XCard Posted December 31, 2010 Share Posted December 31, 2010 So I was reading another topic and it was mentioned that someone wrestled defensive against a better wrestler. So my question to everyone is what style do you prefer, Offensive or Defensive wrestler? There have been guys that have lived off of defensive wrestling. I personally love to see a guy go out and get it done, to mentally and physically break their opponent. I will let a few comment and chime in here and there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gallegos-215 Posted December 31, 2010 Share Posted December 31, 2010 over the past couple years i went from a defensive to an offensive wrestler. Offense is where its at, making an oppenent reach his breaking point feels good! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PreparetoWin Posted December 31, 2010 Share Posted December 31, 2010 offense is the best defense!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xbrick132 Posted December 31, 2010 Share Posted December 31, 2010 You need to know how to score and not get scored upon. Basically, you need to be good at both. If you don't give up a point, you only need one to win. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wrestler60160 Posted December 31, 2010 Share Posted December 31, 2010 I guess if you can keep it at 0-0 after the first period, then hope for the best on the mat..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mustang Fan Posted January 1, 2011 Share Posted January 1, 2011 Being able to control the match is where its at, offense or defence, control will win. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IRONMAIDEN Posted January 1, 2011 Share Posted January 1, 2011 I give everything to the wrestler from munster, he knew he had to be defensive to make it close. That was the game plan if not he would of shot for the legs maybe once. Great match, that wrestler from LN is technically better than ev ery wrestler in that tournament . IF YOU WANT TO BEAT HIM, do what you are doing but take a chance sometime during the match, if you lose because of it oh well . Boston is the real deal and the Munster boy did fantastic. They will meet again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ontherise219 Posted January 1, 2011 Share Posted January 1, 2011 I think Marciano did a great job offensive or defensive it doesn't matter he gave him self the best chance to win. At the Traicoff it was a far 17-5 at Al smith it wad 4-0 he is 1 move away from the win. I think you have to game plan and if the coaches said be mote defensive and pick your spot he did a great job :-[ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XCard Posted January 1, 2011 Author Share Posted January 1, 2011 I guess what I meant by Defensive wrestler is one who scores most of their points off of the their opponents by reacting to their Offense. Now I am not knocking this style, when it comes down to it, do what works best for you and what will ultimately get you the W. I personally just enjoying watching a guy who pushes the action, constantly in your face, heavy hands working the head, movement, shot after shot, finishing strong. Guys who are constantly pushing the action for six minutes. I am sure we have all seen examples of guys who start off on fire and then seem to stop wrestling and coast to the end. Those guys sometimes get in trouble because of said coasting. I think an Offensive style is going to make a kid more dominating. When you are at the top most guys are going to wrestle you very defensively and wait for their openings. I think as the Top Dog you have to force the action and make them make mistakes. If you let guys hang around then you are opening yourself up for a big move to take you out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattM Posted January 1, 2011 Share Posted January 1, 2011 Not sure if defensive is the best choice of words considering that would mean not scoring yourself. I don think some wrestlers and coaches are prone to approaching a match in a "Counter-Offensive" style rather than a "Control the pace" style. Both styles I think have advantages and disadvantages. In most matches the "control the pace" style is what you will see from good wrestlers since that is all you would need against an average opponent. I have heard people say that for many wrestlers starting out the "counter-offensive" style will allow for most of them to stay in match longer, build confidence, and give them opportunities to score without messing up. In big match-ups its probably depends on your opponent but clearly the "counter-offensive" style may mean taking a big chance that you can clearly sit back and shut down a top wrestlers first attacks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XCard Posted January 1, 2011 Author Share Posted January 1, 2011 Matt by counter offensive to you mean waiting for your opponents offensive? I think I have a word for that also: Stalling ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D Just messing around with you there. I do agree the word defensive does not work well, I tried to clarify that in my previous post which I probably posted while you were typing yours. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattM Posted January 1, 2011 Share Posted January 1, 2011 Matt by counter offensive to you mean waiting for your opponents offensive? I think I have a word for that also: Stalling Yeah it can be a shade less than stalling if your opponent isn't going to do much. We are talking about the same thing. Basically turning your opponents offensive move into a scoring opportunity for yourself. He shoots, you stop it, and then while he still off balance you shoot/front headlock/scramble to score. