[NewChief]

Originally Posted by Iowanian

You can built on the half easily by having him put in a far side chicken wing. I teach my boy to go under the bicep and lock the far wrist from his half Nelson. It helps him stay deep enough on the half and controls the other kids far arm.

I worked with a couple of the older nephews today. We worked on ankle picks and a quarter Nelson. Quarter Nelson is "there" a lot at the youth level.

As a coach, we start very simple....we are often teaching skills and doing drills that will be implemented with the next series of moves, kind of like drop step drills lead into good double leg technique. We want the younger kids to be able to do 1 move at at each level very well....double leg, stand up escape, 1 breakdown from the top and the half or power half. Once they get those down, you try to add a second takedown, reverse/swiitch and add a cradle. Then as they are ready we start to teach new moves. Every coach obviously has things they like....I always liked high c, outside single....fireman. When they learn the fireman, you can build off to a jap wizard...I always used lateral drop and 2-3 head tosses...but we don't teach throws before high school because we want them to focus on the techniques....once you teach a kid to throw, it's all they want to do.

I'm not sure what you're calling divisions....is that based on age or skill? They don't really do that in Iowa. There are novice tournaments but if you sign up, it's based on age and weight.

Good stuff. Thanks!

Divisions are just age here:

Div 1: 6 and Under
Div 2: 8 and under
Div 3: 10 and under
Div 4: 12 and under
Div 5: 14 and under