Asics is bringing back a classic style of wrestling shoes with a new twist - 10 potential color combinations

We haven't heard with any degree of certainty how many of these styles will make it into production.

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!

The biggest drawback to covering the sport of wrestling is the emotional toll it takes on you when you hear programs are being dropped. Ever since I started following wrestling with Mat Talk On-Line, I've had to deal first-hand with many schools cutting the sport.

For all fans, it's extremely disheartening. Then when you have to follow up and write a story and actually talk to these men and women, you just get angry when they lie to you right to your face (or in many cases, the ear).

I've had the displeasure to talk with numerous AD's and administrators who have cut wrestling for one bad reason after another. Some refused to speak with me. Probably a smart move. I'm pretty street smart and can smell out B.S. pretty good.

I came under some criticism from some wrestling-advocate A.D.'s some years ago about my comments in a W.I.N. Magazine story because my characterization (or perhaps caricaturization) of those individuals as “scum bags.” That was then, this is now. I still don’t feel any positive vibe toward any athletic department that treats kids as property and just jettisons them off, never to be seen or cared about again.

Here's a list of some of the worst AD's I've had to deal with when they dropped wrestling. I'll go in reverse order.

5. Don Lemish, Longwood College, Farmville, Va.
Early on in my career, I was doing the boat-rocking thing with a small Divison II program in Virginia. The school was a real pipeline to the state high schools for teachers and coaches. Longwood cut wrestling in 2000 to prepare for a move to Division I (sound familiar?). In conversations with Mr. Lemish, I found there to be a gross overstatement of participation numbers, forfeits and a general skewing of the numbers. I started a petition drive on Mat Talk On-Line, and was met with a cease-and-desist from the school for unapproved use of their logo. Basically, I was using their logo on “Save Longwood Wrestling” banner ads and petitions. Mr. Lemish at one point called my writing “yellow journalism,” despite the fact my information came directly from the current head coach and a number of wrestlers on the team. Mr. Lemish took an early “retirement” from Longwood after some questionable room service bills racked up by the men’s basketball team on a road trip out west. The last straw was walking into Longwood College’s (now University) Athletic Department and delivering over 3,000 signatures from high school students who would never apply to Longwood, and another 3,000 of parents who would discourage their sons, daughters, nieces, nephews and grandchildren from applying.

Anyone heard of Longwood now and their great decision to move to Division I?

4. Richard McDuffie, Eastern Illinois University, Charleston, Ill.
The doomsday theory of the APR. In case you’re not familiar, the APR is the Academic Progress Rate. It measures graduation and retention rates for Division I programs receiving scholarship funds (or something close to that). I’m not an expert on the issue, but there’s a three-strikes policy of sorts. If your APR falls below 925 (50% graduation rate), then you could be subject to penalties. The first violation is usually just public notice, which amounts to nothing more than a slap on the wrist. The second and third warnings basically lose a school scholarship money, of which Eastern Illinois had little. Although I’m not 100 percent clear on how many violations it takes for a school to get to the worst penalty – revocation of NCAA membership – it hasn’t happened yet.

I called McDuffie back in 2006, shortly after Kenny Robertson was a match away from placing at 174 pounds for EIU. It’s the same school Matt Hughes of UFC fame attended.

McDuffie’s claims were the wrestling APR was so poor, it put the entire athletics program in jeopardy and had to be cut. Nevermind the fact EIU was one of the lowest-funded Division I wrestling programs and the school refused an invitation to become a charter member of the Western Wrestling Conference.

Nevermind the fact that during the two years EIU was listed in the APR reports, they were below the 925, but had improved from one year to the next. With small schools with limited scholarships, one kid who fails out and is on scholarship money can disrupt the entire ration. McDuffie didn’t care. He spilled out this doomsday scenario about EIU getting kicked out of the NCAA. About a year later, McDuffie was placed on administrative leave from EIU for accusations of sexual harassment.

What’s become of EIU’s athletics program in the meantime?

3. Thomas Boeh, California State University-Fresno, Fresno, Calif.

Probably my most public Q&A, not to mention my most spirited antagonization of an Athletic Director. I was on Boeh big time. Fresno State was a proud wrestling program and the wool he pulled over the eyes of former coach Dennis DeLiddo and then-coach Shawn Charles still makes me angry. Fresno State has been embroiled in lawsuits and Title IX problems since Boeh’s arrival. He refused to talk to me over the phone, but did answer a Q&A I’d sent to him when I was working at InterMat. He ducked the questions we most wanted answers to, changed questions to suit his answers, THEN posted an edited Q&A of my questions on the Fresno State athletics site with some shoddy “admin speak” responses. Admittedly, I wasn’t the most professional in dealing with Mr. Boeh. During our e-mail correspondence, I did fire barbs at him and his failure to run a department. Of course, that’s a matter of opinion, I’m sure people in the Fresno area still think that way. Fresno State brought in a young, eager coach in Charles and a dynamite recruiting class. Boeh decided to not answer any of my e-mails after I called him out on the plagiarism of my InterMat Q&A, not to mention failing to answer the important questions that the wrestling community wanted to know.

What’s become of Fresno State’s athletics program in the meantime?

2. Pat Kilkenny, University of Oregon, Eugene, Ore.
While my distain for Pat Kilkenny and Phil Knight circles around the poor execution of how the wrestling program was cut, the biggest issue I had with the entire situation is the fact Kilkenny, a man without a college degree or any experience as an A.D., got hired anyway. He was Oregon’s second-highest booster (behind Uncle Phil) and was instrumental in buying out the previous A.D.’s contract. An avid baseball fan, Kilkenny cut wrestling to add baseball and started pumping loads of money into the program. He wanted to keep pace with rival Oregon State, who had recently won the College World Series. The previous A.D. promised the program a new wrestling room, in return, the old wrestling room would be turned into a training room, mainly for the Ducks’ football program. A new room was never built and was one of the reasons Kilkenny sited in why the sport was cut. “Lack of a functional practice facility” was I believe the terminology. Oregon had an NCAA champion in Shane Webster in 2006. They cut the program in 2007. The most troublesome thing to me is how a man could be hired at an academic institution and have the life and legacy of athletes seeking degrees in his hands. The guy never even graduated. How can he be remotely qualified to oversee student-athletes? Then volunteer assistant Jason Powell needed a degree to even be considered for his coaching position. Nebraska was called to validate Powell graduated. Yet, the “degree requirement” for the A.D. position was notably missing. This one still stinks and is the reason I’ll never buy another Nike product again. I think Nike should get out of wrestling altogether. If “Nike U” doesn’t have wrestling, then Nike shouldn’t make money on wrestling. This one still leaves me with a bitter, bitter taste.

Of note: No one from the Oregon Athletics Department ever followed up on repeated requests for interviews.

1. Trev Alberts, Nebraska-Omaha, Omaha, Neb.

This story is being written as we speak. Much like Kilkenny, was highly under-qualified to run an athletics department. Hired on “name,” which was even a head-scratcher to begin with, Alberts has treated the wrestling program like second-class citizens since his arrival. The double speak coming from that department and the “sell out” nature of Chancellor John Christensen’s treatment of his “friend,” Mike Denney is despicable. It won’t do me or the wrestling community any good to assault Alberts, although there is no shortage of things people in the wrestling community want to say to and about the man.

Wrestling programs at some of the above schools were issued ransom numbers. Large sums of money required to endow a program, rather than keep it moving. On Omaha sports radio last week, Alberts threw out an $8-9 million figure. But let’s be real, he never intended to help wrestling or give football or wrestling a fighting chance to still compete. He’s throwing a lot of fuzzy math our way.

I thought Pat Kilkenny was the worst AD wrestling had ever seen. Looks like we’re wrong. The way Alberts and his cronies (those who hired him after a failed attempt at a broadcasting career at ESPN) led the football and wrestling coaches along, like there never was a problem, is unconscionable.

At least with UNO, we’ve got a coach and a family that will stand up for what they believe in. Alberts has no business being an A.D., his actions have shown this already.

They’ve already changed the key codes on the wrestling room doors, not even hours after the Board of Regents meeting Friday morning in Lincoln.

Without wrestling winning national championships, do we think we’ll ever hear about Nebraska-Omaha again? I’m sure those Summit League games will rack up some serious ratings and attendance numbers.

We need more Debbie Yow’s in the world. The former Maryland A.D. who holds the same perch at N.C. State is proactive in her approach to running an athletics department.

People like Alberts and Kilkenny personify all that is wrong with college athletics.

With the humbling experiment that was my Division II picks, why not subject myself to even more punishment by going round-by-round and picking things for the NCAA Division I championships. I mean, really, everyone has just as much of a chance to get more picks right based on their own favorite teams and personal associations than any of the “experts,” but we do it because it’s fun.

I spent time Monday night at my less than stellar digs at the Carol Hotel in Omaha filling out Division I brackets. I looked at the possibility of an upset, because they happen, and how things might shake out. Do I have reasons for things? I’d like to think so, but here’s my full view of how I think things could end up when we kick off the tournament.

Am I crazy? Have I lost it with some of these? Log-in and leave your opinions below.

