Never Stop Moving
In part two of this four-part series, Ben Askren and Matt Dernlan breakdown the Final X heavyweight matchup between Gable Steveson and Nick Gwiazdowski. Dernlan says Gwiazdowski is probably looking to show his athletic dominance. Most of his offense comes in threes. He doesn’t just shoot he’ll shoot and immediately reshoot if he doesn’t get it. He forces his opponent to wrestle through each of these positions. Being a lighter heavyweight most of his career has made Gwiazdowski rely on his athletic ability. Dernlan demonstrates an example of Gwiazdowski using three attacks to get to his opponent. He will go high single and as his opponent steps back he’ll switch to the opposite side for a knee pull, then when his opponent squares up he’ll shoot for a drive double leg. As he’s doing this he never stops moving his feet.
Creating Angles
Askren points out how Steveson is able to create offense in freestyle. He’ll work a guy on the edge and force them to turn back to avoid giving up a push out. Once they do so is when Steveson finds a lot of his angles. The first instinct for Askren would be that Steveson won’t be able to push Gwiazdowski around but after watching the Adam Coon match at World Team Trials he thinks different. Where Steveson was able to create offense against Coon was from control tie but Gwiazdowski wrestles more on the outside and likes to have his opponent in an inside-outside tie. Askren thinks if Gable can’t get in close with those collar ties and underhooks it’ll be a hard match for him. Once he can get in close and control Gwiazdowski is when he can start working the edge and create those angles.
Featured RUDIS Gear:
Askren is wearing the ROCKY IV Champion T-Shirt found here: https://rudis.com/product/rocky-champion-adult-t-shirt/ and the ROCKY III Board Shorts found here: https://rudis.com/product/rocky-iii-rocky-adult-board-shorts/
Dernlan is wearing the ROCKY IV East vs West T-Shirt found here: https://rudis.com/product/rocky-iv-east-vs-west-adult-t-shirt/
Also Available On:
Ben Askren and Matt Dernlan host the RUDIS Wrestling Podcast. Askren, World Champion, and Olympic Wrestler joins in official partnership as a content provider for all things RUDIS. Matt Dernlan joins from years of experience in D1 college coaching at Binghamton, Clarion, and Penn State University.
Stay connected with RUDIS at:
Subscribe to the RUDIS newsletter here: https://rudis.com/my-account/
