To dine at the Cosmos Hotel is to experience bad food served poorly by sullen workers unconcerned with presentation or appeal.  Even still, a mix up that had us spend 12 hours at the competition venue with no food other than the container of dust-dry peanut butter sugar cookies that Steve Glassey from California bought for the group, the Snicker’s that Mike Stokes from Montana bought on several food runs, and the ice cream bars that Matt Hamptom from Illinois brought back from a foraging trip in the upper regions of the complex (the hands-down leader in the Best-Food-of-the-Trip-So-Far Contest) caused us to shamelessly load our plates at the buffet line late at night when we, and everyone else who was at the World Championships, off-loaded from the shuttle buses at close to 10:30 p.m. and headed straight for the dining hall.

Not all Kindergartens in all countries teach the concepts of waiting your turn, joining lines at the end rather than cutting, or saying please and thank you.  Buffet lines at the Hotel Cosmos filled with hungry people from 98 countries serve as proof.

And yet, none of that matters.  None of that matters because we got to spend the entire day in the Sports Centre Olimpisky watching the best Greco Roman wrestlers in the world compete for the title as World Champion in 55, 66, and 96 kilos (that’s 121, 145, and 211.5 pounds).  None of that matters because we spent the whole day watching GR wrestling at the highest level with Alexander Karelin, one of the best GR wrestlers ever, sitting 10-15 rows in front of us. 

Actually, Karelin was sitting then standing then sitting then standing then sitting over and over again as person after person made the pilgrimage up the bleachers to his seat to shake the great man’s hand and to respectfully bow at the honor of his greeting.  Mike Hampton happened to be on the floor when the Russian Federation paid tribute to Karelin during the Opening Ceremony (which happened at 7:13 p.m., just before the medal matches, six hours after the first whistle blew at 1:04 p.m. to start the first match of the day) and he, too, shook Karelin’s hand.

“He’s got hands as big as dinner plates,” Matt told us.

Opening Ceremony

The Opening Ceremony began with two graceful and muscular shirtless young men acrobatically flying and twirling and tumbling through space with their wrists in straps attached to a cable that raised and lowered them high off the floor. 

Then four wrestlers from the eastern Steppes dressed in traditional clothes and led by the have-you-ever-heard-a-deeper-bass-in-your-life fog horn voice of a cantor playing an oddly-tuned stringed instrument demonstrated traditional throws and trips and counters.  It was very cool.

Then every person who owned a dark suit and who was mildly associated with putting on the tournament got a chance to welcome the wrestlers and to wish them good luck.  Twice.  Once in Russian and once through the English translator. 

And then Karelin walked to the mike.  The wrestlers all got quiet.  Karelin knew that the athletes waiting behind the giant curtain didn’t want to hear long speeches in a foreign tongue by people who don’t know what it’s like to hop from foot to foot, keeping that fine sweat going, waiting to run up the 4 steps to the elevated mat to wrestle for a world medal.

In a soft voice for a giant of a man, he welcomed everyone.  He said that the competition of the various nations today reminded him of the saying, “We are rivals on the mat and friends in life.”  And then he wished everyone good luck and walked back to his spot.

It was short, sweet, and moving. 

Except that the translator actually said, “We are rivals on the carpet and friends in life.”

Then we rose for the FILA anthem (who even knew there was one and why is there?) followed by the anthem of the Russian Federation (think of Sean Connery and his crew singing on board the Red October, Matt correctly pointed out).

And then the medal matches started.

The Venue

It is a huge, domed, round facility built for the 1980 Olympics and not seriously upgraded since.  They use only a quarter of the floor space for the four elevated, octagonal competition mats.  Giant curtains hang from the ceilings to divide the floor space.  Six warm up mats and various temporary massage and training rooms fill another quarter of the space.  The other one-half holds the VIP lounge, a bar with a place to smoke, and the understaffed booth for the official t-shirt vendor of the 2010 World Championship.

The bathrooms are the refuge for those whose nicotine cravings are too strong to wait for the walk to the bar.  Security guards stand at every door and passageway and the architect who designed the place had a penchant for doors and passageways.  Many doors and passageways led to the same place so if the guards at one said “nyet” and the guards at another said “nyet”, you could be fairly certain that the guards at the third or the fourth would say “da.”

