Hail to the Dinosaurs!
He took a short step to the side
and slammed a hard forearm against
my head.
The forearm to the head was the first
part of a headlock hip throw.
But it never happened.
I ducked under his forearm, and spun
behind him as he rotated into the
throw that never happened.
And then something did happen.
I locked my hands, shot my hips
forward, and lifted him off the
mat.
I pulled so hard and so fast that his
feet shot out and his body hung suspended
in mid-air five feet above the ground.
And then I finished the throw, and he
hit the mat with a crash, bounced, lay
still, and the referee slapped the mat
to signal the pin.
He lay there for half a minute or more.
It was a knockout. And knockouts are
awfully rare in high school wrestling
matches.
That match qualified me for the Illinois
State Championship Tournament in Greco
Roman wrestling -- and the following week
I entered the tournament, and won the
championship. On the way, I threw two
guys in a row with headlock hip throws
of my own -- and I once again, the force
of the throws knocked them out.
That made three knockouts in two weeks.
And here's a secret about those knockouts.
They didn't just happen. They happened with
hip power.
I knew how to put my hips into a throw --
and that increased my power exponentially.
Most guys throw with their arms. That's
wrong. You throw with your hips.
It's the same motion you see in Olympic
weightlifting, in the snatch and the clean.
It's the same motion you see when a guy
like Mike Mahler swings or snatches a heavy
kettlebell -- or a pair of heavy kettlebells.
And it's the same movement I use when I
do heavy dumbbell swings, dumbbell snatches
and dumbbell cleans.
Power comes from your hips -- and one way or
another, you need to learn how to use your
hips. You need to do it with Olympic lifting,
with power cleans and power snatches, with
the right kind of kettlebell work -- or with
the kind of dumbbell training I teach in my
new book, Dinosaur Dumbbell Training.
If you're an athlete, hip power is critical.
It's one of the keys to championship
performance in any sport.
And hip power is just as important for
everyone else. You never know when life is
going to test you -- and when it does, you
want to be ready.
So train your hips. Do it with barbells --
with kettlebells -- or with dumbbells. (Or
use all three.) But train them. Train them
hard.
As always, thanks for reading and have a
great day. If you train today, make it a
good one!
Yours in strength,
Brooks Kubik
P.S. Go here to grab your copy of Dinosaur
Dumbbell Training:
http://brookskubik.com/dinosaur_dumbbelltraining.html
P.S. 2. Save clams on s&h by ordering my new
audio CD, Seven Keys to Concentration, when you
order Dinosaur Dumbbell Training -- or throw in
one or more of my other books or courses. You
can find plenty to choose from right here at
Dino Headquarters:
http://www.brookskubik.com/products.html
P.S. 3. Thought for the Day: "When they bounce,
it's a good throw." -- Brooks Kubik
