Defensive Wizardry With Logan Stieber
Have you ever been wrestling, the other guy shoots, penetrates lifts, and mid take down think to yourself “Well… I gone and screwed up this time!” right as you hit the mat? Early on this happens a lot, guy get in deep on a Single or High Crotch and there is just not much you can do.
Right?
WRONG!
Watch any college tournament and you will see midair theatrics to escape takedowns or counters to the takedown. From the outside looking in, it is pure magic. Sorcery even!
Yet none of this is magic or sorcery, its technical counters that any wrestler can and should learn. Imagine being dangerous no matter where you end up in a match.
An opponent shoots in deep and has a single and you don’t clam up or accept the takedown, you have a counter. Now you are scoring off the other person’s aggression.
Take the head outside single. Super common with a high percentage finishing rate. Check out how Logan Stieber counters a head outside single below.
Looks like magic doesn’t it?
It is not, the idea behind the technique is pretty simple. Once elevated you have to post your arm to keep from getting tossed over.
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If possible, pull your knees in and set your feet flat while being draped over the shoulder of the opponent. If not possible shift your hips away from your opponent’s head which should slide you off their shoulder. Landing your feet and keeping you partially to the side.
Once here, the near side arm reaches for a tight waist and the other for the near side ankle.
Drive yourself laterally so that your opponent cannot base and get put on their far side hip and shoulder. If they are smart they will go belly down to prevent exposure. If not, you continue driving with a pinning combination that suits you.
Either way you get at least two points, and possibly some back exposure points as well.
Simple enough if you spend time to drill it.
Now some of you out there might think this is a bit of hogwash, and to that I ask you “Do you know who Logan Stieber is?”
For those not so familiar with the name, Logan is one of the coaches at the Ohio Regional Training Center. Training mat killers like Myles Martin to take on the world’s best.
Still not qualified? How about he is one of the greatest wrestlers to ever wear a Buckeye singlet for Ohio State? Winning Four national titles from 2012 through 2015. Those same years Logan won the Big 10 Championship making him both a 4 time big ten and 4 time national champion.
During Logan’s senior year at Ohio State he would lead the team to their National Championship. The teams one and only. It is also to be noted his senior year he won the Dan Hodge Trophy, the most dominant wrestler award and most outstanding wrestler award given by the NCAA Coaches association.
This set off a chain of events that changed the Ohio State wrestling Program. As in the Last four tournament years since he left and began coaching, the team has been the National runner up three times.
Three out of four is not bad, but there might be a reason for that. Logan was off Winning the 2016 Freestyle world championship that year. That is all. This makes it entirely possible that his coaching prowess did not come to fruition until after his run at the World Championship.
If that is not enough experience both coaching and as a wrestler to accept his defensive wizardry nothing will. Good luck getting out of takedowns from now on, and have fun getting scored on.
For the rest of you who enjoy Logan’s technical ability he has come out with a two part instructional outlining his defensive style.
Defense is a good offense and offense scores points, points win matches. Logan doesn’t just get into showing moves, he teaches the theory behind setting up the good defensive base and moving around the more common attacks and troubleshooting other situations you might find yourself in.