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anon Posted January 1, 2011 Share Posted January 1, 2011 I personally just enjoying watching a guy who pushes the action, constantly in your face, heavy hands working the head, movement, shot after shot, finishing strong. Guys who are constantly pushing the action for six minutes. I am sure we have all seen examples of guys who start off on fire and then seem to stop wrestling and coast to the end. Those guys sometimes get in trouble because of said coasting. I think an Offensive style is going to make a kid more dominating. When you are at the top most guys are going to wrestle you very defensively and wait for their openings. I think as the Top Dog you have to force the action and make them make mistakes. If you let guys hang around then you are opening yourself up for a big move to take you out. Yeah, but what are you supposed to do when you push the action for 6 minutes and the other kid wins because all he did was let you push him around the mat and fend off all your shots and the score is 1-0 because he chose down in the second and you gave up the 1 point because you thought you had a better chance of getting the take down and the 2 with 4 minutes, instead of trying to keep him down for 2 then trying to escape in 2? I guess the only big move that he came up with was convincing the ref's that he wasn't stalling. Oh, yeah, and it's especially frustrating when you wrestled the same kid last year at Conseco and he did the same thing to you then? I guess once bitten, twice shy. Third time the charm? We shall see... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maligned Posted January 1, 2011 Share Posted January 1, 2011 I would challenge anyone to find a wrestler at the top of any level (state champ, ncaa champ, olympic champ) that got there by scoring the majority of his points off of others' attacks. It may be that some top guys, when wrestling the few opponents that are at their same level, score more regularly on opponent attacks than when wrestling lesser competition; but there is no one that got to the top without being attack-minded. Have you ever heard any top university program, for example, teaching their wrestlers, "ok, guys we're going to score most of our points off of their attacks"? No way. Every top program has a slogan something along the lines of "attack, attack, attack" or "never back down" or "always strike first." Furthermore, at the high school level, you can always tell which 9th graders in the room are going to be tough later. They're the ones that are taking chances and attacking and learning how to finish. The kids with athletic ability and some skill that are passive never develop the top-notch attacking skills to be the best. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwkwrestler12 Posted January 1, 2011 Share Posted January 1, 2011 I would challenge anyone to find a wrestler at the top of any level (state champ, ncaa champ, olympic champ) that got there by scoring the majority of his points off of others' attacks. It may be that some top guys, when wrestling the few opponents that are at their same level, score more regularly on opponent attacks than when wrestling lesser competition; but there is no one that got to the top without being attack-minded. Have you ever heard any top university program, for example, teaching their wrestlers, "ok, guys we're going to score most of our points off of their attacks"? No way. Every top program has a slogan something along the lines of "attack, attack, attack" or "never back down" or "always strike first." Furthermore, at the high school level, you can always tell which 9th graders in the room are going to be tough later. They're the ones that are taking chances and attacking and learning how to finish. The kids with athletic ability and some skill that are passive never develop the top-notch attacking skills to be the best. I believe I can find many Olympic champions who won off of counter-offense. Look at a lot of the top Russian wrestlers for example. Most of their offense, is off the offense of the other wrestler. This type of style is not seen as much on the American higher levels though due to the difficulty and time that it takes to master this kind of wrestling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H1N1 Posted January 1, 2011 Share Posted January 1, 2011 over the past couple years i went from a defensive to an offensive wrestler. Offense is where its at, making an oppenent reach his breaking point feels good! Wow! If u wrestle 4 Al Hartman & r actually offense minded, then u are a rarity my friend. I've never seen any coach who teaches more stalling, evading & playing the edge than Al "heels on the line" Hartman. