Securing an Arm Bar from Top Position with Logan Stieber
There are many different pinning combinations you can learn in the sport of wrestling. When you take the time to learn and perfect one of them, you need to make sure that it will work at all levels of competition because there are many moves that, in reality, will not work on high level wrestlers. One pinning combination that you will see work at the highest levels of high school and college wrestling is an arm bar.
Logan Stieber was a four time NCAA champion from Ohio State and would often use an arm bar and tight waist to turn his opponents and get pins. In this video, he demonstrates how to secure an arm bar starting on top in referee’s position.
Let’s take a closer look at how Stieber stops his opponent’s first move, breaks them down flat, and then secures the arm bar.
Flatten and Turn ANYBODY with The Armbar Blueprint! Click Learn More!
Stopping your opponent’s first move should be your first priority when the whistle blows. Chances are your opponent will try to stand up or maybe try to sit-out and hit a switch, either way your main objective is to stop them from doing so. In the video, Stieber shows a small bump forward right when the whistle blows. Bumping your opponent forward will force them to put weight on their hands and stop them from hitting a standup. As soon as he bumps, Stieber goes into a spiral ride breakdown where he drops the far hand down to the thigh and the near hand bumps the opposite arm forward. Watch how Stieber comes to the side and secures the near side wrist.
Once your opponent is broken down and the near wrist is secured, you will drive them forward to flatten them out. While driving forward, roll the wrist under and it should pop out the side. Pay attention to Stieber’s position in relation to his opponent. He is keeping a lot of pressure on him by keeping his head and chest up and continually driving his feet into the mat. One mistake that people often make is they stay back on their knees and do not keep pressure on their opponent.
Now pull the arm out and place in on their low back. If you are struggling to get the arm out, watch how Stieber sits out and uses both hands to attack the wrist and secures it on the low back. Once the wrist is secured on the low back, get on top of your opponent. Be sure to keep your chest up and use your belly to help pin the wrist and arm to the low back keeping lots of pressure on your opponent the entire time.
Once you have the arm pinned to their low back, secure the wrist with your opposite hand and slide your near hand under the elbow. Then clear the hand off the low back so it is back at your opponent’s side. Pay attention to how Stieber does it and how he is always keeping everything nice and tight. If it isn’t tight, your opponent will possibly be able to get his arm out. When the arm bar is locked up tight, there are a lot of different finishes you can do to get the pin. The most common is to grab the far wrist and drive your opponent over.
When you are learning to wrestle, no matter if it is from the feet, top, or bottom, it is really important to learn series of moves that you can hit based on what is available. This is why you often see high level wrestlers who specialize in certain takedowns, set-ups, tilts, two on ones, etc. It is impossible for one person to master every single technique in wrestling, so instead you should find a couple things and get really good at them. Then, you can build your wrestling strategies around what you are really good at.
As always, make sure you are drilling these moves over and over to get the correct technique down. Hopefully this will help you to use armbars more effectively in your upcoming season.
When you watch Stieber wrestle, one of the things you will see is that he is a master at the armbar series. In fact, Logan has an entire instructional video series on arm bars titled “The Armbar Blueprint by Logan Stieber”. If you want to learn more about how to set up and pin guys using armbars then you definitely need to check out his video.