Five summer training principles

This is the week that we really see what it takes to be the best in the country. The Junior and Cadet Nationals in Fargo are running full force now and you can see the power of summer wrestling. Almost every college coach in the country will be there and they will be taking notes looking at what prospects will meet their future needs.
If you ever want to wrestle in college this one tournament can get you a huge amount of exposure!
With that here are 5 important tips for summer training.
1. Do something - Running is better then just watching TV, running and lifting is even better, wrestling in local tournaments is better then not putting on your wrestling shoes for months. The key here is that you have to do something. You may not be able to go to Fargo but that doesn't mean you should do nothing.
2. Find the best coaching - Get into the rooms of the best wrestling coaches you can find. More then likely they are willing to help you so take advantage of it.
3. Camps are great but only if you bring what you learn back into your room and use it!
4. Don't just go through the motions - Be intense and work hard!
5. Hydrate - It is hot out there! Drink water to stay sharp.
OK Get out there and get at it!

I will update a few more times this week, now that we have a break from camp I will have some more free time!

Team Building

I had a great weekend in case any of you were wondering! I was very lucky to be able to be in one of my friends weddings. I flew out late Friday night and was in Columbus for less than 24 hours but I made the trip because as busy as things are here I know very well that he would do anything he could to be at my wedding and that is something that none of us should take for granted.
It was also an interesting event because I had the chance to spend some time catching up with some of my old teammates. These are guys that I spent hours and hours traveling around the country on a bus with and guys that I learned so much from. As a coach one of the things that I hope to achieve with our guys is that they are passionate about what we are doing. This passion means that they need to be passionate about the team and working with each other towards the team’s goals.
I know this is wrestling and you can never take a back seat to anyone and that is not what I am talking about. I want my guys to enjoy the wrestling experience so much that they find themselves coming into the wrestling room and hanging out.
I will be honest so much of what I have learned about wrestling comes from being a mat rat and just going to as many open mats as I could find. It was never easy to go alone or to call the coach and ask if I could come but having friends there always made it easier.
I really hope that over time I am helping the guys become better wrestlers but more importantly I hope they are becoming better men and building relationships that will serve them in the future.
So with that said... Here are five team building tips.

1. Set goals – The head coach is the one steering the team and almost always should be but letting the team have the chance to add or help shape the teams goals is a great way to get a buy in from many of your athletes.
If the head coach decides he wants the wrestlers to do 10 hours of community service as a team then letting the guys decide what charity to work with is a great way to allow them to express their interests and pick something that they will enjoy, not just go with the flow.

2. Goof off at the right time! - If you go over to the FlowCast site you can see a video of the Missouri wrestlers warming up. They are dancing and laughing and acting fairly goofy some coaches would not like this but if you ever are around the Mizzou guys they are very tight and being free to be themselves around each other is part of that. As soon as warm ups are over the guys are ready for business and get after it.

3. Include everyone – You are always going to have a number of personality types. Some will be extraverted, some introverted, and some will be different every five minutes. Don’t let your team develop outcasts. As a coach watch and when you see someone who is withdrawn find a way for the entire team to reach out to them. They may be doing a move particularly well or they may be great at something that you notice that no one else has. Whatever it is… Make sure they are sharing it.

4. Encourage Communications – This is a big one and good or bad communications can make or break a team. Make sure your guys have the ability to communicate with each other and you. Make sure they are not afraid to come and talk to you. If you put yourself up on such a pedestal that you cannot be reached then how will you know that one of your wrestlers is falling behind in school as his parents go through a divorce? If you are there to reach out to him and the team is there to support him you can be a steadying force in turbulence. But, you have to be able to communicate.

5. Encourage support – You should use your wrestlers as a resource off the mat. If one of your wrestlers is struggling in class and another is doing well in the same subject hook them up together and let them work together. This will foster mentorship and also keep grades up. I am a big fan of killing two birds with one stone.

Five Leadership Tips for Coaches

1. Don’t just train your wrestlers. Train your assistants - Some coaches may not think about this, some may not want to teach someone all their secrets but if you don’t train your assistants you will never be on the same page. If you are not all pulling in the same direction you will not get to your goals as quickly or you may have some dissention in the ranks.

You also are not helping the sport or your assistants grow. So many coaches guard their secrets tightly but in the end that is not helping share the knowledge that helps people achieve their dreams. Let go of the ego and train your assistants to be able to be a head coach.

As Tom Ryan says in elite wrestling “If something happens to me they may need to step in at a moments notice” You may not be able to have each assistant have his hand into everything you do but if you have three you could have one assistant helping with administration, one with practice, and one with academics or however you want to delegate it.

2.) Realize that it all begins and ends with the coach -. You are the leader and the guys look to you to lead. If you win chances are you wont get as much credit as you feel you deserve, if you lose you will think you are getting more blame then you deserve, No matter what the situation is it is your job to figure out how to improve there.

This is not to say that institutional and other factors cannot affect your win / lose record. Some D1 teams have 9.9 scholarships, some have only 2. I would never expect a 2 scholarship team to be able to do what Minnesota does but if you are working hard and bringing in good people your team will improve and your guys will be better people for being on the team. As the famous sign on Harry Truman’s desk said “The Buck Stops Here”.

3.) Be available and visible – In some circles this is called management by walking around. What this means to a coach is a great deal different then to a CEO. An executive can hide behind his office walls but as a leader a coach needs to get out of the gym. He needs to build relationships with people outside of the athletic complex and he needs to be involved in the campus community on the other side of that you need to be visible to your athletes. Standing in a corner and yelling at a wrestler for something in practice is not as effective of taking the time to work with him and break down what is going on. If you yell in practice at a kid for not focusing it could be for hundreds of reasons. Find out why, maybe he is dealing with something like the death of a family member, maybe he is sick, and maybe he just needs pushed.

4.) Hold yourself to a high standard of conduct - Always remember you are in a position of trust. Parents, administrators, the community and others are trusting you with their children. There will be times when you will in effect act as the athlete’s guardian, advisor, and mentor. This is a very heavy responsibility, it does not mean that coaching is all business or fun but it does mean that you will need to hold yourself to a higher level of accountability.

5.) Don’t ask your wrestlers to do something you haven’t done or wouldn’t do. Over time you will not be able to do everything in practice that the athletes do. We all slow down a step. I painfully coming to this reality as training is harder for me now than it was 10 years ago. Small injuries that took no time to heal before are taking more time and there are times that I need to watch practice not participate. That is the reality of it but I have done it and I will roll with the guys as much as I can.