125

1. Angel Escobedo (Indiana)

2. Troy Nickerson (Cornell)

3. Anthony Robles (Arizona State)

4. Matt McDonough (Iowa)

5. Zach Sanders (Minnesota)

6. Brad Pataky (Penn State)

7. James Nicholson (Old Dominion)

8. Andrew Long (Iowa State)

Quarters

Escobedo over Pataky

Robles over Long

McDonough over Sanders

Nickerson over Nicholson

Semis

Escobedo over Robles

Nickerson over McDonough

Round of 12

Sanders over Kjar

Nicholson over Garnett

Pataky over Notte

Long over Martinez

133 pounds

1. Jayson Ness (Minnesota)

2. Franklin Gomez (Michigan State)

3. Daniel Dennis (Iowa)

4. Mike Grey (Cornell)

5. Jordan Oliver (Oklahoma State)

6. Tyler Graff (Wisconsin)

7. Steve Mytych (Drexel)

8. Boris Novachkov (Cal Poly)

Quarters

Ness over Graff

Oliver over Mytych

Gomez over Fisk

Grey over Dennis

Semis

Ness over Oliver

Gomez over Grey

Round of 12

Novachkov over Fisk

Dennis over Bell

Graff over Sentes

Mytych over Mitcheff

141 pounds

1. Reece Humphrey (Ohio State)

2. Jamal Parks (Oklahoma State)

3. Alex Krom (Maryland)

4. Montell Marion (Iowa)

5. Chris Diaz (Virginia Tech)

6. Tyler Nauman (Pittsburgh)

7. Mike Thorn (Minnesota)

8. Elijah Nacita (Cal State-Bakersfield)

Quarters

Krom over Nacita

Humphrey over Bailey

Diaz over Thorn

Parks over Nauman

Semis

Humphrey over Krom

Parks over Diaz

Round of 12

Thorn over Mangrum

Nauman over Lipp

Nacita over Novachkov

Marion over Bailey

149 pounds

1. Brent Metcalf (Iowa)

2. Kyle Ruschell (Wisconsin)

3. Lance Palmer (Ohio State)

4. Frank Molinaro (Penn State)

5. Matt Kyler (Army)

6. Kyle Terry (Oklahoma)

7. Kyle Borshoff (American)

8. Kevin LeValley (Bucknell)

Quarters

Palmer over Stephens

Ruschell over Molinaro

Kyler over Terry

Metcalf over D’Alie

Semis

Ruschell over Palmer

Metcalf over Kyler

Round of 12

Terry over Fleming

LeValley over D’Alie

Borshoff over Stephens

Molinaro over Chamberlain

157 pounds

1. J.P. O’Connor (Harvard)

2. Jesse Dong (Virginia Tech)

3. Cyler Sanderson (Penn State)

4. Adam Hall (Boise State)

5. Steve Fittery (American)

6. Chase Pami (Cal Poly)

7. Bryce Saddoris (Navy)

8. Dustin Schlatter (Minnesota)

Quarters

O’Connor over Saddoris

Sanderson over Fittery

Dong over Schlatter

Hall over Pami

Semis

O’Connor over Sanderson

Dong over Hall

Round of 12

Schlatter over Brown

Pami over Moley

Saddoris over Vernon

Fittery over Erisman

165 pounds

1. Andrew Howe (Wisconsin)

2. Dan Vallimont (Penn State)

3. Jonathan Reader (Iowa State)

4. Colt Sponseller (Ohio State)

5. Jarrod King (Edinboro)

6. Nick Marable (Missouri)

7. Andy Rendos (Bucknell)

8. Alex Meade (Oklahoma State)

Quarters

Howe over Rendos

Sponseller over Reader

Vallimont over Marable

King over Meade

Semis

Howe over Sponseller

Vallimont over King

Round of 12

Marable over Young

Meade over Grayson

Rendos over Morningstar

Reader over Schmelyun

174 pounds

1. Mack Lewnes (Cornell)

2. Jay Borschel (Iowa)

3. Stephen Dwyer (Nebraska)

4. Chris Henrich (Virginia)

5. Josh Patterson (Binghamton)

6. Ben Bennett (Central Michigan)

7. Colby Covington (Oregon State)

8. Mike Benefiel (Oklahoma State)

Quarters

Lewnes over Covington

Dwyer over Glasser

Henrich over Benefiel

Borschel over Bennett

Semis

Lewnes over Dwyer

Borschel over Henrich

Round of 12

Benefiel over Henderson

Bennett over Manuel

Covington over Blanton

Patterson over Glasser

184 pounds

1. Dustin Kilgore (Kent State)

2. Kirk Smith (Boise State)

3. John Dergo (Illinois)

4. Max Askren (Missouri)

5. Mike Cannon (American)

6. David Erwin (Penn State)

7. Louis Caputo (Harvard)

8. Phil Keddy (Iowa)

Quarters

Smith over Caputo

Cannon over Foster

Kilgore over Askren

Dergo over LeBlanc

Semis

Smith over Cannon

Kilgore over Dergo

Round of 12

Askren over Craig

Keddy over LeBlanc

Caputo over Pucillo

Erwin over Foster

197 pounds

1. Jake Varner (Iowa State)

2. Hudson Taylor (Maryland)

3. Craig Brester (Nebraska)

4. Jesse Strawn (Old Dominion)

5. Trevor Brandvold (Wisconsin)

6. Brent Jones (Virginia)

7. Cam Simaz (Cornell)

8. Eric Lapotsky (Oklahoma)

Quarters

Varner over Beatty

Jones over C. Simaz

Taylor over Lapotsky

Brester over Strawn

Semis

Varner over Jones

Taylor over Brester

Round of 12

Lapotsky over Haynes

Strawn over Orozco

Brandvold over Beatty

C. Simaz over Gelogaev

285 pounds

1. Dan Erekson (Iowa)

2. Mitch Montiero (Cal State-Bakersfield)

3. David Zabriskie (Iowa State)

4. Mark Ellis (Missouri)

5. Jared Rosholt (Oklahoma State)

6. Zach Rey (Lehigh)

7. Nathan Everhart (Indiana)

8. Jarod Trice (Central Michigan)

Quarters

Zabriskie over Ellis

Erekson over Dudziak

Montiero over Rey

Rosholt over Trice

Semis

Erekson over Zabriskie

Montiero over Rosholt

Round of 12

Rey over Steele

Trice over Berhow

Ellis over Brantley

Everhart over Dudziak

From http://GetWrestlingStrength.com

Take advantage of the warmer weather and get the wrestlers training outdoors.

Get them OUT of the weight room and get them moving their bodies. Check the video below and see how these wrestlers train HARD and have a blast doing so, a lil' mix of indoor and outdoor training.

Start the workout with a basic compound lift, perhaps inside the gym / weight room.

Then hit the outdoor training, if possible at a playground. The playground workout allows you to hit sprints, pull ups of all variations, push ups of all variations, jump on and over benches and you can even throw in aggressive hand fighting and pummeling as part of an outdoor circuit!

Test drive the workout and drop me an e mail with any questions or visit me at http://GetWrestlingStrength.com

In Strength,

--Z--

What do I know about Division II wrestling? For starters, it's an exciting tournament that should return to form in Omaha. Last year, I attended my first Division II championships and saw some great action, but there was just that "not so great" feeling when realizing the tournament was pushed into a rec center-type gym, with basketballs bouncing and guys doing squats in the gym overlooking the mats during the playing of the Star Spangled Banner.

Now, I don't proclaim to be the world's foremost expert on Division II, but I like filling out brackets. So here's my Top 8 at each of the 10 weight classes in Division II. Feel free to pick them apart, because after all, if you're picking them apart, you're reading them, right?!

I don't live off the rankings when making picks. Sometimes its a gut feeling, sometimes it's just an upset stomach. I'm sure people who know Division II better than I are going to go "WHAT THE!" It's expected. I'm throwing a lot of past results out the window, because what does a previous match mean at this level? Zippo.

For the record, I have no association with any Division II wrestling program. I've covered D2 matches around the country the last 10 years, but the nearest Division II program to my hometown is ... like six hours away. I'm also not buoyed by regionalism. I've lived in Virginia, Pennsylvania, Minnesota and Colorado. That being said ...

And these are never personal. And I might have no idea what I'm talking about.

125 pounds
1. Arsenia Barksdale (Adams State)
2. Seth Wright (New Mexico Highlands)
3. Matt Oliver (Newberry)
4. Tyler Mumbulo (Upper Iowa)
5. Tommy Edgmon (Fort Hays State)
6. Terrell McKinney (Nebraska-Omaha)
7. Russell Weakley (UNC Pembroke)
8. Kenny Trumbetta (Seton Hill)

133 pounds
1. Cody Garcia (Nebraska-Omaha)
2. Shane Valko (Pitt-Johnstown)
3. Naveed Bagheri (San Francisco State)
4. Laramie Shaffer (Augustana)
5. Corey Bowers (Gannon)
6. Joe Morrison (Nebraska-Kearney)
7. Kyle Pedretti (Upper Iowa)
8. Scott Berens (Central Oklahoma)

141 pounds
1. Mario Morgan (Nebraska-Omaha)
2. Jeremy Parker (Limestone)
3. Josh Hensley (Adams State)
4. Jay Sherer (Augustana)
5. Andre Harrison (Fort Hays State)
6. Adam Hluschak (East Stroudsburg)
7. Cory Bloodgood (Central Missouri)
8. Gabe Suarez (St. Cloud State)

149 pounds
1. Craig Becker (UW-Parkside)
2. Esai Dominguez (Nebraska-Omaha)
3. T.J. Hepburn (Nebraska-Kearney)
4. Mitch Smith (West Liberty State)
5. Nate Herda (Augustana)
6. Latra Collick (Newberry)
7. Derek Stolarzyk (Upper Iowa)
8. Kevin McElhaney (Gannon)

157 pounds
1. Danny Grater (Fort Hays State)
2. Sean Byrnes (Newberry)
3. George Ivanov (Nebraska-Omaha)
4. Andy Lamancusa (Mercyhurst)
5. John Sundgren (St. Cloud State)
6. Marcus Edgington (Augustana)
7. Michael Williams (UNC Pembroke)
8. Dillon Bera (UW-Parkside)

165 pounds
1. Josh Shields (Mercyhurst)
2. Travis Eggers (Upper Iowa)
3. Ryan Pankoke (Nebraska-Omaha)
4. Tad Merritt (St. Cloud State)
5. Gavin Nelson (Augustana)
6. Blake Malloy (Fort Hays State)
7. Victor Carazo (Grand Canyon)
8. Kyle Keane (Pitt-Johnstown)

174 pounds
1. Marty Usman (Nebraska-Kearney)
2. J.J. Davis (UNC Pembroke)
3. Aaron Denson (Nebraska-Omaha)
4. Mitch Norton (Upper Iowa)
5. Curtis Chenoweth (Newberry)
6. Shamus O'Grady (St. Cloud State)
7. Chris Barrick (Shippensburg)
8. Matt Bailes (Central Missouri)

184 pounds
1. Austin Boehm (Nebraska-Omaha)
2. Bryant Blanton (Newberry)
3. Tim Darling (Kutztown)
4. Shane Mallory (East Stroudsburg)
5. Derek Skala (St. Cloud State)
6. Charlie Pipher (Western State)
7. Derek Ross (Nebraska-Kearney)
8. Lucas Haag (UW-Parkside)

197 pounds
1. Jacob Marrs (Nebraska-Omaha)
2. Donovan McMahill (Western State)
3. Keeno Griffin (Newberry)
4. Ty Copsey (Augustana)
5. Kyle Sand (Adams State)
6. Mitch Knapp (West Liberty State)
7. Luke Munkelwitz (St. Cloud State)
8. Scott Snyder (Kutztown)

285 pounds
1. Brady Wilson (Minnesota State-Mankato)
2. Elijah Madison (Nebraska-Omaha)
3. Dustin Finn (Central Oklahoma)
4. Charlie Alexander (Western State)
5. Jacob Kahnke (St. Cloud State)
6. Steven Franklin (San Francisco State)
7. Frank "Niall" McGrath (Gannon)
8. Kevin Bolinsky (Kutztown)

CAGWA / USAW Donates Approx. $46,000 in the 09-10 Season

CAGWA / USAW

From September 1^st, 2009 to June 1^st2010 the California Age Group Wrestling Association has donated approx. $46,000 back to the wrestling community.

In the last two years CAGWA hasdonated $28,500 to CSFU wrestling.

CAGWA has increased in membership by 83% from 2005-2010. This is do to our countless hours put forth by our executive board before and after our season which runs in the winter time and this year for the first time in the spring. We would like to thank our full membership which includes our coaches, wrestlers and parents involved in our organization.

We look forward to making further changes in the 2010-2011 season that will further our efforts to help in the growth of our great sport of wrestling at the k-8 level.

The following list consists of contributions CAGWA made in the 2009-2010 season:

September 2009:

-Donated $1,000 to CSFU to help host one weight class at the NWCA all-star match.
-Donated $250 in tickets to the all-star match to Mt. San Antonio CC to help their wrestlers attend the event.
-Donated $250 in tickets to the all-star match to Santa Ana CC to help their wrestlers attend the event.


February 2010:

-Donated $250 per mat to clubs who supplied mats for the CST2 tournament. 11 mats were used. $2,750 dollars donated
-Donated $250 To each team who worked a table at the CST2 tournament. 13 teams participated and a total of $3,250
was donated
-Donated the medals at the CIF Southern Section Masters Tournament. Valued at $750


March 2010:

-Donated $5,000 to the Middle School National Team members who were from CAGWA. This paid for 50% of their trip.
-Donated approx. $14,000 to CSUF wresting by way of $1 per entry and a raffle fundraiser.
-Donated $7,000 back to the teams that participated in the raffle by way of them receiving 50% of the money they raised
during the raffle.
-Donated 2 wrestling mats ($12,000) to the two teams that sold the most raffle tickets.
( Santa Ana Wolf Pack and Imperial Valley Kids Wrestling Club)

Eddie Ruiz
Chairman / CEO
California Age Group Wrestling Association

www.cagwa.com
CAGWA- USAW

The former Iowa Hawkeye sat down and discussed his new project the Clinch Gear 5 Star Camp. Ray Brinzer is known for a lot of different things throughout his long and colorful career. One thing that people often leave out his the amazing amount of success he has already had as a coach.