Citadel Bulldog fans would recognize the blue of the lower level seats.  Syracuse fans would feel at home in the orange seats of the loge and upper balcony.  The arena was less than ¾ full, not bad for a weekday.  The venders sold Coke, Sprite, Nestea, Lay’s chips of all sorts, Snicker’s, and some weird purple meat on a diagonally cut slice of bread, hand wrapped in plastic.  No matter how hungry we got, no one I know was tempted to unwrap that snack.

Throughout the day, techno-jazz played in the background over the loudspeakers.  A banner hung along the curtain between the main area and the warm up area.  To call a 70-yard wide, 20-yard high picture of wrestlers in action a “banner” doesn’t do the scale of the piece justice.

Five of the CAP coaches attended the 2009 Junior Worlds in Turkey last year: Matt Oney from Hawaii, Robbert Wijtman from California, Keith Norris from Maryland, Matt Hampton, and Mike Stokes.  Mike earned a reputation for bringing back unusual souvenirs; notably the large 2009 Junior World’s banner that hung in the gym in Turkey that he had to cut up to get home, and which now inspires the kids in his wrestling room.  Everyone kidded him about trying to get the 2010 World’s banner home.  He looked at it a long time before deciding he couldn’t.

Our Job

We missed lunch at the hotel because we wanted to get to the venue early and get familiar with the cameras and the lay out.   It turns out our filming will be useful for future competitions and not this one.  That makes sense given that matches later in the day happen faster and faster, with only 15 minutes of rest required between bouts.  No time to watch film or adjust strategies.  We rotated on the cameras every hour or so, depending on the matches, one camera for each mat.  I teamed with Matt Oney to orally give the time and the score as he filmed the wrestlers.  That didn’t last long.  Some fans rhythm-lessly beat a snare drum throughout the day while another tune-lessly and repeatedly bleated a horn.  Jason Bryant said on the audio-cast that the sole purpose of the horn was to annoy.  It worked.

The US Wrestlers

Spenser Mango had the 2008 Olympic champ beaten in both periods of his first match and yet the victory slipped away.  Spenser did not get pulled through repechage.  Faruk Sahin lost every first period but repeatedly came back with strong finishes.  He was eliminated one match short of the Bronze.  Justin Ruiz battled to the Bronze medal match but fell short.  We cheered loudly for each, an island of USA fans wearing red warm up jackets to stand out in a sea of Russians wearing black, gray, and brown.

Exploring the Hotel Cosmos

Matt Oney and I met all the security guards in the hotel as we wandered around.  We had been pleased that the hotel advertised a full modern gym, only to learn it cost $25 (800 ruples) a day to workout (Matt’s doing push ups and crunches on our hotel room floor as I write this so you already know what we decided to do).  We asked the attractive but unhappy and hard-voiced lady at the reception area whether we could look around the gym and she reluctantly said yes.  It was clean, modern, and empty, as one might expect at the price of admission.  Matt and I were about to go in one room when the receptionist came running and yelling, “No!  No! That is lady dressing room!”  She then suggested it was time for us to leave.

2010 World Championships

Coaches Apprentice Program (Day 3)

Quote of the Day

Mike Stokes came back from a souvenir-hunting trip with a great wrestling story. 

Mike ran into a stubborn Russian security guard who wouldn’t let him through an entrance.  Mike said he was getting agitated with the guard when “that big guy” came up and talked to the guard and then walked him through.  After that, “the big guy” had them take a picture together. 

“Who are you talking about?” we all asked. 

Mike opened up his camera to show us.

“You know,” he said, “the Karelly guy.”

Sure enough, on the small fold-out screen of his camera, Mike Stokes was standing next to Alexander “The Karelly Guy” Karelin, 3-time Olympic Champion, 9-time World Champion, world-wide wrestling legend, and human visa, always good for passing through any entrance in the arena.

Pre-Match Heart Rate

I rode on the same bus from the hotel to the venue as Dremiel Byers, our 120kg GR wrestler.  I came off the bus behind him as everyone walked from the bus to the entrance where guards checked credentials, bags went through x-ray machines, and we went through metal detectors. 

