Wrestling Blogs - Mike Tamillow

My least favorite position to be in is probably on my back. But I’m getting a little more comfortable there now. I used to avoid being on my back as much as possible. I would never sleep in any position that I might be giving up back points from or lie in a position that I could easily be pinned in. Doing that is just asking for someone to jump on top of my chest, stick a half in and start spreading rumors that he pinned Mike Tamillow.

Like I said I’m getting better at it. In fact I’ve already been on my back four times this year. (Of course this wasn’t by choice but I still got out every time.) Most people would consider being on my back as a bad position. But it’s all about perspective. For instance if I’m going for a throw, I have an arm pinched on one side, and step outside that same leg I can drop towards my back and then roll through. Also, if I am scrambling I may want to roll through my back to come up the middle. We talk about position as ‘good’ and ‘bad’. The worst position would be on your back, and if you’re giving up points on your back, I would agree. But the most important thing about position is not whether it is ‘good’ or ‘bad’. What is really important is have you been there before, are you comfortable fighting from there? Are you able to transition through this position without giving up points and without putting yourself in a helpless position? And lastly by putting yourself in this position are you more likely to score or very likely to put yourself in a position to score?

There is more than one way of fighting off your back. I learned to back arch when I was very little. And I happened to have to use it a lot then. I went to a clinic with Rob Herman who taught me the sit up from my back. I had never seen anyone use it until I wrestled with Herbert, who uses a sit up and scoots back. This is doubly effective since you don’t even have to give up backpoints from it. There are numerous other methods of getting off your back. Hip heisting out. Posting on an elbow and circling your feet around. Pinching an arm in on a bodylock and rolling through. Grabbing the opponent’s wrist with your right hand, locking the elbow out by grabbing your own wrist with your left, and rolling through; it’s a jujitsu move. (As long as the ref doesn’t catch you, he’s probably going to be too busy looking for backpoints to see you lock it up.) Needless to say, I just told you how to be a threat on your back. If you can perfect all these techniques, then as you’re being put to your back you can still score. Referees are less likely to call quick backpoints since every time you go to your back it looks like you can still impose your will on your opponent from there.

How many times in practice have you stopped on your back, tapped your opponent and got up to start again? Stop that now.

The point is, if you can turn the worst position in wrestling into an alright position then we shouldn’t even consider learning to wrestle out of only ‘good’ positions. Randy Lewis is the perfect example of reanalyzing a position that should be bad into something that could be good. The new freestyle clinch highly favors the offensive man. The odds of the offensive man getting the takedown were something like 80% last time I heard. Randy Lewis was claiming he would expect to score more defensively than be scored on from the clinch. He put himself in what would traditionally be considered a bad position (letting someone in on a leg or both legs) and worked out of it so many times that he actually had the advantage after putting people in a position they wanted to be in. No one else was as good as Randy Lewis from that position so none of his opponents had become as comfortable in those positions.

When I was in high school I watched both the John Smith and Brandon Slay technique movies. I was really confused though by something that they disagreed on. John Smith advocated a stance with your back curled and Brandon Slay advocated a stance with a straight back. I wasn’t exactly sure what was right, two wrestlers who were both Olympic champions saying I should do different things in my stance. I’ve come to realize it doesn’t really matter, it all depends on what moves I am going to hit and which I am more comfortable with. I prefer a straight back now, but either way I have to keep my butt down and head up. I think a lesson all great coaches learn is that they have to foster what a wrestler does best and improve on it. They have to consider why what a wrestler does works and why it fails to work other times. Make your weaknesses your strengths and your strengths even stronger.

The most important thing is to experiment and DO NOT ONLY FOCUS ON THE POSITIONS YOU WANT TO BE IN. If I did that I would tell my partner to lie on his back while I stuck in a deep half. Most coaches teach wrestlers to do ‘good’ techniques from the get go. This is great, it assures that you can answer the three questions: “have you been there before, are you comfortable fighting from there? Are you able to transition through this position without giving up points and without putting yourself in a helpless position? And lastly by putting yourself in this position are you more likely to score or very likely to put yourself in a position to score?” in the simplest, most easily learned, and most historically tested way possible. But what about when you are doing a perfect high crotch and instead of fighting it the guy rolls to his back and locks your arm out, and rolls you through. (When the ref slaps the mat it really doesn’t matter what you know or what you think you know.) In practice put yourself in positions that might make your coaches a little scared. Hell, put yourself on your back to see if you can get off before giving up backpoints. Don’t just stay with what you know works. Try to deduce what will work, for example, if your opponent can’t plant his feet he has no power, get one of his feet off the mat. Then the only way to make it work is experiment. Do it a thousand times before you give up. Sometimes moves that shouldn’t even work will work if you practice them enough. Figure out what works and what doesn’t work but always... do something.

Ideally you want to have a response to every position. You want to have multiple responses even. You want your opponent to worry about even putting himself in good position, knowing that if he does he is still at risk. If you can get to this point, then your opponents’ best chance of winning is to avoid wrestling you at all. At this point, you make things happen; you go after your opponent and continue to create positions. I would be the first to say wrestling is about position, but not about ‘good’ or ‘bad’ position, just positions that scores points.

My dance teacher made the funniest speech today. Someone asked a question about which side do we start on. It was an easy, almost insignificant question to answer and she turned it into a deep insight, which seemed totally out of context. She said, “We start with the right side, but if you don’t remember just take your best guess, do what you think is right. And you know, if you make a mistake then you made a mistake and forgive yourself. You’ve got to learn to forgive yourself and just let go of it.”

And if you get pinned anytime soon, please don’t tell your coach I told you to roll to your back.