2010 World Championships

Coaches Apprentice Program (Day 5)

Medals & Teammates

We’ve all been told after a disappointing loss that wrestling is all about the journey, not the destination.  But it’s always more fun to pull into the station.

Elena Pirozhskova took home a Silver Medal at 63kg today.  Tatiana Padilla, at 55kg, won the Bronze.  In the 59kg division, Kelsey Campbell lost in the Bronze medal match to take 5^th.  The team vaulted into 3^rd place behind Japan and Russia.  Tomorrow Kristie Davis and Stephany Lee take the mats for the US.

The mindset of the women’s team feels good to someone looking in from the sidelines.  The ladies seem to have a great deal of respect and affection for each other.  They laugh and play while being serious about doing their best.  Alyssa Lampe and Jessica Medina were working out with Elena, Tatiana, and Kelsey even though their part of the tournament was behind them.  The team came together to enthusiastically greet Elena, Tatiana, and Kelsey when they returned from the mat to the warm up area after every round.

CAP Field Trip

While on a snack run for the video crew on Wednesday, Matt Hampton met a Russian teenage wrestler, Sasha, and his mother, Julia, who were watching the tournament.  Matt got invited by them to go to a Russian youth wrestling school the next day.  He and John Grecco from Florida and Jamie Crossno from Illinois went along.  Jamie had a professional interest because he just opened a wrestling school – Attrition Wrestling, in Rockford, Illinois.

They took a few t-shirts as gifts but not nearly enough for the 3 - 4 rooms of 20 wrestlers each in the state run school – no charge to the kids.  All GR.  Each room had different ages.  Mostly gymnastics, body awareness, full range of motion stretches and exercise, and core strength training followed by a small amount of basic technique.  The coach focused on developing mastery of a few moves.  They went just 5 minutes of live. 

After demonstrating technique, the coach asked, “Who are my brave ones?” 

Some kids raised their hands.  The “brave ones” got to do 10 reps of the technique, the others only 5. 

Jamie said that they told the CAP coaches that the school really doesn’t let the kids compete until they are 12 years old, even though the kids in the room they were observing ranged from 8 to 13.  The other rooms had Cadet/Junior age kids in one and FILA Junior/University age in the other.

Jamie also said sport parents in Russia coach their kids from the side of the mat, just like in the US.  No translation needed to know what was going on.

Matt said that when they first entered the room the kids were acting like typical kids, goofing around and having fun.  When the coach blew the whistle everyone, kids, parents, and guests, stopped talking.  The kids hustled to line up on one wall, the parents on another wall.  The parents were then dismissed for the rest of the session.  Matt said discipline was strict and the kids were, as we say in the US, on task.

Julia is supposed to be coming by the venue tomorrow to drive some of the CAP coaches to the Palace of Wrestling.  More on that tomorrow.

Pay Attention to the Men Behind the Blue Curtain

One of the best things about being a CAP coach is spending time in the warm up area. 

The chiropractors and massage therapists who travel with the team are part of the team.  At one point Terry Steiner stretched out on the portable chiropractic table for an adjustment.  The chiropractor put a device on Terry’s head, much like the old-style leather head straps that I used to use to build neck muscles.  Sort of like the headgear that orthodontists torture teenagers with to correct overbites.  A trainer held his ankles.  At the jerk of the strap, the legs on the head end of the table collapsed, putting Terry in an incline sit up position.  Everyone started laughing, Terry the most.

The men’s freestyle coaches sat with several of the CAP coaches while the team members worked individually on technique and position.  Lots of casual but valuable teaching going on from Zeke Jones and Bill Zadick.

Brandon Slay, Sydney Gold Medalist and Freestyle Resident Coach, was busy on the mat with Royce Alger, 2-time NCAA champion back in the 1980s, in a match informally refereed by various team members putting on their gear and stretching out.  It was one of those matches where you have to look like you’re not really trying because you need an excuse if you lose.  But you’re really trying.

After a struggle in the middle of the mat, Alger needed a rest and walked off, signaling for someone to give him a drink of water.

Slay yelled at him in protest, “I was just about to shoot!”

“I’m not afraid of your double,” Alger yelled over his shoulder as he caught a water bottle thrown to him by one of the Paulsons.

Raymond Jordan, our #3 guy at 84kg rolled around, earnestly play wrestling with Casey Cunningham, now an assistant coach at Penn State.  For being a beast of a man, Jordan is amazingly flexible. 

After one go, Cunningham asked, “Have you always been so flexible?”

“No.  I got more flexible in college,” Jordan said.

Must have been a great stretching program at Missouri.

Pre-Plan Your 911 Calls

Our 20-minute bus ride to the venue in the morning took an hour.  We passed two accidents, causing us to wonder how someone could hit someone else when both cars were only going 2 miles per hour.  Also stuck in traffic were two ambulances, their blue lights flashing, with no one paying any attention.  In both ambulances, the drivers chatted idly with the med-techs in the passenger seats, smoking cigarettes, completely unconcerned about the delay in providing urgent care to someone who must not have anticipated needing an ambulance and so didn’t call for one far enough ahead of time.

Las Moscow (Part Deux)

Let’s just say we broke a small sweat sitting in the stands while watching the 3^rd performance of the day by the Moscow Gold Medal Dancers.  The genius who designed the outfits (or lack thereof) now has a cult American following.