Travis Paulson here. I'll be blogging from the trip to and during the World Championships on USA Wrestling Nation. Stay tuned for updates throughout the trip!

Everyone made it to Berlin in one piece; however we did have a few bumps in the road. For instance Mike Zadick left his passport in the front pouch of the seat ahead of him on his first flight, so he missed his connection in Chicago and had to catch the next flight out to Germany. Zack Esposito and Angel Escobedo missed their connection in Munich due to a slow security line because the guy ahead of them had a bunch of liquids he was trying to get through. I am starting a rumor that Escobedo was getting a Big Mac and that's why he missed his flight so feel free to spread that. All in all we are all settled in and getting started with some great training.
Once landing in Berlin we had an hour bus ride to a smaller town in Germany, where will be doing our training. We got settled in around noon and then worked out at five. During our work out some of the guys did a light drill and others just got in the sauna and worked some of the travel out of their system.
While in Germany our workout times are noon and 6:30 p.m. We are going at those times because that is when we will be wrestling at the world championships. This morning I went to breakfast a little late and there was a coaching meeting going on. They were just getting into the good stuff and Zeke Jones kicked me out of the meeting. In my opinion you should never kick a student out of class, I know Craig Sesker agrees with me. What is your opinion? Kendall Cross just walked in to my room and wanted to say everyone is looking good and crisp and he has a good feeling about the tournament coming up. I will end on a great note from an Olympic Champ!

We have been settled in for three days now and training has been going great! Day one was travel and light drill/sauna. Day two and three we had a workout at one and six. The first practice we drilled our areas of concentration and did two matches. I wrestled with my bro and he gave me a World Class look. In the afternoon, Brandon Slay put me through a tough swim workout. We did a ladder, it started with one down and back, then two, and then three, then three again and back down. After that, we did sprints, four down and back and four down. I’m not the world’s best swimmer so by the end I was pretty exhausted. After that we “cooled down” with a little water slide action.

I’m talking amusement park type water slides. They had one that you went down with a tube and it had sharp turns and one that was more straight down and you gained a lot of speed. It was a good cool down and we had a blast.

The first practice today, Brands ran the warmup for the first half hour. After that, we got in 16 minutes of live wrestling. I wrestled Slay two matches and we battled! He’s good for the first two periods but if it goes to the third the gas starts running low in the tank. I credit that to my hard pace. In between matches, I was able to watch Obe Blanc and J.D Bergman wrestle Germans at their weight and they both looked hungry and ready. They wrestled very aggressively and scored a lot of points. This afternoon we played 20 minutes of soccer as our warmup.

My team won a close game, and in my opinion it came down to me being a better goal tender than J.D Bergman. That and we had the German coach on our team and he could play some soccer. After that, we went with our individual coaches and worked on strategy for certain opponents. Zack Esposito had the job of wrestling me like the guy from Russia, Azerbaijan, and Iran. Zack did a great job of mimicking my competition and I feel very prepared for this tournament. After our last practice, we had a cookout and the food was outstanding. We had brats, chicken, and turkey pork right off the grill along with potatoes and salad. It was a perfect way to end our first training cycle.

Tomorrow is a day off and some of the guys are going to Berlin to walk around downtown while others are going to the training center to sauna or swim. The sauna/ swim option is better for the guys that are watching their weight.

All right, I’m going to bed. Ending on a good note, the team is getting some great training over here in Germany and we are in stride to make a huge impact at the World Championships.