Woody Hayes has said that one of the greatest lessons he learned from his mother was that you don’t tell people to go somewhere, you meet them there. If you have study tables, move mats, anything along those lines a coach needs to be part of this. He may not have to stay all the time but he needs to “meet the athletes there” If you have a space where you can work on recruiting while you supervise I have found this is a great tool. If you are struggling for what to talk to the recruit about you have part of your program to talk about in front of you. You can talk about the guy’s majors, the work they are doing, the exciting things going on in the program. The key is if you want them to take things seriously and be there then you need to take them seriously and be there as well.

Summer Eating

Stack Magazine has a great article up at the moment on summer eating. It is put together by James Harris, the sports nutrition coordinator for the University of Nebraska - Lincoln. Food is so important because that is how we get the fuel to keep us going.
I recently had the pleasure to work coach McGovern's camp at Dubuque and when getting interviewed by FloWrestling he retold a story of how he learned to eat so he could make weight.
The story was that he and Tom Ryan were cutting weight for a tournament and were 11 pounds up. He wanted to just workout and not eat but Tom Ryan on the other hand went and had breakfast so that he would have the energy to make weight.
There is no doubt about it making weight is not fun. The new rules are helping to control this but as a coach what I see being more important than anything is that you feel good when you compete (or at least the best you can). Putting energy in so you can take the weight off is much more important than having to work twice as hard because you are running on empty.

One tip from the article relates to pre and post workout eating. I went through a period were I got up and the first thing I did every morning was run. On hot days in the Florida summer I would never make it all the way through my five miles. About mile 3 I would be done and have to walk for a while before I could start again.

I talked to a friend about this and I told him I thought I was getting to dehydrated and he told me that would only be part of a problem. The larger issue being that my body was having to try and burn stored fat, which meant it had to start converting the fat and go through a huge process. The heat didn't help but he told me to start eating a power bar before I went to run. Eating these 30 minutes before I left made things a lot easier on me.
Yes, as wrestlers there are times that we have to get ourselves close to the breaking point just so we know how to do it but, in the summer, when I am running to keep my conditioning up and to stay healthy is not the time to break yourself. Save that for the practice room.

"Thirty to 45 minutes before you hit the weight room, grab a 300-calorie pre-workout snack to give your muscles extra energy to burn. To aid recovery, within 20 minutes of training, nosh on a post-workout snack that’s a moderate combo of protein and carbs. Besides replenishing lost energy, it will prepare your body for the next workout."

Check out the article here.
http://www.stackmag.com/TheIssue/ArticleDraw/4423

For more on diet check out that section on CarrWrestling.com

Recruiting Literature Made Easy

Recruiting Material Made Easy

and easily….

I know most coaches are always looking for materials to share with recruits and promte their teams and schools. They complain that a media guide, a few cards, and an admissions brochure are not enough.

I agree that those are certainly not enough but the truth is that colleges are producing tons of recruiting information daily. Most have a staff of marketing, public relations, and graphic design pros. These guys are constantly turning out materials for admissions, advancement, fundraising, student life, athletics and other departments. You as a coach have to know what is happening on your campus and you need to have a relationship with these people. Talk to them, invite them to meets, let them know you are interested in their work, and you would be interested in seeing anything that you could easily adapt to help you promote the school and team.

Why? Because the materials they are producing can easily be tailored to fit your needs in recruiting.. Sometimes they are fillers, in magazines and sometimes they are full pamphlets but they all contain little pieces of information that you can use.

I am going to share some examples of what we have used this year.

I first want to say that as I wrote in the post on recruiting letters (link here) at the start of the recruiting relationship you have to always have a reason or purpose for a communication. These materials can be a reason.

At Central we have a large exercise science program, because of this we have a great deal of alumni working in sports. Exercise science is also a popular major among athletes! I think this is a huge competitive advantage for the team as we look at recruiting. There are other schools in the state with lower tuition, better wrestling teams (we will get that changed), and more students. None of those schools have 100% placement into graduate programs. CENTRAL DOES! I’m not going to put down other schools but Central has a faculty in exercise science that has dedicated itself to being. Because of this we have an amazing alumni base that is involved in athletics at all levels.

We have an alum that has become a trainer for the Green Bay Packers. He got that job because of an internship arranged through the faculty at Central. Our alumni publications featured him in an article and it generated a lot of interest from the student athletes who saw it. The problem is that not as many saw that article as we would have liked. I got in touch with our publications department and asked them if they could make a PDF of the two page spread. (See it here)

With some minor adaptations such as changing the font and changing some graphics to a smaller resolution we got a great piece of material. Now, if I talk to a recruit that expresses an interest in athletic training I can either print the article or e-mail it to him with a note in the margin or email as a follow up. If I email it I try to make sure I include some bullet points to reinforce the articles ideas.

This also gives me a reason to call them later on and see if they have any questions for me about the program or the college. I was not sure if kids would actually read it but as it turns out, they usually skim it, and almost always read the bullet points. I have called kids and had them ask me to wait for a minute as they find the article because they have written questions on the paper.

• Speaking of bullet points!

I don’t know how your all campus e-mail system works but I am constantly bombarded with e-mail congratulating people on retiring, announcing events, and promoting on campus events. We also have a web site that highlights these events and other things going on. You can always pull from these sights and publications. I would suggest that you start a running document on your computer that you cut and paste facts into. This will give you taking points and in time you can create your own fact sheets. Using some information from admissions we created this facts sheet that we can show recruits on their visits to highlight our strengths.

If you are sending out hand written notes you can drop some of these in there as reinforcing points or make sure to reference them in phone conversations. I have found these to be valuable with recruits but even more so with parents.

You can check out our latest edition here.

The point is that colleges are always producing promotional material. Coaches need to have a relationship with the department doing the work and keep an eye open. With a little computer work you can tailor it to your needs and use it to promote your team.

As J. Robinson would say, “If you are not responsible for the promotion of your team, who is”?

The points

· Keep an eye on the publications your school is producing. Athletes have a life outside of competition and if you miss the good things they are doing off the mat, you are missing a chance to reward them for great achievements and to promote your program and school.

o If you have an athlete get a DUI you are going to hear about it from the press on the other side of that the world should hear about it when one of your student athletes does something positive. For every DUI arrest happening in college athletics there are at least one hundred great things. Check out this article on Central Baseball player Adam Durfield. We made 2 versions. The first is just a copy from an alumni magazine and we put on wrestling letterhead. ( 1 )( 2) He may not be a wrestler but, any student at Central has the opportunity to do what he has. Every college has similar events occurring. Keep an eye out for them.

· Faculty, student, and alumni spotlight sections can allow you to illustrate how people from your school are achieving great things and a prospect could follow in their footsteps.

· Use bullet points and facts and figures. People almost always scan something first and then turn around and read the article in full if they are interested.

· Make sure you are patient and friendly with promotional and marketing staff. A lot of times they work behind the scenes so if you show up making demands and don’t say thank you they may resist helping you more than they have to. You may have to start out with just a photo copy but I have never had anyone say no to a request to help with this stuff.

