Thread the Needle Roll Through Tilt by Logan Stieber
There are three major positions in wrestling: on the feet, on the bottom, and on top. If you want to really excel in wrestling, it is very important that you become good in all three positions. It is very common for wrestlers to focus a lot on takedowns from the feet and escaping from the bottom and not really focusing as much on top position wrestling, but when you watch good wrestlers, one thing that stands out is they are able to turn their opponents and score points and get pins.
In this video, Logan Stieber, who is a four time NCAA national champion, teaches a thread the needle roll through tilt.
This is a very effective tilt but it is also a very technical move. Let's break down the technique of this video a little more in-depth.
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This tilt starts from a cross-body leg ride position. If you are new to wrestling or if you don’t ride legs very much, this may be a position you need to practice before you feel comfortable even attempting this tilt. To get the leg in, watch how Stieber bumps his opponent forward, which shifts weight to their hands, then blocks the arm to make space to get the leg in. If you don’t block the arm, your opponent can block your leg or even hook it and use it to get an escape.
Let’s look a little closer at the leg ride position. First of all, look how high he is on his opponent. Many people, when they get a cross-body ride, let there hip hang down to low. When this happens, there isn’t a lot of pressure on the bottom guy and it is easy to defend. Secondly, when Stieber puts the leg in, he is not hooking his opponent’s ankle with his ankle. When you do this, unless you have really long legs, it causes your hip to fall off to the side and it will make the roll through very difficult.
Once the leg is in, Stieber goes to a cross-body ride and hooks the far elbow. Look at his body position when he hooks the elbow, his head and chest are up. When the guy on bottom feels this, most of the time their reaction will be to grab the inside of their thigh to keep that arm from being pulled up. From here, you will slide you arm out just a little and reach back between your opponent’s legs and secure the wrist.
Now that the elbow is hooked and the wrist is secured, you will look to roll through to put your opponent on their back. Pay attention to how Stieber rolls in the video, because anytime you roll over your back in wrestling, you are potentially putting yourself in danger. Be sure to roll over the front shoulder and be sure you are looking back towards the feet. When you roll, be sure to push off the mat with your foot and kick with the leg that is not hooked in to help create power and momentum.
After you roll through, you should be in a good tilt position. Make sure you keep both your elbows tight to your side and keep a lot of pressure on their leg with your leg. Also, be sure to plant your back foot on the mat so you can use it to help move yourself around to keep your hips tight to their hips.
Lastly, and this may sound a bit silly to point out, but be sure you keep your shoulders off the mat. There have been many wrestlers over the years who have pinned themselves because they got lazy in a tilt position and didn’t keep their shoulders off the mat.
Tilts are a great way to earn a lot of points in a match. Be sure you are comfortable with a cross-body ride and rolling through before you go out and try this in a match and the best way to get comfortable with it is to drill it over and over again.
If you would like to really improve your top game, be sure to check out “The Armbar Blueprint by Logan Stieber”. In video, Stieber covers all sorts of different armbars and tilts that he used on his way to becoming a four time national champion and world champion.