bali (new Algonquin)
Mustafa Khalil (new, from Ronin, brother of Mooky!)
Daryl Hartley
Nils Rohde

We reviewed the options of redirecting single leg and high crotch shots by utilizing your opponent’s own momentum and also blocking his double leg shots. In the former cases, you need to step back with the leg being attacked. In the case of double legs, you need to have your legs well bent so they can scoot back a couple of inches as you dump your opponent in front of you. The consequence of an opponent failing consistently to score off shots is demoralization - he will freeze up and enhance the likelihood that your shots will work on him.

Mike then worked on the gut wrench while I presented introductory technique to Justin Millar.

Monday, September 24, 2007

14 at practice…

We had:
Ben Sayah
Clint Kingsbury
Courtnay Lafond
Big Dean
Mathieu Deschatelets
Nick - tall
Conor Stinson O’Gorman
Eamonn Stinson O’Gorman
Josh little
Brae
Jairus Bali
His friend Adam - big guy
two Brookfield – Scott Doucette and Jenny

We did lots of review technique – re-shots
reviewed gut wrench again
cross ankle was really focused on - body position and movements and what you do if your opponent reacts in different ways.

followed by 4 parterre goes

then 3 stand up matches - 5 min each.

Rocking into September...

dean sherratt — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 23:22:00 +0000

September 4, 2007

We had a very good turnout for early September of 21 wrestlers and coaches:

Clint Kingsbury
Mike Smith
Dean Stinson O’Gorman
Ben Sayah
Dean Sherratt
Chris Schrauwen
Courtnay Lafond

Mathieu Deschatelets (Algonquin)
Matthew Lessard (Algonquin)
Sarah Stringer
Michio Clark
Mariano Santo
Matthew Tattersall
Conor Stinson O’Gorman
Eamonn Stinson O’Gorman
Jared Semenchuk
John Goodyear
Landon Reading
Nick Sutherland
Indy Grant
Connor Rockwell

Clint went over good technique in setting up shots. Right from the start he emphasized looseness in locking up since a stiff and muscular lock-up will telegraph exactly when you are going to take your shot. When locking up, it is useful to lean your elbow on your opponent’s forearm, rather than grasp it tightly. When executing your single leg, draw your opponent’s leg in with your hands grasping low so he cannot bend his leg or whizzer you.

If you snap your opponent down, you can ensure an easier “get around” by scissor stepping your legs (far leg first) while manipulating his body by grasping his shoulders, hips and armpits…This will destabilize him and drop him to his stomach where he cannot stop your go behind.

We went onto situationals – gut wrench – cross ankle - single leg (one knee on mat) – high crotch (one knee on mat) and finished with several sets of matches…

September 5, 2007

By the way Last night was absolutely fantastic for a second day turnout:
We had so many in the room. We will need to get that other mat ASAP.
Clint, Dean SO, Joe Greer(late, but there), Chris Schrauwen, Ben Sayah, Mathieu Deschatelets, Ilya Abelev, Jared Semenchuk, John Goodyear, Josh Clarke, Adam MacFayden and Torn MacFayden, Youssef, Thierry Whalen-Robinson, Nicole(new Algonquin student), Connor, Eamonn, Tomio Clark, Michio Clark, Patrick (visiting from Germany - very good), Indy(Algonquin heavy weight) =21- i think i got everyone.

It was hard but we got through a hard scrimmage practice, with some heavy duty fitness.

September 10, 2007

Anyways Monday practice was awesome.
25 people:
Ben, John, Chris, Mathieu, Me, Courtnay, Big Dean, Michio, Sarah, Ginette Tremblay, Eamonn, Conor, Youssef, (his friend Randall), Bram (from Chelsea, came with Big Dean) Adam and Torn MacFayden, Nicole, Nick, Indy, now new people: Algonquin students: Ryan(70kg), Ryan from Kemptville, Calvin, Brandon, Landon (promising)
We did lots of technique, then went in to new techniques,
My power half with variations (Sammie Henson model - World Champ/Olympic Silver 55kg) - they all liked it. - very painful.

We then did parterre matches 5 ( in three groups due to numbers)
Then we did 3 matches. was awesome having so many.

September 11, 2007

Last night we had:
Mike, Ben, Jon, Mathieu, Patrick (German), Jared, Ilya, Michio, Jamie (girl), Nicole, Joe, Indy and ME.

We did much technique, standing mostly - I introduced my single to double -which was very effective with me as a senior athlete.

We did situations - legs

Parterre goes, and then 3 matches.

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Another rocking practice with 21 wrestlers and coaches attending, including…

Clint Kingsbury
Dean Stinson O’Gorman
Dean Sherratt
Ben Sayah
Chris Schrauwen

Thierry Whalen-Robinson
Sarah Stringer
Jamie Hayden
Mathieu Deschatelets
Michio Clark
Conor Stinson O’Gorman
Eamonn Stinson O’Gorman
Brae Walker
Nils Rohde
Torn MacFayden
Joshua Clarke
Mookey Khalil (new, Algonquin)
Calvin Bertrand (new, Algonquin)
Nick Sutherland
Patrick Loes

After warm-ups, Clint worked us through how to complete takedown tries when they are partially blocked by your opponent. In the case of a single leg, where your opponent successfully sprawls, it is important not to give up the caught leg (he will sprawl both legs back and put his weight on you) and also not to reach around for the opponent’s waist (this gives him a perfect whizzer).

Instead, you have three options…

The first is to try to get to your feet and drive into your opponent in a double leg. By getting to your feet, you prevent him from sprawling further and you can drive right into him for the double leg…NB, your head will slide from the inside tot eh opposite side of your opponent.

The second is to circle to the side, plant your near leg across his near leg and then grasp either his ankle or knee (but not the waist). That, in turn, will set up a nice cross ankle…

The last is to post your elbow on the mat and pivot on it, pulling inwards and pressuring him on the caught leg.

Then we worked on the “gut wrench fake”. This involves attempting a gut wrench on your weak side and getting your opponent to counter it by throwing out his leg to block…slide your arms around his torso so they are now in position for the strong side and just hip over and work the gut wrench from that angle. This will result in a much tighter grip and also have your opponent out of position to counter.

We finished with several sets of matches in groups of three, set to “Kingsbury Standard Time”

On into September...

dean sherratt — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 19:41:00 +0000

Monday, August 20, 2007

Monday was good.

We had:

Clint Kingsbury
Ben Sayah
Courtnay Lafond
Joe Greer
Josh Menezes
Josh Clarke
John Goodyear
Alex Brown
Michio Clark
Ilya Abelev
2 more Algonquin students: Chars and Matt
12 total
We did a lot of technique, focusing on elbow control and open shots.
Fake high crotch on weak side to attack high crotch on strong side all to double finish.

We did parterre gut and x ankle - then some parterre wrestling

Did 3 matches. Followed by lots of conditioning with wrestling involved through out.

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Practice was good.
Me, Courtnay, Ben, Ilya, little Josh, Joe, Michio, Amy L. (Alex?)
We did lots of technique, went in to drilling – high crotch, single, doubles on the feet and then on the but.
We did lots of conditioning between each drill - getting them use to wrestling when tired.
parterre wrestling goes - 4
pinning goes - head and arm
game type drills - ankle slap, etc

2 matches
conditioning at the end
with over times.

Saturday August 25

A good practice with 10 compatible coaches and wrestlers:

Joe Greer
Dean Sherratt
Ben Sayah

Nigel Sayah
Roman Roshkov (new)
Geoff Griplas
Ilya Abelev
Josh Menezes
Nils Rohde
Essam

Our technique started with a review of the Whizzer defence to single leg attacks. The Whizzer is an “overhook” on your opponent’s near arm when you cannot free your caught leg. The Whizzer creates a lot of pressure on your opponent’s shoulder and you should primarily use it to free your caught leg, although once free, pushing away at your opponent’s head can enable you to work behind him and get a takedown.

We then reviewed ground defences to a gut wrench…breaking your opponent’s hand grip and moving forward, as well as anticipating the direction of his gut wrench and sitting on your opposite hip to stop it.