· Learn some basic computer skills so you can quickly adapt these to your needs. For some projects you may need the help of a pro but anyone that can use Microsoft word can easily create documents to highlight their programs.

See also

· Making a PDF with PDF creator

· On recruiting letters

· Using E-mail in recruiting

· Media Guide 101

Using Video to Improve Your Wrestling

How to review video

There are some great resources out there on video tape review. Ken Chertow has one on his site Written by Mike DeRoehn. To read the article go here.

http://www.kenchertow.com/training_tips/video_analysis/va_video_review.html

I like the system he uses. I think it allows you to find what you need to work on and not spend to much time worrying when you could be training.

If you want to scout yourself or others the first thing you need to do is put together your own system to go with. I really recommend putting together a standardized form that you can save. A great example from Steve Kimpel, former head coach at Colorado School of mines can be found here.

http://www.mines.edu/~skimpel/champmanualscouting.pdf

Another example I created can be found here.

http://www.carrwrestling.com/pdf/scouting.pdf

Adapt that sheet to your own needs.

Now first, watch the match and take your notes on your form. Do not stop the tape or rewind the first time through. Make sure you pay attention to the seven basic skills. Stance and motion are such a key in the sport of wrestling that if you can correct the flaws there you can make it very hard for your opponent to score on you.

After completing your notes rewind the match and go back over it with a fine tooth comb. If you get taken down go through the tape slowly and see what is the sequence that occurs. If you are scouting another wrestler look and see what he does for a set up or what set ups work on him.

Take these notes and go over them with your coaches. They should be able to give you feedback on yourself and help you learn from and correct any mistakes you may have encountered.

Now you have a list of things to work on so get in the room and go for it.

*A quick note - If you use a digital camcorder and want to watch the match film on your computer you can download Sports Media Player. It is a great tool that ads slow motion and other useful features to your Windows Media Player.
http://www.softpedia.com/get/Multimedia/Video/Video-Players/Sport-Video-Player.shtml

World Team Trials

I am writing this on the plane leaving Vegas heading to Tampa, Florida to see my family and spend some time with some friends. I love my job but every now and then I need to get away and spend some time with my family, my dog, my fishing pole, and the beach.

The World Team Trials were great. There were so many great matches and so many outstanding athletes competing. I wish they could all make the world team because they all deserve it but I really believe the rewards are in the work. I have told my athletes I cannot guarantee a win but I can guarantee that if they work hard, are disciplined, and make the sacrifices it takes they can achieve great things and they will not regret the journey.

Congratulations to Tommy Rowlands and Joe Heskett. The Buckeye Wrestling Club is building a force. They have 2 members of the World Team now, the world team coach, Tom Ryan is building a program that is a threat. Not to mention Ross Thatcher is there and very few people work as hard as he does or have his understanding of the sport.

I had the pleasure of spending some time with the US Olympic Education Program guys again this week and I really think these guys are on the way. Mango is getting better all the time. Nate Engel has been one of my favorite wrestlers since his senior year in high school Joe Betterman is on a mission and they are still so young that they have a lot of great years ahead of them. Nate has made huge strides and his positioning is going to make him hard to beat.

They are all a great deal of fun and they still have that wide eyed feel about the sport at this level which is not a bad thing because I really think they are having the time of their lives training and competing.

I also want to send some congratulations out to Jared Frayer and my wishes for the best as he stays after it. I didn’t get a chance to talk to Jared about the event but I am sure he wanted to win the thing. I honestly think Frayer is the best pure wrestler at that stacked weight and if he can stay in the zone he will do so well with it.

Well, I have a few days to relax now, I’ll write more about Florida and the world of wrestling when I return.

TC

Launch Week

We are going to do the official launch of this blog and website next week! On top of that Eric Van Kley, my new boss gets here and I am assuming we will be getting down to work on getting this team going.
Anyway, next week you can look forward to seeing the following on here.
1 Move of the week.
2 Leadership Skills for Coaches: Sharing your vision.
3 Recruiting and the college athlete.
4 Summer Strength Training
5 Coaches tools for running a summer strentgh program

I am going to forgo this weeks big post in favor of having more content for next week.

Leadership

Developing Leadership

First, read the book Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't by Jim Collins. It tells how to go from a good corporation to a great one and much of it can be applied to teams and clubs as well. I believe what separates any good organization from a great one is the leadership. The coaches of the Tampa Bay Lightning had their team read the book before they won the Stanley Cup. Yes, it's Hockey and we are talking Wrestling but leadership skills generalize fairly well across sports.

For the most part leadership is the hierarchy that evolves in a community. You need to understand that you want to first develop a community. Build a feeling of belonging and then build a sense of responsibility to the community. For more on this read the article Team = Family. You also want to influence how the community builds. Make it a good one.

Emphasize the wrestler's responsibility to a community. You will have athletes with losing records. A lot of people would not want that in their team (I would love to avoid it) but the reality is we are not all going to be Cael Sanderson. The thing is that the guys that aren't winning the state titles have to put in to the collective effort it will take for your fourteen starters to get there. Let them know that you expect everyone to work hard and push each other and that if they do anything dumb they will be putting a black mark on the team. Look at the situation at Duke. Those guys may very well be innocent but they have put a black mark on the team's record that will be there for many years. The simple way for them to have avoided it was to be more responsible as a team and not have gotten into that situation. Especially, in season.

It starts at the top ­ The head coach does not have to be physically or mentally organized as much as his delegation needs to be. If he can set a model using a management hierarchy and stick to that then he can be scatter brained with things as long as he simply ensures that the tasks he delegated down get done. In college wrestling we are seeing staffs built not just on wresting ability anymore but on management and I think that it is great. The head coach gets the athletes the resources they need and then it works down the ladder. Just like a business.

Always build the guys up. There are enough people and influences telling teenage boys that they are bad and wrong. Trust in yourself as a coach that you can develop them into leaders and be positive about it.

Reward initiative ­ A big part of being a leader is simply stepping up and taking responsibility for something or asking for it. If a kid comes in and starts mopping the mats when no one told him to that is initiative. If an athlete gets a group together to do some extra workouts that is initiative.

Get the athletes to spend time together. You want to create a community. If all of your athletes are only together for two hours two times a week then they are just a team. It is when they start to spend time out together that they become a community. As a coach you can get some parents together and set up a structure of good activities for them to do (Community Service, Rafting Trips, Bowling, Etc.). Be careful here though because there is good leadership and bad and if you don't keep an eye on it there is a chance that negative leadership could become an issue for you.