As the co-founder of the Angry Fish Wrestling Club along with his High School teammate Ty Moore they created a system that produced: NCAA National Champions Coleman Scott and Jarrod King, NCAA Champion and World Silver Medalist Jake Herbert and NCAA Champion and MMA Standout Phil Davis. Many other wrestlers were involved in this program that produced a staggering number of age-level national championships for a small club. Coach Brinzer has also served as a head coach for Team Iowa and Pennsylvania, 2007 Cadet Greco World Team Coach and was named the 2006 Cadet Greco Coach of the Year by USA Wres

We sat down with Ray and discussed this new camp. I have met a lot of people in our sport and must say I have met very few that share the same passion for the sport that Coach Brinzer does. He designed this camp to help wrestlers learn more about where they are at as an athlete, help them learn about the recruiting process and provide them with the information and tools they need to bring themselves to another level. The camp will also benefit college coaches who are trying to maximize their thin recruiting budgets and find the kids that best fit their programs. At the end of the camp coaches will have access to invaluable information on 112 student athletes. Below is our interview with Coach Brinzer.

Read the entire interview here:

If you have a wrestler in your family, chances are, they have some interest in mixed martial arts, or MMA. Perhaps they watch episodes of the weekly reality series "Ultimate Fighter" and pay-per-view events from UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championships) and similar organizations that draw huge numbers of fans to arenas and at home watching on TV.

Perhaps your wrestler has talked about enrolling in an MMA training facility or camp to learn new skills and enhance their conditioning for wrestling. They may have even expressed an interest in an MMA career for themselves, having seen a number of top former amateur wrestlers find success in MMA competition.

As a parent, you may have even considered encouraging your wrestler to explore the possibilities of MMA, whether it's for the multi-disciplinary approach that enhances wrestling skills, the opportunity for greater conditioning in the off-season, or with the hope that of a potentially lucrative career.

For all these reasons, it makes sense for wrestlers and their parents to learn more about mixed martial arts... what to consider when selecting an MMA training program... and perspectives on launching a possible MMA career.

HIGH SCHOOL COACHES WEIGH IN ON MMA
Steve Goudy is head wrestling coach at Troy Christian High School, back-to-back Division III team champions at the Ohio state tournament in 2007 and 2008... crowning four individual champions in March 2008. The Eagles are one of the top-ranked programs in the U.S., going up against other prep powerhouses such as Blair Academy (New Jersey), St. Paris Graham (Ohio) and St. Edward in suburban Cleveland.

"My guys are into (MMA), following it regularly," according to coach Goudy. "They get together to watch pay-per-view events."

"Guys I train here are wrestling towards a college scholarship. From what I understand, most MMA guys are coming out of college, not high school... It's a huge leap from amateur wrestling to MMA. You need that college experience, the physical and mental maturation."

"Our sport is such a good base for MMA," continues Goudy. "All those years of training, all that conditioning, not to mention specific skills they've acquired."

When asked if MMA could serve as a means to get young people into amateur wrestling, Steve Goudy responds, "This generation is tuned into MMA. However, I haven't had any kid come up to me, saying they want to start wrestling because of MMA, but that could happen down the road.

A PARENT'S PERSPECTIVE ON WRESTLING AND MMA
Mike Lyons can offer a multi-faceted view of wrestling and mixed martial arts, as a former Division I athlete himself (he was a gymnast at Iowa State)... as someone who runs CrossFit Troy, a gym in Troy, Ohio that serves a wide range of customers, including local high school wrestlers... and, as a father of Mitch Lyons, a former high school and college wrestler who, having successfully competed as an amateur in mixed martial arts, is now becoming an MMA professional.

"From what I see, high school kids don't express much interest in getting into MMA," says Mike Lyons. "It's not a high school sport. It doesn't fit the high school mindset of being on a team."

"That said, a lot of high school kids love MMA. They watch pay-per-view events, follow it online."

"Some guys are getting into jiu-jitsu, muay thai, wanting to learn one discipline at a time."

"By its name, mixed martial arts requires competing in more than one style. Kids haven't had a chance to learn multiple skills like boxing, wrestling, judo, etc."

When asked what it's like to see his son Mitch compete in MMA events, Mike Lyons responds, "It's shocking to see at first - no headgear, minimal gloves. You know how wound up some parents of wrestlers are at wrestling matches? Multiply that by ten (for MMA)."

"As a parent of someone in MMA, my mindset has changed... I appreciate the discipline of the referees and officials... It looks like a free-for-all to novices but a fight is called right away if a fighter is in trouble."

"MMA is safer than boxing. In MMA, fights are stopped right away, whether someone is knocked out, or because of a submission hold."

"We haven't seen (Mitch) get beat up yet. I may feel differently if that happened."

"Wrestling would be considered the foundation for MMA success... All matches go to the mat. A good wrestler can take a boxer down. You can teach a wrestler striking skills pretty quickly. In fact, I think it's easier to teach a wrestler how to punch, than it is to teach a boxer all that's involved in wrestling."

"Amateur wrestling can be a ‘feeder' for MMA," says the owner of the CrossFit gym in Troy, Ohio. "After they get their degrees, they want to continue wrestling... My son was lost after his wrestling career was over. MMA is a way to leverage all he learned and all his hard work, and possibly a way to make a good living."

To read the complete article and get more great training tips and information for wrestlers and parents, check out wrestlingcampguide.com or order your copy of The Ultimate Guide to Wrestling Camps today at http://www.wrestlingcampguide.com

Consider the following quote:

"Consider this possibility: after all these months, people start to think it's time for the recession to end. The very thought begins to renew confidence, and some people start spending again - in turn, generating visible signs of recovery. This may seem absurd, and is rarely mentioned... but economic theorists have long been fascinated by such a possibility."

-What if a Recovery Is All in Your Head?, by Robert J. Shiller, Commentary, NY Times: Beyond fiscal stimulus and government bailouts, the economic recovery that appears under way may be based on little more than self-fulfilling prophecy.

We're all familiar with the concept of the self-fulfilling prophecy, where beliefs and attitudes bring about results based on those beliefs, attitudes, expectations, etc. Coaches encourage athletes to "expect to win". The expectation to win can bring about the behavior that results in a positive outcome - the extra effort is given, priorites are established, the will to continue despite outward appearances is exercised - are all derived from the expectation to win. As you can see from the quote above, this extends to group behavior as well as individuals. Indeed, sober-minded academic types like economists speculate that economies are driven by expectations. In fact, the billions of dollars invested in advertising and marketing attests to the fact that the perceptions and attitudes of specific groups can be influenced to bring about changes in group behavior. Just watch the Superbowl commercials this weekend, and consider the investment companies will make to superimpose on your brain the images they want you to remember.

In this context we wrestlers, wrestling coaches, and fans are perhaps our own worst enemy. The demise of wrestling is predicted, and evidence is supplied for it, by the very people who have experienced the powerful impact of wrestling and its ability to inspire passion and devotion. No need to cite the life changing stories, or the heroic efforts of wrestlers - we're all familiar with them. But we don't follow our old coach's admonition to "expect to win". As a result, we don't inspire confidence in administraors, potential sponsors, or others who can help propel wrestling forward in terms of increased participation, economic impact, and media access. Likewise, we don't inspire our fellow citizens of 'wrestling nation' to make the extra effort, to see past the current financial environment, or to picture wrestling as a thriving sport in every regard. We're victims of our self-prophecy. We should expect to win, however.

First of all, wherever people have come together and formed civilized groups, wrestling has been part of the culture. (Check out this story from The SI Vault and see current and historical examples of wrestling culture: A Man of the Ash ). This is true today. Wrestling virtually hides in plain site. It's everywhere. Ask any mother with two sons - wrestling happens. Wrestling has not only existed through history, and in every civiliaztion, but it has been immortalized in religion, mythology, art, literature, and scientific history. Leaders, statesmen, and heroes from earliest times have been wrestlers. No sport has a history as rich and historic as wrestling, and it continues today. Despite the loss of college programs over the last few decades, wrestling is growing geographically. High school and youth wrestling has devoted followers in the south and other 'non-traditional' wrestling areas. More wrestling is on television and other media outlets today than ever. Our problem is not the importance or popularity inherent in wrestling, it is us.

We, as a community, don't expect to win. We are increasingly expecting defeat, i.e. the loss of programs and lack of opportunity for athletes to compete. In addition, we are not being creative in terms of marketing or presentation (rules, competition formats,'production values' etc.). We wring our hands while MMA has risen from obscurity to a powerful ecomic and demographic force, with an international following. We must face the fact that we are the stewards of the greatest athletic pursuit in history, and we're stumbling because we don't expect to win. Therefore, we don't seek success with total abandonment and confidence, the way Iowa seeks it's next national title.

It's time to put our hands to the plow with committment, creativity, and the willingness to change. We can do this with the knowledge that we will succeed, because our history demonstrates this truth. It's time to expect to win.

As I read the 'Embarrassing Performance' message board, I feel compelled to weigh-in (pun intended) on the subject, mostly to provide a historical perspective and -- if successful -- to channel the collective intellect to focus on 'How the US wrestlers can improve their performance.'

First, let me say there seems to be one thing everyone agrees upon: The performance of the U.S. men's Greco-Roman and freestyle wrestlers in Moscow was awful. That said, dwelling on the fact is counterproductive. Instead, let's harness our experience and intellect to help remedy the problem.

Perhaps some history -- from an insider's point of view -- would be an instructive point of departure.

In 1972, the US freestyle team won 6 medals (3 gold, 2 silver, and a bronze). Arguably the best performance since the USSR first entered international wrestling competition with a vagabond team in the 1952 Helsinki Olympics.

As National coach in 1984 and manager of the Olympic team, I would like to claim that the 9 medals (7 gold and 2 silver) in the Los Angeles Olympics was superior, but that would be disingenuous. There is just no way to compare the '72 Olympics with the boycotted '84 Games.

In the ensuing 3 World Championships after the Munich games, U.S. freestyle wrestlers earned just 1 gold medal and 1 bronze medal. In '73, Lloyd Keaser became the first black wrestler in history of the world to win a gold medal defeating Nasuraleav (USSR) in front of tens of thousands of Iranians urging him to victory and Ben Peterson followed his Olympic gold with a bronze medal. Then the drought -- in 1974, I was the highest US place finisher with an embarrassing 5th. In 1975, again no US wrestler medaled.

Reasons that impacted performance but not excuses:
1. Tehran, Istanbul, and Minsk were unfriendly environments for US athletes.
2. Limited foreign competition opportunities--Tblisi tournament followed by 3 dual in the USSR and the Toledo World Cup followed by 3 duals in the USA were the extent of international competition.
3. The team selection was just weeks before the competition, followed by a short training camp mostly with few workout partners.
4. The team traveled just days before competition with little time to acclimate to the time zone or living conditions.

Yet in 1976, the same U.S. wrestlers and coaches matched the '72 team with 6 medals (though the make-up was less impressive: 1 gold, 3 silver, and 2 bronze).

Reasons that impacted performance:
1. The trials were early in the spring; followed by a pre-wrestle-off training camp where all of the top 6 finishers--who had any hope of making the team--attended. A typical practice for me would be: 1st workout partner, Lloyd Keaser, next John Peterson, next Lee Kemp and when practice finished a scrawny high school wrestler--hired to clean the mats--would tap me on the shoulder and meekly ask me if I would go a few takedowns with him (Dave Schultz).

2. After a short break to return home and regroup, the final wrestle-offs were in Brockport--just an hour or so bus ride from Montreal--followed by a four week training camp. Well attended I would add. Why? -- because the aspiring future US wrestlers were offered the opportunity to go to Montreal as workout partners and stay at a McGill University fraternity house rented by the organization and experience the Olympic movement.

3. Aside from the USA boxers partying into the wee hours the night before our round robin matches, the conditions were generally friendly in Montreal (no time zone change or food adjustments).

