In submission wrestling (grappling), Brazilian Jiu- Jitsu and mixed martial arts (MMA), the ultimate goal is to finish your opponent. One of the most common ways to finish an MMA fight, submission wrestling grappling match or Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) match is with a choke.

A strong neck will improve your choke defense and make it harder for your opponents to submit you with choke holds. Note: nobody is “choke proof.” Everybody, and I mean everybody, is susceptible to chokes. However, people with strong necks are often tougher to choke than people with tiny, weak “pencil necks.”

Mike Tyson had a huge neck in his prime!

In boxing and MMA, a big strong neck will help you take punches. Look at the thick necks of boxers such as Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield. Many boxers train their necks directly with neck exercises like neck bridges, neck extensions, etc.

Evander Holyfield has a big neck with high traps

As a combat athlete, chances are you’ve heard the common phrase, “Where the head goes, the body goes.” It’s very true. So as a combat athlete, it’s your job to make sure your opponents don’t control where your head goes. One of the ways to do that is by having a strong, powerful neck.

If you’d like to learn more about how to develop a big strong neck for combat sports like wrestling, submission grappling, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ), boxing, Judo or mixed martial arts (MMA), just use your name and valid email to get exclusive access to this valuable neck training information – then click the “Get A Strong Neck!” button to enter (All information kept 100% confidential)…

Killer Mistake: Not dealing with neck pain, back pain and any possible spinal injury the first time you feel it.

Many grapplers and combat athletes will experience neck pain (stingers, strains, sprains, etc.) that lasts anywhere from a few minutes to a few days (or more). But many times, because of the “tough” mindset that is required for combat sports, many will overlook the pain or simply “forget about it” when it eventually goes away (if it even does go away)… rather than making the effort to identify and address the cause of the neck or back pain right away.

Here’s an example…

The summer before my senior year of high school, I went to a wrestling camp and during a practice where we were drilling throws, I noticed I felt dizzy and nauseous. My left arm was numb and shaking, and I couldn’t walk straight. I wanted to go throw up to make myself feel better. I figured maybe I had a concussion or something.

I went to one of the clinicians to let him know I had to go throw up real quick and he noticed how I looked. He grabbed my arm and asked, “Why is your arm shaking like that?” He told me, “Jim, you don’t look so good… you should sit the rest of this practice out.” I told him I’ll be fine, I just felt a little sick. (I didn’t tell him I couldn’t feel my arm.) I downplayed the whole thing to make sure I’d be allowed back on the mats.

I went to puke, but nothing really came up, I just dry heaved. Still a little nauseous, my left arm still numb and tingly, I sat against the wall, pissed. I had to get back in there… I didn’t think too much about what could have caused the numbness in my arm. All I could think about was how pissed I was that I had to sit out of practice a few minutes. I waited until the throwing drill was over, and luckily, most of the feeling in my arm came back. So I went back in and finished the practice with some live wrestling and conditioning.

The next day (the last day of the wrestling camp) I finished out the final training session of the camp. I still felt a little dizzy, I had a headache, a little bit of numbness in my left arm, but other than that, I felt pretty good. I was in the best shape of my life, agile, mobile and hostile. I was strong as a bull and felt like my wrestling was starting to come together.

I finished the camp and earned the “Most Dedicated Wrestler” and “Most Outstanding Wrestler” awards (the only 2 awards given out at the camp).

What I didn’t know though, what I didn’t realize… was that my neck was broken.

To make matters worse, my neck was broken at the C1-C2 level. That means that at any moment I could have been paralyzed… or even dead. The ONLY thing that held my neck together was the dense, thick muscle I developed from my extensive neck training.

The doctors told me all of this after I had to be rushed to the hospital after the entire right side of my body, from the top of my head to the tips of my toes, went numb in my mom’s car after she picked me up from my coach’s house… I had that “pins and needles” feeling and I couldn’t control hardly anything on my right side. That’s when I started to get nervous.

My speech was slurred… I was drooling out of the right side of my mouth… and when I tried to get out of the car when we got home, I fell over onto the driveway. It felt like all at once I lost all the strength I worked so hard for. My mom had to pick me up off the ground… she had no idea what was going on… I told her my right leg just fell asleep in the car, that’s all… she didn’t believe me.