Dremiel didn’t have his credentials hanging around his neck and they wouldn’t let him in.  He said he was one of the competitors but they didn’t budge.  These guys were obviously on the alert for any and all 264-pound, muscular, black Americans wearing Team USA warm ups who might be trying to crash the gate at the Worlds in order to avoid buying a ticket at the front door.  Dremiel said he needed to get ready and they just shrugged. 

Dremiel dropped his gear bag, kneeling on the floor, and rummaging through the bag three times, occasionally looking up at the guards with a slightly pleading look of come-on-you-guys-help-me-out-here, coupled with a collegial look of can’t-a-guy-get-a-little-love-around-this-place, and tinged with an irritated look of are-you-people-really-this-stupid, getting more agitated each time. 

No luck with any look. 

Dremiel waved his singlets as proof that he belonged. 

Still nyet.

There was no time to return to the hotel – traffic had crawled, often at barely more than walking pace, on the way to the venue.  Tension built.  Finally, on the 4^th time through his bag Dremiel found his badge on the bottom and they let him through, indifferent to the world-class athlete’s near crisis.

No need for Dremiel to jog or to jump rope to get his heart rate up in preparation for his first match of the day.

Rivals on More Than the Carpet

Some people didn’t listen carefully to Karelin’s Opening Ceremony speech.  Or maybe the translator’s goof – translating “mat” as “carpet” – confused some delegations.

In a draw that had the potential to remarkably benefit the Russian 84kg wrestler, Iran drew Israel in the first round.  So what, you say?  Well apparently everyone knows that Iran doesn’t wrestle Israel; doesn’t even acknowledge that Israeli wrestlers exist.  And so the Iranian withdrew rather than wrestle.  And the Russian beat the Israeli in the next round.

Someone is unhappy.

Buy Stock in Tobacco

We are staying in a non-smoking room.  That means that while we are staying in it, no one is smoking.  How else to explain the ashtrays?  The halls smell of old smoke.  The elevators smell of old smoke.  The non-smoking lobby smells of smoke from the smokers who are standing outside the front door smoking.  Every time the automatic doors slide open, the building inhales the second-hand smoke.

The shuttle bus smells of cigarette smoke.  The bathrooms at the venue double as smoking lounges.  The underground walkway from the hotel to the Metro station smells of smoke from the young used-cell phone vendors, their wares displayed on cardboard boxes stood on end.  People routinely stop to buy smokes from one of the many improvised, plywood kiosks that line the underground walkway, each just the size of a small closet, each filled with cartons of cigarettes that surround the vendor who peeks out of the shoebox-sized opening in the scratched Plexiglas front (the Russian version of DSM-IV obviously doesn’t include a category for claustrophobia).

And while Russia seems to be a nation of smokers of all ages, no one here looks fat.  I don’t remember an obesity epidemic when Americans smoked everywhere.  So if it’s not one thing, it’s another.  But then, no one gets cancer from second-hand eating.

Our Wrestlers

Jeremiah Davis lost his first match to Uzbekistan on Mat A and was done. 

Jake Clark looked powerful winning twice before losing to the Pole, who then lost his next match to bump Jake out.  Jake almost pulled off the win with a last second “flying squirrel” (as someone called it), a lightening quick emergency move that would take two paragraphs to imperfectly describe.  This is a case where one should see the movie ‘cause it’s better than the book. 

Dremiel used his security gate warm up routine to prime himself to win his first 3 matches before losing to the Armenian in the semis.  He then lost in the Bronze medal match to a young Turk (I couldn’t resist the opportunity to write that when it identifies a real person) who the guys from last year’s CAP tour had seen win the Junior Worlds.

The Wrestling

Too good to describe.

2010 World Championships

Coaches Apprentice Program (Day 4)

How Do You Get Better as a Coach?

