GSP's Wrestling

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How did he get so good at it? Both in terms of skill and resum
 
I too am baffled by his almost godlike wrestling acumen, He's like a French canadian Danny Hodge with Karelin filling
 
I don't know man. Wrestling seems to be what almost everyone says is the hardest thing to learn if you didn't grow up on it. At least out of all the major grappling arts.

I'm sure he does something other people don't. Obviously his athleticism and desire helps a lot. Conceptually he gets things most people don't. It may not always translate in his fights, but his BJJ is ridiculous.

I know he gets obsessed about techniques. Joe Rogan recently showed GSP a spinning back side-kick that was different (and better) than GSP had learned it and all GSP did for several days was practice the kick until he had it perfected. I know if you show him a setup he hasn't seen or a transition that he will just do it over and over again until he feels like it's ingrained.

A great example of this is no longer on the internet, but right after the fight with Dan Hardy, before he even got out of his fight shorts, he pulled John Danaher aside in the dressing room and went over what made his armbar and Kimura attempts fail for like 30 minutes. After he learned what he did wrong, he drilled the right way before going to the after-parties, etc.

I'm guessing he took this approach to wrestling.
 
The thing with wrestling in Montreal... Is that it doesn't exist.

So you either train with the Olympic wrestling team (like GSP) or not at all.

Nobody does it as a hobby or as part of a social club in high school. GSP wrestles with the absolute best in the country day in and day out because that's the only option he has.
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StevenCrowder said:
The thing with wrestling in Montreal... Is that it doesn't exist.

So you either train with the Olympic wrestling team (like GSP) or not at all.

Nobody does it as a hobby or as part of a social club in high school. GSP wrestles with the absolute best in the country day in and day out because that's the only option he has.
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Not exactly true...nowadays, a few a really good wrestlers teach the mma crowd, Gamma, H20 are two examples on top of my head.
 
OodlesofNoodle said:
I too am baffled by his almost godlike wrestling acumen, He's like a French canadian Danny Hodge with Karelin filling
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No, not even close

And to your question, he has an extremely quick shot that he times exceptionally well.

His chain wrestling is also fairly good, he makes some technical errors, but he transitions so fast from a single to a double leg that it rarely matters
 
Well, honestly, I don't know that I would consider what he does to be wrestling. It's more like just being really well-rounded.
 
D4rthKitty said:
No, not even close

And to your question, he has an extremely quick shot that he times exceptionally well.

His chain wrestling is also fairly good, he makes some technical errors, but he transitions so fast from a single to a double leg that it rarely matters
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All hyperbole aside, he does remind me of Dan but of course no one comes close to Karelin
 
I think allot has to do with how he mixes it with his striking etc. He's really good at setting up takedowns when you mix in all the other factors that MMA brings.

That, and what most have mentioned above.
 
His clear strength and speed, needed if you want to be a good wrestler, also wrestling with an olympic team with former world medalists helps, and the way he has learned wrestling, stopping the shot and shooting it'd be interesting to see his ability in par terre, how good he is from there. Imo the fact he trained freestyle made his takedown and takedown defense technique better than people who do folkstyle who seem to be pretty stiff and slow and not that technical in those areas, but they can ride and escape and reverse. His striking and footwork help him also.
It would also be interesting to see how he does with a legitimate world level wrestler like ben askren.
 
Soviet/Russian style training and techniques. I think that gives him the edge over most NCAA wrestlers who haven't been exposed to that style.
 
I know more than a handful of people who had fairly successful college wrestling careers with no high school experience. Some were BJJ guys or Judo guys, but some had zero grappling experience.

Jake Ellenberger wrestled at the division 2 level I believe with zero experience. His brother wrestled while he was a star swimmer in high school. Jake was 21 when he started wrestling and eventually became an assistant coach at the college level.

Darren Uyenoyama was a BJJ purple or blue when he started wrestling in his mid 20's and became a coach.

BJ Penn wrestled at a junior college after he won the mundials and did okay.

Bottom line, if you aren't an athletic beast and want to get good at wrestling, train at a pure wrestling club with wrestlers and work hard. Wrestling is a way harder sport than BJJ and I couldn't see many people developing good wrestling while doing gi BJJ at most schools which barely teach any takedowns at all, and if they do, they teach judo.
 
His wrestling isn't much like competitive wrestling at all. He has extremely basic shots. They are super basic, executed very well and with great athleticism. But what makes it work is that his striking is the setup. For using strikes as setups, he really has no equal. Other than that, it's just super basic singles and doubles correctly executed by a superb athlete.

Most of competitive wrestling -- the elaborate setups and finishes -- are simply unnecessary in MMA, and he doesn't waste his time with them. For the same reason, he wouldn't cross over to competitive wrestling very well, IMHO.
 
BruceLeeMMA said:
Soviet/Russian style training and techniques. I think that gives him the edge over most NCAA wrestlers who haven't been exposed to that style.
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what? his wrestling style is not russian at all
 
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