Similarly, next year, Istanbul will be unfriendly for US wrestlers but London in 2012 will be a friendly environment. I challenge the coaches to organize the appropriate try-out and training schedule, but more importantly, to devise a set of skills, tactics, and strategies for all of our wrestlers that will provide each of them a plausible path to victory no matter who the opponent. This is no easy task. Before the USSR dismantled, I only had to prepare for Karlsson of Sweden--silver in both freestyle & Greco-Roman in Munich; Date, Japan --Olympic Champ; Barzegar, Iran --World Champ; and just one Soviet--two-time World Champ Ashuraleav. Today the depth may not be greater but the breadth of competition is certainly much wider, i.e. Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Armenia, Belarus. to name a few -- in lieu of the one Soviet.

To the wrestlers: you face the biggest challenge. Only you can implement the plan. You know your weaknesses and must correct them or learn how to mask them. For example, no matter how much time I spent lifting weights, I knew I was never going to become the strongest or fastest, so I made certain strength and speed were not going to be the deciding attributes in my matches. Likewise, the wrestler knows his strengths -- learn how to impose them on each of your opponents. For example, my kinesthetic awareness in a scramble and my ability to master exhaustion were superior to my opponents, so I devised the tactics and strategies so that these attributes would decide the winner.

This leads me to another misnomer: Dan Gable won because of his conditioning--NOTHING COULD BE FURTHER FROM THE TRUTH (and the Russians knew that).

Several bloggers mention that Dan Gable stated, "our guys were not doing a good enough job wearing down their opponents." And they then go on to interpret that to mean that Dan is suggesting our U.S. wrestler need to be in better shape. Dan is not suggesting better conditioning. He is suggesting that our wrestlers must master a very subtle skill of imposing their 'will' on their opponents, something he did extremely well and what the Russians feared most.

The Russians combed the countryside to find that elusive wrestler with the 'will' to stand-up to Dan Gable. They thought it was Ashuraleav from Mahachkala, not so -- Dan prevailed. As the Soviet National Coach once said to me, "When conditioning becomes the deciding factor, we will change our training habits. Until then, we will stay with our current strategy: better technique."

Dan Gable won the Munich Olympics without any his opponents scoring a single point. And if my memory serves me well, he scored at least 3 points in every match. Conditioning was not the determining factor in his victories that most think--3x3 minutes, 2x3 minutes, 5 minutes plus overtime, it didn't matter Dan would have won.

The Russians have a similar view towards the rules: As long a wrestler gets 1 pt for a takedown, 2 or 3 if he takes his opponent to his back in the process and his opponent must stay in the center of the mat and wrestle, guess what? The better wrestler wins. And all us who were privileged to be in Moscow, saw it masterfully displayed. Easy enough!

Which brings us to the difference in rules between folkstyle and freestyle. If it were not for the experience of our collegiate wrestlers and the impact on the US Olympic effort, I would not enter this arena. But I will take the risk.

Some have used the soccer-football debate, which is often used as a comparison. I often bring it up for amusement among my international friends, which elicits an immediate response.

"They are different sports and beyond comparison," they demand. "The only similarity is that they are both played on a large field and use a ball--a very different balls I may add. In soccer we are in constant motion with virtually no rest or time-outs. In football the players are draped with equipment, hug each other for 30 seconds and then run a play for 5 seconds. Completely different sports," they argue. I agree, the world is better having both distinctly different sports.

I am not of the opinion that we should necessarily change our folkstyle rules to the international rules. I do feel, however, that the folkstyle rules need improving. Our folkstyle has morphed into a discipline that more closely resembles grappling than wrestling.

Allowing wrestlers to crawl out-of-bounds or use the out-of-bounds as a strategy to avoid wrestling with impunity does not comport with either sportsmanship or American ethics. And interpreting the situation to be a stalemate when one wrestler purposely rolls to his back, grabs the ankles or feet of his opponent, just astounds me. At the least the culprit is stalling.

The officials should immediately start counting, when he reaches 5, if the countering wrestler is unable to get off his back, guess what? The attacking wrestler has control and a takedown and back points should be awarded. But I will let you sort that out.

I am more concerned with the effect folkstyle wrestling currently has on the aspiring U S international wrestlers. When I was a collegiate wrestlers there were significant crossover skills. In fact, to the befuddlement of many of our Russian opponents, several of us -- Ben Peterson in particular -- deployed a switch as an effective counter. Today, wrestling folkstyle seems to instill negative habits and little crossover skills. Given the current folk style rules, our international wrestlers are faced with some difficult decisions.

I am tempted to make some recommendations, but the NCAA coaches would not look kindly on my suggestions.

Stan Dziedzic

What Value does Wrestling bring? I have been thinking a lot about value lately. If I want to move up the coaching ladder, I need to find ways to bring value to an AD that may be looking to hire me (I'm not applying for any jobs at the moment but as I get older I need a more solid plan for my future). If I want to grow my business I need to find ways to bring more value to coaches that want to come to camp and if I want to sell more golf outing sponsorships I need to find a way to bring value to the local businesses.

This lead me to write a post that was inspired by an internet marketer and I just wanted to poll wrestling fans as to what value does wrestling bring into your life? How can we use that to grow wrestling and bring in more fans looking for similar value?

The truth is for wrestling to survive it has to be important to more than the current fan base and for that to happen we have to find out how to bring value.

Check out the post and please leave me a comment.

I was initially disappointed. 

The Fox Searchlight release of “Win Win” wasn’t set to be in any of the major movie theaters here in Colorado Springs. I’d read the reviews, seen the trailer and knew the background of the wrestler-turned-actor Alex Shaffer.

The promotional leg of “Win Win” even got some ad space on TheMat.com and other wrestling websites. I was wondering if I’d get a chance to see it.

Sure enough, Kimball’s Twin Peak, a small independent theater in downtown Colorado Springs, was there to end my disappointment. I’d never been to one of those “indie” theaters. I’d always wanted to check out some of the lesser known independent movies. I’m a bit of a movie buff and really don’t have any sort of aversion to movies. My DVD collection validates this claim. I like stupid humor, sports comedies, drama, action and some outright horrible flicks – we can sometimes call those “cult” films.

A Netflix account is a wonderful thing, allowing me to see such gems as “My Name is Bruce,” a terrible but lovable homage to B-movie action star Bruce Campbell. You might know him from the Evil Dead movies and Army of Darkness. 

Anyway, I searched out Kimball’s Twin Peak to see what upcoming movies they’d be showing, hoping “Win Win” would be one of their selections.

Sure enough, this past weekend, the Paul Giamatti movie hit Colorado Springs, so my wife and some friends set out to check it out. The Indie movie experience is a good one. While I didn’t partake, the opportunity is there to get an adult beverage and something to eat while in the theater. Things more “upscale” than my typical selection of popcorn and a large Cherry Coke. It’s one of the few times I’ll actually drink a “full flavor” soda. I don’t drink much of it anymore, but the movies are my one excuse.

As far as “Win Win” is concerned … I loved it. I loved every second of it. While we are feinding for the next “Vision Quest,” there have been few movies that put wrestling in a positive light. More and more are coming out, I have a list of things I still need to watch. Recently, I watched Legendary on Netflix. A sound effort, even though it was made by faux-wrestling WWE studios.

“Win Win” was a good story, a good plot, predictable at some points, and unpredictable at others. One thing I did like about the movie (without spoiling it for you) is our young wrestling hero didn’t come out like you might expect in the movies.

It came across as very real. Scenarios that enter the personal lives that impact performance. Life stories with sport as the backdrop. “Win Win” isn’t exactly a true “feel good” movie with the sports sequence. Wrestling scenes are truly believable, much of that coming from Shaffer, a New Jersey state wrestling champion making his acting debut. 

For nearly two hours, I sat and stared at the screen in the small auditorium. “Win Win” is funnier than you’d expect. From a wrestling perspective, some of the funnier moments to me were lost on many in the audience, some of the funniest scenes drew big laughs from the crowd, but I’m sure I found things funnier for different reasons than my wife did. She’s not too knowledgeable (yet) about wrestling, but she’s been around me and the sport long enough to pick up on some things the average movie-goer wouldn’t quite pick up.

I realize this review isn’t like those in Hollywood. There won’t be any Rotten Tomatoes type of acting critiques. This was just a good movie, one I’d recommend to pretty much anyone – wrestler or non-wrestler. 

Do yourself a favor. Find out where this is playing in your area and go see it. The only thing that threw me off was the R-rating. Sure, there’s a few choice words that the MPAA might deem “R,” but I’ve seen a lot more R-rated things in PG-13 movies than I did in “Win Win.” 

If you can’t see this in the theaters, just hold out until the DVD is available. It’s one of the best movies I’ve seen this year. 

Basically, I loved the movie and that’s all I’m really trying to get say. 

Here are the shots I took at US Open. All the action is from the finals and a few of the wrestlers warming up prior to the start of the last round.

http://wrgr.me/4xETx

Adidas America has released the 2011-2012 wrestling shoe models - the Mat Wizard 4 is the high end design for this model year.

According to a review on HS Wrestling the shoe received an A in Durability and Price, a B+ in weight, a B in Availablity, and a C in color options.

These wrestling shoes are currently available in Black/Red/White and White/Red/Black.

So yesterday, Craig Sesker calls from downstairs to let me know I won the panel for the journalist predictions. Granted, it was a small pool this year, and already folks from The Open Mat and InterMat have let me know they hit more champs than I did.

All in good fun, of course, but I generally want to know how I did overall. It’s very tough making predictions, not just because of all the nuances in picking a winner, but we’re interviewing these kids. These kids read this stuff. So it’s pretty hard to walk up to someone after the tournament is said and done and congratulate them, when you know (and you’re positive they know) you didn’t pick them to win it.

One of those awkward moments when I congratulated Kyle Dake after the tournament was over. It’s never a personal thing. Sometimes you pick your favorites and sometimes you pick against your favorites for the fear of the dreaded “homerism” call.

That happened to me with Bubba Jenkins, a kid I’ve known since he was in the sixth grade. I doubted him twice this year … and he burned me bad both of those times. First in the All-Star Classic and second with my picks.

Injuries to great wrestlers like Kirk Smith and Darrion Caldwell put a damper on things, not just with picks, but with wrestling as a whole. I’m sure everyone would have loved to see Caldwell vs. Dake in the semifinals. Life isn’t always like that, unfortunately. I feel bad for those kids.

Anyway,
I figured I’d break down my overall picks, not just the finals picks that were posted on TheMat.com. I’m sure many of you did better than I did. I cringe when people call me an “expert,” although every now and then, my observational skills do get me a nugget of good perspective … if that makes any sense.

The picks were so prevalent, we created a sub-forum for the NCAA picks, because it was clogging up the discussion on TheMat.com’s college wrestling forum. I chose one poster, the always colorful Stephen Stonebraker, aka “JohnnyThompsonnum1” as a comparison. Why him? Well, he’s been known to go for the gusto and pick kids for the most random of reasons. When he hits, hey, there’s a talking point.

Overall, I managed to pick 58 of the 80 All-Americans correct, a 73.8 percent rate. I only hit 70 percent of the finalists (14-for-20) and only had six champions correct. While I did have the top four dead on in the team race, apparently that’s what propelled me in the media picks. I did pick 24 of the 80 placements exactly right, good for a modest 30 percent.

Against the fans, I’m sure I was just average.

At 125 pounds, I managed to get five of the eight All-Americans. My misses were Ben Kjar of Utah Valley, Ryan Mango of Stanford (I was still questioning the durability of the knee), and Oklahoma’s Jarrod Patterson. Most of Patterson’s pick against was looking at Mark Rappo as a possible unseeded wrestler making the quarters. It would have disrupted Patterson’s draw down low. Stonebraker did better, getting seven of the eight, only missing Missouri’s Alan Waters. As far as exactness went, I hit four of the eight exactly. Stonebreaker hit just Sanders at fifth.

