Gold Medal Sprawl

When I was 14 or 15 I went to a wrestling camp hosted by 1960 Olympic Wrestling Gold Medalist Doug Blubaugh.

Doug was quite a character and I’ll mention a little bit about him in order to honor his memory now that he’s gone. When I went there he was an old man with diabetes. But the gristle that won him a gold medal was still visible. He would joke about how he had both narcolepsy and cataplexy and so if he sat down while teaching he would fall asleep and if he laughed while teaching he would fall asleep. So the cocky older kids at the camp would joke they just needed to make him laugh and then challenge him to a match. I don’t think any of the 50 or so high school kids in my session doubted that he could beat any one of us at wrestling, narcolespy or not. I certainly didn’t. Tough old guy.

When I went I think I was a freshman, or maybe a rising freshman. I’d wrestled pretty successfully in middle school, but hadn’t really developed a killer style yet.

This sprawl as about 50% of what became my killer style. I definitely never approached Doug’s level of success as a wreslter. But I placed 5th in Division II high school wrestling in Ohio my senior year, and I still train with a former Div 1 NCAA All American and hold my own. I’m not the best wrestler in the world, but, all else being equal, statistically speaking chances are if you and I wrestle, I’ll probably beat you. (Kudos to any NCAA champs/Olympic medalists reading this – I won’t beat you).

I like this sprawl because it’s pretty easy. I mean, nothing in wrestling is “easy”, but… mastering this concept requires a lot less time than developing a high level wrestling shot.

• Wrestling
• Standup
• Sprawl
• Takedown