Ted Schanen teaches and coaches wrestling on the western slope of the Rockies in Cedaredge, Colorado (population 1,854 in the 2000 US Census).  He’s the youngest coach on the CAP tour.  When Ted learned he was going to be part of the tour to Moscow, he looked online and saw that there were various training camps for the Worlds that were being held this past summer at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, a 5 ½ hour drive over the mountains from where he lives.  He e-mailed the OTC coaches asking if he could come to the first of the camps – Ted couldn’t make the August camp because his wife was scheduled to give birth that month (it’s a boy!).  Terry Steiner, the National Women’s Freestyle Head Coach, e-mailed him right back and invited him. 

Ted spent about a week at the OTC.  Terry had him in the practice room, watching how the world-class athletes were being put through their paces, talking about what he and Izzy Izboinikov, the Women’s Freestyle Resident Coach, had the women working on in preparation for the Worlds, and why.  Ted explained some of the challenges he had in his high school wrestling program as he tried to make it better and Terry offered advice while also staying after practice to work with Ted on technique, drills, and coaching in general.

This happened a month or so before Ted’s wife gave birth.   His wife spent part of the time in Colorado Springs with Ted because he drove back home to pick her up for their anniversary.  They stayed in a cabin in Colorado Springs because she needed a bed, being so far along.  The rest of the week while he worked to become a better coach Ted slept in his van in a park. 

He knows the answer to the question ‘how do you get better as a coach?’

Tomorrow Ted will spend the day with Terry to watch how he implements at the Worlds what he taught at the OTC. 

The beauty of the CAP program that Cody Bickley is building at USAW is that it brings coaches like Ted and Terry together to make wrestling in the USA better.

The CAP Experience Gets Even Better

Today Cody split us up to enhance the learning experience.  Matt Oney, Matt Hampton, and I were with the women’s freestyle team to scout probable next round opponents for Alyssa Lampe at 48kg and Jessica Medina at 51kg.  Others went with Bill Zadick and the men’s freestyle team.  Still others manned the cameras.  We switch around again tomorrow.

The warm up area has 4 TVs, one dedicated to each competition match, broadcasting each match from the main arena.  Matt Oney and I sat for several hours on one of the four inexplicably low rough wooden benches that sit in front of the monitors trying to pass themselves off as seating.  We took scouting notes about lead legs, offensive attacks from neutral, defensive tendencies, and par terre O & D.  Our butts hurt from the narrow, 12” high benches.  Our legs hurt.  Our backs hurt.  But as good wrestlers, we took the pain, knowing that what we were doing was potentially valuable for Alyssa and Jessica as they advanced through the bracket.  Unfortunately, none of it mattered because both ladies lost earlier than expected and were not pulled through repechage before either of them met the opponents we scouted.

At dinner the CAP coaches sat with Zeke Jones, the National Freestyle Head Coach, and Bill Zadick, the Freestyle Resident Coordinator.  You get special insights about the Worlds and about wrestling in general just by talking casually over a bad meal (the house specialty) about the competition and the team’s preparation and readiness.

No Spell Check in Unofficial Souvenirs

During a lull in the action Matt Oney and I browsed the booths that were set up outside the arena to sell unofficial tournament t-shirts and other gear.  The t-shirts looked to be of better quality and more creative design than the relatively plain vanilla, official shirt sold in the arena.  I’m not a t-shirt guy so I bought socks, of all things, that have a red GR wrestler lifting his blue opponent with a reverse gut wrench and the words “World Championship, Moscow 2010” embroidered on the upper part.  Caveat Emptor.

When we got back to the room, we realized that my socks actually have “World Chamioship” embroidered on the upper.  I can’t even buy a championship.

Late Night Fun For Someone

There are guards dressed in plain black suits, white shirts, and narrow black ties posted in the lobby at the bottom of the each of the four banks of elevators.  Think Men in Black or Jake & Elwood Blues without sunglasses or fedoras.  The guards make you show your room card in order to go up the elevator. 

After dinner I headed to my room alone.  The guard made me show my room card just after he let a lady pass who wore a blood-orange tulip dress so tight that she had to take short delicate steps in her matching colored, ankle high, 4 ½ inch, spiked heels with a delicate gold chain attached in such a way that it swung with each delicate step and glittered, drawing your eyes down the extra-long length fishnet stocking, also blood-orange.  Not that the chain had to work very hard for that to happen.

