Acquire these tools and you will be great!

I am going to start this blog off with a series of questions that you can answer quietly to yourself or even out loud to your friends if you have any.

What makes a great wrestler?  What makes a wrestler great?  What is the definition of a great wrestler?  A person that never loses a wrestling match could be defined as great, maybe even the best wrestler of all time.  What is the goal of wrestling?  Is the goal to win matches or is the goal to be a great wrestler?  Many of you will say both, some will say what is the difference, and yet others will say that they go hand in hand and if you are one, you most definitely will be the other.  That is probably true statistically speaking.

I have seen a lot of wrestling in my 32 year existence.  I have watched a lot of film, studied wrestlers of all ages of all techniques.  I have also watched and studied other martial arts disciples and have applied them to wrestling.  In the following paragraph I will tell you what I have come to conclude.

I have concluded that you will need a toolbox filled with tools categorized and organized into 3 compartments.  These compartments will be organzied as such:  1.  physical ability, 2. mental and emotional ability, 3. technical ability.

Physical ability is/are the tools that either God has blessed you with or are the tools you have earned through hard work.  Physical Characteristics can be divided into two categories the first are strength components such as max strength, quickness, flexibility and power.  The second category is conditioning and in my book the most important because conditioning is king, it is to your body what gas is to a car.  Not having conditioning would be like racing in the Indy 500 with only a half a tank of gas, what do you think your chances of winning that race are?  Conditioning consists of the ability to repeatedly use your strength components and could also be called recovery.

The second toolbox compartment consists of your mental and emotional ability.  The first tool is your mental toughness, your ability to overcome adversity, and your ability to adapt to various situations and scenarios.  The second is motivation, discipline, work ethic, basically making your goals important and following through with decision by the choices you make each day.  And last is your emotional ability, which consists of how you handle fear, anger, pride, and humility. 

Finally, the last toolbox compartment consists of your technical ability.  Technique is your ability, knowledge and strategy of the sport of wrestling.  It is not just knowledge, though.  It is knowledge of techniques that work for your body type and style.  It is knowledge of techniques that you can be executed with repeated success.  It is knowledge of techniques from every position, every situation.  When I am talking about techniques I am talking about scoring.  What is your ability to score from every position?  Let me tell you the great thing about wrestling.  It is one of the few sports that no matter what size you are you can not only participate in, but excell at.  I was a great baseball/football player in Junior High School, but unless they were only going to allow kids that were 5' and 95 lbs. into the league it did not matter my skills when going against classmates that were 6' and 200 lbs.  The other great thing about wrestling is that is allows for creativity, which to me is one of the greatest attributes of the sport.  There is really only one way to hit a baseball, one way to hit a golf ball, one way to run, but in wrestling there is an infinite number of ways to score.  If you think this is great then you are going to love this!  There are ways to score that still have not been invented yet, and to me that IS the greatest thing about wrestling.

Going back to my first paragraph about what makes a wrestler great?  A great wrestler has mastered the use of each of these tools.  You may have each of these tools in varying degrees that have helped you become successful, but if you truely want to be the best then be the best at using each of these tools.  Avoiding weakness is setting yourself up for failure.  Improve the use of these tools and set yourself up for success.

More details to follow.............

I have given you the map, now take it and use it wisely, and I will see you at the treasure!