Figure out what kind of leaders you want and need and talk to them about it. The Marines create great leaders year after year. More Marines are CEOs of Fortune 500 companies then Ivy League MBAs. The Marines have the core values that they believe are common to all marines and as part of boot camp they sit down and they talk about what the values mean as a soldier and as a person. If you want them to be leaders you need to generalize it off of the wrestling mats. To many times the best athletes become captains and the wrestlers follow them balance that with the ones that have taken on responsibility and handled it well. I think that a lot of wrestling teams develop hierarchies like gangs where the toughest kids are the ones that become leaders. There are many great wrestlers that do not make great leaders. Just because you can win a match does not mean people should follow you. A leader has to be able to manage others and himself. If you simply want the tough wrestlers to thump the weaker ones when they don't wrestle up to potential then I don't think you will see a lot of change. If you want the better wrestlers to get on the younger ones, show them what they did wrong and help bring them up to their level then you will see improvement. But at 17 years old I didn't know what it meant to be a leader besides setting an example and that is not even half of it.

Find a Low Ropes course and get your guys out there. These activities like Leadershape are something that colleges are turning to in order to develop leaders and it would give your guys an advantage at the next level. I think that alone would be worth it.

Invite some local leaders (Elected officials, Principles, Business Leaders, Military, etc.) to talk to your team. Banquets and summer picnics are great for this. Talk to your speaker about what you want and then ask them to relate that to the leadership they use in their lives and go from there.

Read some books on leadership styles and then help your athletes to understand how they are developing as leaders. Some people are great leaders when their backs are against the wall and then horrible when things are going well. The corporate world has a set of CEO's that are known as turn around artists and they go from bankrupt company to bankrupt company slashing coasts and saving them from defaulting there are other CEOs that run companies that we have never heard of some are flashy, some are humble. Sam Walton, Bill Gates, Donald Trump, and Warren Buffet are all effective leaders and they all have different styles.

Delegate, delegate, delegate ­ When you start to recognize who your leaders are becoming start to give them something to do. Any community has leaders and they can be good leaders or bad leaders. Don't let their hands go idle. Make a list of chores and tell your captains to make a plan to get it done. Make it clear that they shouldn't do it all themselves and make it clear that they shouldn't dump it on the freshmen. When they get it done look it over give them feedback and if it is not what you are looking for then have them do it over. I have a boss and if he does not like my work he lets me know and I make the changes that incorporate what he is looking for. That is another part of leadership Following.

My final suggestion is just to pay attention to the community. If you the coaches set high expectations and then hold your athletes to that standard you will get great things done. If you can build a supportive community where the athletes are working toward common goals that don't include negative things the leadership will come out naturally and you will just have to guide it to being the leadership you need. I am of the opinion that leadership is making sure that the ones below you are taken care of and people respect the leaders that will get their hands dirty. Get in there and erase the lines between the coaches and the athletes, have some fun, and build your team up. If you go in and crack skulls and you look for your leaders to do the same you are going to chase away athletes that in four years could have made a huge impact on your team. Build a community where leadership means that the good wrestlers work to bring the lower guys to their level and the lesser wrestlers work to push the great wrestlers to get even better.

Waterloo... Wrestling: Dutch Style

I am in Waterloo for the Great Plains tournament to get a look at some high school guys and work on recruiting. Central has 2 guys competing in this event and I am proud of them for signing up to take on such a tough field. The NCAA says I can't coach them now but they will be much improved wrestlers next year for the work they put in.
On this note I want to emphasize the importance of practice partners. It is rare that you will ever see just one wrestler on a team that is good. They usually come in atleast a pair if not more. Why? Because steel sharpens steel. Good job!

Kolat - Back Flip

Here is a clip of one of the greatest. This is not the way to counter for everyone but it is impressive to see Kolat back flip, and score in such a funky manner.



We have some down time here during the day. Our guys are getting ready to hit the road and wrestler up at the Great Plains in Waterloo. I have to finish up some work and then I will go up tommorow to watch them and the high schoolers.
I have my USA Coaches card but I can't get into the corner. Thats fine with me, I will just enjoy watching the best guys in the country compete and take notes on what they are doing so that we can consider bringing it back here.
Good luck to the Dutch Wrestlers as they head up there. I am proud to see that they have made a commitment to year round training and while I can't coach them I want the to know that I appreciate everything they are doing to get better. It wasn't long ago that I was a mat rat, just tryingto get as many matches as I could and learn as much as I could.
One final note. I want to congratulate Nate Engel. Last weekend he won University Nationals in Greco and he graduates from Missouri Valley College this weekend!

Gardner over Karelin

This is the video of what many people believe to be one of the greatest upsets in the history of Olympic Competition. An unknown American, sets a goal, beats a guy that many considered the best heavyweight Greco wrestler in US history, and goes to the Olympics with a goal to do what no one says he can.
Gardner over Karelin

NCAA Highlights

The thing about Champions is that they succeed in spite of circumstances. A lot of people can give you reasons why you can't do something but not as many can ever, or will ever give you reasons why you can. Coaches are usually the ones that can tell you why you can. People told Mark Cody that he wouldn't win at American University, Brian Smith was told the same thing at Mizzou, Tom Ryan at Hofstra, J Robinson at UM. But they didn't listen. Who would have ever thought that some of those programs would become as great as they have?
The moral of this is NO ONE! NO ONE, has a corner on the market when it comes to achievement. Each year we see champions crowned who know one would think could win. I am excited by the guys that have committed to us here at Central because they all believe in themselves and believe that we can win!
People thought Dan Gable would never lose. People thought no one could stop Iowa from winning TEN NCAA Championships in a row, no one thought Rulon Gardner could beat Karelin and in the end.... The truth came out, No one, No one owns success. There were times people thought Ford would always be the world's largest auto maker, IBM would be the only computer company, and Lance Armstrong would never recover from cancer.
Seeing this every year is exciting to me because I have thought that we can win at Central since I came to interview and I want to start winning soon.
Here are the highlights of the last two NCAA tournaments, look at how many top seeds go down, look at the matches that are won by the guys that want it more. That is the fire and desire I love to see on the mat and it is an important key to winning!

2007 NCAA Finals Highlights


2006 NCAA Finals Highlights


Gable V. Owings
Just to illustrate my point that no one owns achievement

Mean Gene the Pinning Machine!

There are some moves taht I think are keys for an athlete to master in this sport of wrestling. I think that a front head lock is up there but I also think the sweep single is as well. A lot of takedowns are about made effective by the angles you create.
Here is Gene Mills teaching his version! It is about 20 years old and it is still great...

This week: Strength Training, Wrestling, New Web Site

I have been doing a lot of recruiting over the last couple of weeks. For us here at Central we have struggled in the past to attract some of the top talent but things are starting to turn around. There is a unique opportunity here and that opportunity is apparent in the people around us.

Anyway, I am going to be starting my own website. At the moment it is an incomplete project but over time I will get a better idea of where I want to go with it. I know I want it to be more then most of the other sites out there but, there is no way I can devote hours to it per day.

http://www.CarrWrestling.com will be up soon! So start checking it.

