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Mat Mastery Monday: keys to winning from the most critical position on your feet

Today, I cover the most critical position to win from on your feet…

a position so important that state titles are won and lost from it every year.

This one position will have more to do with your success on your feet than your set up, leg attack or finish!

If you do what most do from here, you are likely to end up stalemated at best, or taken down at worst.

The position I refer to is the Short Offense position.

Front and center today is the most popular move from here, the Front Headlock.

There are hundreds of different takes on this position, and many ways to finish it.

The most successful methods meet the following four criteria:

  • good position is key.  Once you get the right hold, there should be close to ZERO % chance of your opponent scoring on you– and a very highpercentage of you scoring on your opponent.
  • put them on defense immediately – and keep them there.  If you wrestle to hold on – you will not score against the quality athletes
  • all moves from here should be fundamentally sound– never sacrifice position for a move(one of the biggest mistakes athletes make from here – especially hunting down fancy splash moves that get you beat more often than getting you takedowns)
  • a simple 1-2-3 step plan, with at least 3 moves in your pocket, that you can execute depending on the look you get from the opponent.

Our 3 step method to great front headlock positionis easy to learn.  Athletes who adapt to this method and learn it in a single session, and in a short amount of time, master it, resulting in shutting down their opponent immediately, and being ready to score.


The 3-move attack we utilize forces the opponent into one of a few choices – each of them leading right into your next attack.  I've seen athletes flip their front headlock from a liability to a major asset that they score multiple takedowns with, in only one week!

Since the front headlock is so crucial to success on your feet, it is a high priority that we implement at ACE (which starts in a few short weeks).

go here to join us this fall

Randy