The 2011 NCAA Championships in Philadelphia were fantastic. While enjoying this year’s close team race between Penn State, Cornell and Iowa, I was struck by how much talent we have in the USA. The competition was fierce among the many tough and skilled athletes.

As national Greco-Roman coach for our U.S. team I could not help but think how we might capture this great wrestling talent and turn it into Olympic gold medals. I sat in the crowded Wells Fargo Center thinking about how we can help many of these wrestlers go on to the biggest sporting event in the world… the Olympic Games. My thoughts were, “why do so many of these great athletes end their wrestling careers after college? Why are there so few wrestlers that go on and compete in the two Olympic styles, Greco-Roman and freestyle?”

The Olympics! Without a doubt the Olympic Games are the most prestigious sporting event on the planet.

You think winning the NCAA Wrestling Championships is a thrill?! Think about the title, “Olympic Champion.” I can tell you it is the thrill of all thrills! Winning a medal in the Olympic Games or a World Championship is the ultimate high.

Even the big money professional athletes realize how special the Olympic Games are. That is why so many famous pro-tennis players and pro-basketball players try so hard to compete in the Olympics.

So what is it – with our sport? Why does it seem so difficult for the wrestling community to get together and work toward a common goal of creating a wrestling country that promotes all three styles of wrestling… folkstyle, freestyle and Greco-Roman?

Am I wrong when I imagine that “all” wrestling people in the USA feel proud when our country does well in world and Olympic competition? Don’t middle and high school folkstyle coaches walk a bit taller when they see the U.S. wrestlers winning these medals?

I get the fact that the three styles of wrestling in the USA have vastly different rules. But still…. it is wrestling! And the fact is - the wrestlers that wrestle and learn all three styles actually do better in high school and college wrestling than the athletes that specialize just in folkstyle.

For our country to win Olympic and world medals it takes a unified nation. It takes an organized and interrelated approach to guide and develop our talent. As the Greco coach I can tell you that we need help. We need a lot of help from our youth coaches throughout America. We need young wrestlers getting more experience and learning Greco and freestyle skills early in their careers. We need more kids wrestling Greco and freestyle in the spring and summer - throughout their high school and college years.

Why not? We are a smart country. We can surely figure out this dilemma.

These days more and more wrestlers are wrestling folkstyle year-round and do not experience Greco or freestyle at all. I submit that this is a huge problem, a problem that all wrestling enthusiasts, coaches and athletes will regret down the road.  You don’t have to be a brain surgeon to figure out that this system is not helping our nation’s Olympic effort.

It is frightening how few Greco wrestlers we have coming up through the youth ranks. It is amazing how well we have been able to do world-wide considering this fact.

In 2007 Greco-Roman actually won the World Team Title. In the last four Olympic Games the U.S. Greco team has won more Olympic medals than every country in the world, except for Russia.

Just think if we had a U.S. system that better developed Greco-Roman and freestyle wrestlers. I am telling you we would be beating the Russians consistently.

Agree or disagree? I would love to hear your comments, ideas and/or suggestions regarding our nation’s international wrestling effort. Please email me at sfraser@usawrestling.org.

As always…Let’s expect to win, in all styles of wrestling!

Anatoly Petrosyan has been with USA Wrestling for over 16 years as one of the most dedicated, hard working coaches in our country. He has coached our Greco-Roman wrestlers at the United States Olympic Resident Program located in Colorado Springs, Colorado with great success throughout this time period.

The many athletes that have benefited from Anatoly’s expertise include Matt Ghaffari (Olympic silver & world sliver medalist), Rulon Gardner (Olympic and world champion), Matt Lindland (Olympic silver & world silver medalist), Justin Ruiz (world bronze medalist), Joe Warren (world champion), Brad Vering (world silver medalist) and Adam Wheeler (Olympic bronze medalist) to name just a few. Without a doubt Anatoly Petrosyan has been a tremendous asset to our Greco-Roman wrestling program.

Anatoly is of Armenian decent. He was brought up and trained in the former Soviet Russian wrestling system. Before coming to the United States 19 years ago, he lived and coached wrestling in the country of Azerbaijan.

