Art of the Leg Ride

By Richard Rockwell

As a high school senior, I was first introduced to the move I'm about to tell you about, the leg ride. Our coach brought back a leg ride video from Oregon State and drilled this move into our heads to the point its all we used on each other. Even though some coaches feel this move is quite dangerous and would rather not show it, my personal feelings are that if you are up against a good leg rider, your going to lose every match.

However, the leg ride isn't for everyone. I show the leg ride to the kids I know will be able to use it. The tall, skinny kids tend to do better at it simply because they have longer legs and arms to create more torque and the short, more compact wrestler tend not to be able to execute the move as well.

The leg ride can be one of the most painful moves used on an opponent and can score you a ton of points. Especially, if you develop a ton of variations from it. First off, you need a solid break down. Start off in the bottom position and break your partner down with a simple arm chop or whatever break down you want that will get him flat on his stomach. Next, ease up a bit on top and let him think he can get back up. As your partner tries to get back up, take your left leg and sink it deep inside his left thigh until your ankle can wrap around his. You are now in a leg ride.

The next thing you need to do is keep your partner from moving around too much. So with your right hand, grab his right ankle and stabilize yourself and at the same time make your right leg come out to the far right and use it as a post to keep from falling off his left hip. You should be perpendicular across your partners back side.

Now its time for the fun. To break him back down, simply either lift on that right ankle until he collapses or you can do what I like to do and put your left elbow on top of his right kidney area and force your elbow into it while lifting the ankle. This puts you partner in a very painful position and he'll want to go down for you. Make sure you don't swing your elbow at him, just place your elbow on the kidney area and force your weight down on it. Use your right leg to balance yourself while you do this.

Now that your partner is flat, place your left forearm on the back of his head and put all your weight on it in order to keep his face in the mat. With your right arm, you're going to slip it under his right armpit and lock your left and right hands together, all the while keeping your forearm on the back of his skull. Here's where the pain gets worse.

While putting even more weight on the back of his skull, your locked hands are going to reef up on his right arm and you're going to force his head straight down first. The goal is you want to try and make his chin touch his chest. Once this is accomplished, start to pull his right arm to the left side, all the while still making his chin touch his chest. Don't lose the left leg either. If you slip off his leg you're in trouble. Crank his arm all the way over, almost to the point where you can put a half nelson in and you should have his back exposed. If he doesn't go right away, just keep cranking that arm over and forcing his head down. Wait until your get you five count and this is where you can either go for a pin or continue to let him up and turn him again. If you want the pin, simply sink your right hand into a deep half, slip your left leg out and come over the top and pin him.

One of the drills I liked to do with this leg ride series was to try and score 15 points in two minutes. If practiced enough, it can be done every match. How you score these huge amounts of points is through solid chain wrestling.

Now, one option you have to the leg ride series is instead of starting with the leg ride discussed above, is start in what I call a cross-face leg ride.

After you've taken your opponent down and broken him down flat, you're going to put in a deep cross-face. How you do it is very simple. Typically, most people when trying to put on the cross-face, use their left arm and just try and force it by using too much forearm strength without setting it up. While this is effective, it is not the most effective way to cross-face someone and keep it on.

All you do is instead of cocking your left or right arm back, you're going to rest it right next to his cheek area. Now instead of trying to force his head to the opposite arm, you're going to take your right or left hand and bump him at the elbow so his arm goes straight. Now, force his head to his arm and lock your hand up just below the shoulder area of his right or left arm, whichever side you use the most.

Now, you can pull that arm in even tighter than before and is quite painful. I use the left side cross face more so this is how I speak of the move.

Now that you have the cross-face, pull it in tight to the left side. Now, drop your chest a little bit so its resting on the left side of his body, all the while not letting up on the cross-face. Immediately after dropping your levels, dig your legs in and start driving his body over, trying to turn him to his side. Once you've driven him over, his legs will be exposed and now comes the leg ride.

Slip in your left leg into his left leg area and while still not letting go of the cross-face, you're going to elevate his leg up and expose his back for the five count.

Once you have the five count, you're going to ease up, while leaving the leg in, and now you're in the position that I spoke of in the beginning.

Continue to do these two leg ride positions over and over again. The benefit of these two positions is that you are rotating the move to both sides of the body and not giving your opponent time to adjust. That is the key nowadays with any move. Too many times do we see kids create too much space in between them or give them time to breathe, while ourselves are taking a break because they're not conditioned enough. This drill, is very effective and can work with any moves as long as you chain wrestle.

One thing I do need to mention with this leg ride series or any moves that require arm strength for that matter is that you need to have good forearm muscles.

One thing I know from personal experience is that if you use too many moves that require you to use your forearm muscles all the time, you risk having the muscle give away on you during a match, thus making your arm go limp and un-useable.

Several things you can do to prevent this is get a squeeze grip, climb rope or do wrist curls. By doing this, not only will your grip be strong, no one will be able to get out of you moves.