When we got to the bank of elevators that go to the highest floors, Tatiana Padilla was already waiting.  Tatiana had on her sweat pants and a t-shirt.  Tatiana is the USA’s talented 55kg/121 lbs. wrestler.  She earned a Bronze at the Worlds in 2008.  Earlier today she had made weight and gotten her draw for tomorrow. 

Tatiana looked over when the lady walked over to press the elevator button.  Then she looked away, too polite to stare even though everything about the lady screamed, “Look at me!”  The lobby walls are floor-to-ceiling mirrors.  Being only half polite, I stared at the mirror.

Then the elevator chimed and before the doors opened there was moment of indecision about whether to wait for the next one.  What if I pushed the button for the same floor?  I think Tatiana had a similar thought because both of us were late in our first moves to the elevator.  Another man hurried in behind us, taking the corner of the elevator with the best view of all things blood-orange.  We all pushed separate buttons.  We rode up, two of us with eyes down to keep from smiling inappropriately. 

The first stop was at the floor of someone for whom the night was just starting.

The rest of us got off on our separate floors without commenting about the elevator guard’s diligence in checking room cards.

Las Moscow

For years USAW held the US Nationals in Las Vegas.  But in all those years no one on the Las Vegas Sports Committee in the City That Never Sleeps seems to have ever thought that having eight scantily clad dancing girls, hip thrusting in hot pants (or less), waving flags, shaking pom-poms, and dramatically tossing just-woke-up hair to reveal pouting lips and suggestive eyes would improve the normally staid awards ceremony where medals are formally hung by dignitaries in dark suits around the necks of the top finishers and everyone in the arena stands as the Gold Medalist’s national anthem is played and his or her country’s flag is raised. 

The event planners for the 2010 World Championships in Moscow were not so narrow in their thinking about the emotive possibilities of an awards ceremony.  Vegas, move over.  We’ve had nine different dance numbers in nine different outfits (make that 4 ½ outfits because they don’t use enough material for full credit), each enhanced by the giant video screen that allows for close ups at 10 times normal size.  Eleven more ceremonies to go.

The Wrestling

Others write about the real reason we are here – the wrestling – so I don’t in any detail.  But it is a fan’s heaven to watch hours and hours of the best wrestling in the world and to still have four more days of the same.

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.

2010 World Championships

Coaches Apprentice Program (Day 6)

Friends Off the Carpet

Last year in Turkey at the Junior Worlds, the CAP coaches met and made friends with Reza Herbst.  He’s in Moscow this year as a FILA VIP.  Reza saw the CAP coaches in the lobby of the Cosmos and came over to talk with Mike Stokes. 

“My friend, Action Jackson!” Reza said to Mike while giving him a bear hug.

Lots of friendly banter.

He asked Matt Oney and me where we were from and we said Hawai’i.

“Hawai’i,” Reza said in a mock amazed voice.  “You must be angels.  Angels come from Heaven.  Hawai’i is heaven and you come from Hawai’i.  I am in the presence of angels.”

Reza talked about international wrestling and the coming together of nations to compete.  He said that everyone in America thinks that Iranians hate the USA but that’s wrong.  If you asked 70 million Iranians where they would want to live if not in Iran, they’d say USA.  It’s not the people, he said, it’s the politicians. 

And in wrestling, he said, the Iranian wrestlers want the USA to medal – when the USA wins medals, it’s good for wrestling.

Everything he said made sense to this angel.

Reza spotted Daniel Igali, the 2000 Sydney gold medalist from Canada.  He called Daniel over for introductions and photo ops.

After lots of pictures, we all shook hands and said we hoped to meet next year in Turkey for the Worlds.

Robbert Wijtman

Robbert is a CAP coach from Northern California with a passion for photography.  Both Coach and Press credentials hang around his neck.  He retired from being a government biochemist and bought a ranch in the Marble Mountain Wilderness.  He’s a club coach.  At this tournament he wears a green press vest, taking pictures of all the action.  We are trying to link his photos to the blog.  He does wonderful work.