Monday August 27

Went well.
Me, Ben, Chris(back), Sarah(back) Michio, Yousif, the McFadden brothers (Adam and Torn), new kid - Nick Sutherland from Gloucester and Ilya. Dean Stinson, Conor and Eamonn and Nils
+ special guest - Jamie Macari

reviewed front headlock situations - legs and snaps.
doubles, snaps and go behinds.

situations - legs - singles, doubles, high crotch, parterre

technique Gut wrenches

matches - 3

Tuesday, August 28

Ben, Joe, Erica, Ilya, Josh. Clint

We did a lot of review technique. and lots of situational drilling and matches.
thanks

Wednesday, August 29

A really good turnout with 18 coaching and wrestling…

Clint Kingsbury
Dean Sherratt
Joe Greer
Ben Sayah
Chris Schrauwen
Courtnay Lafond

Anthony Nesrallah
Thierry Whalen-Robinson
Erica Wiebe
Michio Clark
Tamio Clark
Adam MacFayden
Torn MacFayden
Nick Sutherland (Gloucester)
Joshua Clarke
Youseff
Jared Semenchuk
Sarah Stringer

The practice featured a lot of technique starting with an alternative gut wrench set up…Starting on top, you reach across and grasp your opponent’s far ankle and pull it across towards you so you can slide your far arm underneath your opponent and also load him on your hip…switch sides and lock hands and you can go for a fast and very tight gut wrench. Remember always to plant your gut wrench side knee very high (literally “stepping into your opponent’s armpit”) to reload him on your hip…

For a high gut wrench and when your opponent is resisting your arm entries, try just sitting on his butt and yanking his far arm really high to create the space to insert your far arm…

We also learned a nice quick tilt…When in the approximate “par terre” position, grasp your opponent’s opposite far thigh and near biceps while planting your foot underneath his near ankle. Pull towards yourself but angled forward and load him on your hips, kicking up with your hooked ankle. You can keep control or just kick him away and take the two. If the former, you have a great chance to trap his arm and then either try again or “T-off” to the side to set up a pin…

Thursday, August 30

Thursday was good.
less people, so lots of Technique
Ben, Joe, Ilya, Jared, Brant Marrin and me.
parterre goes,
situations - legs, pins, x ankles, gut wrenches.
2 matches
conditioning
Clint

Saturday, September 1, 2007

We had an excellent turnout today with 17 coaches and wrestlers:

Clint Kingsbury
Mike Smith
Dean Stinson O’Gorman
Ben Sayah
Chris Schrauwen
Dean Sherratt

Nick Sutherland
Sarah Stringer
Mike Tremblay
Ilya Abelev
Matthew, William and Sheyanne
Conor and Eamonn
Nils Rohde
Joshua Menezes
Haven

Mike Smith reviewed “first line defence” by using hands to block your opponent’s attacks but also using his momentum to redirect his single leg or high crotch attacks to the side…pulling your attacked leg back to dump your opponent there. For a double leg attack, a good first line defence will involve a quick hop back and dropping your opponent right in front of you…All can be exploited by circling to get the takedown off your opponent’s shot.

Remember in tie-ups don’t waste energy and also “telegraph” to your opponent by keeping a tight hold…A looser hold will save energy and give you more surprise…

Clint then turned to underhooks…

A good way to lock on an underhook is to reach for his collar and pull him towards you. He will instinctively reach up with his far arm and open up an underhook. Underhooks classically lead to single legs but Clint reviewed several other ways to exploit them…

Having got the underhook, using the hand that is holding his collar, make a fake single leg try and then as he pulls the leg back, swing right into a high crotch on the opposite side.

Another underhook sets up a fake single leg and then a snap-down into a front head and arm.

Grabbing the far waist can set up a fake single leg so your opponent turns right into you to execute a hip toss to the mat.

Grabbing the far waist and a fake near single leg can also set up a far knee tap and running right into your opponent to drop him tot eh mat from the angle created by the underhook.

A common defence to an underhook is to lean into your opponent…push your head forward and whizzer his underhook while grasping his free wrist…

If your opponent does this then you sit low and circle around aggressively with your underhook forming the pivot for the circular movement. He should quickly lose balance and set up a takedown…

But Clint’s main underhook move was the “Metzker”…You have an underhook and grab his free wrist. Pull him into you to square him off…The underhook moves to his back while you step into him with a high crotch and underhook his leg with your free hand, lift him up and take him to his back…A less stressful version is to step into the high crotch, block his knee and take him down…Your head position is like a single leg…tight to his abdomen…

We then did situationals…

-Cross Ankle with hands on knees…If your opponent is blocking your move, pick up his legs and step back, slamming the legs down and move to the side and a cross ankle.

-Gut Wrench…

-“Anything Goes” on bottom…

-Single leg on butt…the defender wants to pull the attacker into him and bury his head in his abdomen…Ditto with a high crotch situational where you can block by squaring the head to your belly.

Ended with several sets of 3 minute matches...

Into August...

dean sherratt — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 19:56:00 +0000

Our turnouts have been quite good and shows signs of picking up in early August...Here are my recent notes...

Thursday, July 26, 2007

There was Clint, Jared, Ben, Michio, Jason and Youssef El-Trabulsi and we did was technique, Clint went over new moves we drilled them - no wrestling live.

Wednesday, August 1, 2007

We had 11 attending…

Joe Greer
Dean Sherratt
Ben Sayah
Courtnay Lafond

Alex Brown!
Amy Laidlaw
Mariano Santo
Michio Clark
Antonio Clark (Michio’s brother)
Thierry Whalen-Robinson
Youssef El-Trabulsi

We reviewed various techniques, including a variation that Joe like’s of using a gut wrench to set-up a leg ride which can be used to return to either a gut wrench or Olympic lift…

Saturday, August 4, 2007

Cancelled for power failure (planned outage)

Monday, August 6, 2007

Cancelled for power failure (planned outage)

Tuesday, August 7, 2007

Clint Kingsbury, Matthew Tattersall-Boros, William Tattersall-Boros, plus Joe, Ben, John and Josh.
we did many situations focusing on defensive strategies and offensive strategies.
we did lots of water wrestling - getting the legs at 80%
then did matches- king of the mat first to 3 points for 30min
followed by conditioning.

Wednesday, August 8, 2007

We had an excellent turnout of some 16 coaches and wrestlers…

Clint Kingsbury
Mike Smith
Joe Greer
Dean Stinson O’Gorman
Dean Sherratt
Ben Sayah

Alistair Gordon
Ilya Abelev
Thierry Whalen-Robinson
Brandon Moi (University of Waterloo)
John Goodyear
Eamonn Stinson O’Gorman
Conor Stinson O’Gorman
Jared Semenchuk
Youssef El-Trabulsi
Joshua Clarke

Clint worked us through a lot of standing technique…

The two on one was reviewed, emphasizing the importance of head placement. Good placement…aggressively against the side of your opponent’s head, will force him to over-extend his far arm if he reaches across you to push your far arm away from his caught arm…and thereby set up a counter-counter throw by you when he does…

A two on one can also be exploited by reaching behind and taking hold of your opponent’s far lat muscle, setting up a drag down for an easy one point. If he resists being dragged down, you can also use your near leg to kick his above the knee from front to back as you turn in on him…setting up a nice half nelson as you land on him already “T-ing” off.

When you execute a single leg, do not reach in front of your opponent to try to “double-up” as this can set-up a whizzer throw by your opponent. Instead, pull him in front of you with chest pressure and then drive through him with a double leg.

Clint also demonstrated the most interesting (and I thought near impossible) front head and arm to a fireman’s carry! Here you retain control of the chin as you step into your opponent and seize his far leg…this will bend him over you, face looking towards the ceiling, as you pitch him to the mat in the direction of his head.

Saturday, August 11, 2007

We had an intense practice with considerable ground technique…

Clint Kingsbury
Joe Greer
Dean Stinson O’Gorman
Dean Sherratt
Ben Sayah

Joshua Clarke
Mike Tremblay
Conor Stinson O’Gorman
Nils Rohde
John Goodyear

During warm-ups, Clint encouraged, of course, practicing perfect technique…for example…in various takedowns, but also emphasized that if your shot goes awry take advantage by switching to a different finish rather than giving up on the botched move. In turn, your opponent should be working with you to enable you to perfect technique, by utilizing (without resistance) the reasonable counters and proper stance that you should expect in a live match.

Turning to the fireman’s carry, Clint emphasized the importance of arm control, which is central to this throw. Avoid seizing control of the arm late in your set-up and also seizing the wrist rather than upper triceps, since the former will reduce the power and torque of your throw.

Clint’s new technique is the deadly “reverse chicken wing” which I have not seen in five years of freestyle (and which has some comparison with the “threading the needle” folkstyle wrestling move). You start the move after a takedown and you are on top of your opponent. Using both hands, grip your opponent’s left arm (for example) and pulling it in and retaining control by the wrist. You will have the wrist pulled behind in a “hammerlock” style grip. Be sure that your control keeps the arm angled at greater than 45 degrees. It is good to also trap the hand underneath your opponent’s ribs, rather than planted over his back. You can keep your opponent down by sitting on his trapped elbow as you turn in front of him…planting your knees to fix his head and then using your free hand to armbar his trapped arm and pull up on the armbar which will force him right to his back. “T-off” to the side as you cover him for a pin attempt.