She told me I should go to the hospital. No way. She told me I’m gonna have to take a break from all the hard training… that I probably won’t be able to go to the next wrestling camp the following week. No way. I didn’t wanna hear any of that. I insisted I was fine, just needed some rest, and in the morning everything will be back to normal.

I wanted to be left alone and I didn’t want to hear any “nonsense” about going to the doctor to get checked out. It wasn’t until she put my wrestling coach on the phone I started to be more cooperative. He insisted I go to the hospital to get checked out. Under protest, I agreed (I’m not gonna argue with my coach). I was beyond pissed off… I didn’t wanna go to the hospital because I knew that if the docs diagnosed me with a concussion or something like that, I’d have to take a couple weeks off of wrestling. (A couple weeks??!!! No way!)

I couldn’t even hold on to the phone for more than a couple seconds before dropping it… couldn’t poor a glass of milk without spilling it all over the counter… I couldn’t walk in a straight line or walk at all without some kind of extra support… and there I was yelling at my mom for even suggesting I go to the hospital to get checked out.

When I got to the hospital, after all the tests, X-rays and CAT scans, I got the bad news. Horrible news… REALLY horrible news.

As I was strapped to the bed (they had to strap me down because I kept having muscle spasms and the docs didn’t want me moving and damaging my spinal cord any more), I remember what the doctor said to me almost word-for-word. He stood over me, held up the X-ray of my neck, pointed to the break (at the top of my neck, C1-C2 level) and said, “See that space, that separation? That’s where your neck is broken… You’re lucky to be alive… You can forget about wrestling, kid….”

(Warning: If you’re bothered by strong language, do not continue reading.)

I yelled, “NO! Fuck you!” I just kept saying, “No,” over and over again. If I wasn’t strapped down to the stretcher, I would’ve attacked him. Who the hell was he to tell me I was done wrestling, especially with that condescending shit-eating look on his face? Just to say “You’re done,” just like that? That’s just something I couldn’t accept. But what was I gonna do about it then? Strapped to a gurney, wearing a neck brace, the right side of my body numb… I just had to take it. I did NOT take the news well.

The doctors told me and my mother that if it wasn’t for the thick, dense muscle in my neck, I would have, at best, been in a wheelchair with a machine to help me breathe. The doctors said most people die from this kind of injury, that hardly anybody survives because breathing is affected. The docs said how almost no one lives through it. They couldn’t believe I kept wrestling after experiencing symptoms the first time. They told me that my neck muscles acted almost like a natural neck brace, literally holding everything in place, even though it was broken.

The doctors told me that if I would have waited any longer to go to the hospital, it could’ve been bad – really bad. They gave me anti-inflammatory medication to reduce the swelling (which helped to minimize any extra nerve damage) and put me in a helicopter that flew me to Thomas Jefferson Hospital in Philadelphia, PA to get emergency C1-C2 fusion surgery.

If I would have waited longer and kept ignoring the glaringly obvious symptoms of spinal cord and nerve damage, I might not have been able to walk again, let alone train.

If I would have been smart and got checked out immediately after experiencing pain, dizziness and numbness (pain and dizziness happens, but when added with the NUMBNESS and loss of balance, etc., it’s most likely spinal cord damage which must be dealt with IMMEDIATELY), I could have prevented further nerve damage. I’m sure the extra live wrestling I did with a broken neck, along with the extra drilling of front headlocks and more live wrestling the next day, contributed to extra nerve damage; in fact, I’m sure of it, considering I felt the majority of symptoms in the car on the way home from the camp.

So why am I telling you all this?

The whole reason I started telling you some of my personal story is to point out the drastic mistake I made by thinking I was “invincible” and not realizing there was something wrong enough to get checked out immediately after experiencing some pretty obvious symptoms of spinal cord injury.

I downplayed how bad the numbness was to my coaches and I didn’t want anyone to think it was a big deal because I didn’t want to be “that guy” sitting on the sidelines. I have a problem with “those guys” who fake injuries or play up how bad they’re hurting so they can take a break; the last thing I wanted was my coaches thinking I might be one of “those guys.” So I went back out there and kept battling.

