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Three Utah Wrestlers to Watch if You’re a Snapdown Connoisseur

By Josh Jensen, 09/22/20, 12:00PM MDT

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Three Utah Wrestlers to Watch if You’re a Snapdown Connoisseur

Welcome, fellow wrestling nerds. This week, we’re analyzing the snapdown and how three great wrestlers use it to put points on the scoreboard. Snapdowns are a great thing to start doing at a young age for several reasons. It’s a fairly low risk technique that can open doors to several offensive options and works at every level, for every style, and every body type which makes it a great base block for the technique pyramid. In this article, we examine how three of Utah’s best use snapdowns to score points. These three accomplished competitors all setup the snapdown differently and proceed to score their takedowns with varying methods but have a shared attitude when pursuing the takedown in this position.

Kyison Garcia: Stutter Steps and Short Snaps 

As many expected, Kyison Garcia made waves as a freshman. He was a prime example throughout the entire season that speed and great technique can overcome size and strength and laid out the blueprint for doing so. He became the first ever state champion for Mountain Ridge by capturing a 5A state title, placed at the Reno TOC, and placed at the Rockwell Rumble. 

 

With his snapdowns, he beautifully blends speed with near-flawless technique and good old fashioned hustle. He uses great fakes and stutter steps to set up his snapdowns. In the state finals, he used a stutter step to break his opponent’s stance by forcing him to jump his hips back in anticipation for a shot, so his legs weren’t under his chest making him unbalanced briefly enough for Garcia to go to work. From there, Garcia will hit a short snapdown. When I say short snapdown I’m referring to how he snaps his opponent’s head to his chest into a standing front-headlock to start his short offense rather than snapping their head straight to the mat. This is a great way for wrestlers undersized for their weight class to snap people because they only need to snap their head down a few inches to catch the front-headlock rather than snapping them all the way to the floor. 

 

Once he gets to the front-headlock we get to see his speed and hustle on full display. He will bounce them with the front-head and circle right repeatedly with a pace that’s difficult to keep up with. As they overcompensate their pursuit of him as he snaps and circles to his right, he will hit one more snap and circle hard to his left and be behind them for his takedown. 

(Snap, circle, snap, circle, snap, circle the other way to disappear) 

Dillon Dick: Redirecting Pressure 

Uintah junior, Dillon Dick is coming off of a solid sophomore season. He was an LIT champion, All-Star Dual competitor, Rockwell Rumble placer and 4A State finalist. Dick brings a heavy pressure style to his matches that many have wilted under. He has a great snapdown that he mounts offensive sequences wit

 

Unlike Garcia, Dick snaps people straight to the mat one smooth motion and goes to work from there. He often does this by redirecting pressure. He wastes no time putting his hands on people and initiating hard hand fighting exchanges wherein he pushes hard into the opposition. People have a few options when they’re being pushed. They can attempt to circle away, they can meet the pressure with their own, or they can get pushed out and give up unnecessary stalling calls and/or penalty points. Dick does his best work with snaps when people try to pressure back into him as he advances. Once he feels it, he takes his foot off the gas pedal and redirects their pressure in a downward fashion with a heavy snap all the way to the floor. 

 

Once they hit the mat, he’s already chasing the backside. He will do this by using a cross-block (back of left hand wedging behind opponent’s arm) and going behind or by using an arm drag to meet the same objective. 

(Push, make them push back, snap, go behind)

Joshua Armstrong: Stealing the Dominant Angle 

Hurricane’s Armstrong is a great chain wrestler. He is relentless and chains together multiple attacks as well as anyone on his feet. Last season, he brought home a gold medal from 4A state along with appearing in the Rockwell Rumble finals and the All-Star Dual. 

 

Armstrong uses snaps early and often even if they don’t amount to any points scored. These early attempts are money in the bank and pay dividends as matches progress because they become more effective as opponents necks and backs get tired over the course of the match. Armstrong pairs snaps together nicely with shot attempts. He will shoot, his opponent will sprawl and/or downblock, Armstrong will circle up to an underhook, and use that underhook for his snapdown position. These attempts all come in quick succession.

 

Once he gets to the underhook, he does a good job of binding the far wrist and only letting go of it to fake. After he fakes, the same hand he uses for said fake comes up to the head and he snaps them to the mat and circles as he does so to steal an angle and instantly chases the far hip by running his feet until he scores the takedown.

 

Against Austin Gillette at the 2020 Rumble, Armstrong took a shot, circled up to the underhook, faked, snapped, and ran down the far hip to score a takedown in under 15 seconds. That’s a lot of technique in a short period of time and if he were to wait around for a second or two after any of the pieces, the openings for the subsequent attacks may not be there. 

  1. Circle up with the underhook 

  2. Fake low and snap the head

  3. Steal the dominant angle 

  4. Chase far hip hard and score 

Hustle: the Name of the Game 

If you read this entire article, you’ll see there are multiple ways for wrestlers to set up a snapdown to score and there honestly isn’t a right or wrong way to do so. It comes down to the style wrestlers utilize along with their physical attributes like body type, speed, and strength. However, there’s one overarching concept that all of these wrestlers acutely understand and that is to hustle. They don’t let their opponents regroup and tie up their hands after they snap them down. Garcia bounces them and uses speed and direction changes to flank them, Dick often snaps them so hard that he’s already behind them when they react, and Armstrong steals the angle as he snaps and chases the far hip. None of them snap their opposition down and then engage in some sort of hand fighting. They snap them and are already thinking about the takedown and that’s the big key for their success with the technique. It’s an attitude as well as a physical and tactical skill and it’s an attitude they all share.