Animal walks and warm-up
Ready when: nothing, this is the first card.
What you are learning
Strength and body control from animal walks (the bear walk, crab walk, frog jump and duck walk), then dodging in a tag game with the head up. Wrestlers need strong arms, hips and legs and quick feet before any contact.
Words on this card Mat, Animal walks
- Mat
- The soft wrestling surface and the round area bouts are fought in.
- Animal walks
- Bear walk (on hands and feet, hips level), crab walk (tummy up), frog jump and duck walk (a deep squat walk).
Show it first for the one teaching
- Bear walk: on hands and feet, hips level, hands under the shoulders.
- Crab walk: sitting, hands behind, tummy up, walk on hands and feet.
- Frog jump: squat and jump forward, landing on hands and feet; duck walk: walk in a deep squat.
Your part while they practise
Call the animal; do it alongside.
Step by step
- Bear walk across 5 m, twice.
- Crab walk across 5 m, twice.
- Frog jump and duck walk across 5 m, twice each.
- Weave round cones on hands and feet.
How much: 8 lengths 8 min a session 4 days a week
Say one thing Pick one line from "What you will see" for today and say only that.
The game: Tag in a box
Chasers tag, runners dodge with the head up; swap chasers often.
Who plays: 3 or more; you referee.
How to play, turn by turn
- Turns
- Mark a box about 8 m by 8 m
- One or two chasers tag runners with a light touch on the shoulder or back
- A tagged runner becomes a chaser
- 3 rounds of 1 minute; new chasers each round
- Fair play
- A grown-up chases in a bear walk.
- Points
- A runner scores 1 point for each round not tagged; a chaser scores 1 point for each tag.
- Fouls
- No point, and the round stops
- A push or grab instead of a touch
- Running out of the box
- Tagging the head or neck
- Winning
- The most points after 3 rounds.
- 1 points for 1 star
- 2 points for 2 stars
- 3 points for 3 stars
Easier or harder
A shorter distance.
Add a turn at the end.
What you will see, and what to say
- the hips sag in the bear walk
Hips level, hands under shoulders
Flat like a table. - the child holds the breath
Breathe as you go
Breathe out.
Self-check
All 4 walks across 5 m without stopping.
Stop and get a coach when
Pain in the wrist or shoulder.
Fitness for this
Warm up first: how to warm up, at workonfitness.com. For strength and stretching, its exercise library shows each exercise step by step, with an easier version.
This card trains strength, mobility, body control.
awiseathlete.com/sports/wrestling/wrestling-b1