The Home Stretch

State is only 2 weeks away! The guys have been doing an excellent job at practice and I feel very good about our chances. We have decided to change up the practice format for the final 2 weeks in order to best prepare everyone for the finals. Everyone in invited to all practices starting next week. Beginners can come on Tuesday and experienced kids can come on Mondays. The times will not change (finish at 7:30 on Monday, 8:00 on Tuesday) but the practice will. We will spend more time on some of the more difficult moves that could be crucial for big wins and correcting little mistakes that make or break other moves, and more time on defending opponents moves.
Please try to attend as many practices as possible to best prepare the guys for the state tournament. Thank you all.

It Has Been a While

Okay, so I have fallen off the wagon so to speak as far as updating this blog.
Apologies go out once again.
I'm sure that you have all noticed that things have really picked up at practice since the New Year. I held back at the beginning of the season in hopes of not running off all the new kids. It has seemed to work but now it is time to gear up for the state tournament. We will spend less time on instruction and more time live wrestling from here on out. That does not mean that that is all they will learn this year but we have covered the bulk of what I want to teach this year. From here out it will be fine tuning the moves and drilling them endlessly.
I know that the guys hate drilling but wrestling has a lot to do with muscle motion retention. When your body becomes accustomed to doing a move the same way every time, it becomes reactionary. That is our goal. Takedowns, escapes, breakdowns, and reversals should become natural reactions based upon opponents positioning.
I have also spent a lot of time discussing the mental part of the sport.
Tonight I stressed that everything they do at practice can either build confidence or create doubt. If you put all your energy into practice, you will leave feeling like a better person for it but if you just go through the motions (or worse: skip conditioning, give up and roll over during live wrestling) you will doubt that you are ready when match time comes.
Overall, I am very pleased with the teams performance and I think we have a good chance at a few team trophies at state but we will have to continue working harder every week. Please get the kids to practice on time and ready to wrestle. Continue to encourage them about their matches and how hard they work at practice.

December 16, 2006

I had a chance to video several of the matches this weekend and here is a "highlight" of the weekend. I was very impressed by how the guys used the moves we worked on this week. This weekends tournament went MUCH smoother than last weeks debacle so we all got home at a decent time without stressing out.
The computer system did have a melt down but it was in the last age group and there were only 20 wrestlers in the whole age group so they finished the brackets by hand.
Enjoy the video, leave me any comments you might have, and rate it on youtube.

Week 3

Apologies are in order. Please forgive me for not posting week 3. With Thanksgiving and all of the preparation involved, I just didn't have time. Luckily, I haven't forgot.
Week 3 was a blast. The guys seem more focused and ready to learn so whatever you parents are doing, keep it up. We discussed how points are scored and what some of the penalties are. I do not expect the guys to get this on the first go around but now they have a basic understanding. We practiced the Double Leg Takedown with a partner and the Stand-up with a partner. We finished up with some live wrestling. Again, ask them what they did and let them show you what they learned.
I don't know if all of you know but I have been giving out "prizes" at the end of practice on Mondays to the hardest worker. These could be posters from last years High School State Champion Buccaneers or it could be a t-shirt. I don't give one out on Tuesdays. Why?
The majority of Monday's wrestlers have never been to a tournament or competed at the State Tournament. They don't see the "prize" at the end. They don't understand the value of placing in a tournament and getting a medal. They do like prizes, they just don't know what the real"prize" in wrestling is, yet. Tuesday's wrestlers do (or should). They know by now that the hard work at practice all year long pays off at the state tournament when you stand up on the podium to recieve your award, your "prize".
Tuesday was pretty tough. We reviewed the Low-Outside-Single-Leg takedown with and without a partner. From there we learned how to get into the "Leg-in" position from top. This is definitly an advanced move so we will review this several times this year. Many of our opponents used this position on us last year with a lot of success. We MUST be prepared to stop this positon as well as use it if we plan to be competitive with the best in the state. A second year wrestler will have a hard time using this position but 3 years and up should be familiar with it and will find it very useful. All of our guys need to learn to defend it. We finished up with live wrestling.
With that being said, I want to remind parents that there is a huge difference between Monday and Tuesday nights. Monday is for inexperienced wrestlers, Tuesday is for advanced. Some wrestlers who have one year under their belts may find Tuesday over their heads. Maybe Second year wrestlers need Monday nights for a review of the basics. Most wrestlers don't get the basics down on the first year, or they forget over the break. It is MORE important to perfect the basics than to learn the advanced stuff. Advanced stuff will just confuse and overwhelm a wrestler who doesn't know the basics.
Please take an honest accout of your sons abilities before deciding what night they should attend.
You would not teach someone how to clutch and shift if they didn't understand how to start the car and stop the car.

