Pancake Drill

Pancake Drill

By: Bill Welker

Originally Published in: The Wrestling Drill Book - Human Kinetics

WELKER KNEE PANCAKE

Before explaining this pancake drill, I want to share with you the origin of the maneuver. While in high school during the early 1960s, I developed and perfected (via extensive drill work) the knee pancake during practice. I was highly successful executing the knee pancake in competition. In fact, even though many of my opponents were aware of it and prepared to counter it, I still surprised them with the knee pancake during dual meet and tournament competition.

My high school wrestling coaches never taught it; I just learned to use it on my own. Since the move was fundamentally sound and not a high-risk maneuver, they had no problem accepting it as part of my takedown repertoire. In truth, the Welker knee pancake is an example of individual wrestler creativity discussed in chapter 9.

Setup
W1 underhooks W2's near arm, with Wl's head blocking W2's head to gain inside control. W1 also controls W2's far elbow with his free hand (a) .

Action
In the standing underhook position controlling the far arm, W1 drops to his knees, forcing W2 down with him (b). W1 then pulls W2's near shoulder down with his underhook hand. W1 watches W2's near knee. When W2 lifts his knee up, even a fraction of an inch (c), W1 drives into W2, pulling W2's far arm across his chest and pancaking W2 to the mat (d).

Coaching Points
Stress the importance of keeping a firm underhook and controlling the far elbow. Also, when they are down on the mat, your wrestlers should focus their attention on the opponent's near knee. The uniqueness of this maneuver is that even with the near knee just slightly off the mat, the wrestler has placed himself off-balance and is easy prey for the Welker knee pancake.