Dealing with wrestlers

[Jim J]

Don't get too caught up in trying to beat this guy. He has a lot more grappling experience than you. Just train and progress at your own pace. That is the best that you can do.

 

[txfighter13]

sweep them.

 

[Tom Hishon]

1.) Weight train
2.) Scramble like your life depends on it
3.) Get his back
4.) Play rough, make him work for everything adn (don't be afraid to put your elbow in his eye socket) make it just as generally unenjoyable as possible for him
5.) Most important-Don't ever give up or concede.

It will slow him down.

 

[Jbeefnet1771]

"Within a year he probably will be tapping blackbelts quite often. All the BJJs on the board will get all huffy about that statememt but check back in a year. It will be true."

Not true. I won states and am an accomplished D1 wrestler. I've been training no-gi for 1 year and Gi for abotu 4 months. I whoop all white belts and all Blues and most purples in no-gi. Brown/Black - some browns I can beat, but most I would lose to. I am always in it to win it No-Gi intermediate. Beyond that, my BJj had had to improve. Legit browns and blacks- I can hang much longer than most, but, eventually they tap me. My instructor, who cant hang with me in takedowns or pure wrestling, it will be years if I'm lucky to catch up to him and actually tap him. In Gi especially. And I'm *really* trying to not be a wrestler and focus on BJJ. I play my guard a lot (finally). Very good technique + some athleticism will beat an accomplished wrestler.

Sorry to tell you buddy but you can't deal with a wrestler of this calibur. Everybody will tell you that your BJJ will eventually even the playing field, but it won't. With an average wrestler a skilled BJJ would probably nullify a wrestler. This kid ain't average.

Within a year he probably will be tapping blackbelts quite often. All the BJJs on the board will get all huffy about that statememt but check back in a year. It will be true.

The reason why: Because his ground experience started when he was about 8 years old. He probably has aroud 10 years matt time 6 days a week. He has wrestler strength, speed, balance and body control. All a HUGE advantage when learning BJJ.
Once he learns the ground game and a few subs he will be dangerous.

But good news for you. Most people don't have such a high calibur athlete to work with. Learn from him. Takedowns, sprawling and such. See how a wrestler reacts to things before he becomes a hibrid. Once he is done with school he will become a BJJ that can wrestle (VERY DANGEROUS). No longer a wrestler who does BJJ.

You will become much better because of it.

 

[Jbeefnet1771]

Ok, so how to deal.
- Get good with triangles and armbars.
- Learn your sweeps; wrestlers never used to have to worry about guys sweeping from their back before. However, there base there is still naturally better than most.
- Dont fight fire with fire. Forget about taking them down. Pull guard/butterfly. Don't lie flat on your back or a strong wrestler with a little BJJ experience will pass your guard usually pretty easily.

 

[Systemanoob**]

You deal with wrestling by learning how to wrestle.

It took two pages for the correct answer to appear.

There's no trick to getting wrestlers out of top position. MMA is a prime example of this, BJJ blackbelts have trouble with wrestlers with they get on top. Gracie vs. Hughes, Serra vs. St. Pierre, even Lesnar vs. Mir before he stood up.

Learn wrestling and it will become alot easier to deal with these guys.

 

[Deloitte]

1.) Weight train
2.) Scramble like your life depends on it
3.) Get his back
4.) Play rough, make him work for everything adn (don't be afraid to put your elbow in his eye socket) make it just as generally unenjoyable as possible for him
5.) Most important-Don't ever give up or concede.

It will slow him down.

How'd you get that professional fighter tag? Try to out scramble a wrestler? Uhh, good luck trying that. Also another nice piece of advice, play rough on the wrestler during practice? I'm sure people love training with you.

 

[STFUjiujitsu]

concerning the key lock when they are in side control and just pressure it in...
Put your hands together like your praying and stick them in his arm pit with your elbows tight. That way if he wants to key lock you he has to posture up slightly to get your wrist/arm out. Shrimp, Shrimp, and Shrimp some more. Never stop moving your hips and over time you'll learn his hip timing and movement and you'll be able to escape side control more often.

 

[Cardio King]

You defeat BJJ by using wrestling, and you defeat wrestling by using BJJ.

 

[Slowboy]

I have this stong wrestler that I trian with. He mostly does guillitones and neck cranks. So in the take downs I have learned to avoid the quillitones and on the gound I have learned to sweep if he passes my gaurd to keep out of the Cranks and side choke. I have noticed that him and other wrestlers that I have trained with give up their backs easier. They also try to muscle out of alot of thing which makes it easyer to catch them in a triangle or armbar.

 

[exile27]

concerning the key lock when they are in side control and just pressure it in...
Put your hands together like your praying and stick them in his arm pit with your elbows tight. That way if he wants to key lock you he has to posture up slightly to get your wrist/arm out. Shrimp, Shrimp, and Shrimp some more. Never stop moving your hips and over time you'll learn his hip timing and movement and you'll be able to escape side control more often.

My instructor gave me this same advice while I was rolling with this kid. I really tried to concentrate on doing this, and it really seemed to help. I feel like I need to really work on my sweeps because I'm getting pretty good at locking him down, but from there I'm kind of stuck.

Thanks for all the input so far guys.

 

[exile27]

"Within a year he probably will be tapping blackbelts quite often. All the BJJs on the board will get all huffy about that statememt but check back in a year. It will be true."

