Position-based Offense: Arm Drags, Shrugs, and Finishes

with Mark Cody,
Presbyterian College Director of Men's and Women's Wrestling;
former Head Coach at University of Oklahoma and American University;
2011 NWCA National Coach of the Year; 3x All-American

Many wrestlers struggle with creating openings and finishing takedowns against quality opponents. Even the best high school wrestlers struggle when they reach the collegiate level and need to learn to use their whole body to control and attack their opponent, instead of just their arms.

Mark Cody, one of the most experienced and highly regarded collegiate wrestling coaches, has developed a series that generates a ton of offense. His system stresses attacking with your body and not your arms, which helps athletes of all sizes to be effective. The series isn't challenging to learn and has a beauty in it that most finishes all come from the same set of skills.

Coach Cody solves the issue of losing takedowns by sharing his "two hands on the leg" philosophy. He emphasizes constant forward motion, which helps wrestlers stay on the attack and close the gap so that they can take good shots. He teaches how to stay solid in attacks by keeping power in one place, which keeps the offensive wrestler from getting into a bad position. The techniques he demonstrates will eliminate many opportunities that opponents often have to create scramble situations.

Arm Drag and Arm Drop Series

The arm drag is a common set-up seen at all levels of wrestling, with wrestlers from youth levels up to Olympians using it with great success. Coach Cody teaches a unique finishing technique to the arm drag that will keep a wrestler from giving up their ankles and getting leg rolled. He also shows how to maintain pressure with the body in order to keep the opponent from getting to their belly

Coach Cody shows his modification of the arm drag into a more controlled, methodical position: the arm-drop. He demonstrates a logical progression of attacks: single leg, ankle pick, and snap down. With every technique, Coach Cody emphasizes using the whole body to pressure and control the opponent, instead of relying on upper body strength.

Every takedown is carefully addressed to minimize the risk of the opponent initiating a scramble, and follow-ups into pinning combinations and turns are investigated.

Shrug Takedowns

The shrug, or slide-by, is perhaps the most efficient takedown in wrestling. It requires minimal energy to finish and exposes the attacker to virtually no counter attacks. Despite this, it is a technique that few wrestlers are able to decipher, let alone master.

The shrug series showed by Cody is perfect to use on an aggressive opponent. This series teaches wrestlers to have heavy hands and attack with their body and hips. He demonstrates the nuances of setting up the takedown, enabling wrestlers to treat it as more than just a reactive technique. Cody discusses a number of gripping varieties, and the differences of each, which allows wrestlers and coaches to figure out which method works best for their body.

Takedown Finishes

Every successful coach and wrestler knows the hardest part of scoring a takedown is not getting to the legs - it's finishing the takedown once you're there.

Cody shows techniques to finish the double leg, the high crotch and both the high and low single legs; he shares highly effective, and sometimes non-conventional, methods that have been used with terrific success by his wrestlers to minimize scrambles and wasted energy.

With this video you will learn how to stay in good position throughout your attack without wasting energy and leaving yourself open to scrambles and counters!

67 minutes. 2017.