Notes for July 12-25, 2007

dean sherratt — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 23:19:00 +0000

Saturday, July 14, 2007

We had 12 attending…

Clint Kingsbury
Courtnay Lafond
Ben Sayah
Joe Greer
Dean Sherratt

Sarah Stringer
Geoff Griplas
Marc Griplas
Matthew Tattersall-Boros
William Tatterslall-Boros
Brandon McCloskey
Wais

I taught some basics to Matthew, William, Brandon and Wais (three takedowns and one ground move) and we finished with some live “challenge” matches between the four.

Wednesday, July 14, 2007

Clint Kingsbury
Joe Greer
Chris Schrauwen
Dean Stinson O‘Gorman
Dean Sherratt

Jared Semenchuk
Sarah Stringer
Conor Stinson O’Gorman
Eamonn Stinson O’Gorman
John Goodyear
Jason Papailiadis
Youssef El-Trabulsi

During warm-ups, Clint introduced a new exercise, “down blocks” where you defend a single leg attack by kicking your attacked leg smartly behind your stationary leg so your opponent can’t chase it while using your opposite hand to deflect your opponent’s head towards the gap created by the leg kicking back.
.
Clint worked mostly on ground moves – starting with the gut wrench defence. He emphasized keeping your arms off the elbows and at a 45 degree angle, sitting on your hips (not thighs) and keeping your leg straight (not bent) will make it virtually impossible for your opponent to turn you in a gut wrench.

We also worked on chest pressure off a single leg attack. Clint doesn’t move his head or chest when applying chest pressure…instead, he uses his arms to suck the leg in while his legs circle and dump his opponent in the space created.

When trying a two on one, keep your head pressuring your opponent as you move into the single leg. When you go from a two on one to a fireman’s carry (because your opponent has pulled his near leg back, you will need to take a step towards that leg to ensure that you can capture it as you drop in between his arm and leg.

A counter to the two on one is for the opponent to get his elbow high and then squaring off.

Monday, July 23, 2007

Monday was great:
There was me, Ben, Chris (who hurt his shoulder, not sure if ok - will find out), Courtnay, John, Jason, Brandon (from Ronin – 60 kgs), Youssef, Sarah, Joe and 2 new others – John’s friends Matt and Dan-I think

We did a hard warm up - all dynamic - including stretches.
technique - 15 min on entrances to the legs using numerous set ups - underhook, 2on1, inside control
15 min technique right to takedown - single, high crotch and double - using set ups
then firemen, head & arm, shoulder throws - off set ups - i went through them
firemen off 2on1, head & arm off 2on1 & inside control, shoulder throw off inside control with fake to legs first.

Introduced new move, a front headlock taken to a knee tap. (defensive wrestler on knees)

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

There was a good turnout of some 12 wrestlers:

Clint Kingsbury
Joe Greer
Ben Sayah
Chris Schrauwen (?)

a friend of Chris’s (?)
Youssef
Michio Clark
Daryl Hartley
Geoff Griplas
John Goodyear
Dan
Matt

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

A pretty good turnout on a hot summer’s day…

Clint Kingsbury
Mike Smith
Joe Greer
Dean Stinson O’Gorman
Dean Sherratt
Ben Sayah
Courtnay Lafond

Conor Stinson O’Gorman
Eamonn Stinson O’Gorman
Youssef El-Trabulsi
Thierry Whalen-Robinson
Michio Clark
Antonio Clark
Jared Semenchuk

After warm-ups, Clint demonstrated techniques to get behind and break your opponent down from a front head and arm. The head and arm is a good counter to an opponent’s leg attack…its basic features are putting as much weight on your opponent with legs sprawled back, head pushing into his back, and elbows in tightly so he can’t push his head through to either side. Your grip is typically on the chin and an anchor on the armpit.

The first way of moving to take control is the “scissor step”. Keeping your hands on your opponent but rotating your hand grips, you open your hips and step tot eh side, swinging your hips so your outside leg pivots to become your inside leg as you place yourself at the side of your opponent and begin to break him down to his stomach. The scissor step prevents your opponent from trying to grasp your leg as you work to the side. Execute the move quickly with few steps as these open you up to your opponent’s counter. When gripping your opponent, do not go too far over as this may set up an elbow roll if your arms drape over the far side of your opponent.

The “front head and arm to a double leg” is a neat move…Starting from the head and arm stance (left hand on chin, right on armpit) you reach forward with your right hand to grasp your opponent’s left leg. Moving to that side, you then abandon the chin and reach underneath with your left hand and grasp your opponent’s far right leg and then driving him to his back with what is now a double leg attack.

Equally useful and even easier is the “front head and arm to ankle pick”…your opponent may resist having his near leg grasped by you and move it back…sensing him doing so, you then retain your chinlock and use your attacking right arm to grasp his far ankle (you need to move to the side to do this, unless you are very lanky). With chin and far ankle, you can drive your opponent right to his back…

Clint got us to do speed drills…first, as many high crotches and double legs as possible, then head snap speed drills where you anchor your opponent with one hand, fake an attack and then head snap him down to his knees.

3 + 1 minute matches finished the practice…

Early July Practices - Canada Cup Results

dean sherratt — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 23:06:00 +0000

At the Canada Cup (pre-Juniors) held on the July 7/8 weekend at Guelph. We entered four wrestlers, coached by Chris Schrauwen in his debut and Clint Kingsbury:

Erica Wiebe, Silver!
John Goodyear, Bronze
Michio Clark and Sarah Stringer also wrestled well in this first “international” competition, stiffer even than Nationals!

Ilya Abelev also got 5th place at Judo Nationals!

Monday, July 2, 2007

A holiday practice which was well-attended by 12 wrestlers and coaches, including Chris Schrauwen, newly installed NCWC coach!

Clint Kingsbury
Dean Sherratt
Chris Schrauwen
Courtnay Lafond
Dean Stinson O’Gorman

Sarah Stringer
Michio Clark
Jason Papailiadis
Chris Jans
John Goodyear
Darren Hartley
Conor Stinson O’Gorman

NB Ilya Abelev got 5th place at Judo Nationals!

Clint worked a lot on “fake” single legs and how they can be exploited. Different variations included a fake single leg (but realistic…grasp the leg) that lures your opponent to pull back his attacked leg, thereby setting up a shuck or a high crotch follow-up…

Clint also showed how you can “power-up” your double legs and high crotches by taking an extra step and remaining on your feet in your exploitation of the move.

Tuesday, July 3, 2007

[Clint Kingsbury] Hi Dean, Practice was good - very intensive, lots of wrestling and conditioning

Attendance:
Me, Courtnay Lafond, Ben Sayah, Chris Schrauwen, Geoff Griplas, John Goodyear, Jason Papailiadis, Michio Clark, Sarah Stringer, Joe Greer, Jared Semenchuk, Connor Rockwell, Thierry Whalen-Robinson, + a new person Brandon

Wednesday, July 4, 2007

A second very intensive practice led by Clint…

Clint Kingsbury
Joe Greer
Dean Sherratt
Chris Schrauwen
Ben Sayah

Barkley Logan
Michio Clark
Jason Papailiadis
Sarah Stringer
Jennifer Blodgett
Chris Jans
Ike Chiplick
Adam MacFayden

The practice included some incredible conditioning, but the wrestlers flummoxed Clint by our ability to hold in place for a very extended push-up session…after at least two minutes, Clint gave up when only a couple dropped to the mat from the strain.

Clint reviewed the hand grip used by Brock University in gut wrenches. Assuming you gut wrench to the right you slide your left arm almost entirely underneath your opponent and lock it (palm down) at a right angle against your right hand (palm up). When executing the gut wrench you pull your left arm up, creating the torque needed to turn your opponent, while the right arm remains stationary (through you also drive your right shoulder into your opponent).

Clint noted when in “down” position the importance of both keeping off your elbows (especially when defending the gut wrench) and also defending against arm bars. Once your opponent gets an armbar, or grasps a wrist, it is probable that he will get a tilt so you need to fight hard to either protect or free your arm or wrist. In this case you need to use your spare hand to either break his grip or grasp your caught hand and push it in front of you.

