practice updates and principles

Open practice and parents meeting:

We had an open practice after only 2 days of prior practice on Oct 6^th and we had a great turnout. My guess is a solid 60- people were there for the duration and many others coming in and out since it was home coming. We mixed drilling and working on basic skills for our warm-up. We stress always getting a full fledge sweat before we do anything physical. It is a controllable mistake of not being properly warm / sweating before even drilling. After drilling you should be soaked before you ever wrestle live. We also try to emphasize a soaked shirt prior to our weight lifting. But it is taking time for the guys to buy into this. Getting a good sweat is not about a bunch of clothes on; it’s about getting your heart rate up. This was / is uncommon for most of the guys, so it is taking some getting use to.

We are trying to get guys to lift like a “mad man” whether a coach is present or not. We are striving to get where guys only know one speed that is (all out). Many guys, unless they have been exposed to real wrestling lifting, lift like they are in a health club; it’s not their fault, they just plain don’t know. In all you benefit most in our sport from lifting like a cave man. It is not so much about technique as it is about exploding and moving heavy metal in constant repetition. In wrestling you are in totally unconventional positions that require uncanny balance and strength’s. Most lifting equipment is not set up for our sport. So we have to get creative and simulate wrestling positions. The lifts we pay attention to form wise would be cleans and squats, everything else IMO, throw out the window and hammer out continuous heavy reps. we are continuing lifting 4 mornings per week thru the month of October. We did our first structured team run/ lift last Tuesday morning. They did a good job; we did 5 heavy core lifts that were not reps but time. We went minute go’s, with heavy weight, on cleans, squats, bench, shoulder press, curl, and burn out push ups. It was about 80% of a full heavy team lift. If you want to test yourself, try cleans for 1 and 2 minute goes and see how you feel, it is very tough, as we stress keeping the weight moving non stop. Same with all the other lifts. We will increase time later. But let me tell you it’s a great physical and mental tester / builder.

 

“Whip that smile off your face” I can remember being told this as a kid, actually maybe as recent as last week. The perfect smile breaker is Fatigue. I can tell you no one was smiling last Tuesday after our lift.

 

Parents meeting: In conjunction with our open practice on October 6^th we had a parents meeting in which parents of about 15 different athletes were present. The meeting was about fund raising for BVU wrestling. Several great ideas were brought up and discussed. I believe we have a very good plan in motion that will benefit BVU wrestling. This is something that has to come from us if we want to make our situation better. If we wait, it will not get done. No one cares more about our program and athletes success than the coaches and parents of the athletes. That is why we will ram rod this thing and hopefully get some alum and friends of wrestling involved. I will say more about it as I learn the specifics. But we are excited about the potential. We are looking for the fall to be the annual event time frame. Everyone was in favor of getting something going ASAP. So with that we are going to put the event into action this winter. Thanks to the parents that came and our hope is to get every parent involved in some capacity.

 

 

 

Losing weight while maintaining strength: We compete in less than 1 weeks and guys are addressing getting their weight, Ideally FAT, down. The biggest player in weight “Fat” coming down will be in their nutritional choices. As many calories as these young athletes burn daily, creating a calorie deficit should be no problem. Keys will be their serving size, time of day they fuel and what they actually take in. Our guys have more information than most wrestling programs do period. But again the results actually come in what you do not knowledge alone. It is never easy getting down the first few times. But like a wild horse it just has to be tamed before it will come under control.

 

Losing weight, loss, injury, frustration, lack of motivation, doubt are all temporary circumstances that will surely come to all during the season. It is at this time that we focus on the end. This will not likely be your first thought and we have little control over what actually comes up in our mind. But we do have control over how long and what we run with. For example. Have you ever grabbed hold of a car when it was moving and as it sped up you attempted to stay with it. Unless your Lee Majors “6 million dollar man” you were unable to, it was too much to keep up. When you run with self defeating thoughts, when you keep them alive by choice and it is your choice, it will be too much. Like the car, your dominate thoughts will prevail.

What we strive to do is remember this discomfort builds character, body, and mind. It is a process; we do not eliminate it, we just learn to manage it. And like every second, minute, hour, day month, year, it will pass. It always has, always does, always will. Building character is a process, a progression. When you try to avoid or escape this progression, you short circuit the process, delay growth and actually end up with a worse kind of pain, the type that always accompanies denial and avoidance.

