Granby Roll Defense With Hudson Taylor
Being able to escape from the bottom position in wrestling is vital if you want to succeed out on the mat. Not only are you trying to get that one point for an escape, but being stuck underneath an opponent for a long duration is very tiring. Plus, the longer you are in the bottom position, the longer your opponent has to break you down and work pinning combinations on you. Ask any coach, the best thing to do from bottom is to escape. Nothing makes a coach madder than when there wrestler just sits in the bottom position not attempting to escape.
When you start in referee’s position, there are many different breakdowns your opponent may try on you to flatten you out. One common breakdown is a tight waist ankle. In this video, Hudson Taylor teaches us how to defend a tight waist ankle using a granby roll. Check out the video to see how he sets it up and executes it.
Let’s look at the technique in the video a little more in depth.
So when you are on the bottom and your opponent has a tight waist and is driving the ankle, their goal is to not only prevent you from standing up, but also to flatten you out. They are trying to transfer the weight that is over your legs and hips up to your hands because if all of your weight is on your hands, you won’t be able to “wave” up like Taylor shows in the video. So first thing is you need to keep your weight back on over your hips and legs so if you lift your hands off the mat, you won’t get immediately flattened to your belly.
Want to add some Magic Mat Work to your game? Click Learn More!!
Once you feel you can pop up to the wave position, watch how Taylor gets his arms straight up but still has his hips under him. Now, once you are in the wave position, you are counting on your opponent to really drive hard into you to break you back down. Once they do, you sweep the inside leg in and use the forward momentum to hit a granby roll.
A couple points on the granby roll, first one is, if you don’t know how to hit granby roll or you don’t do them often, practice them by yourself for a bit to ensure you have the granby roll down before you start using it to defend a tight waist ankle. When you do hit the roll, be sure to really shoot the arm through and roll across your shoulders not your back. If you don’t commit to hitting the full roll, this won’t work. Also, watch how Taylor finishes after the granby roll. You need to anticipate that your opponent will still be attacking you so you need to end is a good position ready to hip heist and face your opponent.
This is a very effective way to not only defend a tight waist ankle, but also to escape from bottom. Be sure to practice a granby roll a lot. Once you have the granby down, you will not only be able to hit it in this move, but you will also start to see openings to hit is it in different position when you are wrestling from the bottom and it will help your overall wrestling from the bottom.
Hopefully the technique in Taylor’s video will help you next time you are on the mat and someone tries a tight waist ankle on you. As always, the key to getting better is to drill different moves and situations over and over. Be sure to add this in the next time you are working on escaping from bottom.
If you would like to learn more world class wrestling technique from Hudson Taylor, be sure to check out his in depth instructional video series titled “Magic Mat Work by Hudson Taylor”.In this eight part video series, Taylor goes over takedowns, defense, standups, tilts, leg riding, granby rolls, and so much more.