I mean, I knew something was wrong… but I still kept wrestling after my left arm went numb. My injury was bad… but it could’ve been a whole lot worse. If my neck wasn’t so big and strong, it would’ve been a whole lot worse… worse than anything I’d want to imagine.

I don’t want you to make the same mistakes I did. I’ve made my fair share of mistakes… so my hope is that you’ll learn from my mistakes so that you won’t have to “learn the hard way” like I did.

So please, make sure you take this advice and use it to your advantage. It could save your life.

If you ever feel any pain, address it immediately. Find the problem, and then FIX the problem.

Sure there are times when you just have to “suck it up” and keep going, times in which there will be a lot of desperation and you just have to keep going and press through pain, even injury, but we’re talking about spinal cord injuries here, so I think you would agree that it’s a good idea to be “as smart as you can” with those “possible” spinal cord injuries.

When you have a specific spinal injury or some kind of accident, it’s often easy to figure out why your neck hurts. But in many cases, your neck pain could be caused by any number of things (your neck is affected by your entire shoulder complex as well as your spine, back and hips – they all work together collectively). That’s why it’s important to know what conditions are developing in your body and more importantly what caused those conditions to develop in the first place. Sometimes acute neck pain or back pain might be caused from something obvious, like a trauma of some kind (like if you got your neck popped from an unexpected neck crank) but many times neck pain, back pain or nerve damage like tingling and numbness can develop slowly over time from a variety of different reasons.

So if you have any kind of neck or back pain, address it immediately instead of waiting around and hoping it just goes away… because even if the neck pain does go away over time, it doesn’t mean the problem that caused the initial pain is fixed. We need to do what we can to find the causes of neck or back problems and solve them as soon as possible.

If you’re experiencing back or neck pain of some kind, or have in the past and don’t want to deal with that kind of pain again, click HERE, I think it’ll help you…

And if you’ve haven’t subscribed to my all-new “Neck Strengthening Secrets For Grapplers & Combat Athletes” free ezine, just enter your name and valid email below and I’ll start sending you exclusive neck training tips, articles and videos that will help you get your neck bigger and stronger right now…

Like I always say…

“Protect Your Neck!”

Coach James Kelly
Founder of GrapplersProtectYourNeck.com

P.S.  Keep your eyes peeled for more neck strengthening tips, article and videos that will show you how to develop a big, strong neck for wrestling, grappling, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, MMA or any combat sport. I’ll also open up even more and reveal to you some crucial mistakes I made during my rehab, recovery and training so that you won’t have to “learn the hard way” like I did.

P.P.S.  If you’re a subscriber to my “Neck Strengthening For Grapplers” ezine, you can shoot me an email anytime to ask me a question or share your story with me. (For questions, just write “Question” in the subject line.)

Here’s a takedown shown by Iowa Hawkeye Josh Dziewa (pronounced “Jeva”). (Video below.)

Josh is my wrestling coach’s son. I’ve known him since he was a little kid (since he was 3) and he would hit me with this back then and still does today, hahaha! Now I consider him MY wrestling coach! I love it!

Josh got recruited to wrestle for the University Of Iowa after winning a Junior National Freestyle Wrestling Championship in Fargo, ND. During the recruitment process he was ranked the #1 high school wrestler in the nation at 135 pounds and won a Pennsylvania State Wrestling Championship. He was also honored by being named to the “2010 Asics All American High School Wrestling Team” at 135 lbs.

This summer, before Josh headed out to Iowa to start the school year, he came down to Maryland to do some training for a few days. We stopped by my boy Danny Ives’ school “Ivey League MMA” in Annapolis, MD to teach some wrestling.

In this video, Josh shows the “low single–low single” or a “1-2 low single.”

This technique works well at ALL levels of wrestling. American wrestlers and Olympic Champions John Smith and Cael Sanderson were known for their low singles, but even still they were almost impossible to stop. Why? Hard work and diligent, focused practice and drilling.

And if you watched UFC 118, you saw Randy Couture hit James Toney with a low single, using the same finish as in this video (different setup but same finish).

Watch the video and decide if it’s a good fit for your wrestling arsenal. If it is and you want to get good at it, remember, you gotta drill the heck out of it!