Thursday, July 5, 2007

[Ben Sayah in his solo practice coaching debut] Practice went well for four people showing up. I was the coach and we warmed up as usual, worked on moves that we mostly knew from standing and down. A lot of scrimmaging was in order with cardio sessions in between. Scrimmaging was from both ground and standing positions. We wrapped up with, what I hoped to be, a tough conditioning finish.

People that attended...

Geoff, his brother Mark, myself and someone whom I forgot his name... He is around 220 Pounds.

Note: Saiied, a wrestler from Iran, showed up near the end of practice. He has coached the club previously especially on greco moves.

Saturday, July 7, 2007

We had a surprisingly good turnout of 11, considering that six wrestlers and coaches were at the Canada Cup (pre-Juniors) held on the weekend at Guelph. We entered four wrestlers, coaching by Chris Schrauwen in his debut and Clint Kingsbury:

Erica Wiebe, Silver!
John Goodyear, Bronze
Michio Clark and Sarah Stringer also wrestled well in this first “international” competition, stiffer even than Nationals!

Our practice was led by Joe Greer:

Joe Greer
Dean Stinson O’Gorman
Dean Sherratt
Courtnay Lafond
Ben Sayah

Ilya Abelev
Mike Tremblay
Geoff Griplas
Darren Hartley
Conor Stinson O’Gorman
Eamonn Stinson O’Gorman

After warm-ups we went over head and arm and shoulder throws before moving to our principal interest, single leg situationals. An interesting tactic when defending a single leg is to show your opponent’s head from his strong single leg side to his weak high crotch side and attempt to straighten your caught leg. Just a quick cross-face or hand shove can weaken his momentum considerably.

We moved on to ground moves (gut wrench defence by “sitting on your hips and “watching TV”) and cross-ankle (Joe reviewing the classic “Brock” laced ankle).

Monday/Tuesday, July 9-10, 2007

Joe led both practices and attendance was 8 and 10 respectively.

Wednesday July 11, 2007

We had 9 wrestlers and coaches out:

Joe Greer
Dean Sherratt
Dean Stinson O’Gorman
Ben Sayah

Alistair Gordon
Jared Semenchuk
Sarah Stringer
Conor Stinson O’Gorman
Eamonn Stinson O’Gorman

The main move taught today was the “inside step takedown”. This is best undertaken off an underhook and you slide the same side leg so it hooks around your opponent’s…dropping to your inside knee forms a perfect trip bar and driving into your opponent should take him down. Note the importance of the leg being inside…an outside step sets up a possible throw by your opponent. You also need to be tight to your opponent in this case. Finally, you can either keep the underhook or use it to pull your opponent down or just drop your hands and grasp his knees as you drive into him. The move won’t work if you don’t drop to your knee.

Another drill added was a speed drill where you started lying shoulder to shoulder and had to get to your knees quickly to take your opponent to his back or get control…

We finished with either two or three “theme” matches…i.e. in the first, you needed to take 10 shots; in the second 3 throws; in the third, 3 singlet legs etc.

June's practices, tournament results and Clint's coaching seminar!!

dean sherratt — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 11:54:00 +0000

First, I remind wrestlers that Clint Kingsbury is holding a coaching session on Saturday and Sunday, June 30-July 1 at Algonquin College so there is no practice on Saturday June 30...We have a practice tonight and then resume our usual schedule on Monday, July 2...Yes, there is a practice on the holiday Monday from 5:30-7:30 pm...so especially those escaping from Saturday should think about attending on Monday!

Our wrestlers and alumni wrestlers covered themselves with glory in recent international tournaments...

Ben Sayah, 5th at the Canada Cup!
Erica Wiebe, Silver at the Pan American Championships!

...and Alex Brown-Theriault, Gold (Freestyle) and Bronze (Greco) at the Commonwealth Championships and 4th at the Canada Cup
...Tyler Margetis, Silver at the Canada Cup...

Here are a lot of notes from our previous practices...

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

A well-attended and very intensive practice…

Clint Kingsbury
Mike Smith
Dean Sherratt
Courtnay Lafond

Ben Sayah
Jared Semenchuk
John Goodyear
Erica Wiebe
Thierry Whalen-Robinson
Mariano Santo
Joshua Menezes
Jennifer Blodgett
Sarah Stringer
Chris Schrauwen
Evan Koronewski, new from Algonquin

Clint worked a lot on the shoulder throw and emphasized that it is more of a throw…twisting of your torso and shoulder, rather than simply bearing down with your body onto the mat and rolling your opponent over you…in fact it is better for the throw if you can keep your back tight to your opponent’s chest…At the end we did a lot of conditioning…

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

A well attended practice with two new Algonquin wrestlers:

Clint Kingsbury
Courtnay Lafond

Ben Sayah
Chris Schrauwen
Erica Wiebe
Sarah Stringer
Michio Clark
Josh Menezes
John Tran, new from Carleton University
Sean, new from Algonquin

June 15-17, 2007

Commonwealth Wrestling Championships in London Ontario…

Alex Brown (84 kgs) wins gold in freestyle and bronze in greco-roman…
Clint Kingsbury (60 kgs) wins 4th in greco-roman

Saturday, June 16, 2007

An excellent turnout with 15 participating…

Joe Greer
Dean Stinson O’Gorman
Dean Sherratt

Geoff Griplas
Marc Griplas
Ben Sayah
Sarah Stringer
Connor Rockwell
Coner Stinson O’Gorman
Eamonn Stinson O’Gorman
John Goodyear
John Tran (Carleton University graduate)
Mohammed Assadi
Ilya Abelev
Nils Rohde

Joe spent quite a long time working on single double and high crotch attacks and then on their counters…

The first counter that Joe showed was the “chin pick” that is often effective off a poor shot. If your opponent shots, for example a high crotch on his left side, but has not yet swung his trail leg around in order to exploit the angle he is creating, then you grasp his chin as his head rests on your right hip while holding onto his right arm…throwing your hip into him before he posts with his trail leg can dump him on his back with you ready to cover for a possible pin or at last a takedown off his shot…A cross-face similarly delivered can also be effective…

Joe then reviewed the awesome Brock University front headlock throw…Once again, if your opponent takes a high crotch shot, you can lock up his head and arm in a front headlock…Unlike usual counters, where you will want to sprawl your legs out far from his hands, here you lock your arms tightly and keep elbows in (flared elbows allows his head to slip to the outside). Keeping your legs close and throwing in your hips will cause your bent-over opponent to literally straighten up his legs and raise his butt, which is the single for you to throw him past you at an angle…either to “toss him away” for two points…or retaining control and exploiting swiftly to “t-off” chest to chest when he lands so you can attempt a swift pin…

We had lots of 2 and 3 minute matches…

Monday, June 18, 2007

Practice was good.
We had;
Me, Court, Ben, Erica, Mohammed, Joe, Chris, Kevin Mayhew, Chelsea (his kid), plus 2 new kids (forget names)
Lots of technique - mostly focused on Ben and Erica as they are competing this weekend
Fakes, action reaction shots, movement (lateral) with snaps - focused on completing throws with movement.
Parterre: offence - gut wrench and cross ankle
Defense - gut wrench

Several parterre goes

2 matches on the feet.

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

There were 10 at practice…

Clint Kingsbury
Joe Greer
Mike Smith

Ryan
Mohammed Assadi
Erica Wiebe
Michio Clark
Ben Sayah
Sarah Stringer
Jared Semenchuk

Wednesday, June 20

A very hard-working practice, led by Clint Kingsbury…

Clint Kingsbury
Joe Greer
Dean Sherratt

Sarah Stringer
Chris Schrauwen
John Goodyear
Melissa Adler
Ben Sayah
Jared Semenchuk

Adam and Torin McFayden observing…

Saturday, June 23

We had 8 practicing, led by Mike Smith…

Mike Smith
Dean Sherratt

Issam Charife
Mohammed Assadi
Michael Tremblay
Nils Rohde
Geoff Griplas
Haven

Mike reviewed the “Baliaslov” (sic) after the Russian wrestler who created it and the wrestlers seemed to perfect it with some practice. You start on top and executed reverse body lock on your opponent and crank him towards you and then work first your inside and then outside leg underneath your opponent’s and turn him to his back by circling towards his head. While it can be used to pin an opponent, you are also vulnerable to getting overextended which may result in it falling apart, so in such a case, it is better just to collect your back points and keep him pressured. Mike also noted that if your opponent is able to work out of the move, you can usually transition to a cross ankle…

June 23-24, 2007-06-25

At the Canada Cup, held in Guelph, Ontario, Ben Sayah won 3 matches, losing two and taking 5th at 66 kgs. Two NCWC alumni, Tyler Marghetis (74 kgs) took silver and Alex Brown, 84 kgs, took 4th.

