Basic Stances for Youth Wrestling Moves

Series Summary

“He’s on the top rope; he’s gonna jump…oh, did you see that? He just did a flying hammer, right into that guy’s face. Oooh, that’s gotta hurt!”

Some people are acquainted with a brand of wrestling that involves a lot of acrobatics and carefully timed maneuvers—as well as gaudy costumes, stage makeup, and a lot of threatening gestures. Yet before pro-wrestling organizations like the WWE, WWF, WCW and others came to the forefront, wrestling was, and continues to be, an Olympic sport, perhaps created by the Greeks...or perhaps it is the oldest sport known to man.

Competitive wrestling uses moves that hearken back to some of the earlier techniques involved in the sport: submission holds, grapples, escapes, locks, and pins. In this free video, learn how to get started. Our wrestling coach will show you how to do some basic maneuvers, including the hip heist and the scarecrow, as well as explain the possible starting positions for a match. Whatever your preference, pro-wrestling or Greco-Roman, these videos will help you learn some of the fundamental skills to becoming a wrestler.

Video Transcript

" Hi! My name is Matthew Moyles. I’m a coach here at Minisink Valley. I’m here on behalf of Expert Village and today we’re going to go over competitive wrestling. Okay today we’re going to discuss basic competitive wrestling. First thing you need to know is when you start off in wrestling you start off what’s called a neutral position. That is two wrestlers standing on opposing lines standing up facing each other. The object is to take down your opponent and score 2 points for a takedown. Today, I’ll use my associates here Richard Denison and Joshua Derks to go over the basics to show you how a wrestler would get in proper stance. Richard here is going to get in what is known as a sugar foot stance or a sweet foot stance. Richard. Notice one thing about Richard’s stance is that his elbow, shoulder and knee are all in line with his foot. If he turns this way you can see it too where his shoulder, elbow, knee are all in line with his foot. Now, if he turns to face the camera, you can see another thing is that his head is always up. Your head as a wrestler could never be down, because if it’s down you’re not looking at your opponent. Alright, so head is always up. If you move over to here this is Josh. Josh is going to get into basic wide stance. Notice the same thing his back is straight. If he turns this way, you can see his back is straight; he’s not hunched over. If he’s hunched over he can’t look at his opponent so his back is straight. His elbow, his knee and his foot are all basically in line. Now the difference between these two stances is if you’re in the sugar foot stance, as Richard is here, you have a better agility and a better chance of getting a quick shot. Now Richard, I’m going to ask you to do me a favor and just do a quick penetration step. Alright, so he comes in real quick, now whereas Josh is in a wider stance so he has more leverage. He’s got a wider base so he lift and there’s more power. Rather than doing a quick shot, he might want to do something where he gets underneath the arms and he uses his weight and his balance to throw around his opponent. Richard could you come back here for a sec. Alright if you notice Josh is in a wide stance, so now if you see the distance between his feet are shoulder weight apart. This gives you more stability and a better base, whether the opponent is riding high or up towards your head it works very well in that situation. "