At 133, I was going upset in the semis with Andrew Long. That cost me a finalist correct. I admittedly went homer in the consolations, hoping Old Dominion’s Kyle Hutter would break through. Unfortunately, he hit another one of my favorites, Penn’s Rollie Peterkin in the consolations and had Scotti Sentes looming. Neither Stonebraker or I had Sentes in the top eight, but I had him Top 12, as did Stonebraker. He went with a ballsy pick for a champion – Lou Ruggirello of Hofstra. I like Lou. I watched his career closely. Wouldn’t have bothered me one bit if he’d have won it. I only hit two exactly right here, and got another 5/8. Stonebraker hit 6/8 and only hit Hochstrasser exactly right. My misses: Sentes, Ruggirello and B.J. Futrell of Illinois. He missed on Peterkin and Iowa’s Tony Ramos.

At 141, two low seeds snuck in there, Missouri’s Todd Schavrien and Penn’s Zack Kemmerer. We both had VonOhlen and Alton placing, but they both didn’t. I also missed on Zack Bailey, which was disrupted because of his win over VonOhlen early.  Stonebraker beats me again here, hitting 6/8, while I hit just five. I had two exact (Russell and Marion), he just had Russell.

At 149, we both had Caldwell. Only pick I nailed correctly here was Molinaro, while I missed on Andrew Nadhir and Derek Valenti. So another 5/8 here for me. Stonebraker missed on Kinser, Lopouchanski and Mason. I’m sure most everyone, other than Oklahoma State fans were rooting for “Loopy” due to the news the program was getting cut at UNC Greensboro. The kid was a locked hands call away. Stonebraker hit 4/8 and hit none exactly right. He held on to a four-pick lead heading into 157.

At 157, I really sold Jenkins short. But with Bubba, he’s got that X-Factor. You sometimes never know what Bubba will show up. We got the ready to go Bubba in the finals. I hit 6/8 and only pegged one right – Steve Fittery. Stonebraker extended his lead, by hitting 7/8, but none exact. I held a lead in that category, but needed to make up some ground somewhere. He pegged Bryce Saddoris again to place, while I hit on Walter Peppelman. He also hit Jason Welch exactly right.

At 165, I had another 5/8 effort, missing on Hatchett, Gillespie and Onufer. Stonebraker was also 5/8, but he hit on Onufer, while missing on picks from Aaron Janssen and Kurt Swartz. I’d had Janssen and Dallas Bailey in my top eight. We each only hit one exactly right – me on Burroughs and him on Sponseller.

At 174, I thought I would make up some ground, hitting all eight All-Americans right, but only getting two exactly right. I hit perfectly on Letts and Bennett, while mixing up the top six. Stonebraker’s lead diminished, but only slightly, he hit on 7/8 and hit two right exactly – Reader and Covington. He missed on a Scott Glasser pick, with Mike Letts placing instead of Glasser for his 7/8. We both had Amuchastegui up pretty high. I was right on Amuchastegui making the semis, but I didn’t see him beating Lewnes. Considering I was one of the few who could actually say his name right out of high school, I should have known better, but the Lewnes family has been great to me over the years, so it was hard for me to pick against such a great kid like Mack. Reader was super deserving of the title, though. The kid has my respect and always has. I remember interviewing Reader in Fargo when he won Juniors and he was talking about then-unheralded Glasser. “He’s tough as …” well, you know.

I still trailed with three weights to go.

At 184, I finally took the lead. I again hit 8/8, although only hitting one exactly right – Rutt. I had both finalists correct, just not in the right order. Stonebraker hit 5/8, missing on picks from Josh Ihnen, Ryan Loder and Kirk Smith. I held a slight one pick lead at this point.

At 197, we tied it up again. While I hit for 6/8 and all six of those were exactly correct (picking 1-5, 7-8 dead on), Stonebraker managed 7/8, only missing on Logan Brown. He hit Zack Giesen of Stanford. I missed on him and Sonny Yohn.

At heavyweight, I hit the top four right and hit 5/8, which is kid of expected, since three unseeded wrestlers place here. Stonebraker hit on 4/8, which gave me a slim one pick win.

As I said earlier, there are numerous fans out there who did better than I did. I’d love to see how some of you ended up with total All-Americans, the percentage and how many you picked in the exact placement. That’s one place where I did have a significant edge over Stonebraker. I hit 24/80 while he hit on 8/80.

Tuesday, March 22^nd

OK... back to the world !  I have some stories about getting from Makhachkala back to Moscow. I may tell ‘em and I may not.  But, I did get back to Moscow. Now, it's 4:00am and I need to get downstairs to catch a taxi to the airport.

            I have enjoyed reading all the stuff about Anthony Robles.  This is just another one of those times when we can all celebrate what our sport does for a kid, and what the kid does for our sport.

            I hope Ben Kjar is not forgotten for the struggles he's been through.  It should be noted that Ben was Robles' opponent in the semis.  Another great success story, I think.

            Alright, I'm outa' here.  I am on the ground in Frankfurt, for awhile.  If I can get to internet access, I'll add some more.  If not, I'll finish this one up when I get back to the states.

CIAO

As we prepare to enter into this wrestling season, a lot will be placed on the line week after week. Invariably, someone will feel they have been wronged, violated, impuned, or otherwise unjustly treated. Tempers will flair, things will be said, words exchanged, and punches thrown. Conversely, a lot of positive things will happen as well and I hope they are publicized appropriately.

For many of us in the wrestling community, particularly here in the "Old North State", we are painfully aware of the sacrifices made daily in another subculture.
Today, more than others, I found myself putting my life and the life of my family in context as I read of the sacrifice of a 24 year old young man and his family. I encourage you to read the attached biography and not focus on the cause of the sacrifice but the sacrifice itself. Then look a little deeper and realize that in the six years this young man had been in our Army, he had completed five combat tours, and was on his sixth.

The attached is a simple biography, however, I am sure that when you read this and take the time to reflect on it, you will find a way to appreciate all the opportunities in front of you this season. And when challenges present themselves this year, and they will, I hope this helps you keep them in context and handle them positively.

Attachment

LEWISBURG, Pa. - Bucknell senior David Marble (Harpursville, N.Y./Harpursville Central), a member of the Bison wrestling team, received a special award at the University's annual Senior Athletic Awards Banquet, sponsored by the Bison Club and held at the Elaine Langone Center on Tuesday, May 4.

Marble won the Edward W. Pangburn Award, presented to senior athletes "for sportsmanship, fellowship, and contribution to the University." Marble shared the award with Allison Janda of the women's track and field and cross country teams, who was the female selection.

In addition to Marble, several other student-athletes were honored at the banquet, including the winners of the Christy Mathewson Award, given to the most outstanding athletes in the senior class.

A four-time NCAA qualifier, Marble finished third at the EIWA Championships this past March. He went 2-2 at the NCAA Championships and finished his career third on the Bison wins list with a four-year mark of 11-44. The 133-pounder was 30-10 as a senior, including 28-2 opposite unranked opponents. He won the Navy Classic for a third consecutive year and placed sixth at the competitive Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational and completed the year on a high note, winning 12 of his final 13 bouts entering NCAAs.

Marble posted a second-place finish at the EIWA Championships in 2008 and is one of just three grapplers in program history to qualify for four NCAA Championships.

At the team's postseason awards banquet, Marble was the inaugural recipient of the Class of 2010 Leadership Award, given in honor of the first class of seniors following the reinstatement of the program to the best leader, both on and off the wrestling mat.

Bucknell is a highly selective, privately endowed liberal arts institution with an enrollment of approximately 3,500 undergraduate students. Bucknell competes in NCAA Division I as a member of the Patriot League and has full membership along with American, Army, Colgate, Holy Cross, Lafayette, Lehigh and Navy. Bucknell has won the Presidents' Cup, signifying the Patriot League's all-sports champion, in 15 of 19 years, including 11 of the last 12.

We have upgraded the wrestling technique videos library on TheWrestlingTalk.com and the larger database on WrestlingVideos.me The librarys contain 1,600 and 4,600 technique videos - providing the largest technique system in the world - and its free.

We will be giving away wrestling shoes and other wrestling gear to people who submit techniques to the library. The new system allows you to add videos from Flowrestling, Youtube, uStream, and a variety of other video hosts.

HSWrestling.Net has released the first of four 20 wrestler recruiting blocks.  In addition to the rankings observers can sort wrestlers by all other available components.  At this time, HSWrestling.Net has three components available to view and and overall score.  The current components include Neutral, Top, and Bottom positions. 

High School Wrestling Recruiting Rankings

This coming Wednesday we will release recruits No. 21-40.

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.

Over the years we have developed a lot of things that worked and some that didn't. We didn't give up on the things that didn't work but figured out why, tweaked them, reworked them or dumped them. The result is a lot of ideas that were put into practice that paid dividends for us. From marketing to club rules to parent tips, all of this stuff has helped. We hope that if you can't use any of this that it at least sparks an idea for you that pays off down the road. READ MORE

So, you take over your new position, move into your new office and notice that you need a new printer cartridge. You call your predecessor and he tells you, "Just stop by the front office and Joe will give you a new one." You introduce yourself to Joe and ask for a new printer cartridge. Joe hands you a form and requires it being filled out in triplicate and submitted a week prior to your needing the order fulfilled.

Joe and your predecessor worked together for 8 years. Their kids went to school together and spend their summers together at the pool. Your predecessor knew Joe and Joe knew him. Their relationship was built upon trust and, for that reason, your predecessor was able to work more effectively.

This relationship is a microcosm of the relationship between you and your community of supporters. If you get pissed off because your fans don't show up in droves or donate their estate to your program, maybe it's you or at least the relationship between you and them.

Relationships are built on trust and trust is non-transferable from one person to the next. You build trust with your fans by being there for them... and I mean being there for them more than they are there for you (because sometimes, they won't be there for you... sorry, it's part of coaching. Parents, you can relate.). You build trust by pulling back the curtain and sharing behind-the-scenes content, such as video of your pre-game prep. You send tweets that show real emotion and are not filtered through your pre-wired mental-bureaucracy that has been installed by your institution. When your fans know you as well as Joe knows your predecessor, then you can expect better attendance, increased support and stronger fundraising.

You can put your head down and trudge forward with the belief that if you just teach your athletes better technique, you will be successful. Or you can build relationships, network with your community and open the doors to true, lasting success.

Take action today and build a lasting relationship with your supporters based on trust.

Download my free guide to to video marketing. Learn how to create an Youtube Channel and upload video as well as what you should share with fans and how to do it. Click here now and download it free!

I talk with coaches everyday. I visit the websites of high school and college sports teams and athletic departments. Unfortunately, I see so many team websites that are absolutely worthless. Is your website worthless? Here are a few characteristics of a worthless website.

• Out-of-date: If your website has no new information, it is worse than having no website at all. Think about when you go to a team website and see three month old information! I recommend starting a blog and linking it to your website (or, if your site has a blog feature, get posting!). Blogs are easy to update.
• No social media icons above the fold: You should have social media channels- Facebook and Twitter. You should have linked icons on your homepage. And they should be above the fold (visible without having to scroll). Vistors are looking for ways to stay connected to organizations in whom they are interested. Make it easy for them!
• Pics and Video: You should have some media other than text on your site. People absolutely love video (so does Google search if you're interested in SEO).

When your site is optimized (not worthless), you'll have more fans, increaes awareness and dramatically increase your fundraising.

Take action today. Get your website optimized for your fans!

Get access to our free Facebook Guide for sports teams.

Asics wrestling is planning to release two new shoes for next season... The Asics Split Second VIII and the Asics "Takedown" which is basically a pair of Rulon wrestling shoes without the name.

On this audio edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman analyzes the main lessons of the Dan Henderson-Fedor Emelianenko heavyweight mixed martial arts fight, which took place July 30 as the main event of a Strikeforce card at the Sears Centre Arena in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, near Chicago. In this fight, Henderson, the Strikeforce light heavyweight champion, won by TKO at 4:12 of the first round.

