Crossface Wrestling

ON the day of the finals, Troy Letters is resting in

his hotel room and I’m watching videos of Tyrone

Lewis in my room. I notice that the little ankle-pick

that he gets everybody with was a different type

of ankle-pick. From a left collar tie it wasn’t right hand to left leg;

it was right hand to right leg. That was unique. A lot of his power

came from the way he tied up. I went to Letters room and said,

‘I’m sure you have a game plan already, you’ve wrestled Tyrone

before but I just noticed something on some tapes of his matches.’

I showed Troy what Tyrone was doing with the ankle-pick. I

said, ‘Whatever you do, don’t let him left-collar tie. If he can’t leftcollar

tie, he’s going to have a hard time getting his offense going.

So, your job is to go out there and find a way to score – I don’t

know what that’s going to be – and stay out of his left-collar.

Of course, Troy goes out there, hits a beautiful single, scores,

gets the tilt and is up by four. Then the whole rest of the match

the only thing we’re saying to him is, ‘No left-collar

tie. Get inside, get inside.’ And he did – Troy totally

frustrated him. It was a sweet thing to watch him win

his National title. – COACH GREG STROBEL