This week’s article is going to give you a good look at a strength training program. There are programs out there that are great and some that are not but nothing is worth anything if you don’t get it done. One-hundred years ago wrestlers trained by doing farm work and guess what… It worked pretty well. With all of our great technology and science it is not worth anything if we don’t put it into practice. The Polio vaccine only works if your get the shot. A training program only works if you follow it.

The first program I will post will be a normal weight program from the Central Strength Coaches. I will later supplement it with some more functional training ideas. If you ever go to Europe you will see that they do a lot of gymnastics. What most strength coaches don’t understand is wrestling is more like gymnastics then football. Muscle will help but if you can’t change levels it isn’t worth anything.

Look out for that on Thursday.

New Head Coach @ Central

Van Kley to Lead Dutch

Form: http://www.central.edu/athletics/wrestling/archive/042307.htm

PELLA —Eric Van Kley, who started the wrestling program at the University of Great Falls (Mont.) in 2004 and turned it into an NAIA title contender, has been named the head wrestling coach at Central College.

Van Kley, who also became the Great Falls athletics director in 2006, replaces Eric Reed , who resigned after three seasons at Central.

“The potential of the wrestling program at Central is what attracted me,” Van Kley said. “As I looked at the landscape, the outstanding quality of the athletic department and Central as a whole is extremely impressive. There are several strong athletic programs and a very proud tradition with Dutch athletics. Being able to join that is something that excites me.”

A Rock Valley, Iowa native, Van Kley is an honors graduate of Minnesota State-Mankato where he was a three-time letterwinner for the NCAA Division II program. He served as captain for the 2000 team which placed sixth at the national meet and was a two-time Scholastic All-America honoree, while receiving the team's Maverick Achievement Award. Van Kley is completing a master's degree from Duquesne University ( Pa. ).

After three seasons as assistant wrestling coach at The Dalles High School in Oregon , he spent a year as assistant coach for Division I Millersville University ( Pa. ) while also serving as Leadership Program Coordinator for the National Wrestling Coaches Association. He worked with a Millersville squad that won the Eastern Regional dual meet title and placed second at the Virginia Duals.

At Great Falls Van Kley recruited a team with 45 athletes this past season. He compiled a 28-13 dual meet record over three seasons. His wrestlers earned NAIA all-America distinction 13 times with three top-10 national team finishes. In 2006-07 the Argos won the West Region championship and finished sixth at the NAIA national tournament. Van Kley was named the NAIA West Region coach of the year. His 2005-06 team received NAIA Top 10 academic distinction.

“Eric has all the qualities we were looking for in a leader for our wrestling program,” athletics director Al Dorenkamp said. “He's done a great job of starting a program from scratch, he's proven he's a great recruiter and he fits in with the mission and values of Central College .”

Great Falls met Central in the Desert Duals at Las Vegas , Nev. Dec. 19 and defeated the

Dutch 46-3. The squad Van Kley inherits at Central posted a 0-18 dual record and had nine underclassmen on the roster—all freshmen. But the Dutch are not strangers to wrestling success, with 10 top-20 NCAA Division III team finishes, including a second-place showing in 1983-84, four NCAA individual titles and four Iowa Conference team championships. Central wrestlers have received all-America honors 42 times.

Since 2005 Van Kley was also the Team Montana Junior and Cadet National Team Director, supervising a residential training camp with more than 100 wrestlers and a staff of 25 coaches and counselors. He was also elected as a board member for Montana USA Wrestling.

Van Kley said it's difficult to leave Great Falls .

“Any time you have such a great group of guys and a quality staff, it's tough to leave,” he said. “But the kids understood. It hurts, however they know the decision was for the right reasons and that the University of Great Falls program has a terrific future ahead.”

As the Great Falls athletics director he oversaw an 11-sport program and was named the university's staff employee of the year in 2006.

“Obviously in serving as athletics director as well, he knows about marketing and promotion,” Dorenkamp said. “We wanted someone with strong people skills who could recruit and promote the program and Eric fits that description. We're really excited about having Eric at Central.”

Van Kley is anxious to get started.

“The first thing we need to do is work on recruiting and building up the numbers,” Van Kley said. “We want to attract quality student-athletes who will be a good fit at Central College . More than anything, that just takes long hours and hard work.”

Van Kley and his wife Sarah, also an Iowa native, are the parents of a son, Jackson, born last summer.

Buckeyes Got Talent

As the week is wrapping up I want to share a great video with you. The Ohio State Wrestling Team has been getting a lot of press because of their talent show performance at the inaugural “Buckeyes Got Talent” event. The event is designed to raise money for local charities and the guys decided to do a dance skit.

Imagine how great they have to be feeling! 10^th in the NCAA, win a talent show that raised money for the Boys and Girls Club and make the news.

Beyond that this is great press for wrestling they are getting a lot of press for their team and showing that being a Buckeye Wrestler is something that people want to be part of. It is better then the NFL suspending a bunch of guys for their legal issues.

Anyway, here are the videos. Enjoy!

Buckeyes Got Talent Show


Columbus News


I have decided that I will at least post 1 time a week on Thursday afternoon or Friday morning. I may post more but that will be the regular update time from now on.

ViVa LaS VeGaS

I just got home from the US Championships on Monday. I am excited that I have four friends that did well in this event. Over the next few days I will be updating you on what is going on and what I liked and did not like. As with ANY USA Wrestling event there are some things that need improvement.
FILA has made some changes to the rule but the US Officials need, no MUST, start to look at the Leg Clinch differently. This crap with a point being awarded whenever the defensive guys butt hits the mat has to stop. We would not award a takedown then any other time in the match. The point of all of this is to increase action and scoring so let the guys actually wrestle and let them attempt to counter the shot. From what I have seen that is the way it is working in the international community and that is how our refs should be doing it.
I have no idea how Sam Hazelwinkle did not get seeded. Anyone? He was 3rd last year, was an NCAA runner up this year and from all I can see is that the idiotic politics that caused the sport to get ripped apart back in the late 70s are rising again. We have matches getting tanked at International events for gambling money and we have USA Wrestling splitting into factions. I don't know the entire story but if the rumors are true someone at USA Wrestling better get their heads out of the sand and get everyone on the same page. The point of the event is to put the best guy at the top of the podium not clubs and organizations and training centers battling each other. I was happy that when Sam won the event he got ellected outstanding wrestler. He is a class act and is one of the things that is right with wrestling.
Now, On to life here at Central. I really worry that higher education is going back to being overly elitist. Great facilities and all of that make for great brochures. But, I think we are playing a dangerous game of keeping up with the Jones'es and then ask middle class America to give up half their family income per year for it.
The answers are not easy for me. I believe very much in the student loan program as an investment in you and your future. But, I don't like that the loans come with an interest rate. There are many things we as a country are wasting money on that we should probably evaluate and reduce. The cost of managing our goverment is huge. If we took some of that money we are spending on bombs in Iraq and invested it in science we could probably achieve some much better things.

