Stance & Motion

Everything starts here. A good stance lets you attack without telegraphing and defend without panicking. A bad one makes every other skill harder. Get this right and the rest gets easier.

The Cues

• Your stance is yours. Square or staggered, higher or lower. Every stance is unique, and yours should fit your style of wrestling. The test isn't how it looks. It's whether you can attack and defend from it without adjusting first.
• Elbows in, hands and head ready. Ready to protect or redirect.
• Move on the balls of your feet. Stay light and ready to react.

Common Mistakes

• Too heavy on your feet, especially too heavy on one foot. If your weight lives on one side, you can only move one way, and your opponent can feel it.
• Crossing your feet. For that step, your base is gone.
• Feet too close together. Narrow base, no balance.

What you're after: equal pressure and balance, the ability to move in any direction, quickly, at any time.

Drill It This Week

• Watch the video once all the way through, then drill along with it.
• 30 seconds of motion. Change direction on a call (a parent or sibling can call it).
• Stance-and-motion into a level change every 5 seconds.
• Record yourself. Film your stance and motion and watch it back. You can learn a lot from watching yourself move.

One Drill, Three Workouts

• Make it conditioning. Stance and motion with call-outs, at pace. Quick direction changes, short rests, back on the whistle. Your legs and lungs work while your feet learn.
• Make it visualization. Don't just move. See an opponent. Picture their level change, their shot, their pressure, and answer it with yours. Mind and body training the same skill at the same time.