GABLE COMMENTARY
Changing old habit biggest challenge for coaches
Q A W.I.N. reader and small college coach recently sent in a letter, asking you about one of his wrestlers, who is motivated to be better but does not win as often as he likes primarily due to a lack of experience. The coach wants to know what should he do about motivating a wrestler when he continues to lose.
A That’s a hard question but wrestlers with little experience can actually, if taught correctly, be taught faster because he hasn’t been wrestling that long and hasn’t developed too many bad habits. For example, (former Hawkeye national champion) Chris Campbell had just one full year of high school wrestling before he came to Iowa. So whatever we taught him was like we were teaching him at the beginning and he was learning extraordinary good techniques.
A lot of times when you take kids at the college level, you have to take some of their habits that have been learned and make them learn all over again, which can be even more difficult. This kid shouldn’t have too many bad habits so that should be a positive motivational piece.
The coach also has to convince this wrestler that wrestling is more than just winning a wrestling match. He has to convince him that this
is a challenge; just like anything else he has to face in his life that is difficult. He has to take them one step at a time and build a solid foundation. If the wrestler starts losing his enthusiasm, the coach has to go out of his way to have more communication with him and have him watch some exciting matches on videotape to get him roused up. I think the coach also has to be more sincere with the athlete. The athlete has to believe in somebody beyond himself. My athletes developed a mentality that they believed in themselves. But if that failed, they had another place to go, which is the coach.Q Does it take a coach to be a magician to instill motivation or does it come down to teaching fundamentals and hard work?
A I think it’s a little bit of both. But if a coach really shows the excitement, sincerity and loyalty that he needs to show, wrestlers won’t have a lot to complain about.
You also don’t want to give up on any kid. That’s the bottom line. You can also teach him that the other guy may take him for granted, especially if he looks at his record; that the other guy is vulnerable for an upset if you are more focused and ready. And you can run him out of gas by being in better condition. Or maybe have your wrestler look at his own attributes and see what he is good at and make sure he uses them during the match. For example, if he is a big brute and physical power guy, he should hold the guy down.
Q The coach in question also wrote that he had a wrestler with terrible balance, which caused him to end up in bad body positions and lose matches he should have won. What techniques and training methods would you suggest to correct this?
A When someone is not quite as skilled from a genetic point of view, he needs technique more than anyone because he can work harder on technique and learn a move better through that discipline.
He can do skills and drills that help develop the technique like rope skipping. You teach him how to rope skip forwards and backwards and you teach him all the intricacies, like crossing the rope, double jumps; all those things that help coordinate him a little bit.
Then instead of putting him in a combative situation, you do a lot of things like tumbling, gymnastics, balance beam stuff. You might do what I call shadow wrestling, stance in motion; all these things where you’re not fighting anyone but yourself while learning position and balance.
Q Should coaches use videotape to illustrate a wrestler’s problems.
A It depends on what the coach is trying to accomplish. If the wrestler and coach are trying to get somewhere in a hurry and the wrestler is not technically balanced well, I don’t think I would show it to him. The coach has to trick the kid a little bit; make him believe that he is better than he really is.
If he watches himself do something wrong, it’s going to confirm what he already believes. But if the coach has the time to videotape and take the wrestler through a month of drills, he can show him a big difference over time. He can show him where he’s been and where he’s at.
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