‘Til next time…

Coach James Kelly

Founder of GrapplersProtectYourNeck.com

(Video Below)

Question:  How important is “isometric” neck strength for grappling and wrestling?

Answer: Isometric neck strength is VERY important. Isometric neck exercises should be a regular part of your grappling exercise routine. It’s important for Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ), submission grappling, wrestling and mixed martial arts (MMA).

Here’s why.

In BJJ, when you’re inside the guard working to pass, your opponent is most likely working hard to break your posture, either by directly pulling your head down or by pulling your gi lapels.

BJJ rule for maintaining posture in the guard: Keep your head up!

So, your neck better be strong enough to handle that pressure. At the BJJ black belt level, matches are 10 minutes; that means potentially that someone could be pulling your head down for close to 10 full minutes! Are you able to hold posture and keep your head up for that long? Is your neck strong enough to do that?

In wrestling, when you’re in on a shot, good position is hips in, elbows in, back straight, HEAD UP. You better believe a tough wrestler will be working like crazy to stuff your head down and get you out of position.

Wrestling rule for maintaining good position while in on the leg: Keep your head up!

Is your neck strong enough to hold good position while your opponent is trying to push your head down?

In submission wrestling, BJJ or MMA, if you get into a bad spot and your opponent is working to choke you unconscious, whether it’s a guillotine choke, mata leon choke (rear naked choke), or whatever, sometimes you’re gonna have to hold your neck in a static position for a long time to fight that choke off.

If you have to keep your chin down to fight off a choke but you don’t have the isometric neck strength to hold your chin down while your opponent relentlessly tries to pull your chin up, well, it’s gonna be bad news. Choke in, game over, man! But if you have the isometric neck strength to keep your chin down, it’ll give you a little more time to work an escape.

Those are just 3 positional examples. I could go on and on.

Sure, explosive neck strength is important, but you also need isometric neck strength.

Watch the video below to see an example of how to get a good isometric neck strength workout:

You can also do something like this.

Sit with your back straight, head upright, and just push on your forehead with both hands while you keep your head in the same position, and hold for a count of 10-20 seconds. For the back of your neck, just put both your hands on the back of your head and push, keeping your head in the same upright position. For your right side, push against your neck with your right hand; left side, left hand. Your muscles will contract, but it’s an isometric contraction, meaning your head and neck should not be moving at all. It’s like you’re trying to move your head, but you’re making it so that your hands are like a wall, keeping your head from moving.

Believe me, you do this long enough and you’ll feel your neck muscles working.

Give it a try and let me know what you think!

‘Til next time…

Protect Your Neck!

Coach James Kelly

Founder of GrapplersProtectYourNeck.com

Neck bridges are NOT for “everyone.”

I think neck bridging is great, but not for everyone. Neck bridges can be dangerous sometimes. Some people get hurt when they’re not smart about their training. Sometimes people will see a picture of guys bridging with their nose touching the mat, or with crazy weights or people on top of them while in a bridge, and they’ll just go and try that stuff without FIRST having the necessary “foundational strength” built up in the first place.

Big mistake.

(Note: I’m not knocking those versions of the neck bridge. Not at all. I love that stuff too and I teach how to build up to where you can do those more advanced versions. I just get frustrated when people don’t go through the necessary fundamental progressions of the neck bridge so they can build up that strong foundation first.)

Safety tip: a good warm up is needed BEFORE you even attempt to bridge. More or less warm up depending on how strong your neck is. Neck bridging is easy for some who have strong necks and of course for those who train their necks on a regular basis. Plus, if you’re doing neck bridges, you better make sure your back is warmed up too. If you do ANY kind of strenuous physical activity without a good, thorough warm-up, you’re asking for injuries.

With your neck training, it is absolutely crucial that you don’t over-do things. Especially if you’re at a beginner level. We want to build up, not just break down. So we have to train smart and be diligent with when and how we train our necks and also how we recover.

Do I think everyone should be doing neck bridges?

