March 14, 2008

Dear Wrestling Parent(s),

I wanted to touch base with everyone now that the season has finished. Hopefully everyone has had a chance to catch their breath and is starting to look forward to our upcoming banquet on March 30^th.

Every year about this time I get calls and emails from parents asking what their wrestler can do to improve in the off-season and what they as parents can do to support them. Many of my conversations over the years contain the same basic recommendations and I thought it might serve as some “food for thought” if I shared some of these with all of you.

The coaching staff has already met individually with most of the underclassmen to review their season and set goals for next year. We also gave each wrestler our perspective on what we felt it would take in order for them to be on track to accomplish the goals that they set. If you haven’t already, we encourage you to also talk with them about their coach’s meeting and let them share their goals with you as well.

There is an old wrestling cliché that says “there will come a time when winter asks you what you have been doing all spring and summer.” It is extremely unlikely that an athlete will improve much by next season if they do not put any time and effort into it the next 8 months. You might ask what exactly does a wrestler need to try and improve in the off-season. There are some core essentials that should be considered… Strength & Conditioning, Basic Skills & Technique, as well as Body & Mat Awareness. The good news is that all of these areas can be improved with some commitment on the part of your wrestler and the support of your family. Let me explain…

Strength & Conditioning

This is probably the easiest core area for a wrestler to control and improve. A commitment to a strength and conditioning program during the spring and summer will improve their musculature, strength, and power. The Blue Devil Iron Club will be starting in April and will continue until the end of school. We will also offer a summer session of the Iron Club. For those athletes participating in another sport… their lifting programs will also address strength needs (ie. football). The importance is consistency. Strength gains are made in the off-season, not during the season. Wrestling is a demanding sport and takes a heavy toll on the body during the competitive season. Our strength program at that point focuses on maintaining strength and prevention of injuries. If a wrestler is not consistent and does not make a commitment to improve their body… then their body will respond by simply not getting the results everyone would like to see.

Basic Skills & Techniques

This is an extremely important area to encourage your wrestler to invest some time and energy. Most of us are familiar with the “use it, or lose it” principle. A wrestlers timing, and ability to execute basic techniques quickly becomes “rusty” during the time they are not on a wrestling mat. A wrestler who does not put any mat time in until next November will find that it takes them a significant amount of time to get back to where they left off at the end of the previous season. We offer open rooms in the spring and fall to help wrestlers keep that “rust” off so that they are much sharper when the season rolls around. The goal is to begin the next season ahead of where they left off the season before.

There are many opportunities available to wrestlers to improve their skills and technique. As mentioned above, there is always some kind of “open rooms” available for our wrestles to get individual instruction with the coaches and to perfect the drilling of their technique. Another outstanding opportunity is the Iron Horse Wrestling Academy that offers sessions during the spring/ summer and also fall. The club meets twice a week in the evening and provides an outstanding coaching staff and environment for your wrestler to hone their skills. Olympians, NCAA All-Americans, collegiate wrestlers and many top high school coaches are available right here in our own wrestling room for your son to take advantage of during the off-season. Another recommendation is that each wrestler should try and attend a wrestling camp during the summer. Some camps focus on technique… some on competition and others involve intensive training opportunities. It doesn't matter so much where they go, just that they go somewhere.

Body & Mat Awareness

This is another important area of wrestling that can be improved greatly during the off-season. In order to be successful a wrestler needs to improve their balance, coordination, and agility on the wrestling mat. In other words, they want to have an overall awareness of their body in relation to a constantly moving opponent. This is something that can only be improved by being on a mat wrestling with someone else. The more a wrestler is on the mat, in different situations, and has to respond to different body positions the more adept they become at reacting the right ways. The more they are exposed to, the more familiar they are with what to do when put there.  There is no substitute for mat time. If they want to improve they simply need to be on the mat as much as they can. Another important consideration is that they need to be put into competitive situations that can only happen while “live” wrestling in practices or at post-season tournaments. There are ample opportunities for wrestlers to get much needed mat time during the spring and summer months. If a wrestler can go to 3-5 post season tournaments during the next 4 months this could provide them with as many as 15-20 matches. That’s almost a season worth of competition. If they are serious about closing the “gap” on their opponents then mat time is an essential ingredient to improvement.

Final Thoughts

As I suggested above, I strongly recommend having a table talk with your wrestler about their goals and also about what their commitment level is toward improving. We as a coaching staff are laying out a roadmap for each of our wrestlers on what it would take to get from point A to Z. We can only recommend and encourage our athletes to move in this direction. It also takes a commitment by each wrestler and the support of their family to get the most out of the journey each of them are traveling.

Our team website is a wonderful resource for Post-Season opportunities. An off-season calendar is posted on our site… post-season tournaments are listed… etc. There are links to the Iron Horse Wrestling Academy and other resources that can be useful for every wrestling family.

The coaching staff also encourages our wrestlers to participate in as many sports as possible. There is tremendous cross-over amongst most sports and it also keeps them fresh from season to season. We want our athletes motivated and excited when November rolls around. We also encourage each family to keep an open dialogue with their wrestler to avoid “burn-out.” Although I have suggested many things above, a wrestlers interest and motivation should always be considered. Forcing a wrestler to go to tournaments they do not want to attend isn't going to accomplish the intended result. Also, we realize there needs to be a balance in each wrestlers life between school, their family, their friends and their sports… keeping things in perspective and an eye on the big picture are also important.

Please feel free to share this letter with your wrestler and hopefully it will stimulate some discussion. The coaching staff is here to serve your wrestler and we are available to help each of them reach their fullest potential. We are providing you with some tried and true recommendations that would benefit everyone of our athletes. It is up to you and your wrestler to decide what they are willing to put into the sport and what they want to get out of it.

Yours in wrestling,

Coach Lewis

Head Wrestling Coach

Mt. Lebanon High School