Wrestling Blogs - Mike Tamillow

Can you do me a favor? I want you to look at your palms. Keep looking at them and try to roll them outward or over the top. (Opposite the direction they are supposed to go until you see the backs of you hands) Keep rolling them as far as you can until you reach your limitation. Relax, take a second, breathe deep. Get ready for round two. Now I want you to flip your hands over and look at the back of your hands. If you’re anything like me than you know the back of your hand pretty well. (No comment) Keep looking at them and try to roll them inward (once again, opposite from the expected direction.) roll them inward as far as you possibly can until you reach your limitation. Relax, take a second, breathe deep.

So how does you doing me a favor have anything to do with rolling your palms. What does this exercise have to do with I <3 Huckabees? And why am I still writing these blogs? I think you can find the answer if you just look at the price of tea in china. (Dustin Fox is an avid tea drinker so he is always informed about this) And instead of trying to explain this myself, I will defer to the Chewbacca defense.

The Chewbacca Defense

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It doesn’t make sense. The price of tea in china is completely irrelevant to the conversation.

But I want you to do that exercise we started with. This time watch your elbows. Palms roll up, elbows roll in. Palms roll down, elbows roll out. It is all connected. Just like they said in I <3 huckabees. The price of tea in china is important because it has become the saying for what is unimportant. And Chewbacca, well… he’s an 8-foot tall wookiee… ok that one doesn’t make sense.

But it’s this realization that everything is connected that is huge. (or at least the understanding that everything in your body is connected.) This - palm up, elbows in - is a minor detail to technique. It isn’t taught at many wrestling camps (I teach crazy stuff like this and the meaning of life at Northwestern’s camps). Most wrestling camps will teach you to keep your elbows in; I am telling you that if you have your palms down, then at times you will not be able to keep your elbows in. These will be the times when it is essential to have your elbows in, like when action starts to happen. If you have practiced with your palms up then when your opponent shoots, you will naturally have your elbows in, and your opponent will find himself shooting right into underhooks. There are times when my palms are facing away from me as I handfight. When I do this I pull my wrists back. Try this, when you do it your elbows go downward.

Another, much larger connection in your body is one that your coaches probably don’t even realize why they are teaching it. It is the connection between your neck, back, and hips/legs. This is essential technique to all your shots and to any lift, wrestling or otherwise.

I want you to stand up. Are you standing yet? STOP READING AND STAND UP RIGHT NOW!!! Hahaha, look at all those suckers standing up. Well… read this through, imagine it, and then try it. (Or you can have someone read it to you as you try it.) Stand up and look down in front of you at your toes. Bend down to touch the ground right in front of your toes. How did you bend? If you’re a normal human being (meaning not as flexible as Mark Perry) then your back probably arched like a cat as you bent towards your toes. Relax, take a second, breathe deep. Now look above you at the ceiling. Hold your gaze. Once again, I want you to drop down and touch the ground right in front of your toes. This time your back doesn’t arch at all. It stays perfectly straight. In fact it is almost impossible to bend it. Your back and your head are connected physically through your spinal chord. When your neck does something it tells your back to follow along.

If all you did was look up on every shot you take the other details will fall in line. This is why coaches tell you to keep your head up. It’s not because you use your head at all, in fact your head is not nearly strong enough to be used much in a shot. It’s because keeping your head up, which is simple, can fix the problem of curling your back, which is much more difficult to correct. I once spent a good five minutes trying to get a kid to bend into a solid stance. I told him to stand straight up and then bend down and not arch his back, every time he would curl his back. I realized after a while that his back simply wasn’t strong enough. The only way to improve it would be to have him stare at a point above him for five minutes every day in his stance, until he could keep a straight back without it. (keeping your head up in your stance also has the added benefit of being able to see your opponent)

How is having a straight back going to help us? (Besides the fact that your coaches have told you it’s important and you don’t like getting screamed at.) What we want to do is access our legs. Since they are the strongest muscles in our bodies, they are going to be the most useful part if we’re in a sport where we try to physically beat people into submission.(If you are new to flowrestling then I should probably explain: wrestling is a sport where we physically beat people into submission.) It’s the difference between having a butter knife and a Katana. Even if both people are the same size and athletic ability, one has a huge advantage because he has a more powerful weapon at his disposal.

So once again stand up. Ok for real now, just stand up. STAND UP NOW OR IT’LL BE TO LATE! HURRY!!! Hahaha, gotcha again. You think you would’ve learned the first time but nope. Ok… haha... give me a second to get over it. There. This time when you stand up I want you to bend down and touch the ground. First do it with a bent back. You’ll notice this is easy on your legs, it’s relaxed and there isn’t a huge weight shift below your legs. When you bend your back like this, your hips are supporting all your weight. It doesn’t feel difficult because it’s relatively natural. When your standing for three, four, or five hours, your body needs to find a relaxing position. This position is one where weight is supported by your hips and bone structure. This is also the basic stance to develop bad posture because it puts weight in areas that won’t get stronger.

The next position you’ll probably find a lot harder. This time we are bending down while keeping our heads up. Notice the weight shift. Your back is straight. Your legs absorb more of your weight. In fact, if you put your hands on your legs you will notice they are noticeably more flexed then they were when you bent your back. This is your power. With your head up, you’ll keep your back straight, and your legs will be more easily accessed for explosive power. Even your hips will be more available for power. Because your legs are absorbing weight, there is room for your hips to move. Keep your head up, to keep your back straight, to put weight on your legs.

There is a time to arch your back to. The time to arch your back is in referee’s position. I actually learned this from Tim Cysewski in fourth grade at the northwestern wrestling camp. (I wrestled Poeta and Tannenbaum there too, Tannenbaum’s nickname was The Rock when he was 10) The reason why this is the time to arch your back is simple. Your legs are caught underneath you; you need to put both your weight and your opponent’s weight on your hips until you can get your legs out in front of you. Since you can’t use the strength in your legs right away, you have to maintain position, get hand control, and then get to your feet.

And there are tons more of these connections to. A low single works because in grabbing the ankle and posting your head on the knee you lock out everything. Ankle to knee, knee to hips. Play around with your body a little bit. (PG of course) you’ll find connections everywhere.

It’s all connected, and it all has to fit together in some congruent sense. I <3 Huckabees, the price of tea in china, the Chewbacca defense, palms, elbows, ankles, knees, head, back, legs. It’s all part of the same interconnected thing. And that thing in this case turns out to be my blog.

By the way I’m going to connect anyone who’s interested to Northwestern Wrestling’s Summer Camp website. We’re located on the beach so it’s a pretty nice place to be in the summer not to mention the great camp staff we have. If I haven’t already mentioned it, I’ve had some great memories both as a counselor and a wrestler. Frankly, we just need to find some kids who think they can beat up the counselors.