Not true. I won states and am an accomplished D1 wrestler. I've been training no-gi for 1 year and Gi for abotu 4 months. I whoop all white belts and all Blues and most purples in no-gi. Brown/Black - some browns I can beat, but most I would lose to. I am always in it to win it No-Gi intermediate. Beyond that, my BJj had had to improve. Legit browns and blacks- I can hang much longer than most, but, eventually they tap me. My instructor, who cant hang with me in takedowns or pure wrestling, it will be years if I'm lucky to catch up to him and actually tap him. In Gi especially. And I'm *really* trying to not be a wrestler and focus on BJJ. I play my guard a lot (finally). Very good technique + some athleticism will beat an accomplished wrestler.

So then lets flip this around. As an acomplished wrestler, what is it that gives you problems (or at least gave you problems when you first started)?

 

[PhillyD45]

So then lets flip this around. As an acomplished wrestler, what is it that gives you problems (or at least gave you problems when you first started)?

I'm a wrestler but not too accomplished. Also, I don't take BJJ yet, I catch wrestle. I have taken some BJJ seminars to see what it feels like to go against BJJ and to learn some new techniques (It's a great art by the way).

This kid would be fine if he didn't start BJJ the same time as the wrestler. Mat time is hard to make up.

The kid does have one advantage over the wrestler for right now though. As a wrestler he has trained his whole life to stay off his back. This will be his achilles heal until he learns it's ok to be on your back. That is a hard habit to break. It is very uncomfortable at first.
If you can get him on his back he may try to roll to his chest. The neck may be open for attack. Look for it.

Here is the bottom line: You don't need to beat the wrestler. You need to learn to fight first. Learn your basics and get those down. Once those are second nature then you will always have at least a chance in any fight.

 

[SMillard]

You need to realize that every year that kid has wrestled he has probably had somewhere around 20 to 30 competitive matches, he has a very big leg up on you in the "being comfortable on the ground"department, applying constant pressure and using his weight, hooks and such.

One area that is usually a detriment for wrestlers in BJJ is when in your guard they will have a tendency to to pin their torso to yours to an over extent, you will need to use this to your advantage and play a good guard game. Also wrestlers tend to be more explosive in their movements, you will need to counter this. These things are a lot easier said than done by the way.

I don't know how old you are, but I went to a private school and asked the wrestling coach if I could volunteer to help with the kids so I could learn and get a little more matt time. You might want to consider that if this is that important to you. You will see improvement within the first month and you will be in REALLY good shape if you do the training drills with them.

 

[gunstar]

I attack the legs. Most wrestlers go straight for the neck though so defend your guillotines and arm triangles. They get pretty pissed at knee bars and ankle attacks.

 

[PhillyD45]

I attack the legs. Most wrestlers go straight for the neck though so defend your guillotines and arm triangles. They get pretty pissed at knee bars and ankle attacks.

Yeah, but this kid is new

 

[wpr102]

As a former high school wrestler I can say that my side control and half guard are really good. Also takedowns. I'm really weak from the guard or on bottom though. The thing is you will have trouble getting a wrestler there especially if he's stronger.

You sound like you expect to be even with this guy though? I'm not sure where the surprise is that you can't roll with a state champion wrestler :icon_chee

 

[armbarking]

Learn how to play spider guard. That shit annoys everybody. Seriously. if you get good at spider guard, this guy will be completely lost. Then you can sweep, get on top and submit.

Edit: Never mind. i realized you guys were talking no gi. Spider guard is much harder to play without the gi, so forget what I said.

 

[Chinaboxer]

a strong, fast wrestler is like a wheel turning. the more space you give it, the faster the wheel spins becoming more and more dangerous. so how do you stop a wheel from spinning? jam it with a very big stick! in this case, the stick is your body pressure. if you do this, he can't get moving. as far as submissions go, wrestlers leave their neck exposed all the time, so take advantage of subs that attack the neck, such as guillitines, darse, rnc, triangles etc...

this also applies to BJJ guys that use alot of athleticism when they grapple. you have to learn to keep their "wheel" from spinning, because once they get going, it's too hard to stop.

i also think that taking a wrestling class is extremely helpful if you are learning BJJ. Even if you never expect to use the takedowns or any of the wrestling moves, it provides an insight into how wrestlers think and move. think of it as learning wrestling to get a deep understanding of anti-wrestling.

 

[Jimmy Cerra]

Sorry to tell you buddy but you can't deal with a wrestler of this calibur. Everybody will tell you that your BJJ will eventually even the playing field, but it won't. With an average wrestler a skilled BJJ would probably nullify a wrestler. This kid ain't average.

Within a year he probably will be tapping blackbelts quite often. All the BJJs on the board will get all huffy about that statememt but check back in a year. It will be true.

The reason why: Because his ground experience started when he was about 8 years old. He probably has aroud 10 years matt time 6 days a week. He has wrestler strength, speed, balance and body control. All a HUGE advantage when learning BJJ.
Once he learns the ground game and a few subs he will be dangerous.

But good news for you. Most people don't have such a high calibur athlete to work with. Learn from him. Takedowns, sprawling and such. See how a wrestler reacts to things before he becomes a hibrid. Once he is done with school he will become a BJJ that can wrestle (VERY DANGEROUS). No longer a wrestler who does BJJ.

You will become much better because of it.

Within a year? Where the fuck do you train? I certainly don't have much trouble with wrestlers of his caliber. Maybe he would be tapping black belts who are 70+ pounds lighter than him, but not guys his size. exile27 is just a noob, and he doesn't understand how to deal with that kind of game yet.