Well, I don’t think neck bridges are necessary to build a strong neck. You can do plenty of other direct neck exercises that stress your neck muscles enough to get bigger and stronger. But having said that, we’re grapplers – and if you’re a wrestler, a BJJ’er or a mixed martial arts fighter, you’d better have a good neck bridge because the fact is, if you don’t, you’ll be at a significant disadvantage to your competition—and even the slightest advantage can be the difference between silver and gold.

Go slow, train smart, make sure you get a good warm up, and if you try to bridge and it starts to hurt, stop. See a sports doctor who specializes in the neck before you begin any kind of training program and let them know exactly what you’re doing. If you have neck pain, explain to your doctor where and when you’re getting neck pain and find out what your next step should be. (That’s my disclaimer.)

I have a warm spot in my heart for neck bridges, because they were a HUGE part of my neck training before my injury, and I was able to build up my neck a lot from doing them, at first with my own bodyweight, then I’d start adding weights (just like those “crazy” neck bridges I mentioned in the beginning of this email.

You’ll make good gains in size and strength if you stay consistent with these exercises.

If you haven’t seen the video of me doing a short neck bridging routine during a workout, you can see it here:

Neck bridging, on top of the other neck training I did, saved my life. After breaking my neck the doctors told me I’d NEVER be able to train hard again, do any kind of neck bridging, and they said to forget about ever setting foot on the mats again because I wouldn’t be able to wrestle or do BJJ much less walk normally without a significant limp. They were DEAD WRONG!

Here’s a tip: don’t just hold the position on the top of your head and stay there, not moving. That’s one way to do it, but you should be doing neck bridges with movement, too. (If you’re a beginner, stick to a limited range of motion and only go up and down, not side to side.) You’ll work your neck muscles more if you move rather than just stay in one spot.

Don’t push it too hard as far as range of motion goes with regards to neck bridging. For example, if you go all out and try to touch your nose to the mat the first few times you work on neck bridging, you may experience some pain. There’s really no need to push it that far when you’re starting out.

For beginners: Don’t just start neck bridging without first building up your neck with easier neck exercises. Always warm up, go slow, be careful with your range of motion and make sure to stop if you experience any pain.

Protect Your Neck!

Coach James Kelly
Team Lloyd Irvin MMA
Founder of GrapplersProtectYourNeck.com

PS. I love feedback and I value your opinion, so please let me know what you think about these tips, and especially what YOU would like to know specifically.

Send me a friend request on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/#!/jimkelly1

*** This content is not medical advice. Always consult with a physician before doing any kind of physical activity whatsoever. If you experience any pain, stop immediately and go see a doctor. ***

14 years ago at a wrestling camp in Virginia, I got to train with a 4-time Pennsylvania state champion and NCAA champion named John Hughes. What I didn’t realize at the time was how that experience would end up literally SAVING MY LIFE.

Now John Hughes only wrestled at 142 pounds, but he was built up for his size–he had that “farm boy” type strength–and he had these gnarly cauliflower ears with this big, thick neck. When you wrestled him and tried to get him out of position, he felt like a brick wall–just about impossible to move (at least for me). His stance was solid as a rock and you couldn’t get him out of position or snap him down because his neck was so strong (aside from his wrestling skills).

I wanted to train with John Hughes ever since my coach Mr. Denny gave me some video from the years Coach Hughes won the PA state title along with his twin brother Russ and fellow 4-time PA state champion Cary Kolat. I would study those videos every day with the goal of one day winning the PA state title in high school. So, needless to say, I looked up to him a ton.

When I got to meet him and train with him at a wrestling camp the summer before my junior year of high school, i had no idea how those few days of working with him would literally end up saving my life.

I already knew a little bit about weightlifting and was built up pretty well physically from years of body weight training, martial arts and football. But after seeing Coach Hughes’ neck and feeling how ridiculously strong he was, I knew there was something I was lacking in: solid neck development.

One night at the camp, my coach Mr. Denny told me I’d better go see what he did to build up his neck like that. So I did.

When I approached Coach Hughes and asked him if he could show me some stuff I could do to build up my neck more like his, he really opened up and spent a good amount of time showing me some of his neck training secrets. Some of the exercises were so advanced I couldn’t even do them at the time (I had to work up to it). I just stood there in awe while he went through the different neck exercises he used; he made it look easy (even though I knew the advanced neck exercises he was doing were super tough).

