Training for Power and Explosiveness

Get an inside look at all of the necessary lifts and how to perform them in order to create powerful explosive wrestlers!

Since Gary Calcagno took over the strength program at Oklahoma State University, the wrestling team has won four NCAA team National Championships, four Big 12 Conference Championships and three NWCA National Duals Championships. The school has crowned 12 NCAA individual National Champions, 27 Big 12 Individual Champions, 1 Dan Hodge Award winner, and has had 39 All-Americans.

In this wrestling DVD, Coach Calcagno goes into great detail as he explains the various lifts used by the Cowboys to improve speed, core strength, power, and explosiveness. His strength program is based on a core series of movements that focus on increasing a wrestler's power and explosion on the mat. This program provides a balanced approach, working both sides of the body equally to create the balance needed to dominate continuously on the mat.

Coach Calcagno shares six different series of movements (with over 40 exercises) that are the core of his program. The lifts cover:

• lifts for the core including Cleans, Snatches and Combination lifts
• lifts for chest and arms
• lifts for leg strength
• plyometric exercises

To fully demonstrate the movements, Coach Calcagno and one of his student athletes demonstrate numerous lifts. He provides step-by-step instruction on how each exercise enhances common wrestling techniques, and also discusses how to adjust the lifts to increase strength while helping wrestlers maintain their weight.

Coach Calcagno does not do any conditioning/aerobic work specifically, but relies instead on his combination movement series in order to build explosive conditioning into his training regime. He utilizes a plyometric series to transition that strength and power into functional movements that readily move to the mat.

Finally, he closes with dynamic movements for warm-ups and increased flexibility.

This is a great tool that gives exercises and set/rep schemes that OSU uses, when they use them and how they vary with weights of athletes so that a coach can integrate it into their strength program and move away from the traditional "power lifting" programs that many schools are using.

100 minutes. 2014.