At the Pan-American Championship in Venezuela, Erica Wiebe, 67 kgs, took silver!

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

An excellent turnout of 18…two short of a record for a June practice of the Club…

Clint Kingsbury
Mike Smith
Joe Greer
Dean Sherratt

Geoff Griplas
Jared Semenchuk
John Goodyear
Connor Rockwell
Thierry Whalen-Robinson
Michio Clark
Sarah Stringer
Erica Wiebe
Avi Yan
Ben Sayah
Chris Schrauwen
Jason Papailiadis
Jennifer Blodgett

Clint concentrated on hand-fighting as set-ups for leg attacks. In real wrestling, it is very hard to just drop into a successful leg attack and hand-fighting is a typical set-up for a successful single/high crotch or double leg. Duck-unders, arm drags, wrist control, shucks, underhooks…are all useful in penetrating your opponent’s defences. Our drills consisted of using three types of hand-fighting before actually taking a shot…We then went 0:30 and then 1:00 using only hand-fighting…then 1:00 with hand-fighting followed by a leg attack…then a succession of 2 x 2 minute matches. Jared and Ben especially showed good aggressive technique in their live wrestling…The practice had a conditioning element as well and Clint emphasized the importance of fatigue not luring you into impatience and bungled attacks. A poor attack that is countered is even more tiring than taking yoru time, keeping to your stance and setting up your attacks.

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

A good turnout of 13…here are Clint’s notes…

“Hi Dean,
We had a good turn out.
Me, Ben, Chris, Jared, Joe, Kevin Mayhew, Chelsea(his), Wes(his), as well as Torn and Adam(Takahashi's), Jen, new kid Ryan, Michio

We did a technique session - based on clearing the hands and focusing on high crotch, single and snap downs…all by clearing the posted hand.

We did 12 parterre goes with different partners.

…then in groups of three we did king of the mat - winner stays in.

Followed by 3 matches - 2-2 min goes...

June practices 2-16

dean sherratt — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 11:51:00 +0000

We had a great bash at the Sayah's this past Thursday with 20 participating...On behalf of the Club, I thank the Sayahs for their generous hospitality!

Here are my notes for June 2-16...

Monday June 4, 2007

Clint's notes...

As for practice –

We had Joe, Erica, Jenn, Chris, Michio, Sarah, Courtnay Ahmad and I - as well as Paula.

We did lots of situations after technique
1. front head lock
2. high crotch from feet and then ground
3. single from feet
4. parterre - lots

Then lots of wrestling, whomever went with me, I wrestled Greco with them.
Conditioning at the end.

Tuesday, June 5, 2007

Our best turnout this summer at Algonquin with 18 practicing…

Hand-fighting...wrist control...duck-unders...and then the "outside fireman's carry"...Starting with inside control with hands on your opponent's biceps and neck...go for a single leg attack, but keep your opponent's arm so you have, for example, your oppoent's right leg and left arm controlled...pull the arm down and dump your opponent as you pock your head through to that side...If they don't fall, keep walking to that side and your will eventually drag them down...

Clint Kingsbury
Joe Greer
Dean Sherratt
Dean Stinson O’Gorman

Admad El Abd, new from Algonquin
Cory Johnson, new from Algonquin
Connor Rockwell
Coner Stinson O’Gorman
Eamonn Stinson O’Gorman
Ben Sayah
Michio Clark
Thierry Whalen-Robinson
Issam Charife
Erica Wiebe
Ben Sayah
Chris Schrauwen
Jennifer Blodgett
Jared Semenchuk

Wednesday, June 6, 2007

Clint's Notes...

Me, Court, Joe, Erica, Amad, Chris, Jenn, Sarah and Ben
practice was good, lots of technique - just their repertoire…
and then lots of situation scrimmage, then lots of matches.
All went well.

Thursday, June 7, 2007

Practice was good.
Court, me, Ben, Amad, John, new guy-Luke, and Erica.
+Mike came a little late.
I worked with John and the 2 new guys for most of the practice on technique.
then we all did king of the mat.

Saturday, June 9, 2007

Mike Smith
Dean Stinson O’Gorman
Dean Sherratt

Joe Goodyear
John Goodyear
Ben Sayah
Coner Stinson O’Gorman
Eamonn Stinson O’Gorman
Joshua Menezes
Nils Rohde
Jennifer Blodgett
Chris Schrauwen
Wais
Haven

Mike showed us a very good move to be utilized in extremis situations…called the “Baliaslov” (sic) after the Russian wrestler who created it…Let us say that you have taken your opponent down and have found that he is very effective in blocking your high percentage moves (i.e. gut wrench and laced ankles). Execute a reverse body lock by lacing your right arm around his left shoulder while reaching underneath his torso with your left arm and locking your hands together underneath him…From here you can twist his head over to the right, applying a great deal of pressure while you use your left knee to work underneath his right leg…Once that his done, replace your left with your right knee and then grind him over to his back by advancing aggressively with your right leg with his left leg increasingly tabled till he is jack-knifed in a near pin situation…It is better to keep both your legs inside your opponent’s and avoid getting unbalanced by leading with your head too far over your opponent. It is also good to ensure your right arm is not buried too deep around your opponent’s shoulder since that can set up a reversing throw by him…

Monday, June 11, 2007

A modest turnout of compatible wrestlers and coaches:

Clint Kingsbury
Courtnay Lafond
Joe Greer

Jennifer Blodgett
Sarah Stringer
Chris Schrauwen
Admad El Abd

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

A well-attended and very intensive practice…

Clint Kingsbury
Mike Smith
Dean Sherratt
Courtnay Lafond

Ben Sayah
Jared Semenchuk
John Goodyear
Erica Wiebe
Thierry Whalen-Robinson
Mariano Santo
Joshua Menezes
Jennifer Blodgett
Sarah Stringer
Chris Schrauwen
Evan Koronewski, new from Algonquin

Clint worked a lot on the shoulder throw and emphasized that it is more of a throw…twisting of your torso and shoulder, rather than simply bearing down with your body onto the mat and rolling your opponent over you…in fact it is better for the throw if you can keep your back tight to your opponent’s chest…At the end we did a lot of conditioning…

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

A well attended practice with two new Algonquin wrestlers:

Clint Kingsbury
Courtnay Lafond

Ben Sayah
Chris Schrauwen
Erica Wiebe
Sarah Stringer
Michio Clark
Josh Menezes
John Tran, new from Carleton University
Sean, new from Algonquin

Saturday, June 16, 2007

An excellent turnout with 15 participating…

Joe Greer
Dean Stinson O’Gorman
Dean Sherratt

Geoff Griplas
Marc Griplas
Ben Sayah
Sarah Stringer
Connor Rockwell
Coner Stinson O’Gorman
Eamonn Stinson O’Gorman
John Goodyear
John Tran (Carleton University graduate)
Mohammed Assadi
Ilya Abelev
Nils Rohde

Joe spent quite a long time working on single double and high crotch attacks and then on their counters…

The first counter that Joe showed was the “chin pick” that is often effective off a poor shot. If your opponent shots, for example a high crotch on his left side, but has not yet swung his trail leg around in order to exploit the angle he is creating, then you grasp his chin as his head rests on your right hip while holding onto his right arm…throwing your hip into him before he posts with his trail leg can dump him on his back with you ready to cover for a possible pin or at last a takedown off his shot…A cross-face similarly delivered can also be effective…

Joe then reviewed the awesome Brock University front headlock throw…Once again, if your opponent takes a high crotch shot, you can lock up his head and arm in a front headlock…Unlike usual counters, where you will want to sprawl your legs out far from his hands, here you lock your arms tightly and keep elbows in (flared elbows allows his head to slip to the outside). Keeping your legs close and throwing in your hips will cause your bent-over opponent to literally straighten up his legs and raise his butt, which is the single for you to throw him past you at an angle…either to “toss him away” for two points…or retaining control and exploiting swiftly to “t-off” chest to chest when he lands so you can attempt a swift pin…

We had lots of 2 and 3 minute matches…

From May to June

dean sherratt — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 01:30:00 +0000

Saturday, May 26, 2007

We had 7 at Ronin (as our Algonquin facility was closed for a tournament)

Clint Kingsbury
Dean Sherratt
Courtnay Lafond

John Goodyear
Sarah Stringer
Thierry Whalen-Robinson
Joshua Menezes

The practice was lighter than typical and initially concentrated on “shadow technique” for single leg, high crotch, double leg takedowns and then various throws. Clint’s “head and arm” throw does not involve an actual cross-step…instead he just twists his torso and exposes his left side as he delivers a “left hook” to the side of his opponent’s head as he twists into the head and arm throw.

