2014 National Wrestling Coach of the Year by the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS);
2014 Florida 2A High School State Champions; 25x Florida High School State Champs (including 15 in a row); winners of 459 straight wrestling matches (The Streak), 2x National Coach of the Year; 8x Florida Coach of the Year
Russ Cozart has produced 22 Florida state high school championships - including 15 in a row. A critical element to those titles was hand fighting.
Even if your wrestlers have great technique, they may still struggle to escape from the bottom. If your athletes can develop hand fighting skills, they will be successful from the bottom position, even with imperfect technique.
In this presentation, Coach Cozart shows you a hand-fighting drill sequence that has helped his wrestlers become warriors from the bottom position. With this sequence, a wrestler doesn't have to have the best stand-up or sit out to be successful.
The hand fighting drill sequence is divided into four drills:
- Stab and Reach Drill - This drill helps the wrestler keep his elbows in on the bottom position, while helping the top man learn to gain control of his opponent.
- Getting Away from Underhooks - This drill teaches the bottom wrestler to fight off underhooks from the standing position and the sit out position. This drill is practiced from both sides and eventually works into a hip heist or stand up for the escape or reversal.
- Protect the Tight Waist - In this drill, Coach Cozart teaches how to remove the tight-waist hand, being careful not to allow the opponent to lock with his opposite hand.
- Crazy Hands - "Crazy Hands" is a culmination of the other drills. It trains kids to block their opponent's attempts to reach through at a quick pace, which simulates match speed.
Coach Cozart works on hand fighting skills while escaping the crab ride, the leg ride, the power half, the cross-wrist ride and the chop.
The most popular escape from the bottom position is the stand up, but it's also one of hardest moves to pull off against a good rider. Coach Cozart's hand fighting drills will prevent many of the problems wrestlers encounter in this position.
If the top wrestler puts too much pressure on the bottom wrestler, they won't be able to hit their stand up. Coach Cozart teaches a knee slide stand up to deal with this problem. You will also learn how to hit sit outs, rolls and reversals, all made possible with sound hand-fighting skills.
Coach Cozart's teams have been extremely successful for more than two decades - at one point winning 459 straight wrestling matches - but Cozart admits that his wrestlers struggled to escape from the bottom position, at times. So in 2007, he developed this sequence of hand fighting skills and drills. As a result, his wrestlers rarely get ridden out or fail to escape.
Now, your athletes can enjoy success while escaping from the bottom, using these great hand-fighting drills and techniques! This video is great for coaches and athletes of all ages and skill levels.
"I love how Coach Cozart breaks everything down into small building blocks and then links them together later on." - Customer Review
71 minutes. 2015.