 

Practice progress: We have been working on lots of basic skills and positions. The guys don’t always like this. But fact is they don’t know what they need, we do. In the end we will not lose matches because we did not wrestle live enough, it will be because a lack of implementing basic skills at the right time. Have seen it time and time again. Most of the matches you win in college will not be home runs or touch downs “big moves”it will be basic skills“base hit” 1 and 2 pt scores. We told our guys and I stand by it 100% your best opportunity to win will be by perfecting what we work on in this room. I see lots of progress the past few weeks. This time of year is such a basic skill / learning phase or for older guys re-learn, review, perfect and enforcement. But the past week we have seen a lot of growth on this team. Also team chemistry is in balance. We are stressing leadership and team unity this year. Also are going to expose our guys and give them the option of an 11 week course in leadership which will consist of 1 hr per week for 11 weeks. We could not think of time better spent than addressing leading by example: commitment-how to get and keep yourself motivated Confidence-how to believe in yourself and ability to lead, composure: how to keep cool under pressure. Character-how to conduct yourself with class. Vocal leadership: Team first, inspiring teammates, helping teammates get back on track, how to build winning team chemistry, how to minimize and manage team conflict.

 

What really is the true role of a coach? This could be answered may ways. There certainly would be common threads from regardless of who made a list. But the interesting part would be some of the different roles others non coaches may list. What would parents say, administration, the coach themselves, retired coaches, young coaches, sport fans in general? What I personally believe has certainly evolved. What is a coach expected to do or be responsible for? This is where you will find differences. I don’t think there would necessarily be wrong answers. I believe present coaches would have some different ideas. Often what the athletes themselves expect is not fulfilled. It’s tough when you come from HS wrestling to College; it is a huge change in many ways. It’s like ping pong and tennis. The games both have instruments that hit balls over a net. But are very different sports.

 

If you don’t own it, you won’t take care of it. I can remember hearing this as a kid. Makes me think of when I borrowed Alan Pickar’s bike and as I wheeled up into our yard on 815 pine St, I gave it a ghost rider and let it travel a good 15 feet on it’s own until it came to a stop against a big tree we had in our front yard. I paid no attention and didn’t even watch it crash but laughed as I heard the sound. I would run inside, grab a pop cycle and than back out the door, straighten out the handle bars and ride down the street. Would I have done that to my own bike? Probably not. Why? Because I owned it. I believe much of this stands today. Let’s transfer this to being a competitor. I believe that you have to own it. Own what? Own your results, commitment, progress, and a definitive decision. How many times have we made a decision that we are going to succeed? I am not talking about a wish, or hope. I am talking about a decision that is YES. So now it’s not whether you will it’s when you will. That is ownership. It like nursing those little plants that we all did in kindergarten in which we cut a little 6 oz milk box in half. We all did it and tended to it. But in this arena you need to give continuous focused attention.

 If you are going to succeed than results start and stop with you. Yes you will need help. But owning it is saying yes, how, when. If you don’t own it, leave it to chance, than that is a perfect example of not taking care of it. Lacking commitment, responsibility, and uncommon effort are not taking care of things. And Al sorry about your bike and it was me and my buddies that destroyed your banana seat.

 

 

 

Practice room

 

Attentive=hand raised          distracted-bored =opponents hand raised

Hustle=hand raised               Take your time=OHR

Push thru fatigue=hand raised    give up=OHR

Hustle to get out on bottom=hand raised    lay on belly=OHR                                              

Take risk by going underneath opponent on leg attack, building both confidence and conditioning=hand raised     stay safe-no scoring attempts=OHR

Score pts=hand raised       no points=OHR

Make guys work for pts by never giving anything up without a fight=hand raised    give easy points=OHR

On bottom explode off the whistle=hand raised   wait=OHR

Continue working to improve what ever position you are in=hand raised  hold positions=OHR

Get hands on my opponent and move him, get him off balance=hand raised

Stay away or when making contact just hold=OHR

Eat breakfast=hand raised     skip breakfast=OHR

Get weight down over time=Hand raised    cut a lot quick=OHR

Continue to fuel body in small portions through out the day=hand raised

Starve and massive dehydration=OHR

Continue to lift weights all season=hand raised   stop lifting=OHR

Prepare so you look forward to competition=hand raised    cut corners, minimal effort so you fear competition=OHR

Set daily goals for practice so you can improve=hand raised  dread and bitch about practice, just waiting for it to get over=OHR

Maximize your attitude and effort=hand raised  negative attitude, minimal effort=OHR

Written goals with steps and plans to accomplish=hand raised  no goals, no plans, leave it to chance=OHR

Open mine and continue to learn=hand raised   closed mind, know it all, everything is stupid=OHR

Take coaching, input and suggestions to heart than turn it into behavior=hand raised  don’t listen, nod head, go back and do the same thing over and over=OHR

 

One last thing on this is that every one of these examples is within your control

 

 

 

 

Practice room boredom: I can remember having a conversation with Marty Morgan the last year I was at the U of Minnesota. It was March and we were just observing practice and mentioned how we were drilling and working on the same things we did back in September. We than took it a step further and were both aware we were doing the same things we were 9 years earlier. I say that because basics are what work’s. What works really does not change. One reason people think college wrestling is boring, especially in low scoring matches is usually due to the fact that you have 2 guys who simply stay in position and make little to no mistakes. It is certainly hard to argue that core skills and good position are time tested.

