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Pace in the Wrestling Room (Sep 2006) |
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How to Keep your Team Moving: Pace in the Wrestling Room
Here's an issue we've all dealt with: How do you teach to a group of athletes with varying experience levels, and get the younger athletes to pick it up quickly enough while also not bogging down the veterans who already know the material?
Obviously, a best case scenario, if possible, is to split the room, but if that isn't feasible, you have to settle on a happy medium. First, the learning pattern I outlined in an earlier newsletter, works well for keeping a good pace. Second, don't be a perfectionist. Accept that not all the athletes are going to get it down the first practice - or even the second. In future workouts, your technique you taught will become a timed drill. Eventually, your athletes will pick it up through repetition.
Next - kids who ask questions can slow down the pace of the practice. While you certainly want to answer questions and help your athletes, there is such a thing as the right time to ask questions. During a live drill, for instance - Not the time for a question on technique. The same can be said for the speed-drill portion of the program. The walk-around time, when you have given athletes some time to work on the technique, is a good time for questions.
Sometimes, an ill-timed question can be best answered with a "see me during the water break", when you have some one on one time with the athlete. This will also tend to weed out the questions asked with the intention of slowing down the room (yes, we all have some of these kids, don't we?).
If you have a set time for live and for conditioning, make sure your technique and drilling time doesn't cut into this. Set an alarm clock to go off a few minutes (possibly 5) before this time, so you know it's time to wrap it up. If you don't get all your technique in, you can probably pick it up another day, but you probably don't want to be sacrificing your live and conditioning to squeeze in another drill.
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