Sitting The Corner: High Crotch Defense With Ben Askren
Defending takedowns is an important part of wrestling. There are many different types of takedowns that your opponent might try against you. One very common shot is a high crotch. If your opponent gets in on a deep high crotch, you may not be able to get your hips back to counter with a sprawl. If that happens, you can defend the high crotch by sitting the corner. This is a very effective way to take away your opponent’s ability to transition a high crotch to a single or a double leg. It brings the wrestling down to the mat where you have the advantage.
First, when someone shoots in on a high crotch, you have to get their shoulder to outside of your hips. Watch how Askren pushes on his partner’s lat and does a circular sit down to the mat. Also notice the position of his free leg, it is bent not straight. Once down on the mat, you can lock your hands in the crotch, lock around the body, or you can pull the torso and leg into you without locking your hands. The important thing is you keep everything tight together.
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The first and easiest finish from this position is to hook the ankle with your free leg and post on the mat with your hand so you can rotate your hips and end up with a leg ride and a takedown.
A second finish you can do from this position is to roll them over if they are driving into you. If you feel them really pressuring into you, post your free foot on the mat in between your legs and roll them over their top shoulder. After the roll, you should end up on top and they will most likely be holding onto the leg. You can do a couple things from this position. One thing Askren shows in the video is to lock up a near side cradle. If it is available, this is a great way to earn a pin. If the cradle is not available, slide your hips back and circle towards your opponent’s feet and cross face them to get the takedown.
A third way to finish in this position comes when they try to turn back into you once you have the leg hooked. Since the leg is hooked, they can’t get their foot back, so when they try to turn into you, it brings their head and knee close together and anytime the head and knee are close, it is cradle time.
There is another cradle you can hit from the sit the corner position. To set it up, you are going to lock your hands low on the leg and high on the body then drive him onto his shoulder. The hand that is on the body comes out and you slide it around the head to lock up the cradle. Once it is locked up, take him over to his back for the pin.
In this video, Askren shows this series when someone hits a high crotch, but this also works when someone shoots a single leg on you. You just have to push their head to the outside position first, then you can sit the corner.
As you can see, there are a lot of options from sitting the corner. Just remember to stay tight so they can’t run you over with their hips.
If you would like to learn more wrestling technique from Ben Askren, be sure to check out his in depth instructional video “Ultimate Askren Wrestling with Ben Askren” where he breaks down the moves and techniques he used to become one of the best wrestlers in the history of college wrestling.
Ultimate Askren Wrestling By Ben Askren will teach the techniques that made Ben one of the most SOUGHT after athletes on Earth! Get ready to learn some FUNK from the man HIMSELF!