Hello, my name is Keegan Fischer. I am a 2015 graduate from the Punxsutawney Area School District. I am 18 years old and I am trying to become an Athletic Trainer. All throughout high school I participated in sports and took a keen interest in them. All through my life I played many sports and some of them included wrestling, football, baseball, soccer, tennis, golf, and weight lifting. The sport I did the longest and enjoyed the most was wrestling. I started when I was only 6 years old. I have learned a lot over the years about wrestling and keep learning more. My goal is to explain to you about the starting positions in wrestling and what you can do from each one. In my first blog post I will teach you about the neutral position and what you can do from there to either defend or get a successful take down. Later on will be teaching you what to do at the bottom position to escape or reverse and get points. My final blog post will be about the top position on how to turn your opponent and get points or even pin them. I hope that I can teach many of you important steps and moves in wrestling to help make you successful!

The first position you start in at wrestling is the neutral position. You and your opponent are lined up across from each other on the starting lines. You then shake each other’s hand and then the ref blows the whistle to start the match

The objective is to get a take down from this position, which gives you 2 points. You can either get a take down by being the person who shoots and takes him down or be the person who defends against the shot. There are many kinds of shots you can hit to get a take down, such as; a double leg, a single leg, a fireman’s carry, or an ankle pick.

You could also use a throw, which is more advanced and most of the time it’s just used to get a pin when you are down too many points to comeback from. Some throws consist of a headlock, a lateral drop, or a duck under. I mostly used throws or the fireman’s carry to get my take downs. To defend a shot you want to either sprawl, block with your head, or get into a scramble with your opponent and come out on top so you can get your two points.

My preference was always to get into a scramble and force my opponent to mess up so I could get the take down. Your main goal is to end up getting the take down. It is sometimes hard and tiring to try and earn those 2 points, but it should be your goal to get the take down and get the first points. Sometimes a scramble goes out of bounds then you have to restart into the middle. This tiring first period is 2 minutes long. If you get taken down your goal should be to escape or reverse so you can score points.