How ironic it is that our U.S. Greco-Roman Team won our first World Championship Team Title ever in our long history in 2007 in none other than Baku, Azerbaijan.

Not only has Anatoly been a great coach but he has been hilarious as well throughout his career.

I remember one practice when one of our resident athletes said to Anatoly that he could not practice on this particular day due to a break out of mat funk (impetigo or herpes) that he had acquired on his face. Anatoly, in front of the whole team, said something like “herpes…what is this herpes? This is nothing. This is normal stuff.” Then Anatoly proceeded to rub his own face on the infected wrestler’s face. “See…this is nothing! Let’s start practice.” Anatoly said.

Two days later when Anatoly came to practice with a full break-out of funk on his own face, he then admitted, “Okay…if you have the funk…you can miss practice.” To this day the team still has a good laugh about this incident.

There is another incident that stands out in my mind. This incident took place in a practice where we were scheduled to do a “grind match”, which is a two hour non-stop wrestling match. Rulon Gardner was in a spunky mood as he often was; when he challenged me two go the grind match with him. He said, “Fraser, You and I…let’s go today”.  My quick response to Rulon was … “I’ll go with you and I’ll kick your butt, big guy”!  Rulon then replied, “I’ll bet you $50 bucks that I can score 60 points on you in one hour”.  Now, this ticked me off a bit. He challenged me in front of the entire team and people were now egging me on saying, “come on coach, you going to take that?”

I may be a bit older but I still am competitive and now my competitive juices started to flow. I paused for a moment and then barked out; “let’s make it $200 chubby!” Now Rulon stopped to think for a moment. You have to know something about Rulon Gardner…when it comes to money, he is very cautious. He does not like to lose it. However he loves to win it. Then he said, “You’re on!”

Now of course I had NO intention on really going with him on this particular day. I was just giving him some smack talk. However, I looked over at him as he was warming up and I noticed that he was really serious.  I could tell he was in his more determined competitive mind set as he kind of glared at me from a distance.

So I immediately walked over to Anatoly Petrosyan, who was in charge of the practice, and I said, “Toly…whatever you do today, DON’T let Rulon and I wrestle. When you see us about to start wrestling, stop us and tell Rulon that you want him to go with someone bigger. Do not, I repeat, do not allow for us to wrestle, please!”

Anatoly agreed not to allow us to wrestle. He did not hear the bet we had made, but that was irrelevant in my mind.

So, now it is time to start the grind match. I am on the mat facing off with Rulon acting like I am anxious to start wrestling. Rulon, of course, is licking his chops. He is ready and anxious to put a huge whipping on me. Then, just as planned, Anatoly steps in-between us and says, “Rulon…I don’t want you to go with Steve Fraser. I want you to go with someone bigger today”. Rulon then says, “No Toly, I want to go with Fraser today”.  Toly again says “no”. Rulon says, “Coach Fraser wants to go with me, please let us go”. Toly again says “no”.

By this time I start to back away stating, “Hey… Anatoly is the boss here; maybe we will go some other time”. As I continue to walk away Rulon is getting enraged. Now Rulon starts pleading with Anatoly… “Please coach, please let us go today. I will give you $50”! Anatoly now hesitates for a moment but then says “no”. Rulon says, “come on coach, I will give you $100, please just let us wrestle!”

All of a sudden Anatoly says “okay! $100. You can wrestle Steve Fraser”.

So, I immediately go to Anatoly and whisper “Toly, why? Why did you allow this? I thought I told you NOT to let us wrestle!” Anatoly then whispers back to me, “Don’t worry…I will split the $100 with you and give you $50.

Twenty eight minutes and 60 points later, Rulon is $100 richer, Anatoly Petrosyan is putting $50 in his pocket and I am licking my wounds!

Anatoly Petrosyan has been a wonderful coach and friend to all of us.

Here is a list of four corner coaching tips or suggestions that wrestling coaches may want to think about when coaching their athletes.
 
