Even in the off-season, mat time is very important. The more you practice, the greater your edge in competition. However, there's no need to be on the mat more than three times a week.

Work on technique first:
The object of mat time in the off season is not to wrestle live. Your time will be better spent in the off-season if you wrestle live only after you've worked on your technique. Even then, 15-30 minutes of live wrestling is enough.

Here are a few basic skills to work on:

• Stance: Head and shoulders in line with knees and feet
• Motion: Side to side, forward and backward
• Changing levels: For the sake of practice, exaggerate level change
• Penetration: Explode from level change and get outside leg up
• Finishing: Snake leg, drive across
• Set-ups: Controlling elbow - inside and outside control, 2 on 1, underhook, etc. Snap downs and front headlocks
• Defense: Stance, head position, hand control, sprawling, squaring hips
• Getting off the bottom: Stance, stand-up, sit out, switch, rolls, getting out of legs

As with conditioning and weight-lifting, have an attitude that will help you get better every day! Be intense and develop the frame of mind that will help you win in February!

These exercises and suggestions are compliments of J Robinson's Training Newsletters

• Part 1: Conditioning
• Part 2: Day-to-day Weight Training
• Part 3: Wrestling/Drilling

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