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crab riding vs leg riding (whats the better ride)

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Crab Ride has so many options to it. i have always taught it. your body position is so optimal and in control. Leg riding is also good, but not all can master it. Wrestlers with a good center of gravity and balance can own you on top.

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Leg ride. No better way to beat your opponent down. Personally I think the crab ride is to loose and easy to lose control of.

With the leg ride (if done correct) will wear your opponent out with little energy put out from the leg rider.

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I learned from some of the best....Vaughn Hitchcock at Cal Poly was one of the most technical....his best advice was to not throw the legs in at all....break'em down and work from there....College wrestling has riding time....High School does not.....My Collegiate Coach was Armand Brett...CSU Chico....the 1980 Olympic Greco Coach.....legs were not one of his strong points.....Legs are done right when you are hip to hip......Drilled into my head starting in 2nd grade by my brothers High School Coach Norm Foster from Amherst HS in Buffalo.....the guy was a legend.....If you use them....keep it hip to hip......Most of the greats don't use legs...they don't have to....you pound and PIN.....you get your back points from leverage...turks, arm bars and halves.....

I have seen so many kids blow big matches....they ride TOO HIGH all the time....your better wrestlers reverse you...and then pin you !

Crab ride just lets you stay out of trouble and run out the clock...use it when you are up against pure speed..Lazy mans way to wrestle ! Just sayin'

Nothing and I mean nothing works better than a TIGHT WAIST and WRIST.....or 2 on 1...Tight waist.....hips behind....hips to hips.... and on top....Your absolute best wrestlers have a tight waist you won't forget.......nothing wears out an opponent better....BREAK THEM DOWN..... work the wrists.... and go for your pinning combinations.....OK...I am done preaching !

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Well i am not to knowledgable about the greats. But I bet there were a few who used both of these rides and were very successful.

Maybe most don't use it because it is hard to master?

Most baseball players don't foul off ball after ball until they get the pitch they want. Most great hitters will go with the pitch and send it to both fields. But Pete Rose fouled thouseands of ball off until he got the pitch he wanted, and is one of the greatest hitters of all time, as did Ty Cobb.

As someone else on here likes to use "The Greatest" Ali used the ropes to bounce off of. Most of the greats don't use this technique, but Ali did. Both of these are examples of hard techniques that only a few have mastered.

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Just my personal observation and feelings on the difference , crab riding leads to lazy wrestling it's easier to initiate which makes kids opt for it , getting the boots in makes it a lot tougher for a kid to escape its jus more solid and torturous , some slick kids can use the Crab ride to hit some moves but you must have the hips and speed to do them , I hate crab riding but it is used somewhat effectively by one of my kids who fell into using it his fresh yr despite my disdain for the garbage .

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There really is no correct answer for this question. Each wrestler is different and so are their hips.. I would prefer using a crab ride, but I was never much of a leg rider. I used a lot of cheap tilts which was very successful through my college and high school career. A good leg rider is generally tough and not afraid to rip off you head or shoulder. Where a tilter like myself uses leverage and generally doesn't hurt. Both take time to learn and to be successful takes commcamentment to the move... It's all in the wrestler

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There really is no correct answer for this question. Each wrestler is different and so are their hips.. I would prefer using a crap ride, but I was never much of a leg rider. I used a lot of cheap tilts which was very successful through my college and high school career. A good leg rider is generally tough and not afraid to rip off you head or shoulder. Where a tilter like myself uses leverage and generally doesn't hurt. Both take time to learn and to be successful takes commcamentment to the move... It's all in the wrestler

You said it CRAP ride thats what its good for ,good to know terrible to rely on

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I disagree that the crab ride is a "slacker move." My son's been working on it for the last 3-4 months with his coach, and is having a lot of success with it. It's a versatile offensive system, and it has the benefit of being very counter-intuitive to defend against. Here's a video I made of his work at a tournament today.

And to answer the question, I think the crab ride is the better ride. I think you can be much more offensive with it. A lot of kids sink a leg and just sit there. Also, I think the leg-in ride is easier to defend.

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Certainly not a sole option. As far as first option from on top, I think it depends on what kind of crab ride you're talking about. If you're talking about a 2-on-1 crab, then no. We run the tight-waist/half nelson crab, where you can run the half or get a short hook-pin, get the two-on-one from the bottom guy fighting the half, or just ride the tilts and rack up points. So for us it more or less functions as a platform.

I think the mentality of the wrestler has a lot to do with what works for them as well. Different things work for different kids.

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The only thing I have in college is my leg and crab rides. I will say that a bad leg ride is worse then a bad crab ride. Neither are stalling when done correctly and many tilts can be hit off of a good crab ride. If anybody wants to watch a good crab rider look up Troy Nickerson of Cornell

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Crab riding should only be taught in the mindset that your opponent sits out and you end up in the position. While there are many good turns from the position that I enjoyed, my experience in college was that the really good wrestlers were always able to get at least an escape and many times a reversal out of it, sometimes with back points being scored against you. After a few years of futility in college I finally caught on and my preferred ride/series on top is now the inside/near wrist. In direct response to the question of the thread I have never been the best leg rider in terms of turning people, however I did get pretty good in college at just riding people from there in pursuit of riding time. Between the two leg riding is definitely the best option because of your opponents lack of options and counters. Assuming you are good at riding legs, unless you're wrestling David Taylor or some other very good leg rider you are usually not in danger of giving up a reversal or escape. Most of the time they have to just work out of the legs to build their base which gives you enough time to switch to another ride.

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I never personally threw legs in high school but when I wrestled in college, I started to try using legs in order to ride and gain riding time like JPizar also mentioned about himself. High school, I would go spiral ride to break them down and then inside wrist because of the various moves that are possible and how effective it was. I would recommend inside wrist to most high school kids unless they are better or just as good at leg riding.

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I am a leg guy, but if you are teaching it, it seems to depend on the kid.  Some kids don't have the "feel" to crab rider properly and get themselves into trouble by getting too loose and giving away the opponents hips.  It is a bit easier for some of those kids to keep better position with the legs.  Ultimately, however, it seems some kids are just better sticking with the spiral and grinding it out. 

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