1. Most coaching and teaching should take place in the practice room and not from the corner during the match.
 
From the corner during the match it is too late in most cases to teach anything major to the wrestler. Suggesting how to move during the match or giving too much instruction can be ineffective. To actually teach something by shouting it across the mat during the action can be a waste of time. Remember, the wrestler needs to be focused on what he/she is doing. It is very hard for the wrestler to be focused on the coach during the heat of the battle.
 
Masaaki Hatta who is a World silver medalist from Japan and NCAA champion from Oklahoma State gives his perspective: "All coaching should be done in wrestling room and far enough ahead of time.  The coach at corner should be calm and confident with poker face.  Show your emotion only if you think it will help the wrestler.  You represent the confidence of your wrestler on the mat."
 
Dave Dean, a former assistant coach at Michigan State, put it simply "in the spirit of being good corner coach, I won't give much information at all.  Go get 'em!  (That's my tip)"
 
2. Be encouraging and positive with your comments.
 
Using a lot of positive affirmations before the match and positive feedback during the match is a very good approach when encouraging athletes to perform.
 
Rob Hermann the 1996 Sydney Olympic coach, says he yells comments such as "looking good, nice move, stay focused, keep wrestling".  He tries to stay away from yelling specific moves because he wants the wrestler to be thinking on his/her own.

Les Gutches, who is a World Champion, states when he was an active athlete: "keep me informed of the time. Shout general things instead of intricate techniques, like - pick up the pace, looking great, keep working, you need a turn.  If I am getting frustrated or something particularly irritating happens during a match such as a bad call or late takedown tying the match, remind me to keep my composure and keep my cool. I want only positive things from the corner coach… no matter what - including the body language."

Matt Lindland, who is an Olympic and World silver medalist and now a successful MMA fighter, suggests some great tips: "Say everything in the positive. For example say - good defense or tough defense - as opposed to - don’t get turned.  Say - short arms, elbows in - as opposed to - don’t get arm thrown or watch the arm throw."
 
3. Try not to relay too much information or instruction from the corner.
 
All athletes (with the coach’s help) should establish a match strategy.  The corner coach, just prior to the match, might ask their athlete (instead of telling them) what their general match strategy is.  This will force their athlete to think of specific tasks or tactics that they will execute.
 
As the National Greco-Roman coach for the U.S., I try to get my athletes to design their own match strategy. I want them to take their match into their own hands. I want them to be thinking for themselves, instead of looking to me for what they should do. I think teaching our wrestlers to take control and make their own decisions on the mat is the way to go. Of course during practice (and right after the match) coaches can help guide their athletes on what might be a good or better match strategy.
 
Making decisions on the mat: How often do we see the athlete look over to his coach for help in deciding if he should take up or down? The athlete should know before the match what he will do in all situations. I don’t want to tell my athletes every move or decision they should make. I want them to OWN their decisions!
 
The worse thing I can do as a corner coach is to tell my athlete to choose down when in his heart he wants to choose up. Now he listens to me and chooses down but is thinking "dang, I really wanted to choose up" This indecision or possible small doubt that might now be in his head can ruin the wrestler’s confidence to perform in that moment. The wrestler needs to know – without doubt – that the decision they make is best for them and what they really want to do at the moment.
 
It’s a matter of teaching our wrestlers to think and act for themselves. We coaches need to cover the pros and cons of these decisions in the practice room so that when the wrestler is in the competition they already know what the correct decision is for them.
 
When one of my athletes look to me in the corner during the bout and asks "should I choose up or down?" I always throw it back at them – "What do you think? What do you want to do?" Now, if it is more of an obvious decision I might nudge them a bit by saying "What do you think…down maybe?" But it has to be their decision.
 
4. Allow your wrestler to focus and concentrate.
 
How many times do you see a coach from the corner yelling to his athlete while the athlete is on the mat (during a moment break), "Johnny, Johnny, Johnny" wanting his wrestler to look at him so he can give some instructions? There is no better way to break your athlete’s concentration then to force him to look at you during the match. Go ahead, give the instruction if you will - but there is no need for your athlete to look at you too. He should be able to hear you and keep his focus on the mat where it belongs! 

Darren Petty, who is a junior coach says, "As a coach in the corner my philosophy is to meet the athletes needs, not mine. This is his match, his career, and his goals. He needs to take control of his destiny"