Week 2

I want to start off by apologizing for not being at practice most of last week. There was a death in the family which always takes precedence over sports. Thanks goes out to all who have expressed your concern.
With that being said, I was glad to get back into practice this week. It was another great Monday practice with lots of bodies in the room. Everyone gave me their attention and we covered a lot of ground. I feel very good about this young group of wrestlers. They are well behaved and seem very interested in learning the techniques. It is common for this age group to just want to "throw down" without any knowledge of how and why.
We reviewed the shuffle steps from last week and added forward and back steps. Emphasis is on not bringing your feet together or crossing them, short shuffle steps only while maintaining your stance.
We reviewed the drive step and added a fourth step which is called a "double-leg-cut-across" finish. This is the first complete move that we have learned this year. It will also be the first move that we drill with a partner next week. Ask your boys to show you this technique several times this week and stay positive about his work.
We moved to the bottom position next and learned a "Stand-up" which is exactly what it sounds like. There is a specific technique to do everything in wrestling. This is the most effective way to escape from bottom position so I will emphasize this move for the next few weeks.
We finished up with a quick game (sharks and minnows also called hole in the ice) and my favorite part, Live Wrestling! We split up into 3 groups (small medium and large guys) and wrestled for about 10 minutes. Everyone got at least one match and I was impressed with the way everyone went after each other.
Please ask your son how the live wrestling went and say something encouraging about the experience no matter how he describes it. It is pretty nerve wracking to get out in front of a group and get beat in a few seconds. Make sure that they know that it isn't the last match they will get and not to let losses get them down.

And so "IT" begins,,,

Today's practice went extremely well considering that we had so many new faces in the room. I never took an official count but I would estimate that we had 40 to 50 youth in the room, 80% totally new to the sport. The Monday practice is designed for first and second year wrestlers who are relatively young (1st through 3rd grade) but we do have preschool through 6th graders.
Due to short attention spans we keep the practice short and sweet. We went over neutral position and proper stance (which included shuffle steps left and right), Drive steps (very important! Most takedowns require this step.), and we learned top and bottom starting position.
I encourage all parents to get involved in your childs wrestling. Take a few minutes at home to ask him what he learned at practice. Ask him to show you. Whether or not he does it right is not important, they need to know that you care. We will review all of these things throughout the year so one practice doesn't make or break a wrestler. Keep your comments positive when he shows you and encourage him to work hard.
Allow me to be the "bad guy" who stays on them saying what they need to hear (work harder, focus more,etc.) so that you can be his "good guy" parent who says what he wants to hear. (good job, I believe in you, etc.)
I am considering making short videos before each practice outlining what we work on that day to upload to this site that night. Parents would be able to watch with their sons and learn with him. I just wonder if it would be worth the effort? Please leave a comment if you have an opinion either way.

Day Before the Season

I have decided to start a simple blog for our youth wrestling team. Here I will post my thoughts about each days practice, plans for future practices, tournament results, pictures, and random thoughts on coaching.
I hope to make this a resource for parents to know where my mind is when it appears that I have lost it. This is not meant to replace the official team site which is here.