After he showed me his neck training secrets, I did them every single day. I was 100% committed to building my neck strength and staying consistent with my training –- to the point of obsession.

I learned not just how to build up the muscles in my neck to be bigger, but also to have endurance and more “functional” strength for wrestling.

From that day in the summer of 1996, I have practiced the neck exercises Coach John Hughes taught me, as well as many others that I learned throughout my athletic and martial arts career–and I have never looked back.

Since I started sharing these neck training secrets with other fellow grapplers online, I have now passed my knowledge onto ’students’ all over the WORLD. (Gotta love the internet!) Many people started out only being able to do the bare bones basics(and sometimes even less than that); some people couldn’t even do a full neck or back bridge; but in each case, no matter how little the person could do in the beginning, if he or she sticks with the program — results come, and often quickly, too.

Today, my neck strengthening secrets and neck health tips are being followed by men and women of all ages and professions. From the hardcore seasoned competitor to the still-wet-behind-the-ears beginner grappler… from world class BJJ black belts to white belts who are giving it a try for the first time… from top-ranked competitive wrestlers, to wrestling coaches, to brand new students of the sport. The advice and stories I share in my ezine and blog are used by people in the U.S. military, it is used by many in law enforcement, by men and women who participate in all kinds of sports as well as the martial arts and combat sports fanatics.

The neck training secrets I’ll be providing you with will help you get your neck stronger, you’ll learn ways to eliminate back pain, neck pain and shoulder pain, you’ll discover how I can still train hard on the mats after breaking my neck and you’ll get to find out about other grapplers’ success stories and comeback-from-injury tales of triumph.

I’m going to open up and share with you even my biggest and most embarrassing mistakes I made when trying to come back from my neck injury during training — I don’t want you making the same mistakes! So you’ll be getting the good and the bad — and both will help you with your neck training, whether you’re doing it just to gain more neck strength or you’re trying to come back from a neck injury or you just want to protect your neck and stay in the sport longer as a wrestler, grappler or fighter.

Plain and simple, my neck training program WORKS and I’m here to help you. If you take this advice and train smart, it WILL change your life and who knows — it might actually end up SAVING YOUR LIFE like it did mine.

Thanks again for being a part of this with me. I look forward to seeing how I can help you.

Protect your neck!

Coach James KellyFounder of GrapplersProtectYourNeck.com

Add me on Facebook —> http://www.facebook.com/jimkelly1

There’s a great book for coaches of any sport titled, The Edge: The Guide to Fulfilling Dreams, Maximizing Success and Enjoying a Lifetime of Achievement, written by legendary high school wrestling coach Howard Ferguson who was coach of wrestling powerhouse St. Edward high school in Lakewood, Ohio. I came across this passage on page 8-1 of “The Edge” and found it to be a powerful passage that relates very much to wrestling and wrestling coaches.

The passage is titled “The Bridge Builder” by Will Allen Dromgoole. Here it is, directly from the book “The Edge” by Howard Ferguson.

This passage titled "The Bridge Builder" relates very much to wrestlers and wrestling coaches.

—— —— ——

“The Bridge Builder” by Will Allen Dromgoole

An old man going down a lone highway
Came, in the evening, cold and gray,
To a chasm, vast, and deep and wide,
Through which was flowing a sullen tide.

The old man crossed in the twilight dim;
That swollen stream held no fears for him;
But he turned when safe on the other side,
And built a bridge to span the tide.

“Old man,” said a fellow pilgrim near,
“Your are wasting strength with building here;
Your journey will end with the ending day;
You never again will pass this way;
You’ve crossed the chasm, deep and wide–
Why build you this bridge at the evening tide?”

The builder lifted his old gray head,
“Good friend, in the path I have come,” he said,
“There followeth after me today,
A youth, whose feet must pass this way.

This chasm that has been naught to me,
To that fair-haired youth may a pitfall be;
He, too, must cross in the twilight dim;
Good friend, I am building the bridge for him.”