When utilizing the two on one, he suggests keeping strong head pressure in the near shoulder socket of your opponent…rather than pressuring his near shoulder with your own as is often done. Head pressure will cause your opponent to pull his far leg nearer to you and increase the chance of doubling up…also, keeping head pressure makes it harder for your defensive opponent to shove the head away…

Proper sprawling in a real match will not best be done with a loose flowing motion with the legs…instead you want to be relatively stiff-legged in your sprawl so you can get back to your feet as soon as possible…always place weight on your opponent by throwing a hip into him and do not dissipate your weight by landing on your knees.

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Returning back to Algonquin, we had 11 present…

Clint KingsburyMike Smith
Joe Greer
Dean Sherratt

Erica Wiebe
Chris Schrauwen
Sarah Stringer
Ben Legault
Nigel Sayah
Ben Sayah
Amy Laidlaw (observed)

This was a tougher practice but with very compatible wrestlers…

Clint and Mike both emphasized proper position in a shoulder throw…while Mike prefers to keep on his feet, Clint tends to drop to one knee BUT both suggest keeping your back tight with your opponent’s chest or torso as you twist into the throwing position…bowing down towards the mat with his arm in control will dissipate the power of the move. With Mike, a quick popping of the hips while being tight to the opponent will produce a better throw…

Also, there is a difference in position between initiating a shoulder throw and the closely related “arm spin” throw. The former starts by turning into your opponent and placing your self shoulder to shoulder to your opponent with your shoulder exposed…with the arm spin, your arm catches your opponent’s neck in a quick twisting motion…

Clint then showed how a good single leg or high crotch fake can set up a throw. For example, after getting inside control, try a fake “high crotch” reaching across to touch your opponent’s far lead leg. When he instinctively pulls it back, that creates the space you need to step across into the void created and right into a shoulder throw…

We moved on to single legs and Clint argued against “pigeon-toeing” to retain control of your opponent’s leg. Doing so keeps you with a very small base and he can easily bump you to escape and throw you off balance. Much better is to control his calf with your hands and keep your legs wide. He will try to lean on your shoulder to prevent you from doubling up. But you can still topple him easily by taking the caught leg with a hand on his knee and shove it between your legs, bringing his far leg closer to you. If he still manages to stay on one foot, circle towards that leg and grab it to finish the takedown.

The front head and arm is a nice hold to have on your opponent who will find having you putting weight on him will tire him out quickly. So if you do get a good head and arm and have his head nicely tucked into your stomach so he can’t pop his head free (you “close the door” on popping his head out by keeping that elbow close), don’t be afraid of keeping him there to tire him out.

There were a series of two minute matches concluded by two five minute matches!

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

There were six attending:

Clint Kingsbury
Joe Greer
Courtnay Lafond

John Goodyear
Erica Wiebe
Ben Sayah

Thursday, May 31, 2007

Ben reported that there were 8 at practice

Mike Smith (Coach), Erica Wiebe, Chris Schrauwen, John Goodyear, Michio Clark, Thierry Whalen Robinson, Ben Sayah and Jennifer Blodgett…Two more showed up and were interested…will come back on Monday.

Worked on many shoulder throws, played some wrestling-related games, had a good scrimmage session.

Saturday, June 2, 2007

We had 12 wrestling…

Mike Smith
Dean Stinson O’Gorman
Joe Greer
Dean Sherratt

Dylan Greer (Arnprior)
Connor Ball (Arnprior)
Jennifer Blodgett
Chris Schrauwen
Ben Sayah
Conor Stinson O’Gorman
Eamonn Stinson O’Gorman
Nils Rohde

We started with hand-fighting which is an excellent tactic to perfect if you do not want to lock up more closely to your opponent. Important elements are always to stay in your stance, keeping your elbows in and moving your hands forward to engage your opponent. Flaying your elbows out is an invitation to a duck-under…Small incremental movements are much better than large hand and arm sweeps that can open you up to a leg attack.

We also spent some time on the two on one…the best hold is taking the wrist with your far arm (holding the wrist underneath not over) and hooking your near hand on your opponent’s arm pit. Placing your near foot just behind your opponent’s will prevent him from easily moving it…head placement should be close into your opponent…near to his head or neck to keep him crowded and under pressure. When you move to a single leg, keep hold of the wrist till your other hand has moved down to grip the leg…

We finished with lots of two-minute matches…

Clint's practice notes for May 25, 2007

dean sherratt — Sat, 26 May 2007 20:26:00 +0000

On Wednesday (the 23rd) we did a lot of situationals:
single from feet, and on butt
high crotch from feet and butt
I showed adjustments on offence and defence to assist in either scoring or getting out from the above positions.

we did 5 matches for 3, 2min goes

On Thursday (the 24th) the practice was very technical :
throws: shoulder and head and arm
arm drags to the body, then advance to arm drag to leg attack
single chest pressure, advanced to chest pressure fake to attacking double leg from behind. (what you have seen me do often)
high crotch chest pressure fake to double - did a lot of this to make perfect.
then we worked on gut wrench and cross ankles - technique.
Jenn was doing her Gutwrench much better when i showed her my '"crowbar technique grip"
then we did 10 parterre goes with different partners
it was good to see what they need to work on. The athletes liked my transitions to be dominant on the ground. Ben couldn't believe how offensive one could be on the ground.
we will visit this again tomorrow.

we did some games, tap ankles and back
getting into the legs drills, all with pushup penalties.

May 15 Notes...and our first Algonquin practice

dean sherratt — Thu, 24 May 2007 11:05:00 +0000

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Our last Brookfield practice attracted 14 coaches and wrestlers:

Clint Kingsbury
Mike Smith
Joe Greer
Courtnay Lafond
Dean Sherratt
Joe Ghobril

Jennifer Blodgett
Chris Schrauwen
Mohammed Assadi
Ben Sayah
Erica Wiebe
Connor Rockwell
Ben Legault
Ilya Abelev

Clint worked a lot on various head snaps and ankle picks. The first was a head snap/pressure leading to a same side ankle pick with your free hand, finished by driving into your opponent. Continual pressure will force your opponent to keep weight on his lead foot, making it immobile and easier to pick. You pressure into his lead leg, nor forward into you.

When executing a head snap/pressure and ankle pick across your opponent, when you grasp the ankle, keep hold of it as you drive towards that leg, taking your opponent right to his back.

Another scenario is a head snap into a tripod position by your opponent where he has not yet conceded the takedown. Darting underneath your opponent and reaching in between his near arm and shoulder, you can grasp his far ankle and drive him right to his back. It is easier to get good results by reaching across…if you grasp your opponent’s sane side ankle off a tripod, you are likely to drive into him, and take him to his butt, but not as likely to drive him over to his back.

Mike Smith noted it is always better to grasp the ankle from the inside not the outside…grasped from the outside your opponent can simply twist his ankle free and pull it away…

We then moved onto various throws…

When thinking of a throw, don’t crowd your opponent too much…that limits your options and will telegraph your move…

Having taken your opponent down with a head and arm, most wrestlers get carried away and want to force the pin as soon as possible and this can lead to incorrect balancing and a potential of being rolled by the defensive wrestler, thus wasting your magnificent throw. Instead, keeping track as always of the time (your coach will let you know), let your opponent wear himself out by trying to roll into you or away from you to free himself from the headlock. Instead, you should hip your legs free of his far leg which he will use to try to lock around your near leg and roll you over. Keep his arm caught trapped…your arm that has captured his head can be relatively loose and even be used to post to maintain balance. When ready to pin, you should elevate your opponent’s head while pushing down on his chest with your back.

The down wrestler has a few options, but none are high percentage counters…folding yourself into your opponent will bring your far leg close to your opponent’s near leg (if you are lucky)…you can hook it and roll him over you. This won’t work if he keeps his legs well forward. Alternatively, you want to create as much apace as you can and if possible, free your caught arm. One option is to lock your arms tightly around your opponent’s torso and roll him over you. Another is to push hard (really hard) against the small of his back with your free hand while you hip over to your stomach and work to your knees…extracting your head from his arm lock will be easier and you end up behind your opponent. Third, you hip over to your knees while slicing across your opponent’s head with your free arm…this will have the effect of hopefully pitching him to his side or back as you get to your knees...

