What makes them tick?

Recently, I was sent a video of a good wrestler with limited BJJ skill rolling against a blue, purple and brown belt. He did way better than one would expect. This got me thinking about why wrestling is so effective. 

The wrestler that they tested was 19 years old and had done 10 BJJ sessions. He was just about to go to college where he got recruited for wrestling. Before he went though, they thought they would test him out and see how he’d fair against different belts. Against the blue belt he dominated, against the purple he had the upper hand and against the brown belt, it was about even. At no time did he get submitted or swept. How can a wrestler do this against BJJ?

The training for wrestling is intense – more intense than any other training I have done. The intensity is in the drills. When training in wrestling, there is no such thing as too hard or too fast. So, when they are drilling, they are going harder than most sports go. The hunger to keep a position is insane. They will fight to maintain position as that is everything in wrestling – they will not go on their back as that means defeat and they will not get taken down as that also means defeat. They are trying to win every exchange; even more than what I’ve seen in other combat sports. Wrestlers want to win every point all the time, even in training. I did not find this same level of intensity in kickboxing, BJJ or MMA. To put it simply, they just go ‘hard out’ for everything. In BJJ, you also don’t want to get taken down or be swept but the difference here is going on to your back is the single worst thing that can happen within wrestling (with being taken down coming in as a close second). In BJJ, a sweep is an inconvenience, but the fight keeps going, just from a worse position. The same goes for the takedown, there is takedown defence for sure, but the outcome of the match is not usually based on the success of the takedown, also both people want the match to go to the ground, so a takedown is inevitable.

If all you have trained in your life is to get takedowns, stay on top and defend the takedown while avoiding being on your back, it gives you a single-minded focus. A wrestler’s hips are his life – they spend their training keeping their hips level. This means that you are not rolling them over, they will give everything to land on their stomach with a takedown and then keep their hips flat in any position on the ground. When this wrestler went up against the BJJ guys, he would mostly drive forward and look for and use his heavy hips to pass guard, then look for a figure 4 submission. As he progressed up the belts, there were more sweep attempts but none of them worked as he always managed to keep his hips level. One of the big advantages this guy had was his athleticism, he was very strong and very quick. Anyone who is athletic is going to pick up a sport quicker than most. In saying that, with everything being equal, athleticism makes up for a lot. The balance, body awareness, competiveness and intensity all play a role. If the wrestler was wearing a gi, that would put the favour in the hands the BJJ guys for sure. As the ranks increased, the use of the gi would become a large factor in the outcome of the match. The gi was likely removed due to this factor. 

You have to have done wrestling to understand the intensity associated. It is also one of those sports where you, generally speaking, have to remain “in practice” or you’ll get a shock. Even if you take a break from wrestling with wrestlers and wrestle with MMA guys you get a shock when you go back to training. In wrestling you have to go 100% to get success, either offence or defence, if you are practicing at 80% then that becomes your new 100%. In MMA and BJJ you can get away with going 80% and you get used to performing at that level. When you take that level back to wrestling, from my own experience, you get squished and slammed it takes a few sessions to get the level back up. If you want to get better at wrestling, wrestle against wrestlers. 

 It was very interesting to see someone put a good wrestler with minimal BJJ knowledge against BJJ guys to see what would happen. For a lot of people, ego would get in the way. A very good wrestler, like he was, is always going to do well as there is some crossover with positions between the sports. The BJJ guys were happy on their backs and once there, found it hard to do anything with the wrestler on top. This is hardly a surprise as we see it in MMA all the time. It just goes to show you what a good wrestler can do. But never forget that wrestling is good, but by itself, it can’t win a fight. That is why you put wrestling with BJJ or with striking, and that is when it becomes very effective. 

Gareth Lewis
Head MMA Instructor