Other thoughts. I really realized how important the Iowa Conference is to wrestling this weekend. Mike Duroe was coaching athletes, Jim Miller was there reporting on the event and coaching Blake Gillis, and I was there cheering but also doing what I can to stay involved in wrestling at the top level. There were 5 Iowa Conference Coaches that I saw. Behind the Big 10 and Big 12... Came the Iowa Conference. Next time someone tells you "they are only D3" ask them how many of their conference coaches worked at this event?



Rowlands after beatimg Conrad

Central Videos

Take a look at these great videos of Central College. They give you an idea of what fun it is to compete here and to be part of the rich athletic tradition.



This next one gives a good overview of the school and what goes on around here. The creators took a stuffed animal around campus for a tour. Interesting... I like it!

A Great Story

There is a web site that has the best posts from Craig's list. Usually they just are rants about people or sarcastic attacks but every now and then there is a motivational one. I found this one that illustrates the importance of education.
Nothing, can improve your place in the world like additional education. Yes, there are some advanced degrees that do not pay off as well as others but education can take you places. They open the doors and then it is up to you. Get an education and work hard to achieve great things... On and off the mat.

From a Welfare Kid

---

Date: 2007-02-11, 12:52AM AKST


Over the past couple of months, I have noticed many, many posts concerning white trash and welfare people.

I am a welfare kid. Oldest of 5 children, mother has a 9th grade education. She married my father at 15 (he was 21), had me a year later at age 16, and so forth. Father has an 8th grade education. Dear dad took off after 10 years of marriage - have heard I have several unknown siblings out there somewhere. No, he never once paid a penny of child support. He just left.

Mom's family is from Missouri - you guessed it, trailer parks, shacks, too many people stuffed into small houses with too many animals, bugs and parasites. We were the runny-nosed kids in worn-out clothes people looked down on to make themselves feel better.

After dear dad took off, mom supported us by working in various nursing homes as a nurse's aid or as a laundry person. Other jobs she had were motel maid, waitress, phone sales, cleaning taverns after closing, etc.

We have been homeless, living in a borrowed car, eating at missions when we were in larger towns/cities. Oh, did I mention the places we lived? Before I was 18, we lived in Missouri, Okalahoma, Kansas, Arkansas, California, Utah, South Dakota and Oregon. We rarely spent more than 6 months in the same place, same school district, usually it was a completely different town.

We stood in the free cheese lines, went to the church clothes closets, accepted the Thanksgiving and Christmas kindnesses of strangers with as much dignity as possible. We endured sermons from all the different churches that my mom tried to get help from. Rarely did the help come.

Did we like it? Not a danged minute of it. The sympathetic looks from the do-gooders who pretended to care. Those who expected us to fall at their feet because they brought us a turkey.

Am I grateful? Yes. To my mother. She found ways to feed us when there was no food. When I was a bitchy teenager refusing to stoop so low as to "go begging" as I called it, she went alone or with one of my brothers. I was ashamed that we were so poor. Teenagers hate being different, no matter what they tell you.

As a young teen, I babysat for money to buy a pair of "cool" jeans so I could be something like the other kids. I wore that stupid pair of jeans until they wore out and then bought another pair.

The people I remember most from childhood are those who looked upon us as people and not a cause. Those who sat with us, laughed with us, just talked with us. Those who looked beyond the ragged clothing and to the people we were. My brothers were unruly at times - guess what, mom was tired. She didn't always have the energy to do it all.

Mom made sure we could all read, spell and write well. She knew we would be judged by that. She also made sure we had books no matter where we were. libraries are free. Those books became escapes from lives we could not deal with sometimes.

All but one of us dropped out of high school. With the moving around, it was almost impossible. We received GEDs instead.

Today, all we kids are grown. I am completing my Bachelors. My sister has almost completed her Masters. My three brothers work as a computer tech, sheetrock hauler and a med aide in a nursing home. I don't have children but my siblings have given me nine wonderful nephews and nieces.
Growing up, we learned early on that all we really had was one another. We currently all live within 5 miles of one another. When I count my best friends, I count my brothers and sister first.

We live far away from my mother's family. They are the very definition of dysfuntion. Not good people to be around in any situation.

I'm not sure how it happened, but none of us were ever in jail, ever addicted to anything more than nicotine. According to some statistics and to most people's prejudice on this board, we should all be white trash meth addicts.

For those of you who look down upon those little kids with hungry eyes and brave faces, reach out to them instead of judging. It can really make a difference.

Thanks for reading.

Every Wrestlers Last Match

As the season ends I wanted to share a great story about wrestling.

Every Wrestler's Last Match
By James Emig
James Emig was a state tournament qualifier heavyweight in 1975 from Cincinnati Greenhill High School. He has worked at 12 Ohio High School Athletic Association State Championships. He has seven years of coaching experience as a Junior and Senior High wrestling coach a Finneytown and St. Xavier High Schools. He has served as tournament manager of the Cincinnati division I sectional at St. Xavier high school.

This article appeared in the program for the 1993 Ohio State Wrestling Championships.
There comes a time when every wrestler realizes his competitive career is over. Exactly when that moment occurs varies for every wrestler. For some, that realization takes place in advance of their last match; those wrestlers walk out onto the mat knowing it ends after that match. Others get caught up in the race for the top and don’t really want to think about what may be their last match. It is difficult to put an end to something to which you have given so much of yourself. However, sooner or later, every wrestler grasps the reality that he has wrestled his last match, and for many, it will happen this weekend.

Looking through the stands and in the corridors of the arena at the state championships each year, you will see wrestlers whose careers are over. Sometimes you’ll see a mother, sister, wrestlerette or girlfriend crying while holding him; a father looking out onto the arena floor, silently thinking about what could have been. Behind every wrestler are many others who quietly, deep within themselves, wrestle right along side him. They feel the joy of victory and the pain of defeat as if it was their own. When his career ends, much of the anguish they feel is because it is also the end of something that has meant very much to them.

It is a long, difficult road from those very first matches, marked by many defeats, to the state championships. Somewhere in between, childhood ends. Games are no longer important and boys become men. Fortunate parents witness this beautiful transition. It is not without a great deal of pain and sacrifice for the wrestlers and families alike. For most wrestler, qualifying for the Ohio State Championships represents the single greatest achievement in their young lives. For all wrestlers, qualifying represents an experience they will never forget.

No one knows what drives these young men and coaches to work so hard and sacrifice so much. The rewards come from within. This sport of wrestling brings winning and losing together such that the combination means self-improvement. This is the real reward. One wrestler can’t improve without the efforts of another. The champions owe a debt to the wrestlers they have wrestled and beaten. All wrestler who finish behind the champions owe a debt to the champs because they have improved from the experience. Collectively, we all owe a debt to this great sport because we have all been touched by our involvement.