We did “situationals” off a head and arm pin, then a single leg or high crotch partially completed with the offensive wrestler holding a caught leg with one knee and one foot on the mat…

We finished with a series of four minute matches

Saturday, May 19, 2007

Our last Ronin practice…We had 11 coaches and wrestlers working out…

Mike Smith
Dean Sherratt

Chris Schrauwen
Nils Rohde
Ilya Abelev
Sarah Stringer
Issam Charife
Wais
John Goodyear
Jennifer Blodgett
Haven

We started off with pummelling which is a close-in form of hand grappling in which both wrestlers are striving for inside control. When you are leading with an arm, you also have that foot close in…allowing space between lead foot and arm will give an opportunity for your opponent to throw you. You also need to have your head relatively high and facing forward…too low can lead to a head and arm…correctly high can give you a duck under if your opponent reaches up to head snap you…

Turning to ground moves, Mike suggested the concept of a “fake” weak side gut wrench…this lures your opponent to a full counter and if you can quickly hip over fast to your strong side, posting your knee beside his hip (so he can’t re-counter) you can execute a gut wrench where your opponent’s body position feeds into your move. If you move from a strong side to weak side gut wrench (assuming you are well-blocked), it is better to try just for a tilt than a full gut wrench on that side, using your near foot to hook around your opponent’s knee so you can stop him rolling away or into you.

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

A banner day as we have our first practice at ALGONQUIN!

We had a healthy turnout of 18 wrestlers and coaches:

Clint Kingsbury
Mike Smith
Joe Greer
Dean Sherratt
Courtnay Lafond

Ben Legault
Ban Sayah
Erica Wiebe
John Goodyear
Sarah Stringer
Jennifer Blodgett
Amy Laidlaw
Ilya Abelev
Connor Rockwell
Thierry Whalen-Robinson
Nils Rohde
Chris Schrauwen
Wais (observing)

Clint went over how to pressure a caught opponent’s leg off a high crotch or single leg. A key component is gluing your chest against your opponent’s caught leg while keeping your hands low below the knee or at the ankle (so the leg can’t be bent). This pressure prevents your opponent from applying a whizzer, disrupts his/her balance and also makes it hard to push against eh head. Pressure is maintained by “exploding” your chest into the thigh while lifting up on the caught ankle (“teeter-totter” effect). One finish is to circle in front or across your opponent with chest pressure…not away…As chest pressure forces your opponent to move his free foot forward, another finish is to segue into a double leg. When you move to a double leg, try to step outside with your lead foot, neatly blocking your opponent’s free foot as you take him down from the side and not from in front. A good finish is to land at a 90 degree angle to your opponent and tabling his legs for a quick pin…A really well done finish will result in you not landing chest to chest but side to chest with you looking towards your opponent’s tabled legs.

We moved onto various situationals…

-Partially completed high crotch, both wrestlers with one knee up and one down…
-Partially completed high crotch with defensive wrestler landed on his butt (his best defence is to “sit” on the attackers head with his side while working to free his trapped leg and pressuring against the attacker by bending his free leg at the knee.
-Partially completed double leg where you are placed in between your opponent’s legs and he had landed on his butt (the offensive wrestler has options here…best is to circle to the side and table the legs…BUT if the defensive wrestler locks his arms around your torso, you can straighten your leg on one side to force it underneath your opponent’s free leg and pushing up against it, thereby elevating the free leg and forcing him to his back…NB, keep your own hips low as you do this…high hips and a locked torso lead directly to a throw!
-Gut wrench (NB, 90% of the move is keeping a tight grip and not letting it slide)
-Behind your opponent with hands on knees (offensive wrestler will want to flatten opponent to mat and then work for a cross ankle)
-Front head and arm (it is crucial to keep your opponent’s head buried in your stomach or chest…if he can pop his head free, your hold falls apart and he can take you down from the side)

We finished with many two minute matches…

But then we didn’t finish…we moved onto conditioning exercises of various sorts!

Notes for May 12, 2007

dean sherratt — Mon, 14 May 2007 23:50:00 +0000

Tuesday, May 8, 2007

We had 13 out at Brookfield:

Clint Kingsbury
Mike Smith
Joe Greer
Dean Sherratt
Joe Ghobril

Sarah Stringer
Jennifer Blodgett
Chris Schrauwen
Mohammed Assadi
Ben Sayah
Ben Legault
Joshua Menezes
Thierry Whalen Robinson

The practice was technique-rich, though two ground moves were reviewed from previous practices.

We finished our warm-up with pummelling and then did a series of high crotch leg attacks across the room…the space dictating the full extension of the leg attack.

We then moved to a variety of finishes for the two on one (all depend on an ability to judge how to disrupt your opponent’s balance). The first utilized a foot sweep to take the opponent down. Off the two on one, the offensive wrestler takes his near arm and stretches it across the back of his opponent to secure his far trapezius muscle. The takedown is achieved by using your near foot to sweep forward and up-ending your opponent. Keeping control of his near arm with your free hand as you execute the foot sweep will enable you to take him to his back for three points. If his balance is secure and the foot sweep doesn’t work, pulling the opponent back with your near hand (holding the trapezius) should work. Finally, if he tries to thwart you by leaning forward then shuck him forward and get behind in position to claim the point. Finally, if your opponent doesn’t fall forward, drop your level and go for a single leg.

Moving onto single legs, Clint emphasized the importance of keeping a good grasp of your opponent’s leg…especially do not reach behind to secure his waist…First, you will lose the single leg 1 arm does not equal 1 leg in strength…Secondly, planting your arm across your opponent’s back will give him a whizzer. Reaching across is OK if you are reaching lower and grabbing your opponent’s far ankle for example, to finish the takedown. Also chest pressure will invariably force your opponent to pull his far leg nearer to you and enable you to grasp it to finish a takedown if your chest pressure isn’t sufficient.

We then moved onto two very cool “turk ride” variations…The first, also introduced on our May 1 practice, comes off of a double leg where your opponent has been dumped onto his butt and is turning to his back while you retain control of his legs. Take your opponent’s near leg (say his right) with your right hand and elevate it above the knee and then table it with your near leg (also the right) Press close to his body and use your left hand to cross face your opponent as you then elevate your leg and hook it over your opponent’s flat left leg. Your right hand is now free to post.

The other “turk ride” variation follows a takedown. You are placed facing towards your opponent’s legs with your left arm straddling his back. Lift your opponent’s near leg (his left) and step through with your right leg as you cross-face with your left hand and elevate your right leg…

We then reviewed the "deschatelets" leg ride… Starting after a takedown, you align on the left side of your opponent and hold his left shoulder with your left hand. Hook his near (left) foot with your right forearm (not the hand) using your right forearm sweep his left leg so it is pressed against his right…You step over with your right foot as you reach underneath your opponent’s head with your left arm, grasping his right shoulder blade or chin. Completion of the move involves dropping to your right knee and posting on your head to the right side of your opponent…he is “pretzelled” with his back exposed…

We followed up with a series of situationals:

Par Terre
-only using a “turk” ride, “deschatelets” or cross ankle
-using the above three moves plus a gut wrench
-behind your opponent in par terre, with your hands on his knees and using only a cross ankle
-starting with any partially completed gut wrench

-starting with a head and arm near fall
-starting standing with a single leg, one knee up and one down…

We finished with a series of five minute matches…

Saturday, May 12, 2007

A smaller practice given over to individual technique but also 2-3 minute wrestling matches at the end…

Clint Kingsbury
Mike Smith
Dean Sherratt

Chris Schrauwen
Mike Tremblay
Joshua Menezes
Thierry Whalen-Robinson
Mohammed Assadi
Yannick Martinez
Issam Charife
Wais

Mike and Clint went over two good ways of breaking your opponent down from a “tripod”, i.e. he is on his hands and feet but had not touched his knee to the mat and is avoiding a takedown as a result. Clint locks his right leg around his opponent’s right and then leans across to use his hands to grasp his opponent’s far arm and leg. Throwing your hip into your opponent in this position will break him down very easily.

Another move is the spiral ride - in freestyle you would wrap your arms around your opponent’s torso and lean your near shoulder around your opponent’s near shoulder as you twist your arm lock towards his head. This also grinds him to the mat fairly quickly…

We finished with two and three minute matches with Mohammed Assadi and Mike Tremblay working hard and wrestling especially well against their opponents.

Turnouts continue to impress...

dean sherratt — Sat, 28 Apr 2007 18:08:00 +0000

With April practices over, our 2006-7 season is the best ever since I started taking detailed counts...Below you see charts that have our average comparison by month per practice as well as the total monthly attendance of all practices. The formatting somewhat suffered when I posted...

