Counters to Breakdowns and Getting the Escape Point

with Nick Mitchell,
Grand View University Head Coach,
205-12 Dual Record as a Head Coach;
Has won 13 out of the last 14 NAIA National Championships;
12 NWCA National Dual Titles;
6x NWCA National Coach of the Year;
9x NAIA National Coach of the Year;
2020 USA Wrestling Coach of the Year;
7 CRT Championships;
9 Heart of America Conference Championship Titles;
157 All-Americans;
45 NAIA Individual National Champions (NAIA record);
Wartburg College Assistant Coach from 2001 to 2008;
4x NCAA D-III Championships (2003, 2004, 2006, 2008);
wrestled for Wartburg College;
3x D-III All-American;
member of the 1999 D-III NCAA Championship team;
2001 Wartburg College Athletic Hall of Fame

Nick Mitchell was the first ever coach at Grand View University, and in the first four years he took the program from a start-up to winning a national championship; his team has now won 13 of the last 14 NAIA Championships! In this video, Coach Mitchell shares his team's proven strategies on escaping from the bottom position by employing simple, yet effective fundamentals to keeping and improving your position, regardless of your opponent's attacks.

Keeping a Solid Base

Coach Mitchell shares the most important things to consider when anticipating your opponent's top attacks, including where they're putting most of their pressure, how they line up in top position, and their hand placement. By pointing out critical details in your position on bottom, he demonstrates how you can be stronger and improve your position faster so you can escape. He includes simple and easy-to-understand instructions on the mechanics of staying in solid position without giving your opponent an advantage on top.

Beating Commonly-Used Top Attacks and Breakdowns

Regardless of the top man's attempted breakdown, Coach Mitchell demonstrates how to keep your position and beat the attack every time. By focusing on constantly improving your position through a systematic use of change overs, knee slides, hand control, back pressure and hip heists, Coach Mitchell reveals how to defend and beat the most used attacks from the top position. Each of these has their own special nuances, and Coach Mitchell covers each one in depth:

• Outside Ankle
• Spiral Ride
• Chop/Jam off the whistle
• Claw Ride
• Crab Ride
• Tight Waist
• Inside Wrist

Additionally, Coach Mitchell shares practice drills that help you chain wrestle through the various breakdowns that your opponent will attempt. This includes understanding and feeling when the top man changes their pressure and recognizing that as an opportunity to improve position and escape.

Fighting Off Your Belly

One of the most difficult and often intimidating positions to work out of is when a wrestler has been broken down to their belly. In this video, Coach Mitchell shares the proper defensive position and posture on your stomach to prevent being turned and to quickly get to your base. Through simple steps that build upon the positions and movements shown throughout the video, Coach Mitchell makes the process of getting off your belly straightforward and less intimidating for wrestlers of all ages. Some of the common attacks he reviews include:

• Fighting off the inside wrist
• Defending the tight waist
• Beating the cross-face

Want to get off the bottom every time? This video will give you the championship-level tools you need to always keep a solid base, constantly improve your position, and get to your feet and escape.

"This is a great video that teaches amazing technique. There is something that wrestlers or coaches at any level could use to make themselves or their wrestlers better. I have been coaching wrestling for 18 years and I gleaned information from this video that I will use in my practices this year." - Customer Review

64 minutes. 2017.