CAP Field Trip (Day 2)

Julia said she would be at the venue at 4:00 p.m. to pick up the coaches for their trip to the Wrestling Palace.  She arrived at 4:01 p.m., apologizing for being late.  She had been baking pirogues for us and lost track of time.  Matt Hampton brought back some pirogues for the coaches who stayed at the venue.  To die for.

Cody Bickley (NCEP Manager for USAW), Ted Schanen (high school coach from Colorado), Keith Norris (the head coach for Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland), and John Grecco (club coach from Florida) made the field trip to the wrestling palace.  The wrestlers at the Palace go live on Friday nights so the CAP coaches didn’t get on the mat even though they had their wrestling shoes with them.  Two hours of live GR for a group that ranged from 15 – 22 years old.  Keith said that even when there was a mismatched pair, talent-wise, the superior wrestler showed no mercy.

Ted came back from the gift store at the Wrestling Palace with a Russian singlet – a red one (what else could it be?) – that he’ll wear on “Red Flag” workout days, signaling by his coaching outfit what level of intensity and focus he expects from his athletes.

Keith decided that Sambo shoes would make the perfectly unique souvenir to remember his time at the 2010 World Wrestling Championships.

Erasing a Bad Day on the Mat in a Foreign City

Our 3 wrestlers today exited the tournament way too early and in very preventable ways.  We regretted having to return at 7:30 p.m. for the US-less medal matches, but we needed to complete the filming for the day.

Steve Glassey (he runs Camp of Champions Wrestling Schools and is based in California) and Kurt McHenry (he has a club program in Northern Virginia) led several CAP coaches on a short walk to a take-out restaurant that served shawarma.  We ate spicy shaved chicken wrapped in a soft, thin, disc of pita bread, with a salad like cabbage-mix, tomato, cucumber, hummus, and a dill-yogurt dip.  One shawarma made a delicious and filling meal.

But while our stomachs were satisfied, our spirits were wanting and to remedy that we found a bar that sold spirits and beers.  I drank a cold, tall, dark Kozel and felt better.  Steve ordered a round of Jagermeisters for the willing at the table as a consoling chaser.  We walked back to the venue emotionally recharged, the sad day on the mats behind us.

A Farmer’s Market had been set up on the street that fronts the venue.  They sold meats, sausages, fish (dried and fresh), eels, plucked whole chickens, cheese, honey, cashews, pecans, peanuts, sunflowers, all sorts of vegetables, and fruits of every kind.  Russian grapes and apples taste good but different than US grapes and apples.  The place was jammed with people who must have been practicing for eating etiquette at the Cosmos.

Bathroom Layout

Our bathtub must have rusted out sometime in the past and management replaced it with one with adjustable legs and a sliding wooden façade that keep it elevated off the floor.  I think that the tub rusted out because our bathroom floor has a drain in the middle that is needed after every shower no matter how I pull and position the curtain.  But no curtain could possibly hold back the fire-hose pressure of water that jets from the hand-held showerhead and blasts the dirt and soap off your body as much as it washes it off.

Two heated pipes curve along the wall next to the toilet at head height to the person sitting.  We think the pipes are heated towel racks and that’s how we use them.  But the positioning forces anyone sitting there to lean to the right to avoid a wet towel or a burned ear.

As if that weren’t enough, the toilet seat is too small for a normal adult’s bottom, even without the forced awkward angle of use.  And they installed the toilet 6” – 8” too close to the wall.  Hot pipes, small seat, and no room to sit up straight means that no one reads in our bathroom; you need both of your hands free for balance.

2010 World Championships

Coaches Apprentice Program (Day 7)

The Kremlin Revisited

At 7:00 a.m. Cody Bickley led 10 of us on a mission to breech the walls of the Kremlin before wrestling started at 1:00 p.m.

We rode confidently on the metro and again emerged facing the Kremlin.  We walked through Red Square, saw Lenin’s tomb from the outside, took more pictures of St. Basils, and then retraced our steps to arrive at the Alexandrovsky Gardens just in time to see the goose-stepping changing of the guards at the eternal flame of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.  A soldier who died in December 1941 at the spot of the deepest Nazi incursion into Russia is buried there.