We explain why this loss by Fedor, his third in a row, does nothing to tarnish his legacy as a fighter after having gone undefeated for ten years. We discuss the wild brawling in this fight and what it says about the level of technique in MMA these days. We analyze the stoppage of this fight when Fedor was knocked out, and argue that not only was the stoppage not early, but was actually late. We discuss the dangers of fighters continuing to get hit after they are concussed on the ground. We note the torrent of negativity which this fight engendered. We comment on the release of Strikeforce heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem, and more.

You can play or download No Holds Barred at http://nhbnews.podomatic.com/entry/2011-08-02T12_50_08-07_00.

You can also download No Holds Barred at http://www.mediafire.com/?kwnhjehzqbl1xaa. 

If one link does not work, please try another. The show is in MP3 format, so may take some time to download.

Also, No Holds Barred is available through iTunes at http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=150801513&s=143441.

The No Holds Barred theme song is called "The Heist", by Ian Carpenter (http://iancarpenter.com).

No Holds Barred is free to listen to and is sponsored by:

M-1 Global (http://www.m-1global.com). Founded in 1998, M-1 Global has staged over 100 mixed martial arts events worldwide including the M-1 Selection tournaments and M-1 Challenge events, in Eastern and Western Europe, North America, and Asia. While discovering and developing the world's next generation of superstar fighters, M-1 Global's greatest asset is the number one heavyweight in mixed martial arts history, Fedor Emelianenko. Make sure to catch their shows from around the world, including on Showtime in the U.S., and visit their web site, M-1Global.com (http://www.m-1global.com), and the M-1 Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/pages/M-1-Global/145250878842244) for news, videos, and live streaming events.

Beezid.com - Penny Auctions (http://www.beezid.com). Your #1 source for exciting auction shopping and outstanding deals on just about anything! Top rated, most trusted auction site online. Where do you shop? Beezid.com - Penny Auctions (http://www.beezid.com).

American Top Team (http://americantopteam.com). Whether you're a beginner or a champion, train with the champions in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, boxing, wrestling, grappling, and mixed martial arts at American Top Team. Check out their web site at http://americantopteam.com.

The American Sambo Association (http://www.ussambo.com), which is committed to becoming the premier association in the U.S. dedicated to the advancement of Sambo. Sambo is a form of sport, self-defense, and combat established in the former Soviet Union during the early twentieth century. For more information, go to ussambo.com (http://www.ussambo.com).

Thanks, Eddie Goldman

http://eddiegoldman.com

Concerning the results from the 2010 FILA World Championships, our country and sport deserve better results and I assure you that our organization will work tirelessly towards that goal.  The path will not be easy and challenges are significant, but in the weeks to come each of our coaches will be distributing detailed plans outlining that path.  High Performance Plans currently exist, but they must be scrutinized and necessary changes made.  USA Wrestling owns the results from this past World Championships and we will do all in our power to move TEAM USA forward.  USA Wrestling appreciates the opportunity to respond to the recent blog by Flowrestling’s Martin Floreani concerning a wide range of topics and questions about our organization, our Olympic-level program and our role as the national governing body for wrestling in the United States. Most of the questions and comments in Martin’s blog can be answered in a simple and direct way, which is my intention in this piece.

1. USA Wrestling Board of Directors – Information on the Board of Directors of the organization is readily available. The composition of the Board is determined by our by-laws, which is posted on the organization website, TheMat.com. A list of current Board members, all who are volunteers, is on the website, and is published in every issue of the official magazine, USA Wrestler. There is a system of elections for the volunteer officers of USA Wrestling, as well as positions on the standing committees, which are spelled out by our by-laws. Officers serve two year terms, which are voted upon by the members of the Board of Directors.

The results of the 2010 Board elections and other decisions made by the Board were posted right after the most recent Board meeting in August 23 on TheMat.com, and also sent to the wrestling community through our social media outlets including Facebook and Twitter. As with anything which USA Wrestling does, our national staff and volunteer leadership is always available to answer questions about our governance which comes from our membership, as well as the wrestling community in general. We will continue to strive to communicate this information to the wrestling community, and are willing to take suggestions on ways that we can do this even more efficiently.

In regard to the bylaw change approved by USA Wrestling’s Board of Directors concerning presidential terms, the purpose of this proposal was to allow the opportunity to expand our international influence through this position. Only the term of the president was extended, to a maximum of four two-year terms. Jim Ravannack was re-elected by the Board in August in an election which included another long-time Board member who ran for the position. Among the assets which Ravannack brings to his position is successful business leadership, a long-time record of generous contributions to the sport, considerable support of our Olympic effort through the Gator Wrestling Club and leadership on the grassroots level as a State Chairperson.

2. Evaluation of leadership – USA Wrestling’s Executive Director Rich Bender is evaluated on an annual basis by the Executive Committee of the organization, who he is accountable to according to its bylaws. All of USA Wrestling staff members are evaluated twice a year by their supervisors, under the overall supervision of Rich Bender. The election process is the method of evaluation of USA Wrestling volunteer officers and a majority of the Board member positions. Those who serve the organization and sport well can be elected to positions of leadership. USA Wrestling, going back to its initial formation in the late 1960’s, is based upon a democratic system where its leadership, as well as its program oversight, is voted upon. Again, anybody with questions about this process is encouraged to contact USA Wrestling at any time.

3. World Championship results – The complete results of the 2010 World Wrestling Championships in Moscow are readily available through TheMat.com. In review, the USA placed fifth in the women’s freestyle competition, 13th in the Greco-Roman competition and 22nd in the men’s freestyle competition. There were two U.S. medalists this year, silver medalist Elena Pirozhkova at 63 kg and bronze medalist Tatiana Padilla at 55 kg in women’s freestyle. Both the women’s freestyle team and the Greco-Roman team had higher team placements than the year before, with the women moving from sixth in 2009 to fifth in 2010, and Greco-Roman moving from 15th in 2009 to 13th in 2010. Men’s freestyle had its lowest team placement at the World Championships, and dropped from seventh last year to 22nd this year. USA Wrestling reported this information from Moscow on a daily basis, through its audio broadcasts, its articles and videos on TheMat.com and through its social media.

USA Wrestling has higher expectations for all three of our Olympic-level teams. It is an organizational goal to win World Team titles in all three styles. We have won World Team titles in the past with men’s freestyle (1993, 1995), women’s freestyle (1999) and Greco-Roman (2007). It is our goal to win more in the future.

There is direct responsibility for U.S. team performance within USA Wrestling, as well as in its role as a national governing body within the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC). Our elite program is directed by National Teams Director Mitch Hull. Each of the Olympic styles is directed by the National Coach for that style: Steve Fraser (Greco-Roman), Terry Steiner (women’s freestyle), Zeke Jones (men’s freestyle). In addition, USA Wrestling is directly accountable to the USOC for its performance and elite program development. For every four-year Olympic cycle, USA Wrestling submits a High Performance Plan to the U.S. Olympic Committee for each style, a document which goes through extensive review and evaluation. Every year, the High Performance Plan must be updated and reviewed again. USOC funding for wrestling is based upon this extensive planning and review process. These documents can be reviewed upon request at any time. I can guarantee you that all of those involved in our Olympic programs are already hard at work to improve on the U.S. performance at the 2011 World Championships and the 2012 Olympic Games. That is what they are hired to do, and they work tirelessly towards the high goals that they have set for our programs.

4. Living Legends within wrestling – We encourage Flowrestling to talk directly with our wrestling legends and leaders about USA Wrestling as well as our elite wrestling programs. Of those Martin mentions in his blog, John Smith, Tom and Terry Brands, Kevin Jackson and Dan Gable were in Moscow with Team USA as part of the delegation. John Smith and Terry Brands were official World Team Coaches in freestyle. The others who are mentioned are also involved in many ways and are good sources of information. Each truly care about the U.S. performance on the international level, and that is why they take the time and effort to get involved. They are the kind of leaders who will get involved in helping our teams to have better performances, and we count on them for their input and support. Please ask them what they think; we expect that they will give their honest opinions and ideas, all which will make our program stronger.

5. Responsibility as national governing body – As the recognized national governing body for wrestling in the United States, USA Wrestling has specific responsibilities as spelled out by the Ted Stevens Olympic and Amateur Sports Act, which has been approved by the U.S. Congress. USA Wrestling must also function within its responsibilities as a member of FILA, the international wrestling federation. In addition, the organization is governed by an approved set of bylaws.

USA Wrestling has a mission statement, vision statement and set of values, which are board-approved and are listed below.

Mission Statement: USA Wrestling, guided by the Olympic spirit, provides quality opportunities for its members to achieve its full human and athletic potential.

Vision Statement: USA Wrestling will strive to be the World's best Olympic Sports Organization.

Values: Responsibility, Integrity, Dedication, Honesty, Accountability, Respect

The organization also has four board-approved business objectives: Build the Brand; Grow the Base; Achieve Sustained Competitive Excellence; Network the Wrestling Community Online.

All of this is based upon a commitment to serve our members and the overall wrestling community by providing the best wrestling programs available at all levels. I can assure you that our volunteer leadership and professional staff are dedicated to this commitment on a daily basis. We welcome any and all input from those who care about wrestling and share our desire to improve and expand the sport.

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 spent about 6 hours in the past two days in our pre-assigned small groups.  There are 12 groups (2 French, 10 English), and each group is set up with a variety of nations represented in each of them.  Aside from two girls, one from Georgia and the other from Armenia, the remainder of the participants seem eager to participate in the discussion.
 
One of my group members, Furkan from Turkey, missed yesterday afternoon’s meeting.  The meeting was from 4:30-6:00, and his roommate came in and said that he’s not going to make it because his foot hurts.  Because his foot hurts?!  I took the time to tell Daniel from Denmark that we would call him soft (I love teachable moments).  Fast forward to 6:00 when my football team had its shot at redemption.  On the other team was none other than Furkan, and he even made it a point to tell me that his foot was hurting so he didn’t come to discussion.  Wow, his foot sure didn’t look like it was bothering him at all, as he was an integral part in helping his team smash Team Zidane 7-4.  Though my hat trick wasn’t enough, it did warrant many comments from other participants.
 
Another of my group members is Alberto from Italy.  Even though he has a neatly-trimmed pencil thin mustache and beard, I call him Alberto Tomba, after the dominant Italian downhill skier in the late 80s and 90s.  He likes the reference, so I’ll keep calling him that.
 
After all of the soccer I have played in the last two days, I feel like my quads are going to explode.  Walking up and down steps is a chore, so hopefully that takes care of itself soon.  Being sore and being injured are two separate things, so I guess fortunately I’m just sore.
 
It rained here last night!  Well, more so sprinkled for a few minutes, but there were legitimate rain drops for a minute or two.  It rained long enough to delay our walk to Olympia, that was about it.  I was a little weary of eating dinner last night, as Sunday night’s dinner left way more to be desired.  A group of us trekked the 2 kilometers to town, and while the majority of the group went to Zorbas to dance, Daworin (Slovenia) and I went to grab some food.  My gyro was awesome.  That is the second one I’ve had in Greece; both were awesome, and both had French fries in the gyro.  I have to say, it’s a great addition.
 
Our walk back from downtown was interesting.  I wore jeans, and on the walk back, Adam, in just shorts, was cold.  He said it is the first time he’s ever been cold in Athens (remember, he was in the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens).  About half of the way back, four of us jumped in a car that gave us a ride back to the IOA.  Before you are worried about randomly hitchhiking, I will let you know that the driver and passenger are both IOA employees who we recognized.  It was a pretty funny site to see four adults pile in the backseat of a car that was about the same size as a 1980s Ford Fiesta.  Real comfortable.
 
Today was round two of washing my clothes in my shower.  I brought some high strength detergent with, so sticking a sock in the drain of the shower works like a charm.  When I was in college, Barry Davis would tell me about how he would have to do that while he was on trips, and I couldn’t believe that people don’t use washing machines.  Maybe I need to share my technique with Murodali so his clothes won’t smell anymore.  He’s working on his English every time we’re in the room together, and I think he’s getting better.
 