Six hundred and twenty-four wrestlers enter this tournament each year with the dream of winning that final match. A dream, however, only thirty-nine will realize. To those wrestlers who wrestle their last match this weekend, congratulations to you, no matter where you place. The reality is, there are no losers in the sport of wrestling; there are only those who did not wrestle.

To The Mat

I want to go back to my mental toughness article

I have had some recent frustrations in my life and I have had some great help. The thing about mental toughness is that you sometimes can get caught up in the attack and just keep pounding away. Psychologist Abraham Maslow wrote, “If the only tool you have is a hammer, then every problem begins to look like a nail”. We have to remember that we have so many more tools and stay positive as we go through our tool box to find the one that best fits our needs.

It is something I have to remember. I have gotten frustrated in matches and just kept trying to chip away with a snap down and a double. When switching to a throw by and a single would have been a much more effective strategy.

The same goes with life. If one strategy is not working then you need to step back and re-examine the problem and go back to it. I know I need to be less rigid and adapt more some as well.

Now, on to takedowns!

In wrestling you can see your moves as a sentence (I stole that from my coach Matt Furey), meaning that when you go to use a takedown you must go from set up, to takedown to finish. Think “to the mat”.

TO – This is going to mean the set up. Whether you are pulling the guys head down, throwing an under hook or using a Russian. The “to” is the set up.

THE – This is the combined components of the penetration step, knee pound, and drive. Whether it is a high crotch or a single you always have to penetrate your opponents defenses.

MAT – This is the finish. I would encourage anyone that is strong enough to pick the guy up to do so (just make sure you put him down safely). There are many reasons but most of all if you are not a good scrambler then you take away the chances that he can counter you with some funk.

OK so there is the formula. I am sure many of you are wondering why I have a coaching license now because that is almost to simple… I wonder why USA Wrestling gave me a certification too! But, we are going to use that statement (to the mat) to practice.

When you get your partner in the off season and you drill you need to start with the “TO” Hand fight, set up, move your opponent. These are often the most overlooked skills in wrestling. Getting past your opponents defense is 90% of the battle against most guys.

After you have spent some time on the “TO” move on to the “THE” Get the mechanics of your penetration step and drive finished.

A good tip here comes from kick boxing. I signed up for kick boxing once and when I was frustrated the when I hit someone it didn’t seem to have as much impact as others I asked our instructor (Basil) why. Basil, punched me 2 times. The 1^st time when he hit me he aimed to hit me right at my arm. The 2nd time he blasted me and it was a lot less enjoyable then before. The difference as he explained it was the 1^st time he aimed just to make contact with my arm. The next time he aimed to make contact with my ribs. He was punching 6 inches behind my arm. I don’t suggest you go try that on your little brother but when you shoot your take down try to imagine penetrating 6 inches behind your opponent so you knock them off balance. You will understand what I am saying without getting in trouble.

After you get to where you can knock someone off balance with the your prenetraion we get to the final point which is the finish. There are 3 categories that I think finishes fall in.

I am going to use some construction terms.

1. Nail – Hit them hard and keep going through them. Like a blast double.

2. Screw – Turn and twist so that you start to collapse their joints and drag them to the mat.

3. Lift – If you pick your opponent up how can he counter you unless he can get his feet back on the mat? This opens up a great opportunity to score if you can put him down within the no slam rule.

When you practice you want to practice all of these and figure out what works best for you. I was never good at picking someone up (although I agree it is the most successful) but it doesn’t match the tools I was given.

The main point being there are options as you put together your sentence and you need ot find out what way it works best for your given set of tools.

Now, get out there and get on the mat. If you can’t find a mat then find some sand!

By the way the Beach Wrestling Nationals are in New Jersey this June. If you want to enjoy the sun, surf, and wrestling you have need to get out there and try it.

What could be better? Wrestling, Sun, Nathan's famous hot dogs, Sand... I just worry about the seagulls!

If you deliberately plan on being less than you are capable of being, then I warn you that you'll be unhappy for the rest of your life.

- Abraham Maslow

Mental Toughness

Last year I wrote an article that was published in a Coaching Magazine on ideas that will help build leaders on a wrestling team. (You can find it at WrestlingAssistant.com). I am back to writing for them as I have time. Here is a short article on Mental Toughness, Psychologist call it resiliency whatever you call it though it is a key part of being a winning wrestler.

Constantly coaches complain of a lack of mental toughness in the young athletes today. I want to give you an example of what mental toughness is in my opinion from the greatest sport known to man… Wrestling!

But first, I am going to steal something from two basketball coaches. First, being Jim Burson. I would bet none of you but the most hardcore basketball fans will know who he is. If you love basketball or ever want to coach BBall you should learn about him and his Princeton Offense system. Anyway, when I he gave a guest speech to our team and the one thing that stuck out in my mind is his final quote. “No amount of weight lifted or technique will ever overcome a lack of mental toughness”

So what does that mean. We all have days when our best is not good enough, when a weight that was easy last time we lifted is hard, when we study our butts off and we still fail a test, when everything we try will not work, and when the pressure is huge. These are the times that mental toughness shines.

Next I am going to steal from a BBall coach that you have heard of Pat Riley. He is famous for asking his players to always think. “W.I.N.” Of course all coaches want their players to think win… Winning is the point right? WIN means What’s Important Now. Meaning, there are a lot of things that you have to pay attention to in your life. Not all of them will help you WIN. You can think about your girlfriend, about how much fun you could be having at a bar, about how much you miss your friends at home or you can focus on the things that will get you to your goals.

Now for my example, I spent a year as a high school coach just after graduating college and we had a 119 pounder who as a freshman was pushed into the line up by an injury to the starter. As the match started it showed to be pretty easy for his opponent to take him down and the first period ended with him bridging off his back down by 5. The second period the same bridging position came to be our move at the end of the period, then the 3^rd period and it looked to be much of the same thing. Towards the end of the match I stood up to give some words of encouragement to our next wrestler. As I started to talk our guy down by 12 points hit a lateral throw. I was a little surprised but with 15 seconds left I knew we couldn’t win on points and then the ref slapped the mat. For 5 minutes and forty-five seconds everyone in that gym, every teammate, and even the coaches thought he couldn’t win. For that amount of time our guy couldn’t believe and when it looked like he had stopped trying he decided to try one more time. When no one else believed, he gave it one more shot and he won. That is mental toughness, what is important now, not getting distracted, giving up, not listening to those who don’t believe and not quitting. We all lose, we all face adversity, we all fail. As a coach I hate win – loss records because we give them to much credence. It is just a horrible way to look at things because it can discourage people from trying. What matters in life is often how far you go. I cannot run a race as fast as Carl Lewis but that shouldn’t stop me from trying to finish. I cannot bench press as much as Jake Anderson but that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t go into the weight room.

