Early Season Practices

From Coaching Wrestling Successfully by Dan Gable

The first two or three days of practice should be learning experiences, more so for coaches than for athletes. Most coaches don’t realize this fact and take control right away, trying to teach their wrestlers too many things in too little time. What coaches should do during the first few practice sessions is supervise and observe, not try to teach.

Through close observation and proper evaluation of wrestlers at this time, you can make better decisions for individuals and the entire team. I recommend spending this time filling each weight class and dividing up your team into smaller groups according to individual needs. For example, certain wrestlers may be great in the standing position, but need some help with their technique in the bottom position. Your initial observation will also help you determine which wrestlers have little or no experience so that you can help them stay injury-free and put them with other wrestlers against whom they can have some success.

If available, assistant coaches can be assigned to each of the groups to provide maximum individual instruction. I use a curtain to partition the groups from one another and for some privacy whenever the team has to share the facility with another group. You also can use a curtain to isolate individuals or activities that could be distracting to others.

The initial analysis of the team should include evaluation of these seven essential ingredients of good wrestling:
• Standing wrestling
• Underneath wrestling as well as coming out and keeping the opponent’s legs out
• Strength
• General conditioning
• Flexibility
• Nutrition
• Attitude

I make a chart and rate each wrestler on these attributes and then combine the information for a composite look at the team. Remember, these are minimum characteristics for wrestling, a starting point. If your team has some deficiencies, it’s best to learn about them at the outset, so you can correct them as quickly as possible.

Standing Wrestling
In standing wrestling, leg attacks are by far the most common and most successful for winning wrestling. Two of Iowa’s all-time greats, Jim Zalesky and Rico Chiapparelli, came into the program with heart and the desire to be great. They both had great scoring tactics; however, many of their skills were from the defensive positions. Although they had some early success, it wasn’t enough to set them apart from many of the nation’s best. They both worked extremely hard and developed offensive leg attacks that were dependable in tough situations, which consequently put them with the elite of wrestling.

Along with the offensive leg attacks comes the defense tactic of keeping people off your legs. A wrestler does so by having good hand control, head and shoulder positioning, and blocking skills. A wrestler with a good stance and good motion can perform these skills. By doing so correctly, a wrestler will score, usually with go-behinds or snapdowns. These tactics allow for a constant ability to score whether it be offensive and/or defensive.

Underneath Wrestling
The second category, the underneath position, needs to be mastered also. Oftentimes, a dominant wrestler could have this area as his weakness simply because he might not often end up in this position. As coaches, we need to save some part of every practice for this area. I sometimes find this area is a problem for my team because I coach to dominate and usually that means the offensive takedown area and top position.

The best technique to master in the bottom position is the stand-up done with correct hand control. Keeping one’s opponent’s legs out of yours is the best skill to use while standing up. Sit-outs, switches, and rolls are also easy techniques to learn to be able to help the down position. A combination of all of these tremendously aids your escaping ability. The sit-out with good hand control is probably the easiest escape to learn. Wrestlers must also know how to remove opponents’ legs from theirs and/or escape from opponents’ legs when the opponents have a firm grasp. Not giving your opponent anything to work with is the best solution most of the time.

In regards to learning how to escape, a great example in Iowa wrestling was Bruce Kinseth. Bruce was one of Iowa’s hardest workers. His workouts were legendary, and his intensity and conditioning were phenomenal. The one problem was his underneath position, and the rules at this time put you in the bottom position for either the second or third period. Against the really good wrestlers he sometimes would get ridden for the whole period, therefore, neutralizing his intensity and conditioning.

Coach J. Robinson perfected a sit-out for Bruce, so no one could ride him. All his hard work was finally able to pay off for him; his winning percentage jumped greatly with the development of a single skill. Once his escape was perfected, he finished first in the nation, winning the Most Falls trophy and the Most Outstanding Wrestler award his senior year. He pinned everyone in the Big Ten and NCAA Championships his senior year.

A combination hip-heist movement from underneath is the skill that needs to be perfected in escaping. This skill also is extremely helpful from a defensive position on takedowns as well. When used after the initial counter, it becomes an offensive scoring maneuver. Like a good takedown, the best escape/reversal to use is the one that works.

Strength
Strength is another area that is vital for success. If a wrestler is lucky enough to have the genes that promote muscle and strength development, then this area doesn’t require quite as much emphasis. Depending on the wrestler’s muscle type, you can point his strength training to where it is most needed – power or endurance. The other benefits of strength training are how it can build up a wrestler’s mind and help prevent injuries.

The old Soviet system of athletics emphasized strong body/strong mind preparation at an early age and selected athletes who were “naturals” for their sport. Consequently, their training consisted of more sport-specific activities and less general conditioning and training. A good strength training program is typically part of a wrestler’s training schedule for power and explosion, which are needed to complete and execute a variety of skills in this sport.

An economical way of gaining strength is to work hard at a specific job that requires heavy lifting, building, or digging. The most strength I ever gained was in the summer between my junior and senior years in high school. The job was working with Martinson Construction Company out of Cedar Falls, Iowa, where I worked with concrete and did a lot of hauling and digging. Instead of strength training that summer, I worked extremely hard at the job and gained tremendous strength (and made money at the same time). Other summers, I worked hard at Wheeler-Braun lumberyard in Waterloo and consequently came off the job more prepared for my wrestling matches. Of course continuing to wrestle during this time (two to three times per week) kept the sport close as well.

Wrestlers should do strength training the whole year to make sure they stay fit and to prevent injuries. Former Iowa two-time NCAA champion Chuck Yagla is a great example of what maintaining your strength can do, especially during the season. Chuck, in his first two years at Iowa, lifted weights in the off-season but didn’t continue with this strength training during the competitive season. Chuck also lost quite a bit of weight through the season and his power dropped off as the season was winding down. He did well his freshman and sophomore years, but in his junior year he started a strength program before the season and maintained it through the competitive season. As a result, his performances were much stronger all the way to the end. Chuck won the NCAA Championships in both his junior and senior seasons and was voted outstanding wrestler his final year.

General Conditioning
Conditioning is another one of the essentials. Even though high school matches are only six minutes long, conditioning plays a major role in matches if they are wrestled with intensity. Based on a study I’ve done, when one athlete is forcing the action to his opponent, conditioning becomes a factor shortly after the four-minute mark. This observation assumes the opponent has been training and has been put through highly productive wrestling practices. Opponents of less quality are affected sooner. This observation also assumes that the wrestler who is forcing the action has worked to the point that conditioning is not a factor in his situation.

With this fact in mind, an overall goal of my teams is to have my athletes in such good condition that they can perform at their highest level throughout their matches. Initially, not all wrestlers will be willing to work this hard, but even those who don’t will benefit from this philosophy. As they witness someone who is training at a high level and see his results, they too are more likely to strive for this goal.

The point you must drive home to your wrestlers is that it’s easier to go higher when you start higher; their productivity year-round will be greater if they stay at a higher fitness level year-round. Daily work adds up to a whole lot after a while. Five minutes a day doesn’t seem like much, but it equals close to 31 hours of extra work when added up for a whole year. Add that up over an athlete’s career in high school, and that’s 124 hours of extra work. Add four years of college, and that’s 248 extra hours of work.

A wrestler can develop from average to good or good to great with just a bit more time and effort each day. The key here is to teach the athlete how to push himself. Conditioning is usually the difference when it comes down to the fourth, fifth, sixth, or extra minutes in a wrestling match. Building the desire in the athlete to do extra training is a key factor in his achieving a high performance level and should be of highest priority to every wrestling coach. Another key is to actually put more intensity and work in during the same time period on a daily basis.