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I read a great article the other day by Isaac Ramaswamy, a coach at Sachem High School and one of the masterminds of New York’s Freestyle and Greco-Roman teams. I’ve known Isaac for a long time and hold tremendous respect for him and his abilities as an athlete and coach. His article “Greco-Roman Skills in Folkstyle Wrestling” is a sidebar in USA Wrestling’s Coach’s Guide to Excellence. I guess I was intrigued by his article because I am a believer in Greco-Roman helping wrestlers improve Folkstyle success.

I learned a switch in 8^th grade in my living room. I didn’t step on a mat until 9^th grade (I believe I was 7-14). The summer between my freshman and sophomore year I was introduced to the Mr. Cronmiller, the club coach for the Rochester Lilac Wrestling Club. It was at the RLWC that my wrestling repertoire began to increase and my first exposure to Greco-Roman was introduced. Mr. Cronmiller might be the most enthusiastic wrestling coach I have ever encountered and when he taught, he taught with emotion. Always showing spectacular, high amplitude moves. It was exciting to be able to go from learning a switch from my living room to a “chest-to-chest” suplay on a wrestling mat. Unfortunately, Mr. Cronmiller had a son who was my weight class. Billy was frequently used to demonstrate the high amplitude throws and I ended up being the “throwing dummy”. As I began to get more exposure to the sport, I found that Greco-Roman wasn’t just about high amplitude throws. Greco-Roman was about battling for position, changing levels, hand-fighting, and scoring. For me, Greco offered more mat time. With more mat time, I hoped I could catch up to all the guys who started wrestling in junior high or earlier. I believed that Greco was going to make me a more dangerous competitor, faster. Ultimately, it did.

Now Greco didn’t turn me into an overnight superstar. I had mild success throughout my career. But it was more success than I would have experienced if I did not incorporate Greco into my summer wrestling. I can list at least a dozen matches that Greco skills helped me turn winning performances in Folkstyle and Freestyle. The one that stands out is my NCAA semi-finals match. I had the #3 seed from Augsburg (MN) who happened to be a returning all-American at the weight class. He was big, tough, stayed in great position, and loved to pummel and hand-fight (like a lot of MN guys). My opponent made me nervous because I knew the reputation that Minnesota guys had in their ability to wrestle Greco. While nervous, the abundance of Greco matches that I had wrestled still gave me the confidence to stand toe-to-toe with him and match him with pummeling and hand-fighting skills. In fact, I like to think that I won the hand-fighting battle because I wore him down to the point that I was able to break a 1-1 tie with about 30 seconds left in the match. Although I did not score with a Greco-Roman move (I used a high-crotch) to win the match, my ability to wear my opponent down with Greco-Roman skills opened the door for me to score.

Isaac lists five fundamental Greco skills that not only transfer to, but develop freestyle and Folkstyle skills. These skills are hand-fighting, pummeling, level changes, hip pop, and back arch/bridge. As you look at these skills there is one that stands out and seems like it may not belong. A level change. Actually, level change is as important as any of the other skills mentioned. The misconception that level changes is only a concept for Freestyle and Folkstyle is absurd. Ramaswamy states “Many Greco-Roman techniques require not only level change, but precise level change. Greco-Roman techniques teach not only proper execution (maintaining balance and control) but also varying degrees of level changes.” Isaac goes on to provide examples of how a shrug requires a slight level change, a duck-under a little more, and a slide-by or hi-dive involving the wrestler to lower their level to the point of where their head is at their opponents hip. That’s low!

When I was coaching I tried to incorporate scoring opportunities in our live scrimmaging. Sometimes these opportunities made the guys uncomfortable because they were forced to wrestle from the waist up. A few said, “But coach, I don’t like to tie-up.” Well, what happens in a match when your opponent ties you up? What happens when you are forced into a position and you have no solutions? The fact is you have a choice in matches when faced in a Greco position. You can back away, get called for stalling and create a scoring opportunity for your opponent. Or you can face your demons and integrate both offensive and defensive opportunities in Greco positions. Enter a few Greco tournaments in the off-season and incorporate Greco matches/situations into your practices. I guarantee it will help you to become a more complete wrestler, give you increased confidence in matches, and make you more dangerous.

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