Why Russians are better than Americans in wrestling....

[Eddie Bravo]

Every video of Ken has him compared to Ben Stiller. Poor guy. I agree that technique is the most important thing (I don't see how anyone could disagree) however, IMO I don't think you need to do reps to be able to put them into action. I believe that if you have a complete understanding of a move, combined with being coordinated, you don't need reps. Now I've only been training for a year (if you count a few times a month training) I can say with experience that 99% of everything I learn, I can do in a real situation immediately following. The key is to train your body to be coordinated so that anything your mind knows, your body will follow. This is all just my opinion of course. This is what works for me.

You can master techniques without repping them??? o.O

[stlnl]

Every video of Ken has him compared to Ben Stiller. Poor guy. I agree that technique is the most important thing (I don't see how anyone could disagree) however, IMO I don't think you need to do reps to be able to put them into action. I believe that if you have a complete understanding of a move, combined with being coordinated, you don't need reps. Now I've only been training for a year (if you count a few times a month training) I can say with experience that 99% of everything I learn, I can do in a real situation immediately following. The key is to train your body to be coordinated so that anything your mind knows, your body will follow. This is all just my opinion of course. This is what works for me.

Well, the Russians, who are masters of technique (as implied in the vid) believe in A L O T of reps. You say you can do things in a real situation.....which I say, BS. Unless you mean you can tap untrained folks, which I think, is not the point here. I dont like to do alot of boring reps, but fact is, you are not going to perform underpressure without drilling, alot. At least not consistently, and smoothly.

[Muhammad Abdou]

its not possible to master a technique without repping it in hard sparring because knowing what a technique looks like is not the same as developing an understanding of what the technique is supposed to feel like when it's performed correctly.

[Aaron Wood]

I actually follow this guy on Facebook and he had a post asking people's opinions on 10th Planet today. Interesting stuff. I love the common misconception that you have to be gumby to do anything 10th Planet.

[Misha Solomonik]

Another thing is that Russian Wrestling has no school affiliation. I was born in the Dagestan Republic which was home to some of the most dominant wrestling clubs in all of Russia. Russian wrestlers who are five years old practice in the same room as Olympic medalists. Constant exposure to that kind of high level wrestling from a young age, helps the Russians continue to breed fierce international competitors.

[Scott Yockel]

Another thing is that Russian Wrestling has no school affiliation. I was born in the Dagestan Republic which was home to some of the most dominant wrestling clubs in all of Russia. Russian wrestlers who are five years old practice in the same room as Olympic medalists. Constant exposure to that kind of high level wrestling from a young age, helps the Russians continue to breed fierce international competitors.

Mike has great point, steel sharpens steel right? Also you have to pay attention to the style. In the U.S. we wrestle folkstyle for the most part and switch to freestyle or greco. In other parts of the world they dont wrestle folkstyle at all, just freestyle or greco. Its a whole different style of wrestling, if the olympics wrestled folkstyle our team would win every year. Think of it like gi vs. no-gi, some guys can switch easy and some can't.

[Heidi McCreery]

I grew up wrestling and our moto was "Hard and Fast". I know now that wrestling does not have to be as aggressive as it is 99% of the time. It is a concept I am trying my best to learn, but it is very hard to break the habit of going for a position as hard as you can. I like the idea of relaxing, it's just hard to forget the old philosophy of driving through things as hard as possible. I am definitely trying to learn though. I will never be one of those wrestlers that says they can't relax or be calm. I am slowly but surely getting better with a great teacher and great rolling partners.

Thank you, Eddie, for the video.

[Tyler Timmermans]

Mike has great point, steel sharpens steel right? Also you have to pay attention to the style. In the U.S. we wrestle folkstyle for the most part and switch to freestyle or greco. In other parts of the world they dont wrestle folkstyle at all, just freestyle or greco. Its a whole different style of wrestling, if the olympics wrestled folkstyle our team would win every year. Think of it like gi vs. no-gi, some guys can switch easy and some can't.

Sambo is made up of all the best martial arts maybe they are just sneaking sambo guys in there to win and would know the best aspects of folkstyle wrestling and would win that also.

[Jim Allen]

Nice post! Wise words

[Scott Yockel]

Sambo is made up of all the best martial arts maybe they are just sneaking sambo guys in there to win and would know the best aspects of folkstyle wrestling and would win that also.

Training under a sambo guy I can tell you the takedowns for sambo/freestyle/folkstyle are the same. its the mat work that makes it different. Folkstyle is all about riding a guy with no time limit as long as the top guy is active. Freestyle is very different, you get a very short amount of time to get points, plus you have to rotate the guys shoulders across the mat and maintain control to score points. Also in fresstyle its ok to lock your hands when your trying to maintain control, in folkstyle that will cost you a point each time you lock your hands.