We are at an impasse here as a team. But, that doesn’t mean that we need to sit still and see who will be here next year before we begin to prepare for next season. We have all been dealt a hand and now it is our responsibility to play it to the best of our ability.

GET AFTER IT!

I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.

- Michael Jordan

New Developments

Our head coach has announced he will be leaving Central for several reasons at the end of this year and our Athletic Director has asked me to take over the task of recruiting. I think I am prepared but I need to have a lot of meetings in the next few days and see how I can best approach this. I am committed to be at Central and I really do enjoy it here. I went Snowboarding last week and that was a good escape and having a slope about an hour away is something i wish I knew earlier. I will be taking advantage of that more!
I have also been out fishing on Lake Red Rocks. I have to admit that I hate the cold and the wind so I am not sure that is for me. All I really caught was a fish the size of a sardine. I may just wait for the warm weather to get here before I go back out on the lake.
Back to recruiting... It is still a new thing to me but I want to put us in the place that we can best win.
This is also something that I want to cover for wrestlers. When you practice, when you drill, when you lift, and when you run you need to keep in mind that the point is to put yourself in the best position to win that you can.
What does that mean? When you go out on the mat the preparation you have put in will show but only if you go out and aggressively go after your wins. Scoring first, building riding time, pushing for back points and building your lead are all ways to put yourself in the best position to win.
In recruiting I will put us in the best position possible by continuing to build relationships and working to recruit the best wrestlers. A Central degree can open many doors for you but you still have to prepare yourself. Our faculty do an outstanding job of motivating students to prepare themselves and building the knowledge they need to move on in life.
With the wrestlers we are going to do a better job of providing the training and resources they need to improve and become leaders. The games do matter and it bothers me when people attack the usefulness of an athletic program as successful as Centrals but, we always keep an eye on taking care of our athletes so they can be better people, better students, and better athletes (listed in order of importance). There are coaches that will tell people anything to get them to a school, I tend to be bluntly honest and I hope that the athletes will respect that I am being honest but that things are on the way up!

Coming up is my take on Mental Toughness…

Carver Hawkeye Arena

Carver Hawkeye Arena

I wanted to write about something that I have been looking forward to for about a month. I went to the Ohio State / Iowa Dual last night at Carver Hawkeye. The weather was horrible but the wrestling was fairly good. Both teams are working to get better and make an impact. Both head coaches wrestled for Gable. It made for an interesting match. But the Hawks ran away with it.

It was good to get to catch up with the OSU guys I can’t tell you how much I respect them and getting to work with them at the Buckeye Club was one of the greatest experiences I have had. I fully support Coach Ryan’s mission to build a Regional Olympic Training Center in Columbus. They will be able to attract the best wrestlers on the east coast to a great city, provide them outstanding coaching, and the talent pool is so deep in Ohio and Western Pennsylvania that I would imagine a lot of guys will be like Joe Heskett and look to return and be closer to their homes.

The good thing about catching up with Joe, Tom, and Ross is that those guys are some of the people that I respect most as coaches. Listening to Tom Ryan talk about the adversity he has gone through and how it has been a positive force to make an impact on the lives of young athletes is incredible. Joe Heskett is one of the best wrestlers to ever come out of Cleveland and his faith in god is an inspiration for anyone that has ever struggled with faith. Joe walks what he talks! The same goes for Ross Thatcher. Ross is like me and he doesn’t pull his punches but he works hard to prepare his athletes and he is honest with them as they develop.

I also got the chance to catch up with Ken Chertow. I really respect Ken because he has put together some great camps and built an organization that is focused on providing services that help wrestlers reach their goals.

I had the great chance to sit on the floor at the start of the dual. It was something I never thought would happen. That is a dream come true for a lot of people. If you can’t wrestle in Carver Hawkeye sitting on a team bench is an exciting opportunity. So, if you watch the tape I am sitting in the row of chairs just behind the bench wearing my Central Wrestling Sweatshirt!

The dual also reminded me of one of the principles of coaching. That is the need for bonus points. Wrestling is unique because a win is not just a win. Winning by 8, 15, or pin can provide your team with the points to go ahead. A pin is worth as much as two decisions. In matches where you are closely matched against the other team the team leaders have to push to get bonus points to help their team win. Make sure you put yourself in the best position to win and then move forward and wrestle tough the entire match and if you can get the bonus you are helping the team.

On the same note, if you are losing it is important that you keep the match close. I have always believed that winning and losing are determined by preparation but how you lose is a matter of pride and desire for your team. If you are getting beat by 7 then you have to avoid giving up one more so you can save that point for your team. The same with getting teched or pinned how you lose is for your team so put up that fight.

After the match Tom Ryan snuck me backstage and showed me the Iowa Wrestling Room. That is one of the shrines to the sport. Think about the names that have trained there! Brands, Lewis, Banach, DeAnna, and the list goes on and on! It was just amazing how sweat and blood has been dedicated to winning in that room. On the way out Matt Fields stepped on my foot. He was very nice about it but I for sure wasn’t going to get mad at him. He is one big dude!

I took some pictures and I will post them as soon as I can. Keep checking back.

Welcome

Greetings from Pella, Iowa.
I am setting up this blog as we finish our season and begging off season preparation and training. I will be covering my experiences as a coach and writing about the sport and how to prepare and train as well as cover my experiences as I hit the road to recruit.

The Dutch have a lot of work to do but the future is bright here and our alumni and administration has reaffirmed their commitment to seeing the Dutch get back into the mix of the top teams in the country.

We have a great tradition at Central going back over 30 years, All Americans, National Champions, and Olympians. More importantly Central’s alumni have moved on to become teachers, doctors, entrepreneurs, and leaders. When I agreed to come to Central I left a promising program where I worked to help develop some of the best young wrestlers in Ohio and Pennsylvania. I did not get a raise to come to Central, nor did I get any perks but I got the chance to be part of a team that has developed some of the best leaders in the country.

Please be patient with me as I go through things here. I will be honest and cover the best aspects of the sport that I can but the is the time of the year that leaves us coaches biting our nails and tossing and turning at night because we are out recruiting hard to provide our teams the athletes we need and prepare our guys to begin using their summers to improve.

What will I be covering? I’ll cover most of my life as a coach. I will dip into technique, sports psychology, exercise science, and team development. I will get into a lot of philosophy and the such so if you are a wrestler that wants to get better just worry about what you can do today to improve. Don’t worry about peaking, periodization, team development or any of that. Leave it to us old guys! You just worry about getting onto the mat and putting the theory into practice, drilling, and wrestling.

Yours in wrestling,

TC