Upper Body Takedowns For Grappling by Adam Wheeler

Check Out The Trailer!

What Will You Learn?

Adam Wheeler Can Show You How To Easily Out Grip & Take Anyone Down – Without Having To Shoot At Their Legs

If you get the chance to watch Adam Wheeler compete, it’s something special. He’s a 2008 Olympic wrestling bronze medalist AND a black belt masters division world champion, and every time he hits the mat, he wants to throw his opponent.

Upper body throws look cool for the audience (and it’s DEFINITELY not fun for the guy landing on the mat) but that’s not why. There is real strategy going into this game plan! Instead of getting in on someone’s legs with a single or double, working hard to finish the takedown, and ending up trapped in closed guard (or worse, a dangerous choke or joint lock), Adam has modified every throw in his arsenal so that he is always ending up in dominant position.

Once he grabs you how he wants, the system does the rest, and he always stays one step ahead of the competition. This is a technical, tactical approach to taking people down to the mat that doesn’t require you to be a big, strong lifelong wrestler! You just have to get into the system and let the moves do the talking for you.

Adam wasn’t always the accomplished athlete he is today. After not winning a match his first year on the mat, he decided something needed to change and started approaching his takedowns a lot more carefully and scientifically. After a lot of time and practice, he finally started discovering a move he liked. Then, he found another. And another.

They all worked together, making a system that gave him an answer for every counter. Soon, he was hitting them all the time, and using them against some of the best wrestlers around. He took “The Wheeler Special” all the way to the Olympics, nabbing a bronze for USA Greco, the last American to bring home a medal from the Games in that sport. Now, the formula that turned a winless freshman into a world-class grappler is here in full, with Adam showing the unique ways that he approaches his takedowns and exactly what he does to modify these moves for grappling.

Greco-Roman wrestling is a lot like no-gi judo, where you can only go for upper body throws. A good Greco guy is always fighting for underhooks and overhooks, pummeling their arms for control the same way a BJJ practitioner is always fighting grips or grabbing the collar for chokes. A *great* Greco guy (like Adam) is able to take that concept and break down exactly what he is doing and why he is doing it, so that others can learn from his experience. He’s a wealth of knowledge, always giving little adjustments that lead to big results, like why pummeling the top of the head is better than grabbing around the neck, or why a high bodylock is always better than a bearhug.

Wrestling as a sport has been around since the earliest days of athletics, so it is pretty rare to be an innovator in the game, but that just shows you how outside the box this whole series is. From normal pummeling and over-under ties, you can take an opponent from a false sense of security to throw to the mat before they know what happened. Even the black belts he competes with are left scratching their heads at what just happened! With just some small adjustments from the over-under 50/50 tie-up, you go from an even position to the first link in the chain. No matter where they go, there’s a solution, each one ending with you in great position, out of danger and ready to keep advancing the fight.

BJJ Black Belt Champion And Olympic Medalist Wrestler Adam Wheeler Has A Little-Used But Highly Effective Series That Can Change The Way You Throw People

The Wheeler 2-on-1 is a way to tie up and control someone that can totally revolutionize how you fight from the feet. Like any system, as soon as Adam gets there, he has an answer no matter where you go, starting with his patented Wheeler Special, a combination arm drag/hip toss that he uses constantly. If they turn left or right, he has answers for that. If they try to back away, he has his own personal style of snapdowns and chokes (including the Wheelertine that he uses as a signature submission), and if they let him, he grips and rips a whip throw that turns gravity into your own personal weapon. This is a takedown hack, a small position that has enormous results once you understand the power you have there.

Understanding the concept of pummeling, fighting a hand through resistance so you can control someone better, is enormous in BJJ. Whether it is from top, bottom, or (in this case) standing, being able to get an underhook or get rid of an opponent’s underhook can have a huge impact on any given position. Across this instructional set, see the pummeling and throwing warm-up drills that Wheeler uses every day so that he’s always ready to get his position right, and build a skill that will translate through your entire BJJ journey.

Everyone who rolls with a wrestler like Adam talks about the pressure they are able to bring. It’s just a few adjustments and details, and suddenly it can feel like triple the weight is on your back! For all you grapplers who want to get to the front headlock and choke people out and take the back without ever worrying about a guard, Adam has a series entirely on how to get to his head pinch, one of his best positions, and score from it every time.

So, What's On The Series?

Part 1
Warm-up Throws
Guillotine Continuation
Pummeling Warm-up Continuation
Pummel Double Underhooks
Pummel Double Underhooks to Body Lock
Body Lock Throw
Double Under Direction Change
Elevated Leg Body Lock (The Elevator)
Traditional Pinch Headlock Corkscrew Finish
Pinch Headlock Hip Throw
Wheeler Control Pinch Headlock to Body Lock Finish
Wheeler Control Duck Under
Wheeler Control Upper Body Cinch

Part 2
Specific Warm-up Drill
Warm-up Continuation
Two on One Wheeler Special
Wheeler Special Two on One Continuation
Wheeler Special Body Lock
Wheeler Head Snap Down
Wheelertine (Arm in Guillotine)
Wheeler Change of Direction
Wheeler Change of Direction with Knee Block
Body Lock Change of Direction
The Wheeler Whip Throw