—— —— ——

Dan Gable has said that the real key to the growth of the sport of wrestling isn’t really the athletes–it’s the COACHES. Athletes need to give all they have to themselves and the sport and the coaches need to give all they have to the athletes. In turn, the SPORT will grow. More athletes will have positive experiences with their wrestling, will want to continue on with their wrestling long after college and on through the international levels and will eventually want to give back through coaching.

One of the proudest moments of my life was when I was standing in my wrestling coach John Dziewa’s house (during a visit to celebrate his son Josh becoming an Iowa Hawkeye) and he said to me, “Jim, I never asked you go give back to the sport, but you did. I’m proud of you.” That meant a lot to me for a lot of reasons I’ll get more into some other time. Because this isn’t about me; it’s about guys like Mr. Denny and John Dziewa who gave back so much to the sport and gave so much to me through their coaching. They helped build that bridge for me. If it wasn’t for the Denny family and the Dziewa family, I don’t know if I’d be coaching right now. But I am, and I love it!

When I first read that passage, it struck a chord in me and got me thinking about how those bridges get built. It’s done with hard work… with perseverance… with determination… with courage… with PASSION. It’s done by having good relationships between athletes, coaches, and people who love and support the sport. Wrestling tough is one of the hardest and most challenging things to do; coaching wrestling is just as tough if you really care about your athletes–because it’s not about you–it’s about THEM!

It’s about GIVING BACK. It’s about growth at all levels. Let’s build that bridge TOGETHER and keep growing the sport. Who’s with me???

– Coach James Kelly
Founder of GrapplersProtectYourNeck.com

Sport-Specific Neck Exercise For Wrestling – Video

This neck exercise drill has been one of my favorites for a long time, and lately, I’ve been having my wrestling class do this drill as part of their warm-up before we start going really hard, and also at the end of wrestling practice as part of their conditioning.

Neck Workout Video: Click the play button below to watch…

Here’s why doing this neck exercise drill is important…

While you wrestle, you’re gonna be getting your head beat on at some point during a match, and if your neck isn’t conditioned or strong enough to keep your head up, you’re gonna be in trouble.

One of the most important things in wrestling is your stance. That’s really the first thing anyone should learn. It all starts with a good stance. If you don’t have a good, solid stance, and you’re not strong from there, well, you’re toast.

In a good wrestling stance, you need to have your head up, your back straight, your hips under you, your elbows in, and you need to have “shoulder-knee alignment” at all times (I explain that more in the video).

Your job is to stay in your stance at all times and set up your attacks. Your opponent’s job is to take you out of your stance. So if your neck’s not strong enough to keep your head up and in good position while your opponent is trying to beat you down, well, you’d better focus more on neck exercises like this one.

Along with specific neck exercises like the one in the video above, I’ll be posting different techniques and drills to help you with keeping your opponents off your head. Techniques for clearing collar ties, guillotine choke escapes, front headlock counters and more. So keep your eyes open for those.

For more neck exercise tips and neck workout videos for wrestling and grappling just like the one above, give me your name and email so I can send you my free “Neck Training For Grapplers” ezine…

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Always consult a physician before trying any kind of neck exercises or any physical activity whatsoever. These videos and tips are not meant to be used as medical advice.

Jim Kelly
Team Lloyd Irvin

www.GrapplersProtectYourNeck.com

Visit www.GrapplersProtectYourNeck.com to receive free neck exercises and neck training tips to get your neck big and strong for wrestling, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ), submission grappling, mixed martial arts fighting (MMA) and all combat sports.

You’ve got to protect your neck! Go to www.GrapplersProtectYourNeck.com to get the whole story.

Visit www.GrapplersProtectYourNeck.com right away to get your free “Neck Exercises & Neck Training For Grapplers & Combat Athletes” Ezine sent directly to your email inbox. On a regular basis, you’ll get neck training tips and all kinds of neck exercises and neck workouts to build neck strength and mass on your neck, back and shoulders.

If you’re a grappler, wrestler, fighter or combat athlete of any kind, you’ve got to protect your neck!

Go to www.GrapplersProtectYourNeck.com to read the newspaper articles from my neck injury so you can find out for yourself how important neck exercises and neck training are for wrestlers and fighters.

Jim Kelly
Team Lloyd Irvin MMA

www.GrapplersProtectYourNeck.com