Tomorrow is an excursion to the beach instead of lectures and discussions.  I’ll see if I can’t get a count of what percent of the guys where speedos instead of shorts.  You can bet that I will have shorts on.  The sun hasn’t been out at all today, so hopefully that changes tomorrow.  Not that I need a sunburn or anything, that’s what I have sunscreen for.
 
I just handed in our group’s first paper of the week, as I was the group’s reporter.  We still have to finish the PowerPoint presentation, but that’s not due until Thursday.
 
Lastly, I just got a chuckle out of the scene outside of my dorm room.  There is a social evening tonight outside of my room, where participants show something from their culture (music, dance, video, etc.).  The stage is being constructed, and sound check is taking place.  What made me laugh was “You’re Beautiful” by James Blunt being blasted at about 120 decibels.  Okay, probably not quite that loud, but someone is jamming out there!
 
Citius!  Altius!  Fortius!

Greetings from Olympia, where it is a little cooler than it has been.  There is a breeze today, so the heat isn’t quite as stifling.  That will come in handy tonight, as I have a tennis match against Xiu from China at 6:00 PM, and a football game at 7:00 PM.  I have been placed on Team Zidane, which is named after former French national team player Zinedine Zidane, who is most famous in the US for being sent off in the final game of the 2006 World Cup.
 
Yesterday the main speaker was Irena Szewinska, a 5-time Olympian (1964, 1968, 1972, 1976, and 1980) from Poland.  All told, she took home 3 gold, 2 silver, and 2 bronze medals from the Olympic Games.  During her career, she set 5 World Records.  No big deal, right?  She spoke briefly about the terrorist attack during the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, and said that the athletes were hoping that the Games would not be called off.  When asked about other political activities, she said “In Mexico City, we could see the black hands of the two athletes but that was related to something in the United States.”  I have seen the famous act by Tommie Smith and John Carlos many times in pictures, and heard them speak about this on ESPN’s Sports Century, but I was a little surprised that this was seen by other competitors as a big deal.  I fully admit my naivety to the brevity of the situation, as Irena made it known that it was a big deal world wide.
 
Last night I was following the Twins-Phillies game on ESPN GameCast while sending e-mails back and forth with my brother.  I went to bed when the Phillies went up 8-3 in the 3rd inning, so I was pumped to see that the Twins came back in the 9th with 5 runs to force extra innings, and then finally won in the 11th.  I was given a piece of paper with the Twins’ schedule, so I always know when to check the results.  So far, the Twins are 3-2 since I left.  Go Twins!
 
I was ambitious this morning, as I decided to go on a run into Olympia and back.  Our schedule is pretty much booked during the day, and it’s way too hot to run outside at that time anyways, so I knew that I had to run this morning in order to get my workout in.  I wore just my shorts, and when I got back to the IOA, I joined the morning exercise group.  I was the only one not wearing a shirt, so I asked one of the coordinators (supervisors) if it was okay that I didn’t have a shirt on.  His response?  “You’re in Ancient Olympia – you don’t have to wear shorts if you don’t want.”  Ah, that’s okay, I will keep my shorts on.
 
It was quite ironic that my playlist this morning was all Eric Church, as I just saw him in concert two days before I left.  When we were out to eat before the concert, our server noticed two of my friends’ cauliflower ears.  She asked if we were boxers, so Sam Barber, the assistant coach at the Air Force Academy, without missing a beat said that we were members of the Arkansas River Boxing Club.  That being said, any guesses to what the morning exercise was?  Boxing.  Only fitting.
 
When I went back to my room to shower before breakfast, I noticed that I had an e-mail from a very well respected man in the wrestling world.  He is following this blog, so he had some advice for me: Work hard, carry the colors well, soak up the Olympic Spirit, make friends, but don't forget to shower.  Great advice.
 
Our lecturer this morning was an archaeologist, and he spoke about the idea of the Olympic Truce.  I was sitting next a Swiss participant, and she said that she was going to have to look up the word “truce,” because she thought all along he was speaking of “truth,” but she was mistaken.  I wonder how many other people that speak English as a second or third language think the same.  I forgot to say that the professor was from Austria, so I thought that he sounded just like Arnold Schwarzenegger.  The professor pointed out that the Greek words for peace (eirene) and truce (ekecheiria) are not the same, as truce was only a cease-fire during the Olympic Games.  I have a feeling that this will be discussed a bunch in the next week-and-a-half.
 
The World Cup is really drawing the attention of people here.  Last night, as Denmark and Cameroon were playing, many of the participants were fully engaged in the game.  Daniel, one of the Danish representatives, was draped in the Danish flag and wearing a red Viking hat.  Needless to say, he was just a little excited when the Danes went up 2-1.  If you watched the game, you saw that there were many times when both teams had great chances to score, so the crowd was very raucous.  I will video tape the crowd one of these nights and try to post the video on our YouTube site.
 
At the end of our lecture this morning, Weipang Lu from China came over and we traded pins (a common practice here).  I asked him what his American name would be, and he said that it is Kevin, because he is a big Kevin Garnett fan.  He said that his e-mail address and Facebook are both Kevin, so I guess I tend to believe him.
 
We brought some gifts over to the IOA from the USOC (basketball, football, volleyball, swim goggles, among other items), so we had to speak to the dean and ask when he would like for us to present to him.  Well, when speaking to him, we found out that Angie and I are scheduled to read our essays used in the application process aloud.  Wow, neither of us knew that was coming, so now it’s time to read over my essay so I’m prepared tomorrow morning.  If anyone would like to wake up in the middle of the night to check this out, go to www.ioa-sessions.org at 4:00 AM  Eastern Time to tune in.
 
Citius!  Altius!  Fortius!
 
UPDATE: I held on to defeat Qiu from China in tennis tonight in the first round.  We played to 3, and I won 3-2 (7-2).  I seemed to pour it on in the tiebreaker.  I think I was playing uphill, which seemed to work perfect as I normally hit balls long when I try to hit the ball harder.
 
Well, the votes are in for Man of the Match in our football game.  No, there are no votes of such a thing, but I can tell you that I definitely would NOT have been voted such.  My team lost 8-1.  No joke, 8-1  Hopefully I’m not too sore tomorrow or Tuesday from running and cutting. 

On this audio edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman speaks with our colleague and correspondent Kid Peligro (http://www.kidpeligro.com).

Our subject is the ADCC 2011 Submission Fighting World Championships (http://adcombat.com).

This is the most prestigious and greatest submission grappling tournament in the world. This year's edition will take place September 24-25 in Nottingham, England, at the Capital FM Arena (http://www.capitalfmarena.com).

We spoke with Kid Peligro by phone on Wednesday night about this event and its history and significance. We discussed some of the athletes who will be competing at it, the worldwide growth of grappling since this event's inception in 1998, the potential for grappling to become a major spectator sport, the use of technology to spread the word about grappling including a webcast of the event and Kid's own iPhone app, and much more.

You can play or download No Holds Barred at http://nhbnews.podomatic.com/entry/2011-08-04T00_12_06-07_00.

You can also download No Holds Barred at http://www.mediafire.com/?1lbmwvdk30naujt. 

If one link does not work, please try another. The show is in MP3 format, so may take some time to download.

Also, No Holds Barred is available through iTunes at http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=150801513&s=143441.

The No Holds Barred theme song is called "The Heist", by Ian Carpenter (http://iancarpenter.com).

No Holds Barred is free to listen to and is sponsored by:

Beezid.com - Penny Auctions (http://www.beezid.com). Your #1 source for exciting auction shopping and outstanding deals on just about anything! Top rated, most trusted auction site online. Where do you shop? Beezid.com - Penny Auctions (http://www.beezid.com).

American Top Team (http://americantopteam.com). Whether you're a beginner or a champion, train with the champions in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, boxing, wrestling, grappling, and mixed martial arts at American Top Team. Check out their web site at http://americantopteam.com.

The American Sambo Association (http://www.ussambo.com), which is committed to becoming the premier association in the U.S. dedicated to the advancement of Sambo. Sambo is a form of sport, self-defense, and combat established in the former Soviet Union during the early twentieth century. For more information, go to ussambo.com (http://www.ussambo.com).

Thanks, Eddie Goldman

http://eddiegoldman.com

On this audio edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman discusses the successful first effort for the Ultimate Absolute (http://ultimateabsolutenyc.com) grappling event with finals winner Andre Galvao, runner-up Rustam Chsiev, BJJ and grappling legend Renzo Gracie, and event organizer Rob Constance.

The Ultimate Absolute was held Saturday, July 30, at the historic Hotel Pennsylvania in New York, right across the street from Madison Square Garden. It was a one-day, 16-man, single-elimination, open-weight grappling tournament. The winner won $10,000, while $1000 was awarded for every submission.

Right after his victory, we spoke with Andre Galvao, a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu world champion, about his victory and his plans. We spoke with Rustam Chsiev, who won the ADCC North American trials and has won numerous Grapplers Quest and NAGA titles, about this match, his background, and his plans. The thrilling final match of this tournament was scoreless after the ten-minute regulation, a five-minute overtime, and a ten-minute sudden death overtime. Galvao was declared the winner by the judges.

We also spoke with Renzo Gracie about the Ultimate Absolute, the tremendous technique on display by the athletes at it, and his plans to continue competing both in grappling and MMA. And we summed up the maiden voyage of the Ultimate Absolute with event organizer Rob Constance, himself a black belt and instructor for Renzo Gracie, and got his take on the plans to continue with this successful event.

You can play or download No Holds Barred at http://nhbnews.podomatic.com/entry/2011-07-31T16_42_30-07_00.

You can also download No Holds Barred at http://www.mediafire.com/?py7thd5jzfidczo. 

If one link does not work, please try another. The show is in MP3 format, so may take some time to download.

Also, No Holds Barred is available through iTunes at http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=150801513&s=143441.

The No Holds Barred theme song is called "The Heist", by Ian Carpenter (http://iancarpenter.com).

No Holds Barred is free to listen to and is sponsored by:

M-1 Global (http://www.m-1global.com). Founded in 1998, M-1 Global has staged over 100 mixed martial arts events worldwide including the M-1 Selection tournaments and M-1 Challenge events, in Eastern and Western Europe, North America, and Asia. While discovering and developing the world's next generation of superstar fighters, M-1 Global's greatest asset is the number one heavyweight in mixed martial arts history, Fedor Emelianenko. Make sure to catch their shows from around the world, including on Showtime in the U.S., and visit their web site, M-1Global.com (http://www.m-1global.com), and the M-1 Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/pages/M-1-Global/145250878842244) for news, videos, and live streaming events.

Beezid.com - Penny Auctions (http://www.beezid.com). Your #1 source for exciting auction shopping and outstanding deals on just about anything! Top rated, most trusted auction site online. Where do you shop? Beezid.com - Penny Auctions (http://www.beezid.com).

American Top Team (http://americantopteam.com). Whether you're a beginner or a champion, train with the champions in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, boxing, wrestling, grappling, and mixed martial arts at American Top Team. Check out their web site at http://americantopteam.com.

The American Sambo Association (http://www.ussambo.com), which is committed to becoming the premier association in the U.S. dedicated to the advancement of Sambo. Sambo is a form of sport, self-defense, and combat established in the former Soviet Union during the early twentieth century. For more information, go to ussambo.com (http://www.ussambo.com).

Thanks, Eddie Goldman

http://eddiegoldman.com

MatFish.com is proud to release custom orders, team orders, and the Internet's highest paying affiliate program.

The affiliate program is managed by JDSign Interactive & The custom team orders are managed by MyWrestlingRoom.com - the leader in "wrestling shoes".

