Gable: Coaches need to bring out kids’ natural abilities
Photo: A throwing dummy was among the toys for Calahan Cornelius, age 2.
Note: In addition to being a legendary wrestler and coach, Dan Gable is the grandfather of 14 boys and girls, most of whom have also wrestled as kids. In viewing the development of these young athletes, Gable shared his thoughts on helping kids and their parents get started in wrestling with WIN Editor Mike Finn.
WIN: What creates the beginning for a child wanting to wrestle?
GABLE: Unlike the kid who might first see football, basketball or baseball on TV, those interested in wrestling are so because of a family connection to the sport. And the one thing in wrestling, which the other sports do not have, is that wrestling is created from natural movements. When kids grow up, most are tumbling around the living room with a sibling or close friend. They don’t really know what wrestling is or they may never have watched a wrestling match.
I’ve been around so many boys and girls tumbling around, with someone ending up on top, and the first thing we say is “they are wrestling.” When my grandkids come over, it’s like there is a wrestling match every day with them and someone is on top.
WIN: How should kids grow from those natural movements of tumbling around to actually learning the sport?
GABLE: One of the first things I would do is get that child a throwing dummy. Recently, I witnessed my four-year-old grandson Mac pick up this big five-foot-long stuffed fish and watched him whip and throw and beat the heck out of this fish for 15 straight minutes. His feet were going 100 miles per hour and his hip position was good. I thought if this was a wrestling match, it would be one-sided, but it was fun to see the confidence in his natural wrestling ability.
From there, it’s one step at a time. And after seeing Mac throw around that fish, it made me think about creating a new attack move on how kids should work with throwing dummies. I got my mind raised by watching a four-year-old go bananas with a big stuffed fish.
WIN: How should kids programs develop these natural abilities to help the kids wrestle?
GABLE: A lot of wrestling skills, tactics and strategies can be learned, but are not being taught as much as they could be at these young ages. Kids are bright, but if they don’t learn the correct skills right away, they are going to learn bad habits. Unfortunately, a lot of highly-skilled people don’t teach at the beginning level. I think there are beginning skills that can be better, but we don’t put enough emphasis on kids learning right away.
That’s where the old Russian system of learning wrestling really applies now; where their kids would first spend more time on gymnastics drills rather than wrestling drills. Gymnastics is more about balance and body positions. And in applying that to wrestling and a leg tackle, if your arms get away from your body, you are going to be extended and weaker and won’t be able to finish the takedown. If they learn to get their legs under them, they are going to be better at lifting and driving your opponent.
When kids get into programs, they may lose their natural ability because wrestling skills are not being taught correctly and coaches try to teach kids something better than their natural skills.
WIN: What are some of the natural skills that kids should be taught in wrestling?
GABLE: Hand-fighting skills, eye-awareness skills where you don’t look at the opponent, but know what their feet are doing. There is also the base position, where your hips and legs are under you where you have power to drive. And because of that, you are ready to apply pressure.
Movement is also huge, which is why we were able to beat the Russians, who didn’t like to move. Russians liked to make it perfect technically with little effort, which is why they are good at technique. When you force someone to move, you get them out of position and they get tired.
Head position is also important in wrestling, where you are equal to their head or lower. If your head is lower and your feet are under you, they cannot do anything to you. Even if you are in the bottom position, your knees are underneath your elbows, which gives you a good base. Power and movement together make a huge difference.
WIN: Should kids try to master one thing or simply try something and move on?
GABLE: You do want to master something, but you can’t just beat a dead horse. Also, a coach should look at a kid’s parents and get an understanding what they might look like later. Coaches need to individualize each kid. One kid might be tall and good at using leverage, while another might be shorter and stronger.
You don’t have a group of kids and teach them all the same thing. You have a group and want to know something about each of them. Instead of going into teaching a sport’s skills, coaches should look at what they have in the room.
Coaches don’t know what they’ve got until they witness it. If you are the one teaching it, you are wasting time if you are trying to teach something one kid already knows.
It’s sort of like rolling a basketball out at a basketball practice and letting them shoot. You want to learn their talents and their skills … and then you go about teaching them.