Cody shot video of the two replacement guards and their sergeant of the guard making the long solemn march to the tomb.  An officer walked to the right of the guards, the large red urns with soil from the Russian cities that withstood the heaviest fighting during World War II, separating him from his men.  As they came closer to the tomb, Matt Hampton realized that his gear was on the ground, directly in the officer’s path.  He tried to move it but he was too late.  Now not only his gear was between the officer and the tomb, but Matt was as well.  The officer’s eyes flared in disbelief as he sidestepped his American obstacle to keep pace with his men.  Participatory tourism.

We set a rendezvous spot for 11:45 a.m. and the group split for sightseeing. 

Those in our sub-group, Cody, Matt Oney, John Grecco and I, were the only ones to actually get inside the Kremlin walls.  We bought tickets at the Katufiya Tower, stored our bags in the lockers (mandatory), and headed in over the Trinity Bridge.  We walked through the Bell-Tower of Ivan the Great into Cathedral Square around which, not surprisingly, sit 3 cathedrals and a small church, all with golden onion domes:  the Assumption Cathedral, the Church of the Deposition of the Robe of the Holy Virgin, the Annunciation Cathedral, and the Archangel Cathedral.  The churches seem noble and exotic from a distance, somewhat worn from close up, and just plain old inside.  Given the grand exterior scale of the buildings, the cramped interiors came as a surprise.  The dim lighting barely illuminated the relics and the art works that seemed haphazardly displayed.  In several churches metal-reinforcing beams spanned the interior arches and domes.  In most of the cathedrals, the large, stern face of Christ, painted on the inside of the onion domes, looked down on those in the nave.

When we exited, we raced back across Red Square to walk through the jammed halls of St. Basil’s and then quick-timed the square once more to make the rendezvous.  A short metro ride later we were at the venue for the first day of competition exclusively devoted to men’s freestyle.

Freestyle Rules

Crowd.  Sorry Greco.  Sorry ladies.  Men’s freestyle rules in Russia.  Spectators showed up today for the first day when all of the matches were for Men’s Freestyle like voters in Chicago – early and often.  The stands were nearly filled even though the full house-ness of the venue was hard gauge because the place was designed for other sports.  Lots of empty seats can be seen beyond the main body of the crowd even though the functional viewing area is butt-cheek to butt-cheek filled.

And sitting with thousands of knowledgeable fans who ooh and ah at the nuances of the sport is a trip.  A casual fan might not think that anything was going on but the Russian crowd would be buzzing and getting ready to cheer wildly.

Wrestling.  Except for the fact that the USA guys didn’t stick around as long as we’d hoped, watching wrestling at the highest level gives a natural high.  Powerful men solving genius-level kinesthetic problems with grace and brutality.

Mat Girls.  Halfway through the tournament the tournament authorities added local color to the finals.  Two traditionally dressed (and traditionally beautiful) ladies aloofly escort each wrestler to the main mat with a sign that gives the wrestler’s country.  They wear red, spade-shaped kokoshniks, a patterned head-dress that frames the face like a halo, white linen rubashka shirts with poofy sleeves, and red sarafan dresses, embroidered in brocade, and somehow tucked to create curved pleats, like Christmas ribbon candy.  Tradition ends at the thighs because I doubt the dresses of old were hemmed to show off red mesh stockings and high heels (they weren’t allowed to walk on the mat).  Something old, something new . . .

Referees.  Sadly, some of the refs think that the crowd came to the Sport Centre Olimpiskiy to watch them.  Maybe they have relatives in the crowd and are, to a very, very small degree, right.  Those confused refs yell at the hard working wrestlers to pick up the pace, almost always make the clinch a misadventure by trying to over-control the positioning, and routinely throw up a hand showing Red’s move as Blue’s points.  The crowd responds with shrill whistles and a discontented growl.  We had two of those refs in this evening’s three final’s matches.  Goofing it up on the most important matches of the night detracts from the thousands of correct calls made by the refs throughout the day.