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hammer Posted January 1, 2011 Share Posted January 1, 2011 The highest level wrestlers that I have coached all had much better offense than defense. More often than not, great offense will be harder to stop. I used tell one of them, who placed 3rd at State 2X, that his best defense was his offense. A good offensive attack could take him down, but a good defense couldn't stop his great offense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RASSLER4LIFE Posted January 1, 2011 Share Posted January 1, 2011 I say offense. Take a good look at 2X state champ Cody Phillips. He is totally offense. His gas tank never runs low. He is not the most technical, gifted wrestler but he makes up for it not allowing his opponent time to set up a defense much less set up their own offense. Quite possibly my favorite high school wrestler to watch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oscar Posted January 2, 2011 Share Posted January 2, 2011 At the highest level of wrestling competition, I would have to go with defense. You have to be able to defend the shots and leg attacks against superior athletes or you are more likely to be defeated. If you are looking to have fun and create more excitement then offense is what you are looking at and it might appear that this is what wins matches. But I say good defense wins big matches. Defensive wrestling is just boring. We all love to see action. What Nickster says is true because offense is more second nature and we develop this from pee wee on. You can beat 95% of the high school comp with over powering offense. Most high school kids never really fully develop a complete understanding of the sport. At the college level this changes. You have to develop both offense and defense. It is at this point defense becomes the focus of development. The offense is already in place. The best example just happened last week at the Midlands. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chargersrbeasts Posted January 2, 2011 Share Posted January 2, 2011 When I wrestled last year a majority of the time I would wait for someone to take a shot or bait them into taking a shot and I would just re shoot because I was fast enough to get it and score some of you would consider that defensive, but I look at it as setting up my offense off of your bad offense and a lot of times other coaches would tell me that I was a great offensive wrestler. I got 90+ takedowns off of that method. No matter if the person was #1 in the state or not ranked at all I think that counter offense is the best way to score IMO it just is a smart way to do things. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Navy215 Posted January 2, 2011 Share Posted January 2, 2011 Wow! If u wrestle 4 Al Hartman & r actually offense minded, then u are a rarity my friend. I've never seen any coach who teaches more stalling, evading & playing the edge than Al "heels on the line" Hartman. Have you ever been coached by Hartman? Have you been in his room? He's never taught "heels on the line" as you proclaim. There weren't any drills in his room where we stood around stalling with our heels on the line. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IMAWRESTLER Posted January 2, 2011 Share Posted January 2, 2011 I would challenge anyone to find a wrestler at the top of any level (state champ, ncaa champ, olympic champ) that got there by scoring the majority of his points off of others' attacks. It may be that some top guys, when wrestling the few opponents that are at their same level, score more regularly on opponent attacks than when wrestling lesser competition; but there is no one that got to the top without being attack-minded. Have you ever heard any top university program, for example, teaching their wrestlers, "ok, guys we're going to score most of our points off of their attacks"? No way. Every top program has a slogan something along the lines of "attack, attack, attack" or "never back down" or "always strike first." Furthermore, at the high school level, you can always tell which 9th graders in the room are going to be tough later. They're the ones that are taking chances and attacking and learning how to finish. The kids with athletic ability and some skill that are passive never develop the top-notch attacking skills to be the best. Scott Moore 2 time AA, one of the best counter offense wrestlers I've seen. Head coach Lock Haven University. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smooth34 Posted January 2, 2011 Share Posted January 2, 2011 Offensive wrestling is more exciting, but its hard to lose if the other guy can't score. Thought this was interesting from Courage to Succeed by Dan Gable. Between the banquet and the Olympics, Gable tore the cartilage in his left knee. The doctors recommended and operation, but Gable wouldn't hear of it-he just kept on practicing. The injury did, however, force Gable to alter his wrestling style. "I changed my style of wrestling from simply offensive scoring to what I call defensive, offensive scoring. In this situation, I actually made myself a better wrestler because I learned a new way of scoring." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
former130 Posted January 2, 2011 Share Posted January 2, 2011 Offensive wrestling is more exciting, but its hard to lose if the other guy can't score. Thought this was interesting from Courage to Succeed by Dan Gable. Between the banquet and the Olympics, Gable tore the cartilage in his left knee. The doctors recommended and operation, but Gable wouldn't hear of it-he just kept on practicing. The injury did, however, force Gable to alter his wrestling style. "I changed my style of wrestling from simply offensive scoring to what I call defensive, offensive scoring. In this situation, I actually made myself a better wrestler because I learned a new way of scoring." But if you look at the way he taught his wrestlers it was always attack, attack, attack. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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