Note: This takes place chronologically before the Annie Clark vs Rose Gold Lightweight Championship match. Tiki
Tiki Lowell caught herself subconsciously rubbing the middle of her back as she thought about what she had planned for today; a training session with Annie Clark, the very same woman who had sidelined the veteran for weeks with trauma induced back spasms in the match they had awhile ago, though clearly the Tiki bore no grudge. Tiki was still technically recovering, though she was fine to be up and about. She was not yet back to matches, and certainly had no plans for any full speed sparring or technique practice today. Though she did have plans for something to serve in her stead.
Oh she's gonna be so peeved, Tiki thought as her mind drifted to who would be showing up to join her and Annie later. The veteran stretched her body as she kept an eye out for the powerhouse Lightweight who was due to join her. Annie still had a few minutes before she would actually be late though, so Tiki wasn't worried yet.
Luckily for Tiki, she would not have to wait long as Annie eventually came through the door to Tiki’s facility. Annie really enjoyed her match with Tiki from a couple of weeks even though she ended up on the losing end of the match and accidentally gave Tiki an injury, which she felt really bad about. But soon after that, she made her challenge for the Lightweight Title against Rose Gold that will take place in Austria. Looking to make some refinements before the biggest match of her life, Annie took Tiki’s opportunity to train with the veteran wrestler.
Annie’s attire consisted of an orange sports bra, orange shorts that went to the upper thighs, blue calve length athletic socks, and orange sneakers. It was clear from her attire that Annie was ready to train.
Annie then soon greeted Tiki. “Hi ya Tiki, how’s it going. How’s the back feelin?” Annie said in her southern accent, as she waved to the green-haired lady.
Before long, Tiki spots the bright oranges and blues of Annie's attire, and waves the Lightweight over. "Greetings, Annie," she said. "I'm doing well, my back is much better. I'm not quite back to 100% though, so I won't be able to push myself with you today, so I'm largely planning to give you a lesson with more verbal instruction than physical on my end. I do have some plans to let you work your muscles a bit, but that will come later."
"To begin, there are three ways you can fight from a mental perspective; you can fight naturally, you can fight cerebrally, or you can fight like an idiot. First off, I do not think that you are dumb, and I am not trying to say you fight like an idiot. If it ever feels like I'm speaking as such to you, please understand that it's not my intent," Tiki explained. "If you fight like an idiot, you fight like an idiot, plain and simple. But between natural and cerebral fighting, there is a sliding scale which we are very much on the opposite ends of."
"From our match, I regard you as a purely natural fighter," explained Tiki. "You fight what you see, react to what's in front of you, and try to pick the best option in response. I, on the other hand, am I highly cerebral fighter. I like to play mind games, deceive, trick, and outthink opponent's to gain an advantage." Tiki then paused to make something clear to Annie, "Both are fine to be. They each have pros and cons, and just because one wrestler isn't working as deeply doesn't mean they work at a disadvantage."
"The advantages of cerebral fighting were well on display in our match," said Tiki. "If you can make your opponent think that you're doing something different than you are, or figure out what your opponent is doing before they do it, you set yourself up for success. However there are drawbacks. Thinking more makes you think a bit slower. Which then makes you act slower, for one. Especially if you aren't experienced with how to react to various situations. Furthermore, if you overthink, try to get too deep and get too clever, you're liable to mess up and loop right back around into fighting like an idiot."
"Then, for the more natural style of fighting," Tiki continued. "The decisions are usually made quicker, and as long as you know what you're doing, you'll usually end up choosing a response that is at least reasonable. However the problem arises when more cerebral fighters show those tricky looks to try to bait you the wrong choice. If you just respond into what's being presented to you, you'll just get hit." Tiki then focused her eyes in on Annie and began to close her opening lecture, "this is where you have trouble. But there are ways that you can get around this without getting dragged into a battle of mind games. On that note, let's get started, shall we?"
Annie was standing there, listening to Tiki’s lecture, and trying to absorb all the information that was being given to her. She is always one to act first and think about things later. But Tiki knew a lot better than her due to wrestling a lot longer than her.
“Okay, I think I get most of that. But if your not in condition to compete, then who would I be able to learn against?” Annie said, asking a question that someone that is not really smart like her would ask.
She then waited for Tiki’s response, wondering what she was going to do.
"Hmm, yourself, I suppose," Tiki said as she pulled out a tablet from her bag. It had a video queued up of the match the two had fought a few weeks ago. "I do have something lined up that's more what you're accustomed to, but like I said, this is going to be much more of a verbal lesson than a physical one. We'll do some low speed drills so your body can learn as well as your mind. I'm healthy enough to be moving around like normal, so I can do that, I just can't be taking hits again yet."
Tiki began to play the video. "To help me teach this lesson, I have the footage from our match," she said as she tapped through the entrances and other pre-match fluff. "Watch other people to learn what new things you can start doing, and watch yourself to learn what old things you should stop doing." Before long, Tiki got to the start of the actual wrestling.
"Conveniently enough, we can start at the beginning," Tiki began to play the footage. "You want a test of strength because you're a power wrestler, and that's fair. But you also have to use some common sense about it," began the veteran's analysis as she paused the video. "You aren't just a powerhouse type wrestler. When people think of Annie Clark, they think 'that Lightweight who is obscenely strong.' Sure there are some who are either confident enough in their own strength or disbelieving enough in yours that they will take you up on an straight offer for a test of strength, and that's something you can pick up on from an opponent's demeanor. But most wrestlers will be looking for ways around your strength, ways to avoid it so they can keep you from getting to fight how you want to. I freely admit that my first thought when you raised your arms was, 'Not a chance I'm going for that.'"
