How to bring opponent down from bear hug position?

[bigteeth96]

When I am on top for referees position and the whistle blows, sometimes, my opponent is faster than me and stands up, but I put a bear hug on him to hold him temporarily. He will try to rip and run or rip and turn to escape.

I heard about lifting my opponent and dropping him back on the mat, but I am not that strong right now.
I was told to trip, but when I try tripping, my opponent always gets his leg out.
I sometimes just let the bear hug go, but immediately grab his leg and turn it into a single.

There are so many things I can and I panic when I don't know the best way of doing it, so what should I do? How can I improve my reaction speed to the ref's whistle? From bottom, I know to look at him inhaling to blow his whistle, but from top, I can't see it.

Also, I am sometimes scared or hesitant of taking shots because I don't want to get sprawled on. So sometimes, as I go for my shot, I go back to my stance. Should I just think, "explode to his leg" as I go for the shot? And should my setups always be perfect when I go for a shot or can I just go for the shot because I want a quicker takedown?

Thanks again for everything. This site has been very useful to me. It helped me become a better wrestler because when I started, I had a bunch of very beginner questions like how to get out of the half nelson. Now my questions are more.. personal I guess.

[Laynerz]

There are a few videos out there on returning your opponent to the mat. I like going for a 2 on 1 if they get up and tripping them backwards, but you can have the lock around his waist, and rotate to the side, half squat, elevate and block with your knee.

<--- good video that shows what i described

[rogueagent08]

here is something I teach when I can see that a wrestler on bottom has a clear speed advantage. try jumping the whistle, you can caution 3 times before giving up a point. I had a wrestler that would get beat by the bottom man almost every time but at one of his last tournament I knew if he just got a cradle on this kid that he would win. before the start of the 3rd period, i knew the other kid was going to choose bottom, so I told my kid jump the whistle for the cradle. he got cautioned twice but on the third time it was perfect and he got the cradle and sure enough he won the match. if you really need to get the turn, treat the whistle like a double fault in tennis except you have 3 chances before giving up the point.