6. Philosophy is probably more important to having a winning team than any one thing. A winning philosophy is the channel that will guide you to your eventual goal. With the right philosophy lesser talented teams can overcome their more talented opponents. Below is the introduction to a book that could change your philosophy to a winning philosophy.

The Five-Point Philosophy

Perhaps the best way to introduce the 5-Point Philosophy in Wrestling is to talk about football. In the 50's and 60's football in America had one philosophy, the " Three Yards and a Cloud of Dust" philosophy. Nearly every team High School through Pros adhered to this philosophy. Simply stated this philosophy is: if you can get at least 3 yards every time you carry the ball, no one can keep you from scoring every time you get the ball and thus winning. This was a very successful philosophy; it was also very safe, with little risk taken. Razzle-dazzle was considered unsafe and unwise. Unfortunately football games during this period of football history were sometimes as fun for the fan as watching grass grow. Games usually devolved into shoving matches dominated by the defense, and were usually played between the 20-yard lines. Game scores were usually 7-6, 9-6, or 3-0, a high scoring game might be 14-10. Then in the 70's several very innovative coaches, like Daryl Royal of Texas, Levell Edwards of BYU, Jimmy Johnson of Miami who either invented or recognized systems which put razzle-dazzle in the offense. More importantly they changed their philosophy it became "The Big Play Philosophy." Simply stated this new philosophy was: " out of any three downs we may not gain any ground on two of them, but on the third down, we will make 10 yards and every once in a while the play will go all the way. Soon football games were wide-open passing and running games dominated by the offense. Games were intense for the players and coaches, but exciting for the fans. Game scores are often 60-45, 42-41, a low scoring game might be 26-14 and rarely does a team go without scoring. This new exciting philosophy catapulted football into the major college sport. It spilled over into the Pros and to a certain extent high school as well. Now to Wrestling, for the past 40 years wrestling also has had one predominate philosophy. It has been a "Three Yards and a Cloud of Dust" type philosophy. I'll bet nearly every serious Coach or wrestler has heard it or even espoused in at one time or another. The philosophy usually is stated something like this: "If you can take a guy down and can escape from him then you will beat him." This is a fairly sound philosophy. If a wrestler can get all the takedowns and can escape from his opponent then all the wrestling should be on the feet and he should never get in trouble. Wrestling which has overwhelmingly accepted this philosophy has become relegated to mostly takedowns and escapes where both men vie for position on their feet to get the next takedown. Wrestlers often look like they are stalling because they take special care not to let themselves get out of position so they won't be taken down. Once on the mat they work for a quick escape usually facilitated by the fact that the top man will probably let them go so they both can go takedowns again. Unfortunately, this has made wrestling sometimes very boring to watch. Coaches have concentrated on teaching takedowns and escapes, neglecting exciting parts of wrestling for fans and wrestlers alike, especially the pin. Still no one has come up with a way stop this philosophy therefore it continues to dominate wrestling. A few years ago I took a few years off from wrestling to referee and watch wrestling from a neutral standpoint. During these years I was most impressed with how a five-point takedown (takedown to a persons back) or a five-point reversal (reversal to a persons back) changed the climate of the match. A wrestler who had 4 takedowns to none and pretty well dominated the match, was suddenly reversed to his back to be beaten by one point. A wrestler would be put to his back the first round and then would spend the rest of the match trying to catch up only to fall short. Two five-point moves by one wrestler would put the match out of reach for the other wrestler. Slowly I started putting together the "5-Point Philosophy." This Philosophy effectively defeats the old philosophy in wrestling. It teaches wrestlers how to score 5-point moves, when to use them and how to score them successfully. Less talented wrestlers completely frustrate their opponents. And the fans love it. There is a lot going on all the time on the mat and a lot of the opponent on their backs. Pins skyrocket and kids love the style because itÕs more fun. You as a coach will have more fun teaching this philosophy, your wrestlers will have more success and the fans will pay in to see your kids wrestle. This fully illustrated and bound book will be available through Wrestlingconsultants.com in early November 2002.

Regularly priced at $34.95
Wrestlingconsultants.com will sell the book at a pre-publication price of

$24.95 ORDER NOW!

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