Kick Away Defense With Hayden Zillmer
The ability to choose when to engage with your opponent is one that is often the deciding factor in a victory or a loss for a fighter. Being able to choose when the actual fight in the match happens basically means that you can choose when you want to struggle and when your opponent even has a slight chance at scoring or getting in a good position.
Being able to choose when engagements happen in fights is usually the combination of a few skills and factors. The two most important being the control of range and having solid defense. Having control of the range will go a long way in helping make sure that you are the one making the engagements happen. If you control the range of a match in any combat sport well enough, you will be able to close the distance when you want to make things happen and you will see any attempt made by your opponent and have more than enough to to defend or simply move out of the way.
Controlling the range is important, but it is something that is incredibly hard to learn and can be difficult to manage well constantly throughout a pressure situation like in a competition. This is where defense comes in. If you aren’t able to control the distance well but you are able to defend perfectly against anything that your opponent tries to do and disengage, it’s basically the same thing, but it is more costly on your stamina.
On the upside to that can lead to counters and throws that use your opponents aggressive attacks against them and attacking is usually more constantly on the energy system than defending.
On that note, in this video Hayden Zillmer shows a very interesting and unique defense for when your opponent is shooting for and is able grab a loose hold on a low single leg. If you would rather not get caught in a chain wrestling combination or force a scramble then this defense is one that you should try out.
This defense does need to be done quickly or else you will miss your opportunity. The first thing that you are going to want to do as your opponent shoots for their single and gets a hold of one of your legs is to step back with the other leg so you can create some space.
This way you will be able to step over your opponent to complete this defense and disengagement. To make sure that you have enough time to step over your opponent, bend the leg that they are shooting forward so that your shin is pressed against their traps and shoulders and place your hands on their back. From here you step over their body with your free leg and then donkey kick them, pushing yourself forward while also hopefully launching them backwards.
This will disengage you for the fight and score you some points. If you want to learn more wrestling techniques and drills like this one check out our video series by Hayden Zillmer available now!