Annual Season Comparison by Month (average attendance by practice)

2002/3 2003/4 2004/5 2005/6 2006/7

September X 13.3 14.2 10.4 14.1
October 13.7 13.6 19.2 10.2 13.1
November 12.9 16.4 18.9 17.0 15.7
December 10.5 14.7 13.1 12.3 13.8
January 11.5 14.6 17.8 12.3 15.3
February 10.0 14.6 15.3 11.7 17.5
March 8.6 13.3 10.5 15.7 20.4
April 7.9 12.8 9.7 17.6 21.7
May 5.3 10.3 8.6 16.7 X

June 8.3 12.0 8.6 13.9
July 10.6 18.7 11.2 12.8
August 7.8 17.1 9.7 12.2

Annual Season Comparison by Month (total attendees)

2002/3 2003/4 2004/5 2005/6 2006/7

September X 40 128 104 99
October 41 109 211 184 184
November 103 115 246 323 313
December 42 88 131 148 193
January 92 131 160 135 275
February 70 117 184 164 228
March 43 106 136 173 204

April 55 115 145 141 152
May 21 72 120 150 X

Notes for April 23, 2007

dean sherratt — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 00:22:00 +0000

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

We had 16 wrestlers and coaches practicing…

Clint Kingsbury
Joe Greer
Dean Sherratt
Joe Ghobril

Sarah Stringer
Erica Wiebe
Ben Sayah
Ilya Abelev
Thierry Whalen-Robinson
Steve Vincze
Shamarke Sahal
Mariano Santo
Harun Mohammed
Joshua Menezes
Chris Schrauwen
Jennifer Blodgett

Reviewing the Cadet/Juvenile Nationals, Clint noted that many wrestlers were getting turned with a gut wrench and we went over proper defence.

The first defence to a gut wrench is not letting your opponent get a proper grip. If he grips underneath you, crawling forward or back will (painfully) break his grip…Most likely, he will try gripping long from one side to the other, so in that case, circling flat to the mat with your body can burn up 5-10 seconds. You can also pull back your elbow to block his hand from being inserted underneath you, provided you aggressively have your free arm forward. If he gets a grip, pushing back with your hands will cause further disruption but it is best to push at a 45 degree angle, not a 90 degree one (i.e. slightly circling away from the direction that he would like to move you). Everyone knows to anticipate where your opponent wants to gut-wrench you and will block that with your leg (while also gluing your chest and foot to the mat)…but “sitting on your hips” means more than sitting on your thigh. If he grips and is lifting you, move your butt (or “lower torso”) higher than your head and drop hard, making it very difficult for him to complete the gut wrench.

We then moved onto the “switch” which is a counter to a high crotch or double leg, where your opponent has dumped you on your butt while he is on his knees, but has not further finished the move. The defending wrestler should bend his free leg to the side while he grasps his opponent’s near leg with his hands. Leaning into his opponent’s shoulder while pulling up on his leg will enable him to take his opponent to his back or reverse control. A general rule is when you are on your butt, do what you can to get to your feet…it is not a strong or easily defendable position to be in…your opponent, having partially taken you down, will also be trying to get off his knees and back to his feet as well.

Another good defence to a high crotch is to lean into your opponent, literally “sitting” or leaning on his head, equally effective whether he is standing or on his knees. Chopping his far leg with your free hand while holding onto his waist with your other will also enable you to topple him and take him from the side.

Clint introduced an “evil” series of drills where matches would be interrupted for a short exercise (i.e. ten push-ups) and recommenced the instant the first wrestler completed his set…We also wrestled for 10 minutes straight with an extra overtime minute thrown in…

Saturday, April 20, 2007

Another good turnout at Ronin with 21 wrestlers and coaches…

Clint Kingsbury
Dean Stinson O’Gorman
Joe Greer
Courtnay Lafond
Dean Sherratt

Ben Legault, new,
Mohammed Assadi
Issam Charife
Connor Rockwell
Conor Stinson O’Gorman
Eamonn Stinson O’Gorman
Thierry Whalen Robinson
Vysion Elter
Wais, new, public school
Wyatt Sullivan
Ben Sayah
Sarah Stringer
Mariano Santo
Chris Schrauwen
Matt Weber
Nils Rohde

Because our practice was shortened by 30 minutes for a Ronin seminar, we warmed up and wrestled virtually non-stop for five minutes apiece “Kingsbury” time…

April 13, 2007 Notes

dean sherratt — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 13:49:00 +0000

Hi everyone...we practice tomorrow and then next week at our usual Tuesday/Brookfield and Thursday/Gloucester locations...

Tuesday, April 3, 2007

A record turnout of some 32 coaches and wrestlers:

Clint Kingsbury
Mike Smith
Joe Greer
Dean Stinson O’Gorman
Dean Sherratt
Jason Kirby
Dom Saul
Joe Ghobril

Ben Sayah
Erica Wiebe
Sarah Stringer
Thierry Whalen-Robinson
Meghan Dutton
Chris Schrauwen
Connor Rockwell
Eamonn Stinson O’Gorman
Conor Stinson O’Gorman
Vysion Elter
Yannick Martinez
Steve Delayen (Hillcrest)
Basel Zbib (Hillcrest)
Mat Nicol (Hillcrest)
Shamarke Sahal (Hillcrest)
Mariano Santo
John Goodyear
Harun Mohammed
Steve Vincze
Jennifer Blodgett
Michio Clark
Nils Rohde
Ilya Abelev
Mohammed Assadi

After a warm-up, we engaged in a series of “situationals” moves partly executed and then finished and/or defended…

-set-up by a fake single leg attack…your opponent pulls his leg back and sets up a snap down by you as you direct his head into a space formed by you pulling your leg back…otherwise your snap down will simply send your opponent into your legs.

-inside control, grab leg and allow him to pull it back and then go in for a full double leg…Make sure your single leg is on your “weak side” and that you move to a double leg on your “strong side”

-“two on one” to fireman’s carry. When you execute the two on one, your opponent will likely move his leg back…that creates the space for you to turn into him, drop your level and bring your head underneath his caught arm and execute the fireman’s carry from there. If he doesn’t take his leg back…go for the single leg

-“two on one” to a “head and arm” throw…starting with inside control, you grasp your opponent’s arm and pull it across, moving to a side angle with your opponent. Your opponent may try to push back on your inside elbow to disrupt the two on one…when he does, you move that arm from inside to the outside of his arm…grabbing at his biceps…your other arm will swing around his back all the way to grasp his shoulder blade as you then throw him towards your outside arm.

We then practices good double leg and cross ankle technique and then did extensive scrimmaging…

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Our last practice before cadet/juvenile nationals! We are sending nine wrestlers with three+ coaches…We had 24 attending...

Jason Kirby
Joe Greer
Courtnay Lafond
Mike Smith
Dean Sherratt
Joe Ghobril
Jason Kirby (cameo, feeling ill)

Nick Bateman (cameo, feeling ill)
Sarah Stringer
Erica Wiebe
Ben Sayah
Connor Rockwell
Shamarke Sahal
Steve Delayen
Meghan Dutton
Mariano Santo
Amy Laidlaw
Mohammed Assadi
Steve Vincze
Jennifer Blodgett
Michio Clark
Joshua Menezes
Chris Schrauwen
Issam Charife

This practice was one typical for pre-tournament…more situationals and pointers than introducing new moves…

Clint noted the importance of keeping weight on toes rather than heels…to prevent lamentable and unforgivable snap downs…good stance combined with weight on toes will give you a faster reaction time and put you in a better position to attack…

Our situations included…

“Head and arm”…The “top” wrestler was fighting to pin while the other “down” wrestler is trying hard to get to his stomach.

“High crotch or single leg attack”…if you are blocked…keep circling around to the outside to continue the attack rather than allow your opponent to put weight on you frontally and drag you down.

“Zeigler” reviewed…Hillcrest wrestlers are already well exposed!

-Single leg from feet and you control the captured leg. If opponent tries to “whizzer” you that sets up excellent chest pressure for you to topple him.

We then sent from high crotch situations to gut wrenches, cross ankles and front headlocks.

Divided into two groups, we then proceeded through several sets of 3 x 2 minutes matches…every one of them miraculously ending in overtime requiring an extra minute of wrestling so wrestlers went for seven minutes straight at least three times.

National Capital Wrestling Blog site is here!

Paula — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 23:35:00 +0000

The National Capital Wrestling Club joined the internet age today with the advent of its Blog site.