Counter Attack with Nate Jackson
Wrestling is a fluid and dynamic sport. Unlike many contact sports with a ball, the changes in wrestling happen instantaneously. In Lacrosse, Football and Basketball there are other players on the field and their actions and reactions will foreshadow what is happening. This foreshadowing gives the other team a chance to read the situation and counter.
Unfortunately, if you are waiting on the reaction of someone else in wrestling it is probably too late. Watching your coach grab his hair might be the only foreshadowing you get before being tossed for a big throw.
When wrestling the athlete must be focused solely on what his opponent is doing. There might be some telegraphs that will help a wrestler determine what is coming. Although at the top levels for every telegraph there is a feint that is attempting to read or illicit a reaction.
Therefore situational drilling is so important, at one point in time or another if you wrestle enough, you are going to get faked out of your wrestling shoes and end up in a bad spot!
One of the worst spots you can be in, is a double leg. If someone gets in deep on a double you better have drilled some defense or you are going down!
We are not talking a Sprawl, if they have your legs wrapped that opportunity has already passed you by. What other options do you have? Well first you need to get some angle to fight their ability to just drive into you and push you over.
How do you establish angle when someone has shot in deep? You have to use your hips, bump forward hard, then circle out. This will often create enough space for you to angle out. But now what? They are still in position to try a drive and knee tap or switch to the single.
Hand fight! Is an excellent option. Throw a deep whizzer on the side you have angle and either grab the wrist or elbow of the reaching arm. At this point you have created a good scramble position with an opportunity to throw any over under combination. Or if that does not seem possible wrestle to a neutral tie and break space if you need it.
There is another option I just saw presented by Nate Jackson the Assistant Coach of the Princeton Tigers. He redirects the head to the center of his belly when his opponent chases after him once he creates the angle.
By placing the head to the center of his abdomen, he effectively has created the correct space for a Sprawl. The sprawl position is still what I refer to as a Neutral Plus situation. No points are scored but the Top wrestler has more potential than the bottom wrestler, so he is slightly ahead. So Neutral +.
Check out how Nate goes from being taken down to ending with a pinning combination, its quite simple but looks so good.
Look at how Nate keeps his head over the shoulders of his partner as he circles back. What I noticed is when he is circling his outside elbow guides the head under his body.
Learn more Creative Counters with Nate Jackson! Click Learn More!
While Nate is Circling he does not stop once he is back square with his partner he continues past the leg he is circling toward. Once over that leg Nate lowers his level and starts removing the space between them.
If presented you mine have the right recipe for a near side cradle option. Lock the hands and circle back. Another option is to take the ½ nelson and leg and drive over for some back exposure or if you’re lucky a pin!
What the real take away from this entire video is creating a skillset that takes you from being in danger, to being the person ready to score. If this was a bad Hollywood film I would say “Going from being the Hunted to the Hunter” add in a dramatic face shot.
Nate Jackson’s career thrived on his ability to stifle an attack and turn the tables quickly. There is no doubt that is why Princeton brought him on to help train their team. Nate loves coaching and teaching wrestling and it was a no brainer for him to create an instructional.
Nate stuck with things he knew and didn’t try to show things he didn’t think would work just to fill time. So sticking with the ability to re attack after shutting down offense that is exactly what he did. He created an instructional on real and effective counters!
Check it out here!