United States Olympic Team Alternate (1996 and 2000); USA World Team member; 3x Big 8 Champion and 4x All American for Iowa State University; 3x Kansas High School State Champion
Four-time All American Eric Akin was a top level athlete at Iowa State University. Now as a youth coach he has developed a series of techniques that focuses on fundamentals that will train athletes at all levels to be successful.
Coach Akin starts with the stance - the most basic element to being successful on your feet. Akin provides a series of stance and motion drills all wrestlers need to become fluid and agile in any takedown attempt and help ingrain it into muscle memory.
He teaches setups that will work at any level to control the opponent and open attacks. His instruction covers elbow control, inside tie and collar tie, and telephone wrist tie to 2-on-1 control. From the set-up, Akin moves to three types of penetration steps (with drills to practice the steps) to get in deep on your attack. The steps include: the drop step/inside step, the punch-punch sweep single step, and the spring-load step for double legs and low singles.
All wrestlers, especially young wrestlers, commonly lack the ability to finish their leg attacks. To get those hard earned points, Akin demonstrates finishing drills for the "Big Three" (Single leg, double, leg, and Hi-Crotch). He also shows a slide-by - a technique that is really effective on an opponent that we cannot pass his leg defense.
Finally, Coach Akin covers basic leg attack defense from the most basic sprawl to the more advanced Wizzer. He discusses two types of level change skills, which is a fundamental component for good defense and blocking, as well as the key to effective leg attacks.
This video is packed with information from start to finish. It is ideal for any wrestler or coach who wants to learn sound and basic principles that are effective at all levels.
87 minutes. 2014.