 

Review review review: Just because an athlete has seen a technique or skill before does not mean he knows how to execute it in a live situation, let alone while under fatigue or pressure. We will always go back to what is most ingrained under turbulent times, we as humans are always exposed in those moments. The idea is to get where basic skills and high percentage reactions and pre-actions are what your student athletes go to. It needs to be internalized. This is boring for most. But few complain from boredom of victory. So being exposed, reading, researching, reflecting seeing, trying, reviewing, is crucial but will not be enough if not put into behavior. It will be a continuous effort to internalize correct repetition to the point that it’s your (go to) under any situation.

 

Practice room and the mind: We have been working on our mental muscle as well in practice. Currently we spend about 6-8 minutes daily (15 minutes later on), having our guys lay flat on their back, arms to the side, legs untangled and asked to pay attention to their breathing if they drift, just come back to it. The idea behind is to enhance performance. So much of an athletes’ mental game is tied to their breathing. We want these guys to get to a point where they can slow down in situations where they get doubtful, fearful, anxiety, fatigued, anything and everything that’s gets in the way of them being able to achieve max success. We all know that the mind is the most crucial but under trained instrument. I will rephrase that in, we use our minds 24/7 but most of the time we fail to really control it and steer it. And we often just let it roam as if we have no choice. Anyway we are working on getting guys to be able to relax, quiet the mind so we can render it susceptible to ideas of, executing holds perfectly, scoring points, battling fatigue, getting their hand raised at the end of a match. And later on winning specific matches, beating specific opponents, winning conference, being an AA and National Champion. The more you think about something the stronger it takes hold.

 

We are striving to get to a point where they can get centered in as little time of just walking back to the center of the mat. But it takes time to get their ground fertile when most of us have never really attempted to control our thoughts. It’s a lot like changing the channel of a TV only your are changing the channel of your mind. The quickest way to neutralize its allure is to turn your attention to something else. It’s not so much about fighting it as it is about thinking of something better “principle of replacement” So when doubt calls you, don’t argue with it, just hang up.

 

By the end of the season, when it’s most crucial we will have spent a good 15-20 hrs of practice room alone preparing the mind. Now I have no idea how many guys are actually visualization or just falling asleep. It really is on them. But if they use the time effectively they will reap benefits. Again we are just trying to give our guys every opportunity to succeed. In the end we will not lose matches because we did not train the body hard enough, it will likely be not executing basic skills and than faulty thinking in which we lack confidence and desire. Some guys say they cannot do it or it’s too difficult. Actually if you can worry, than you can visualize. It’s just a matter of focused thinking but in different directions.

 

Beaver: I have watched this show with skepticism on many occasions, happen to catch it the other day and formed some observations. First Ward and June may have looked like the All American parents. They were clean cut, educated and had a place for everything in their life. It was organized, full of boxes and squares.

But were UN realistic in many many ways. First off June would clean the house in with her hair done, diamond ear rings, pearl necklace, dress, and high heals. Ward would grace the dinner table with a tie, jacket and shirt buttoned up to the top. They always looked so uncomfortable. The questions he would ask the boys were insincere, “Well Beaver what did you accomplish today at school?” and “when I was a boy”. You see the Beaver is not set up to answer questions that involve progress. He is more interested in medgers pond, bottle caps, tins cans and junk like that. I think even beaver picked up on the condescending energy and tones from Ward. But we will talk more about that later. That chapter is entitled “when the Beav comes home” and let me tell you it isn’t good for Ward at all.

June would protect “the boys” early on but later in the episodes her only concern was what others might think of them as parents. So it didn’t really matter what they were, or how the boys felt, only what others thought they were and how they appeared. Ward also would make get hasty and render judgments knowing only partial information, actually Ward would do that with what he thought might be going on, not even actually having anything concrete. Anyway what was supposed to be the American family was very dysfunctional. I mean Beaver and Wally were not even allowed to be boys, the would get the “business” if their jeans were dirty or torn, paint on the garage floor, or Wally using one of wards razors. Other times you could also see some subtle put downs by ward towards the beaver when he would bring up both himself and Wally being on the varsity track team. But the beaver did not have any athletic or academic success nor did he care. He just wanted to build a fort and each chocolate bars with Larry Mondelo. I mean a crisis in the clever home is getting the refrigerator handle smudged or leaving the cap off the milk. If I would have been around back than I would have actually paid a visit to ward and submitted him by a triangle choke

 

 

Posted by SchwabM [Wrestling] ( October 30, 2007 11:44 AM ) Permalink | Comments[0]