Everyone has an opinion on why we, the U.S., is not earning more medals at the world championships. Were hearing how folkstyle is hurting our international styles. The funk style (not a fan) does not translate to scoring points in freestyle. Going to your back to score points is never a good thing in freestyle. Weve heard the arguments that were too defensive minded. Others say we place too much emphasis on conditioning as opposed to technique. Still others feel we dont have enough coaches in the U.S. who can expound upon the international styles. There is a bit of truth in all of these statements. Probably the biggest concern I see is our lack of big move scoring. Watch our Russian counterparts and their takedowns are almost always feet to back. Why is that? They understand that placing your opponent in danger is the way to go. I teach and promote the firemans carry at every level of age group wrestling. I witnessed four Russian wrestlers use this technique successfully to score four point moves in big matches. Try seeing that technique used in America and you would be hard pressed. The techniques that produce big points are no secret. The problem is were not using them in our attacks. We need to open up on scoring. That is our first problem. The next big problem is increasing the pool of athletes who wrestle the international styles. I have no answer for how to solve this but it starts at the feeder and high school levels. Those coaches that are folkstyle only are hurting their kids. Our goals need to be producing athletes who are the best in the world! Winning state titles are nice but fall far short of what can be achieved. In third grade my coach Jumper Leggio ingrained the idea of winning Olympic gold medals. That is important is we want to raise the bar. Kids who think that state or even NCAA titles is the way to go are sadly short changed. As much as I love folkstyle it is only wrestled in the U.S. If you dont know how to teach freestyle and Greco then find someone who does and lead your kids to their instruction. Lastly, I dont want to throw the baby out with the bath water. This years team is talented and very capable. The things I stated above are both short and long term issues that need to be addressed. Hopefully, the masses will see that more needs to be done at earlier stages in development. Most of all, we have to yearn for world prominence. Dont kick this team down too far. We are strong at heavyweight, 163 and 213 lbs. (Varners neck injury hurt his chances to do more). We can medal with Jimmy Kennedy and Brent Metcalf (maybe Pico by 2016) and Ed Ruth will be better by next year. We have athletes that can perform well but we need to get on the podium. The bottom line is we, as a country, need to rally and do more. Right now! Tomorrows workout: 5 rotations of 5 rope climbs 10 handstand push-ups 15 bodyweight back squats technique: for fifteen minutes do inside step firemans carry outside step firemans carry two on one to firemans carry
Posted on: Wed, 10 Sep 2014 09:51:50 +0000
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