Improving Your Single Leg Success Rate With Brett Pfarr
Successfully transitioning to a takedown from a single leg usually lands you in a pretty dominant spot. However getting there can be difficult at times, especially against an experienced wrestler. As more and more athletes come up in the sport, more advanced techniques continue to evolve. If single leg takedowns are your thing, it’s important to work on getting really good at a few different ways of getting them.
The more time you spend in this sport, the more importance you begin to place on being a step ahead of your opponent. You realize that just diving in for a single leg can be met with all sorts of challenges. In this video, Brett Pfarr shows a technique that will surely improve your single leg success rate by predicting your opponents reaction. Check it out!
Brett needs no introduction if you have ever seen his record. However if you haven’t, he has claimed the titles of Two-Time-All-American, NCAA finalist, Two-Time Big Ten finalist, and Three-Time NCAA qualifier, as well as many others throughout his time at the University of Minnesota. He held an impressive record of 40-4 as a Redshirt junior, and 31-3 as a Redshirt senior.
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In this clip of his instructional, Brett demonstrates an outside step into a single leg. He starts standing up with his partner, with his head on the inside and he has an outside tie using his right arm. He plays through the scenario of being in this position in a match, where you have previously gone for a high crotch a few times so your opponent has no choice but to respect it.
Perhaps when doing that you were actually going for those high crotches, but you can also use those attempts as a future ploy to set up this single leg. From the standing position with an outside tie, he takes an outside step with his right leg and reaches out with his left arm to act as though he is going for a high crotch on his opponent. His opponent, having no choice but to respect this, steps back with his left leg to avoid the high crotch.
At this point, Brett’s right leg is loaded and he has already begun to level change. Using the momentum and weight on his right leg, he drops his left knee to the ground and goes to tie up his opponents other leg, resulting in a successful single leg. In essence, the strategy is to consistently make your opponent believe that the high crotch is the real threat, giving him no other option but to react to it. You then time that reaction with a quick shift to a single leg on the opposite leg.
From here Brett goes into some fundamentals for when you have secured the single leg. Those being to make sure your head is tight to your opponent's chest, while looking up and driving into him. It is also important to move around when you get here to ensure your opponent is staying off balance, and diminish his ability to try to take his leg back.
Another important detail he touches on at the end of the video is making sure to throw your shoulder when you drop to your knee for the single leg. Doing this allows you to change levels quickly, and also attaches you to your opponent, making it harder for him to break away.
When learning from someone with a record like Brett’s, it is important to pay close attention to detail. Athletes like him are successful for a reason, and it is due to countless hours of training with proper technique, getting everything down to a precise science.
Check out Brett's Instructional available here!