Drilling the Perfect Leg Ride

with Troy Nickerson,
Northern Colorado University Head Coach;
former Iowa State University Assistant Coach;
NCAA D1 National Champion and 4x All-American at Cornell University;
the first 5x state champion in New York

One of the easiest ways to control the bottom man is to be good at using the legs. Leg riders can control a match and score a lot of points before the bottom man has realized what's happened. This video is great for teaching leg riding.

Troy Nickerson demonstrates over 15 drills and moves that show how to get into legs and how to crush opponents from the top position. What makes his legs rides so tough to defend is that they transfer from legs to other turns and rides with ease.

Getting the Leg In

Most wrestlers only have one way to get legs in, which makes them predictable. Nickerson covers two standard breakdowns that he uses to make the transition to legs simple. He begins with a tight waist chop that sets up legs with a tilt. When he comes out of the tilt, the leg easily goes in.

His next setup is a spiral ride that gets the bottom wrestler extended and allows the leg to easily flow inside. These two rides help wrestlers get to the legs, regardless of their positioning, and help eliminate the riskiness of riding legs.

Turns and Pins

Coach Nickerson covers six turns that are based around his breakdowns. These range from a simple face-lift to a power half, to a tilt series, and cross-body ride series. The great part about several of his turns is that they easily transfer to an arm bar series or a ball and chain series of turns and back to the legs. Because of this flexibility in the top position, the top wrestler can become almost unstoppable and can make it hard for the bottom man to figure out any way to escape.

This video from Coach Nickerson will allow an average rider to become a devastating force and make others want to avoid going underneath at all costs!

47 minutes. 2018.