The Best Ties For Scoring Takedowns
When you are wrestling on your feet, hand fighting to a dominant position is very important because it opens up opportunities for you to take shots and score takedowns. There are a lot of different ways you can tie up with your opponent, some are good and some are bad. For example, an ear to ear collar tie is not a good position because neither wrestler has an advantage in position. Here are some of the best tie ups you can get into when wrestling that will help you score more points.
Inside Tie
One of the most basic yet effective ties is inside control. From this position, a wrestler can hit single legs, double legs, duck unders, high crotches, and many other great takedowns. Here is a video of Dan Vallimont using an inside tie to hit a high crotch to a double leg.
It is called an inside tie because your arms are inside your opponent’s arms. Notice how Dan’s hands are on his partners triceps and in a live situation, you will use that grip to push and pull your opponent. Often times, when using inside ties, you are looking for your opponent to pressure into you so you can clear the tie and create an opening for a shot.
Watch how Dan clears the tie when he goes in for his high crotch. He is keeping his elbow in and he even goes so far as to bring his own hand down to his hip before he attacks to the leg to make sure his partner can’t hook his arm.
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Another important thing to note is his head position, just like you don’t want to be in an ear to ear collar tie, you also don’t want to be ear to ear when you have an inside tie. You can see that Dan’s forehead is in the side of his opponent’s head. This also helps to create space to shoot.
One thing you do have to pay attention to when you have inside control is that you partner has outside control and there are different takedowns that they can hit from that position like and outside carry.
Underhook
One of the best and most effective positions to hand fight to is an underhook. From an underhook, you can hit pretty much any type of shot you want, hit trips, and snap downs. Here is a great video of Chael Sonnen explaining how he likes to use an underhook.
When you have an underhook, you want to make sure your arm isn’t too deep because if it is, you are giving your opponent a whizzer. Pay attention to where Sonnen places his hand on his opponent’s back when he has the underhook.
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The idea position when you have an underhook is to have inside head position, like Sonnen shows in the video and have control of your partners far wrist, but in a live match, this rarely happens. One of the great things about and underhook is you can still be very effective with it even if your opponent has inside head position and has control of your far wrist. At first it may not feel like you can attack like this, but work different scenarios in practice and you will soon find that while it may be best to have all three, you can still score even if you only have the underhook.
Lastly, make sure you use the underhook to move your opponent. This will get them to switch up their lead legs and will allow you to hit different attacks.
Russian Tie
Another great position to be in when wrestling on your feet is a Russian tie, also called a two on one. One of the reasons it is such a good position is not only is it very difficult for your opponent score on you when you have a Russian tie, but the possibilities are pretty much endless when it comes to offense you can hit from a Russian tie. Here is a video of Georgi Ivanov hitting a lateral drop from a two on one.
Another great example of effectively using a Russian tie is this video of Dan Vallimont using a Russian tie to set up an ankle pick.
These two videos are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to offense from a Russian tie. When you have two on one, make sure you have the arm tight to your body. Also, your opponent will most likely try to face you, so use the two on one to pull your opponent where you want them. One of the things that makes a Russian tie so effective is it gives you a great angle to attack your opponent from.
When Russian ties are used correctly, they can be highly effective to setting up your offense.
Overtie
An overtie is another great option to score from. One very common positions wrestlers get in is a collar tie. An overtie is basically when you collar tie over top of your opponent’s collar tie. It may sound a bit confusing, but check out this video by Logan Stieber where he uses an overtie to hit a double leg.
One of the most important things when getting an overtie is you must collapse your opponent’s head into their biceps. This closes off any space they might have to hit something offensively. Stieber does a great job pointing this out in the video. Another important point, just like with the other ties, you must keep your opponent moving by staying heavy on the head and circling.
An overtie is a more advanced technique when compared to inside control or an underhook, but it is very important to get comfortable with because collar ties are so common out on the mat.
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