Wrestling 101 - Cutting Wieght

A lot of people are concerned about there weight, but probably none more so than fighters. As fighters we are under a lot of pressure to be bigger, stronger, and faster than our opponents. We cut weight to be at the top of the weight class. The more you cut the bigger and stronger you will be, theoretically. If done wrong though, all that size and strength won't help you if you're not at 100% on the day of competition. We are going to look at some ways to make the cut easier as well as how to stay at 100% for fight day.

Let me first make something really clear, cutting weight is not the same as losing weight. You are simply removing the water from you're system to help drop a couple of pounds. As soon as you reingest water you put the weight right back on. As I cover the weight cutting process remember that these are the tips that work for me, some people drop the water easy while others have a hard time with it.

The water cutting process generally starts a week out from when you have to weigh in. During that time I will increase my water intake to about 4 - 6 litres of water a day, more if I'm working out hard. Now what this does is trick my body. Most people are dehydrated in their day to day lives. Their bodies retain water out of fear that more water isn't coming for a while. By drinking extra water, or what I like to call super hydrating, our body is forced to get rid of the water instead of retaining it to make room for the more that is coming. Another thing you need to do is cut out salt as it makes you retain water, therefore making it harder to lose it. We keep this up for the whole week.

The night before weigh in I take my last drink of water as well as my last meal. The day of the weigh in is when I start the hard work. Basically you need to sweat. Simple. By super hydrating the week leading up to our bodies will give up the water easy, but we don't replace it. Our bodies won't have enough time to readjust to retaining water therefore it will be easier to dehydrate ourselves and drop more weight. Some people like to give themselves two days to cut weight if they have a lot to lose. Say you had to drop 12 pounds to make your weight class, you could cut 7 pounds the first day and drink back 1 pound of water throughout the day and the next day you drop 6 more, effectively dropping 12 pounds. If you do this make sure to eat dry foods throughout the first day, no fruits, vegetables or anything else with lots of water in it. For any serious weight cutting I recommend picking up a sauna suit.

Now that the weight is dropped many people think they are done, but the most important part to being 100% is how you replenish. Make sure you gradually introduce the water back to your system. Pedialyte is a really good drink to replenish with as it has electrolytes and other stuff you lost during the sweating period. If you drink to quick you will cramp up and feel really bad. By this point you're probably thinking with your stomach instead of your head, but we have to make sure we eat properly at this point. That means go back to your routine leading up to this weigh in. Don't go get greasy nachos right after weigh in as this will be a shock to your system and not make you feel very good. The other really important thing is a good nights rest as you body needs to recover.

Now remember that this is just to cut water weight. To control your weight you need to eat properly. As far how much you should cut, that all depends on you. If you've never cut weight before then I recommend a practice cut to learn what is feasible for you. Now as the tournament is this weekend here is a highlight of Genki Sudo, one of the best/most entertaining grapplers and MMA fighters ever.

Wrestling 101 - Mentally Tough

Last week in Wrestling 101 we talked about the most basic of wrestling and grappling fundamentals, the body follows the head. We looked at a double leg takedown to illustrate our point and this week we're going to build upon that by going over some of the most basic takedown defense, a sprawl.

If the body follows the head and I want to stop my opponent from picking me up then what do I have to do? Push his head down! This should be your highest priority when defending a takedown. Without good posture, i.e. head looking up, then your opponent will have a real hard time lifting you off the ground. Any one who has ever done any squats or deadlifts knows that looking down as you lift results in not being able to lift the weight and potential injury. Why would this principle change just because the weight is changing from a bar to a human being. Now just pushing the head down is not enough, we have to keep it down by kicking our legs back and dropping the weigh of our hips on to the back of his neck and shoulders. This action of a good, heavy sprawl can be very disheartening to your opponent and mentally shut them down in a match. Which brings us to our next point, attitude.

A good offense is the best defense. It's a cliche, but it's a cliche for a reason. To win you have to want it. That doesn't mean trying not to lose but actually going out there attacking trying to win. Vince Lombardi, one of the best coaches of not only football but of any sports put it this way:

"I think winning is the result if mental toughness. I think mental toughness is many things, and it is very difficult to explain what it is. First, I think mental toughness is humility; I think that it takes humility to realize that greatness is really simplicity. Mental toughness is made up too of the spartan qualities of sacrifice and self-denial. Mental toughness is loyalty. You cannot win consistently without it, and as you win each man grows because of it"

Dan Gable used these same principles to not only be one of the best wrestlers in the world but coach one of the best teams ever to compete. To be sucsessfull we need confidence. Confidence in our technique. Confidence in that we get out what we put in. Confidence that the people around us, coaches, teammates, all have our best interests at heart. Without this confidence and mental toughness you'll always be trying not to lose instead of going out there and winning. Here is a clip of Alexander Karelin, one of the most sucsessfull athletes ever

To win you need to be confident. To be confident you need to feel prepared. To feel prepared you need to put the time and energy in. You need to train how you wish to compete, with the same intesity, the same drive, and the same will. To be the best doesn't make you great, to be great you need to be ready to give up everything. You need to be mentally tough.

Wrestling 101 - The Golden Rule

This is Kurt and I'm going to be writing a column about wrestling as well as any other anecdotal, opinionated and otherwise relevant things that pop into my head. Without any more babbling I present Wrestling 101.

Wrestling is one of the oldest martial arts there is, with reference to it as far back as the 12th and 13th century bc. Greco-Roman wrestling was a part of the first modern day Olympics back in 1896 with freestyle wrestling following in 1904. In MMA, wrestlers are know for their ability to control fights as well as their conditioning and their unparalleled work ethic.

If we break wrestling down to its core elements we find that it's about your opponents disrupting your opponents balance while maintaining your own. Balance is determined by two things, stance and posture. We need to think of our stance and posture as our foundation, without a good foundation no amount of moves is going to make you good. With that in mind we are going to look at the most important thing to remember about wrestling, the Golden Rule:

THE BODY FOLLOWS THE HEAD!!

This is the most important thing to remember about wrestling as 90% of our technique is based off of this principle. We are going to look at a double leg take down to illustrate my point. Now in a double leg we first change levels then drive into our opponent, looking where we want to go. It's important that we never look down on our take downs as we compromise our posture as well as increasing our chance of being stuffed or submitted. We are going to look at a clip from 2 time Olympian Barry Davis on how to do a double leg.




Wow, thanks Barry, I couldn't have said it better myself. Now that's a lot of information, especially for someone just starting out with wrestling, but it's important to note the things we've been talking about. Notice the good posture as well as his head position, those are the most important things for beginners to focus on. The other thing he stressed that we haven't touched on yet is the penetrating step. It's important that we step deep with our inside leg (the one that is between our opponents leg) so that we can get right underneath their center of gravity and make the lift easy. That also helps us knock our opponent off balance which brings me back to the start of the article, wrestling is all about disrupting our opponents BALANCE.

Some people think of wrestlers as bullies or even brutish but if I can knock my opponent out of their stance with that first deep step and contact, then they're already one step behind. They are thinking of defending and recovering rather than attacking like they should be. You will often hear wrestlers and coaches refer to this as imposing your will or setting the tone, and that's how you want to start a match. This sport, as well as most other sports, are 80% mental and if I can make my opponent believe that there is no way he can beat me, by setting the tone early, then my life will be easy.

Now we've gone over a lot in this article but it is important to remember that we can't build good technique without a solid foundation. Next week we will be going over some more technique and principles with a single leg and a sprawl, as well as discussing proper work ethic in the gym. Until next time, remember the Golden Rule:

THE BODY FOLLOWS THE HEAD!!