Shawarma Revisited

The presence of good food can’t be kept a secret among the hungry.  Steve led a large party of CAP foragers to the take-out place for a second night of spicy chicken shawarmas.  Just as good on day two as on day one.  For only 90 rubles each (@ $3) we ate with smiles on our faces while avoiding the food at the Cosmos that we paid an I-don’t-really-want-to-know-how-bad-I-got-ripped-off amount of money not to enjoy.  What a bargain!

Why We Came to Moscow

Yesterday, Cody placed Jamie Crossno with the Men’s Freestyle team.  Obe Blanc, the USA’s 55kg wrestler, was competing on the same day as Kristie Davis and Stephany Lee.  Jamie would film the match of Obe’s probable next opponent from the stands and then run the camera back to the warm up area for the coaches to view the video if they wanted.  It sounds simple but given the unpredictability of the guards at each entrance/exit – you never knew whether the guard whose door you passed through 4 times in the last 2 hours would allow you to pass through on the 5^th just minutes later – and the shortness of time between matches, the logistics of scouting by video posed a small challenge.

When I walked by the USA men’s warm up area, I saw Jamie holding his camera up and playing the video he just shot while John Smith and Zeke Jones broke down the opponent’s technique from a match less than 5 minutes old.  A prime example of NCEP’s CAP working fine. 

2010 World Championships

Coaches Apprentice Program (Day 8)

The Manchurian CAPPERs.

The Russians who run the Sports Centre must only own a 2-disc CD player that is set on repeat.  A 40-minute loop of Techno music played at volume 9 pounds out the beat over and over again.  Jamie Crossno’s theory behind the repetitive music is that we are being brainwashed.  Sometime in the future, we’ll all somehow hear the music again and, activated by some code word, we’ll all descend on Washington, D.C. where we’ll wake up, confused as to how we got there, and with an uneasy idea that we’ve done something terribly wrong.

Last Day on the Mats

Iranians in Moscow.  There must be a large Iranian community in Moscow because a group took up a large part of the stands next to where we were filming, waving Iranian flags, blowing small and large horns, singing songs, and rhythmically chanting prompted by a bearded man leading the cheers for the Iranian and the Russian wrestlers.

Knowledgeable Ears.  The crowd knows wrestling.  You can gauge a crowd’s knowledge by the per capita cauliflower ear ratio.  Kurt McHenry estimated the Moscow crowd’s ratio at 1.7:1.

The Opening Closing Ceremony.  They closed the World Championships by opening the last day of medal matches with traditional songs from six folk singers dressed in traditional garb – the women looked like gypsies and the men looked like Cossacks.  They danced to polka-like music, waved swords, threw their papakha hats into the air, and played an accordion.  It was festive, happy, brash music performed in bright costumes, and completely out of place.

Shawarma Trifecta.

We had to go back one more time.  The Eastern European burritos didn’t disappoint.  The poor owner probably beefed up his inventory of spicy chicken in the expectation of regular customers who showed up three days in a row around 5:00 p.m. each afternoon continuing to show up in the future.

Shoes on the Mat.

Matt Oney brought his wrestling shoes to the venue, put them on, and walked around.  Now he’ll always be able to say he wore those shoes on the mat at the 2010 World Championships in Moscow, Russia.

City in Black.

Black leather jackets abound in Moscow.  Black shoes, too.  And black pants of all descriptions.  With black t-shirts, black purses, black caps, black beards, you name it. If clothes didn’t come in black then 73.9% of Moscow would be naked.

Front Row Xenophobic Frustration.

For the finals on the last two days, many of the CAP coaches sat in the front row, almost as close to the championship mat as the high rollers and VIPS.  Other Americans sometimes wandered down to sit with us in the prime seats.

Maybe it was the lack of US medals and the quick exit by US athletes.  Maybe it was the inconstancy of the door guards and the inability to get back in where you just came out or, even stranger, the inability to get back out where you just came in.  Whatever it was, one of the Americans sitting with us in the front row for the finals (not a CAP coach) couldn’t keep his frustration in.

“I’m sick of these foreigners!”

“We’re the foreigners here,” said Kurt McHenry, laughing.

“Not to me!”

Flights Out. 

We check out tomorrow, busing to the airport and catching flights to New York or Atlanta, bringing to an end a week of watching great wrestling.