Finishing The Single Leg With Ben Askren
The single leg isn’t really a technique that people go for because they want to score it. This is because the single leg is pretty easy to defend against and most people drill their defenses to it a ton, so it becomes second nature.
This means that people usually only go for single legs as a means to get their hands on their opponent so that they can start to work for something else. While this is the case you shouldn't completely give up on finishing the single leg.
This is especially the case from when you get the single leg and pull your opponent’s leg up high. However, while this position makes it a lot easier to finish the single leg, you still need to know what to do and we have just the guy to show you.
In this video, Ben Askren shows a few finishes that you can do off of a single leg
Who Is Ben Askren?
Ben Askren is a top tier wrestler and wrestling coach but he hasn’t just stuck to wrestling. Askren is also a very accomplished MMA fighter having won both the ONE championship and Bellator welterweight titles and he even competed in the UFC for a short time.
High Level Single Leg Takedown Finishes
The video starts off with Ben Askren talking about how the high level version of the single leg is an easy place to score from because your opponent is already off balance from this position. People who aren’t that flexible or have bad balance might even just fall over if you pick the leg up high enough.
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Now that probably isn’t going to happen to people who have at least some level of competence in wrestling. However you still can take advantage of the fact that they are off balanced while in the high level single leg position.
The first finish that Ben shows from this position is a very simple trip. You are going to get control of the neck with your free arm and pull their head towards that arm’s side while you trip them with your lead leg. Pretty simple right?
The second takedown that Ben shows is also pretty simple. You can either push on your opponent's arm pit or on their knee and doing this will put them on their hands one their one free knee. From there you can drive forward and attack both knees to drive them into the mat.
The third technique that Ben shows has us uppercutting under the knee with our free arm. As you’re uppercutting the knee you simultaneously kick out their leg with yours to put them on their back.
The common mistake with that last one is that people don’t get the timing right on the kick. Part of this is because you might not be close enough to kick and uppercut at the same time. One can help make your kick faster by stepping in with your other leg first. Remember to time the uppercut and the kick properly, both should fully extend at the same time.
A takedown that Ben askren does not recommend that you do from this position is the forward trip. It’s pretty tempting to do this as it kind of makes sense intuitively. The problem is that doing this give’s your opponent the opportunity to grab your leg and create a scramble. They can also just roll into a strong position that they can work out of and you won’t score.
Stick to the stuff that’s simple and will score guaranteed.
