2014 National Wrestling Coach of the Year by the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS);
2014 Florida 2A High School State Champions; 25x Florida High School State Champs (including 15 in a row); winners of 459 straight wrestling matches (The Streak), 2x National Coach of the Year; 8x Florida Coach of the Year
"I taught some of this material to our youth team in our Saturday class and the difference was evident in a competition the next day. This has been the single most significant change a DVD has ever brought to our team. We had covered all of the ties previously but the way they are now combined into one seamless drill is nothing short of amazing for our team. - Customer Review
As wrestling evolves, athletes are getting bigger and stronger, and hand fighting has become a necessity. Hand fighting allows you to control your opponent and control the match.
Russ Cozart, whose teams have dominated Florida high school wrestling for more than 20 years, shares his hand-fighting techniques and drills in this influential video. In it, you will learn how to post the head, pummel, weave off the shoulders, post and chop, control the wrist and much more.
This isn't just a few "set-ups" linked together, it's a series of drills that help wrestlers get comfortable with hand fighting on their feet - a position where they'll spend roughly 90% of their time.
Coach Cozart teaches you hand-fighting positions that you can string together in a barrage of attacks that will create multiple cracks in your opponent's defense and open up takedown opportunities.
Positions include:
- Posting the Head - Learn how to put yourself in position to attack the head without opening up your defense. You will learn to "paint" the head and create angles for your takedowns.
- Pummeling - Learn to pummel in on your opponent to gain inside control, working in head snaps from time to time. You will learn traditional pummeling, as well as weaving the shoulders and the muscles.
- Wrist Control - Learn how to gain control of your opponent's wrists with a variety of techniques, and learn how to counter your opponent's wrist ties.
- Posting and Chopping - Learn to post and chop your opponent's arms, allowing you to move from a position of disadvantage to a position of advantage.
- Passing and Flipping Elbows - Learn to move out of your opponent's collar tie and create scoring opportunities by controlling your opponent's elbows.
- 2-On-1 - Learn to hand fight your way into a 2-on-1 and how to turn it into a scoring opportunity. You will also learn how to counter your opponent's two on one.
- Underhooks - Learn hand fighting techniques that will help you gain an advantage with an underhook, along with a technique for hand fighting out of your opponent's underhook.
These techniques are taught individually, then woven together to create an attacking style of wrestling that will keep your opponents off guard and out of their offensive posture.
Knowing that your opponent's offense has been neutralized or disengaged will give you more confidence on your feet, and takedowns will become easier and happen more frequently. You will learn how to slip out of these positions and into a variety of takedowns, including: single and double legs, fireman's carries and ankle picks. Coach Cozart teaches other solid takedowns from openings created through hand fighting, such as: the slide by, the slide by to a side headlock, a knock by, a shuck and more.
This is a great video for younger athletes, but is also very applicable to older athletes who are having a hard time learning to hand fight and who aren't effective in these positions. Coach Cozart's system will work with all athletes because it is very repeatable and easy to implement.
This video will give you the knowledge, tools and confidence to be a more physical, controlling and dominant wrestler.
46 minutes. 2015.
WRD-04861B: with Russ Cozart, Brandon (FL) HS Head Coach;
2014 National Wrestling Coach of the Year by the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS);
2014 Florida 2A High School State Champions; 25x Florida High School State Champs (including 15 in a row); winners of 459 straight wrestling matches (The Streak), 2x National Coach of the Year; 8x Florida Coach of the Year
Russ Cozart has produced 22 Florida state high school championships - including 15 in a row. A critical element to those titles was hand fighting.
Even if your wrestlers have great technique, they may still struggle to escape from the bottom. If your athletes can develop hand fighting skills, they will be successful from the bottom position, even with imperfect technique.
In this presentation, Coach Cozart shows you a hand-fighting drill sequence that has helped his wrestlers become warriors from the bottom position. With this sequence, a wrestler doesn't have to have the best stand-up or sit out to be successful.
The hand fighting drill sequence is divided into four drills:
- Stab and Reach Drill - This drill helps the wrestler keep his elbows in on the bottom position, while helping the top man learn to gain control of his opponent.
- Getting Away from Underhooks - This drill teaches the bottom wrestler to fight off underhooks from the standing position and the sit out position. This drill is practiced from both sides and eventually works into a hip heist or stand up for the escape or reversal.
- Protect the Tight Waist - In this drill, Coach Cozart teaches how to remove the tight-waist hand, being careful not to allow the opponent to lock with his opposite hand.
- Crazy Hands - "Crazy Hands" is a culmination of the other drills. It trains kids to block their opponent's attempts to reach through at a quick pace, which simulates match speed.
Coach Cozart works on hand fighting skills while escaping the crab ride, the leg ride, the power half, the cross-wrist ride and the chop.
The most popular escape from the bottom position is the stand up, but it's also one of hardest moves to pull off against a good rider. Coach Cozart's hand fighting drills will prevent many of the problems wrestlers encounter in this position.
If the top wrestler puts too much pressure on the bottom wrestler, they won't be able to hit their stand up. Coach Cozart teaches a knee slide stand up to deal with this problem. You will also learn how to hit sit outs, rolls and reversals, all made possible with sound hand-fighting skills.
Coach Cozart's teams have been extremely successful for more than two decades - at one point winning 459 straight wrestling matches - but Cozart admits that his wrestlers struggled to escape from the bottom position, at times. So in 2007, he developed this sequence of hand fighting skills and drills. As a result, his wrestlers rarely get ridden out or fail to escape.
Now, your athletes can enjoy success while escaping from the bottom, using these great hand-fighting drills and techniques! This video is great for coaches and athletes of all ages and skill levels.
"I love how Coach Cozart breaks everything down into small building blocks and then links them together later on." - Customer Review
71 minutes. 2015.