Gold Medal Wrestling Technique With Henry Cejudo

The longer you are involved in the sport of wrestling, the more you will come to realize that there is not one standardized way to hit all moves and techniques. One guy might hit a double leg one way and another guy might do it similar, but make small changes to they way he does it. Because there are many variations to all moves, it is good to learn different variations of similar techniques because one variation may work better for you than others. 

Henry Cejudo is an Olympic gold medalist in wrestling and is currently a two division UFC champion. During the course of his career, he has used his experience to develop and refine many different techniques to ensure they work on competition at the highest level because when you are facing off against the best in the world, you won’t be able to get away with sloppy technique. 

Here are four versions of basic techniques that Henry used in his career to win at the highest level of both wrestling and MMA. 

Contact and Motion

When you a match starts, you need to safely make contact with your opponent. If you stand up straight and walk into them, there is a high degree of likelihood you are going to get taken down with a double leg. So, you need to close the distance between you and your opponent and make contact with them, but you don’t want to leave yourself open to takedowns when you do. 

In this first video, watch how Henry stays in a nice low stance and first makes contact with his head before he engages with his hands. Often times, we see wrestlers go right in and reach for a collar tie. This is not great because it creates a huge opening for your opponent to take a shot on you. Once his head has made contact, Henry then looks for what he calls mid-range ties which are collar ties, wrist control, and inside ties. From the mid-range ties, you can then transition into close range ties like an underhook, over unders, and double underhooks. 

A really big point that Henry talks about is moving your opponent. When you engage them and tie up with them, don’t just stand there; you must move them around. Pay attention to how Henry uses pushes and pulls to get his partner to step and move. Steering your opponent is another important skill to learn. Pushing and pulling moves your opponent in and out, but steering gets them to circle and gives you angles to attack. When you combine them all, it creates openings for you to shoot and score.

While it is good to move your opponent, you do need to be aware that anytime you push into your opponent, you are giving them pressure to possibly take a shot on you or even throw you, and anytime you pull them, you are potentially pulling them into your legs. That is why is it so important to have good head contact and position. If you are moving your opponent around and feel them lower their level to take a shot, you can use your head to block it. 

Low Single

One takedown that Cejudo used a lot during his wrestling career was a low single leg. A low single is great because it allows you to go under your opponent’s first line of defense, which is their head and hands. 

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Unlike most shots, a low single leg is shot from open space. Watch how Henry uses level changes and fakes to get is opponent to react for just a split second which allows him an opening to shoot. Another important thing to notice is Henry’s position right before he shoots the low single. His level is really low, his head is up, and both of his legs are bent so he can use both of them to create the explosive power needed to close the distance quickly. Also, notice the direction he is aiming. He is not going straight at the leg, instead, he is going forward and down. 

One thing that you will notice when watching elite wrestlers is that they often utilize chain wrestling, which is flowing from one move immediately into another. It is all about thinking two to three steps ahead, and this doesn’t happen automatically. This happens when you drill multiple moves in sequence so when the time comes in a match, it is automatic.

Check out these two videos where Henry uses a shot to set up a throw and in the other, hits a double leg and immediately transitions from the takedown to scoring back points on his opponent. 

Hip Toss

In this video, Cejudo uses an outside sweep single from the inside tie to set up a hip toss. Watch how Henry shoots the outside leg anticipating that his opponent will step it back to defend the shot. When he does, Henry stays heavy on the outside arm and takes a center step with his inside leg. From here, he takes a back step to clear his hips through and loads his partner up for the throw. Notice how he has his partner almost perpendicular across his back and his butt and hips are all the way clear. 

This is a great combination because often times in a match, you may need to hit a throw at the end of a match to win and when your opponent knows this, it makes it even more difficult to hit a throw. Using an outside sweep single to disguise the throw is a great way to set it and your opponent won’t see it coming. 

Double Leg to a Turk

In this last video, Cejudo shows a double leg and finishes directly into a turk. This is a great example of transitioning from one move directly into another. If you watch high level wrestling, you will see guys do this all the time and it makes sense because right when you take someone down, they are more vulnerable to being turned than they are if you allow them to base out.

This turk starts in the way Henry finishes his double leg. Instead of a typical up and in finish, he uses a windshield wipers motion with his feet to turn the corner and take his opponent down to their hip. From this position, he lifts the top leg and takes a big step between the legs. Notice how throughout the entire move, he is driving into his opponent. He takes a big step, almost like a penetration step in order to lock up high on the thigh with a figure four lock.

Once you have the leg locked, keep your head up and attack your opponent’s head and arm and look for the pin. When you get to this position, you will need to make adjustments because your opponent will be fighting to get off of their back. If they are turning into you, elevate the leg and if they are turning away from you, make your hips heavy slide back just a little. 

As you can see in the videos, small things can make a big difference when hitting moves. Getting better at wrestling isn’t always about learning more stuff, but rather about refining and learning to do the moves you already know better. Be sure to spend a lot of time drilling these in practice so you feel confident when you hit them out on the mat, especially the hip toss.  

If you would like to learn more wrestling technique from Henry Cejudo, be sure to check out his in depth video series titled “Gold Medal Wrestling by Henry Cejudo”. This is an eight part video series where he goes over the drills and techniques he has used to become an Olympic gold medalist and MMA superstar. 

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