Peak Wrestling for the Home Stretch (from Feb. 2008)

The most important part of the season is fast approaching. In the very near future, we will be wrestling our qualifiers and state tournaments. How do you prepare to give your best performance?

First - do the right things. Get plenty of sleep. Eat the right foods and drink the right drinks - meaning, get the right mix of protein and carbs, lower fat content - avoid sweets and other empty calories. Also avoid caffeine and high sugar drinks, such as colas. At all costs, avoid skipping meals, meaning - keep your weight under control! Don't balloon up on weekends so you have to crash down during the week. That kind of pattern wears down your body, and your immune system, leaving you more vulnerable to illness and injury. Next - wash hands. It may seem simple enough, but washing hands is one of the most important things you can do to prevent illness. Finally - take showers after you work out. And I'm not referring to going home and showering sometime that night - take your shower in your locker room, after practice, Before you go home. One of the best ways to prevent skin infections is to shower immediately following a workout.

As for the wrestling aspect of things - Do the extra things. Run extra to increase your wind capacity. Go to the wrestling clubs for extra training. Remember, ordinary wrestlers work out during practice every day. Extraordinary wrestlers go the extra mile. Technically - as I mentioned last month, you have to focus on your short offense and short defense, and shot finishes. Also get into scramble situations and wrestle out of them. Do it safely, have the 'tap rule' if someone gets into a potentially dangerous position, but winning at the highest level is going to involve being able to win the scrambles. Focus on some key scrambles and get into those positions a lot. One of those positions is the crackdown position, or sit-and-scoot. Be sure you have your offense down when a guy sits, and work it over and over again.


In the Athletes' newsletter, we emphasized the following things: Do the right things, such as getting enough sleep, eating the right foods and drinking the right drinks. We also encouraged them to avoid skipping meals, and keep their weight under control so they don't deal with that large bounce every week. Also, practice good hygiene - wash hands, and take showers right after practice instead of waiting until they go home. From a coach's perspective, these are good things to remind your kids. You should also conduct regular skin checks, so you catch any skin problem early, and also regular weigh-ins and weigh-outs, to head off any problems with weight control that may crop up. At this point in the year, we emphasize shot finishing, scramble positions, and short offense and short defense. We like short, intense periods and we like situation wrestling. Make sure we win from these critical positions. A big point, though - have a 'tap rule', which allows either wrestler to tap out of a potentially dangerous situation. Make sure all wrestlers abide by this. Reduce injuries at this point! From a training perspective, we like to shorten the practice time - get in, work hard and be intense, and get out. Another practice, such as an early morning run, is good if it is feasible. Also, get them going to wrestling clubs to get that extra mat time, but also encourage some down time so they have fresh legs.

Second Half Wrestling: Key positions to work on down the stretch. (from Jan. 2008)

As we get later in the year, we start focusing on things such as short offense and short defense, shot finishes, and other key situations. Short Offense is simply scoring off the opponent's shot. Be able to score with Front Headlocks, Snap & Spins, and other go behind methods. Also, be able to counterattack, shooting immediately after countering your opponent's shot. Being good at Short Defense means not giving up points off your own shot, or anytime you get underneath your opponent. The Front Headlock Counter Drill that we employ in our training, is a perfect example. When you get stuck down there, you do one of several things: 1. Get a hold of something - leg, hand, wrist; or, 2. Circle to your feet. If your opponent is attempting a front headlock, you want his hand, or you want a hand and an elbow. If he is trying to spin, grab a leg, granby as he goes around your waist, or spin to your feet. For younger wrestlers (and sometimes older athletes too), you have to be able to counter the underhook to a pancake, and Cement Mixer. It is easy to counter but an essential skill to have. Shot finishes should be emphasized from the following positions: single down on the mat, single up in the air, high crotch position, and crackdown offense and defense positions.

How to Keep your Team Moving: Pace in the Wrestling Room (from Sep. 2006)

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.

Speed Drilling (bonus article)

We use speed drilling in order to reinforce technique we have been teaching. Speed Drilling is giving athletes a set amount of time to hit a specific technique we have been teaching. Generally, I will have the athlete drill anywhere from 15 seconds to a minute, and get as many GOOD reps as he can get. This is done after the first stages of learning the technique: Show it, break it down into steps and walk through it. After I feel that they have a grasp for the technique, I will go into speed drilling. A lot of the time, I will have one athlete (#1 man) go through all the steps before doing so with #2 man.

Now - when I go through the speed drill, I don't take questions and I don't correct. I do observe the athletes drilling, and take mental notes of how the group is doing as a whole, who has it down, and who is struggling with it. At this point - if the group as a whole just doesn't get it, or isn't doing well with it, I bring them in and re-emphasize some main points again. Sometimes, I will have the group drill a smaller part of the technique, as opposed to all of it, and then go back and drill the whole thing again. I also keep in mind during this process that they are going to see the technique again. I do not expect the whole group to get it down the first time, nor will I slow down the training until everyone gets it. Most of the technique taught ends up as a speed drill at some point in the camp, which is an essential part of the training, and why my training camps are so effective. What is taught, is learned. You keep coming back to it and drilling it so you learn it.

Another key point about speed drilling - the 'dummy' has to be a good partner and be ready for the next rep when the guy hitting it is ready. Reps should come rapid-fire. I have a 3 second, or 5 second rule (depending on the particular drill) - that's how long it should take from the end of one repetition to the beginning of the next. I will generally make a point to stop the entire group once or twice (or more if needed) to re-emphasize this point, demonstrate the drilling technique again, etc., and then restart them.

Preparing for State (from March 2007)

A couple of suggestions for preparing the team for state: First, short but intense workouts early in the week. Lots of situation wrestling and scrambling. Also important, though, is to tell athletes to break all potentially dangerous situations. No injuries this week! Later in the week, taper off, keep the weight low, motivate the athletes. Some of the above points in the technique section are important - have your athletes mentally ready as well as physically. Encourage them to wrestle with confidence and Impose Their Will in matches - make those matches go their way.

Body Fat Assessment advice (bonus article)

Ohio has, for the first time, gone to body fat assessments, which can greatly alter your team's starting lineup. The unfortunate fact of the matter is, while some athletes will be benefitted, others will be put in a very tough situation. Some kids weighing 112.2 lbs will end up being 119lbers, while others will come down from 130 or more and still qualify for 119.
Point #1: Coaches - I implore you to be present during the process if at all possible, especially during the weigh-in procedure. If you have an athlete who is already lean, possibly below his 7% naturally (there are a lot of them out there), and his weight is going to be close to his desired weight class - make sure he strips down for weigh-ins. Despite some confusion on this point, the athletes can weigh in stripped down, without shirts and shorts. Don't let a misinformed assessor tell you differently. If parties are present who could be offended by his weigh-in, they can step out of the room until he's done.
Point #2: Some athletes may think they will have an advantage by working out prior to the alpha testing (a prohibited practice). Some internet websites have even endorsed this. While some athletes will benefit from this, though, others will be hurt by it. Athletes who may benefit would be those who are going to weigh in under their preferred alpha weight, meaning the body fat level for them will not matter. Those who will be hurt by it are those whose body fat level is above the 7%, and they will not be weighing in under their alpha weight. Here's why: when you work out, your skin tends to tighten up. If you work out prior to being measured with the calipers, your body fat test will show you to be leaner than it would have, had you not worked out. Be aware of this if you are going to use this method. Let me clarify that I do not encourage you in any way to "cheat" the test - so I can't endorse doing this. But if you choose to, know what the results can be.

Additional Articles - Page Two