My first match at wrestling tournaments always used to be MY WORST. I remember feeling so tired with in the first minutes of my match.

This last thing I wanted was to lose a match because I wasn’t ready to go.

Now I only had this issue in tournaments, so I tried to figure out the difference between my dual meets and tournaments.

What stood out to me the most was my pre-match warm-up. In dual meets, our coach would always run as through a warm-up as a team.

For tournaments we were given the freedom to warm-up how we saw fit.

After realizing this I came up with my own system to warm-up, it’s helped me greatly and I hope it can do the same for you!

Competition Warm-Up: (this is done with the team or a partner at the beginning of the day)

Jogging (3 minutes):

Sprints (2 minutes):

-Follow jogging with short sprints to activate fast-twitch muscles.

-Mimic quick bursts of energy required in wrestling.

Stance and Motion (5 minutes):

-Shots, downblocks, sprawls, fakes.

Hard Drill Session (7-10 minutes):

-Perform intense drilling with a partner.

-Focus on high-intensity moves, takedowns, and escapes.

Live Hand-fighting (3 sets of 30 second goes):

-Helps get your first match out of the way.

Final Jog or Walk (2 minutes):

-Conclude the warm-up with a light jog or walk.

Warm-Up 10 minutes before match: (often this has to be done off the mat because matches are going on)

Jogging (2 minutes):

-Start with a light jog to elevate heart rate and increase blood flow.

Sprints (2-5 Sprints):

-Follow jogging with short sprints to activate fast-twitch muscles.

-Mimic quick bursts of energy required in wrestling.

Stance and Motion ( 2 minutes):

-Downblocks, fakes, and motion.

-Emphasize proper positioning and quick changes in direction.

Best,

Coach Ebed