"Now let's see how this turned out," the footage resumes, and Tiki appears to accept the test of strength, getting very close before reaching around Annie's arm to grab and push it away before coming around the now weakened side with an elbow to the American's head before getting all the way behind and launching a massive opening attack against her. But Tiki pauses the video once her arms get around Annie's waist.
"Now as for what you can do against this, you have a view options," Tiki begins to explain. "Notice how the counterplay I chose against your test of strength requires me to get really close to you before I make my move. That's something you can take advantage of. For more aggressive options, once I get close, but not quite all the way there, you can try to lunge forward and force the test of strength before I have a chance to try to misdirect you. It can get a bit messy and chaotic if you don't actually secure the hand to hand grab with both hands, but assuming you get it, it forces the opponent to engage before they're fully ready. It will cut them off if they're going for a tricky move, and it can even provide you an advantage if your opponent is genuinely accepting the test of strength by giving you something of a head start."
"There's another option that let's you remain aggressive, but you have to abandon the test of strength. It's the same concept as lunging forward into the test of strength, but instead you go low into their legs for a takedown," Tiki said. "You get your arms out wide so they can't slip away to a side, then wrap around their thighs or hips and drag them down. The opponent will have a window to react and try to come down on top of you, or possibly come up with a knee, but it is a small window to react. Your opponent would have to shift focus for your upper body to their own lower body, and have a response that can contend with you pulling them down with your strength."
"If you're willing to take a more defensive approach, then you can throw in a little hitch, just a moment of hesitation before the point of contact to try to draw out an opponent's trick while putting yourself in a position to try to react to it. There is something that all three of these options have in common," said Tiki as she began to lead into her overarching point. "They all try to force your opponent to deal with your strength. And that's what you need to try to do in all facets of a match. You can't depend on opponent's to engage with your strength for you, you need to make them."
Annie was still there listening to everything that Tiki said, it was really cool for a much older veteran like her to want to help Annie, especially since she has a big match coming up for the Lightweight title against Rose Gold.
Tiki’s words put how Annie starts her matches into prospective. She goes for tests of strength a lot, and a lot of those times, she does get countered.
“So your saying if I attempted to take you down by your legs , I might have succeeded. Okay that’s good to know.” Annie said in response. “Would the next thing to do be attempting to mount you and punch you in the head?” Annie asked as a follow up, especially if she could use her raw power to her advantage.
"While you are correct that going for my legs in that one scenario might have worked, you can't ignore the other options I gave you," Tiki said. "If you switch from only going for tests of strength to only going for the legs, people will just switch to countering that before long. Variance is key here. Between just going for the test of strength straight up, and the three other options I've taught you, you need to mix up your methods of engagement so that you always have opponents guessing instead of knowing."
"As for following up, yes. Ground and pound would be a perfectly viable option after you secure a takedown," explained Tiki. "When you're in an advantage state, you can more focus on what you're comfortable with to press your edge. There's less of a need to pick a "correct" option to beat what your opponent is doing since the more control you possess, the less means of defense they will have to stop you, and the ways to get around what your opponent can do will be more easily defined and recognized." The veteran thought a moment before adding on, "Though you should still have multiple options available and take your opponent into consideration when you have the advantage. For example, against an opponent who happens to be particularly resilient to strikes, perhaps you might flip them onto their back and lock in a Boston Crab instead."
Annie was still absorbing all of the information Tiki was giving her. While she had no doubt that Tiki was giving her some really good information, there was something she had to point out to Tiki.
“About the Boston Crab thing partner, I’m not really much of a submission person. Other than being like a Bearhug, I really don’t know about locking in a hold. It’s not really my style. I felt like I only did the Bow & Arrow hold in our match out of pure instinct. I don’t know if submissions should be something I should really be focused on rather than my power moves.”
Annie responded, as she waited for Tiki’s response, wondering what she was going to say in response.
"I think it would be unwise for you to ignore an entire aspect of the sport," Tiki said after Annie voiced her aversion to using submissions. "Are you familiar with the concept of the Renaissance Man? In its day, it meant a man who dabbled in a wide variety of intellectual pursuits. He'll maintain a garden and write poetry in his free time, debate politics at public meetings, and then relax on weekends by playing chess. They were a person to be respected for their competence across a diverse spectrum of activities."
"I feel that wrestling is much the same," explained Tiki. "A truly elite wrestler must be able to beat an opponent with strikes, slams, and submissions. Be able to handle opponents with power, speed, and defense. Is that an incredibly high bar that I have been given an abundance of time to attain? Yes. But if you wish to be and stay a champion Annie, you will have to reach that too. Because no two wrestlers require the exact same set of tools to beat, you need a toolbox that goes as wide and as deep as possible to give yourself the greatest chance to handle any challenge."
Tiki then raised a finger before she said something that she thought Annie might like to hear a bit more, "And after all, who said that submissions can't be power moves? Think of it like this; there are two Camel Clutches. One of them only has the victim's chest getting pulled a few inches up off of the ground, while the other victim is getting pulled so far back that they're looking at the ceiling. Now which of those submissions do you think is more painful and why?" The question was rhetorical. Tiki's point being that the greater power being put into the second one made it much more dangerous.
“I mean, probably the one where your opponent is being pulled all the way back. I could easily try that, since a Camel Clutch I remember not being too hard to apply.” Annie said, taking in all of Tiki’s Info.
“So Tiki, is there any way I can practice some submissions, so I can expand my moveset before the big title match in a couple of weeks. I need to be as best prepared as I can partner.” [/color0 Annie said as she waited for Tiki to response.
