The Bottom Game with Jon Morrison
The first week of wrestling practice for new wrestlers is all about the same. You condition until you are about to puke. You learn about basic collar ties. Then changing levels and penetration steps. Bridging off your back and how to get up from the referee's position.
If we search on the internet I would bet that the majority of wrestling instructionals focus on two main things. Attacking the legs and defending leg attacks. This is understandable as every wrestling match starts with two wrestlers attempting to take the other down.
Yet when we look, we do not find as many instructionals or even videos about getting up from the referee's position. What is odd is that every wrestler that spends time on the mat is going to end up in the down position.
What is even more mind boggling is that the top position wrestler has the advantage. They spend much less energy keeping a wrestler down than the wrestler on bottom expends trying to get up and get away. So why are we ignoring this position?
The first thing a wrestler learns to do from this position is a near side arm stand up. Taking the arm the top wrestler has gripped and shooting it to the sky as hard as they can to break the grip. Simultaneously stepping that same side foot up while bringing the head up tall maintaining good posture.
New wrestlers see this and drill the position and believe this is the best way to get an easy escape point. Until they go live and are getting tossed around like a throwing dummy. It is at this point many newcomers realize that wrestling is not for the faint of heart.
There are other ways out like bull dogging. Essentially running on your hands and knees to get away, then performing a quick “Switch” to both escape and if done right score a reversal.
In short if you are on bottom you are going to spend a bunch of energy if you want any hopes at getting away. Meanwhile if your partner can maintain the position for 30 seconds they score a ride point and any excess ride time gets tallied at the end.
What if there was an easier way to get out, and in a quick manner to eliminate as much ride time as possible? Jon Morrision has the solution. He calls it the “Sit out, Turn in”. Sounds simple enough but it is quite possibly the coolest escape ever.
Jon is one of the head coaches at the DMV Regional Training Center. There he is coaching some of the best wrestlers in the country. The detail Jon has put into this instructional is second to none. Highlighting the importance of the bottom position Jon goes over the basics and hops into the more technical moves quickly.
It is not often you get an instructional that shows how to properly Hip Heist and Inside leg stand up but also have details on how to Granby roll and eliminate riding positions with multiple options in each.
Jon spends an entire section explaining how to clear legs from just about every position imaginable. I challenge you to find that instruction with this level of detail anywhere else.
Stop neglecting the bottom game and get educated on how you can score from the bottom. Easily and effectively from one of the best coaches there is today.