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"

• Strategy to move light users to medium users
  • Explain value of competing more often
  • Offer discounted pricing for multiple events
  • Provide recognition at the club and state level for medium users
  • Increase opportunities for novice wrestlers to compete on level playing field
• Strategy to move medium users to heavy users
  • Market previous competitors (alumni) and their paths to their accomplishments
  • Demonstrate the value in traveling and competing in higher level events
  • Dispel myths about regional and national competitions
  • Provide recognition at the state and local level for heavy users
  • Demonstrate the return for the added expenditure
  • Provide opportunities to offset costs

The last three weeks have been an absolute whirlwind of wrestling. It started with the CAA, EIWA and EWL championships, then off to La Crosse for the Division III championships, then to Philly for the Division I Championships.

There were some great matches, great friends and great times. There were also some not-so-great moments.

Let's start with renting cars.

I've had about every bad rental car in the world. I've had PT Cruisers, HHR's, Neons ... but when I was out in PA and Jersey for the trio of qualifiers, I was met with the absolute worst car I've ever encountered.

A hybrid Honda Insight. Now, picture me, a 255-pound individual cramming into a hybrid. Sure, it got 40 miles a gallon when on economy mode, but when you're driving across the Pennsylvania turnpike and navigating the New Jersey roads, being in a tiny car with horrible blind spots and negative 12 accelleration, you're in for some trouble.

It wasn't too problematic initially, with the exception there's no cruise control. I like to have cruise control in rentals because the last thing I want to get is a speeding ticket. Being out of state, it's just so easy for them not to let you off ... "them" ... yes "THEM."

Anyway, I dealt with it (parking was actually easy, the thing was slightly bigger than one of those Smart cars) until I got to Bucknell.

After crashing with Willie Saylor of The Open Mat on Saturday night after some wrestling chatter at Damon's in Lewisburg, I set out to Bloomsburg after the finals were over. I went into Sojka Pavilion under the chill of a cold Pennsylvania rain. After watching the F&M van back into a pole, then realize they weren't supposed to park in that lot, I walked in.

Then there was some wrestling.

Then as I left Bucknell, I walked out to a nice, cold, wet snowstorm. This one wasn't even expected. Now, the Insight isn't built for ... well, much of anything, and it especially couldn't handle snow too well. What's about a 25-mile drive from Bucknell to Bloomsburg took 90 minutes. I got to Bloomsburg just as the EWL Finals were starting.

Saw some wrestling.

Talked with Mark Bader and Zeb Miller from Flo. They were going to try to traverse I-80 so Zeb could teach in the morning. Yeah, not a great idea.

I was at least going to try to get closer to Harrisburg and get a room for the night. I'd initially planned on driving back to Lancaster, near my old stomping grounds to sleep for the night (and perhaps grab a Lager), but about a mile into my journey, which included sliding out of the Bloomsburg parking lot, I was on the phone (Bluetooth, people) with my wife when she said, "Babe, just turn around."

That was a battle in itself.

Did I mention the Insight isn't equipped ... for anything?

Well, after the GPS took me up a big hill, where I was going no faster than SEVEN miles an hour, I had to turn around and go back down the hill.

I eventually settled on the Hampton Inn. I checked in and moments afterwards, so did the West Virginia team. Greg Jones said his brother Vertus was trying to make it back to Pittsburgh, but made it as far as Bellefonte, which is just outside of State College.

Talked to Greg for a bit on a variety of topics, then I set out for Harrisburg, normally a 90-minute drive, to catch my 10 a.m. flight. I left at 6 a.m.

Even if it took twice as long, I'd still have time, right?

Have I told you about the Insight?

Well the roads leading out of town were bad. I-80 wasn't too bad, but US 11/15 was just atrocious. It took me 4 1/2 hours to get to Harrisburg. I'd called United prior to change my flight and bellyached enough to get them to waive the change fee. I'd already paid for a room that I wasn't anticipating, so I'm trying to save some funds here.

Well, nature called just outside of Selinsgrove (home of Maryland's All-American Spencer Myers) and I stopped at a Denny's ... I didn't leave for 30 minutes. Not for what you might be thinking, but the power (or lack thereof) of the Insight struck. I had to get pulled out of the snow by a local with a tow line.

Anyway, with time to kill, I get some work done at the NWCA offices then set back out to Colorado Springs. I turn around and leave two days later to head to Minneapolis for a drive to La Crosse.

Renting a car in Minneapolis is the most expensive in the nation, and if it's not, it's right up there. This time, I get offered a Hyundai Accent -- NOT going to happen. I get the Kia Optima. Now, if you don't know, Kia apparently has upped its game and has a nice car. The guy in the McDonalds drive-thru even told me such as I was picking up my less than savory lunch.

I make it to La Crosse and check in at the Brookstone Inn, just in time to go on Takedown Radio's Bracket Buster Special.

Joe Miller and I do the webcast for all four sessions of the Division III tournament on NCAA.com. Shout out to Turner Sports' Katy Sullivan and Web Stream Productions' Adam Coppinger -- they were awesome to work with. Coppinger, though, went to Butler. I went to Old Dominion. Actually most of WSP's folk I've worked with (like John Fritz ... not THAT John Fritz) went to Butler. So last week in Philly, I had to see that tip-in replay over and over.

Anyway, La Crosse is an awesome place. Rich Bender told me to stay off Third Street ... Easier said than done. The tournament went great, Wartburg won, some great individual performances. Minga Batsukh from St. John's is a stud.

My wife joined me in La Crosse and we drove back to "The Cities" and then spent a day with the in-laws up in Princeton. We flew out Monday morning early. Abby flew to Memphis at 6 a.m., I went back on a direct flight -- a DIRECT flight to Colorado Springs.

My bag, on the other hand, had other ideas. It apparently booked a ticket to Minot ... like Minot in North Dakota.

After going through a few less than fun conversations with Delta (the broke a one-legged man's wheelchair, too), the bag would end up in Denver and I would have to get it. I flew out on Tuesday, so this being Monday evening and all my dress clothes were in the bag, I needed that bag.

I bought it two weeks earlier and already it's got more frequent flyer miles than I do. The last flight into Colorado was at 10:51. So I made the 75-minute drive to Denver. Then about the time I get on the E-470 tollway (which is the devil, by the way), I use FlightTracker on my iPhone (Great app, by the way) and check the status.

DELAYED.

So I sit at a Boston's and have a Diet Coke for about 90 minutes, then head to DIA. I wait, and wait. It's 1:15 a.m. and my bag FINALLY gets here. Then I drive BACK to Colorado Springs. Unpack, repack, wash clothes and get to bed around 4 a.m.

I'm supposed to meet Craig Sesker at the USA Wrestling office at 8 a.m.

We get that done, then head to Philly ....

I'll post a Philly follow-up soon.

Sunday, March 20, 2011

This should actually precede the entry just before it.  I got excited about getting the results in.  Russia is close to locking it up.  They lead Iran 3-1 and arre in the third period at 84kg.  I'm gonna' have to let the suspense build, as they are asking us to pack up.  Iran just won at 84kg, so it's 3-2- Russia.  This is a brand new building, named for the great champion, Ali Aliyev.  It should hold around 6,000 and I'm positive there are 8,000 here.  These are, arguably, some of the most well-versed wrestling fans in the world.  Gotta' go.  Here's that post for Sunday...

            So, when I went to bed, Penn State was gonna' win it.  While is didn't seem anyone could catch ‘em, still I'm anxious to see if it happened.  If so, I'll say, "Good for the Nittany Lions and good for Coach Cael".  It's nice to see good things happen to good people.

            On the other side of the world, we've got a closer mix.  In the ‘A' pool, Russia pounded all four opponents.  In the ‘B' pool, we won't know until we finish Round 5, which was postponed until this morning (Sunday). 

Yesterday, Iran beat Azerbaijan, soundly, in the first round of the day.  Later, Azerbaijan beat Cuba in, what sounded like, a very controversial match.  I was chairing mat ‘A' and didn't get to see the fluff.  I certainly heard it though.  There were about 4,000 locals in attendance and it seems they either really like Cuba or really don't like Azerbaijan.  I have my thoughts on that and the later seems more likely.

So, it comes down to the last dual in the pool, this morning.  If Iran beats Cuba, they lock the pool and meet Russia in the final.  If Cuba beats Iran, they force a three way tie.  I haven't seen the points that will determine the outcome... can't get printed results yet.

I've been on the mat with Russia all day, and I can't see anyone beating them, right now.  They're solid and they're deep.  They've moved their lineup to get a lot of guys in.  They push hard... very aggressive... and make the fight.  They seem to really be able to cash in on all the current rules have to offer.

I know Azerbaijan didn't bring all their Number Ones, with big fish to fry in the upcoming European Championship, but Iran looks better than I expected.  Cuba looks great through the middle weights, but they ate some tough calls.

Ciao

I was at my kids school's open house a few months back and saw a table to join the Cub Scouts. It was complete with cool pinewood derby cars, and other interesting stuff that caught our eye. Disclosure being an Eagle Scout I was of course interested more than probably most dads.

What I thought was cool (always looking for new marketing ideas) was the flyer they handed us. It was a pre-printed flyer from the Boy Scouts of America in 4 color on both sides. On the bottom was a small area to print in black and white their contact information.

Did a little research and found out the Boy Scouts sell these for something like $.02 a page. I thought that would be a good way to market a wrestling team. Maybe have three or four flyers to choose from and have the ability to print them out and put your contact information on it to pass out to the team.

I am even thinking about doing this on our own website and just letting you download them and print them off yourself.

What are your thoughts? Anyone care to share their flyers up here or on my other blog?

MOSCOW, Russia - Rode over on the bus this morning with our last three American wrestlers to take the mat.

Les Sigman, Travis Paulson and Brent Metcalf are three wrestlers I've followed closely through their college and international careers.

Each wrestler has a chance to win a medal today.

Sigman has come out of nowhere this season to have a great year. He beat one of the best wrestlers in the World, World bronze medalist Tervel Dlagnev of the U.S., just to make the American team at heavyweight. Don't be surprised to see Les turn in a strong performance today.

We are scheduled to fly out of Moscow tomorrow around noon. We fly 10 hours to New York's John F. Kennedy Airport, have a four-hour layover and then fly to Denver. We are scheduled to arrive in Denver around 9:30 p.m. Monday. We gain the 10 hours back we lost on the way over.

I'm ready for a big day of wrestling today, and I'm ready to get back home to see my family and friends. I'm ready to hug my daughter and spend time with my girlfriend.

Ran into Nebraska coach Mark Manning this morning. He is a huge college football fan, and we are good friends after the six years I spent covering Cornhusker wrestling for the Omaha World-Herald. It is weird being here when the college football season is going on. I spent the first 17 years of my career covering college football for newspapers in Burlington, Iowa, and Omaha. It will be strange seeing Nebraska in the Big Ten next season.

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.

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.

MOSCOW, Russia - I've had datelines from stories I've written all over the World, but I never thought I would ever have one with Russia on it.

Well, that just changed late this morning when our 10 hour, 12 minute flight from Atlanta touched down in Russia for the World Championships.

We left Denver 30 minutes late on the flight to Atlanta, so we had to hustle down to the gate to narrowly make our flight to Russia. Jason Bryant and Gary Abbott of USA Wrestling were with me, and officials Rick Tucci, Tom Clark and Zach Errett joined us in Atlanta.

Tucci was sitting up in business class and I ended up in the worst seat on the plane - in the middle seat in the very back row.

I told Gary I wasn't going to complain, and I managed to do that for 10 hours as we flew across the Atlantic Ocean and part of Europe. I know I am very fortunate to have the opportunities I have in my position as communications manager for USA Wrestling.

I watched the three movies they showed on the flight - Karate Kid, Bounty Hunter and Quantum of Solace - and all of them were decent. Tom Clark and I were joking how surprising it was that the Karate Kid won the tournament on one leg and how James Bond killed all the bad guys. I never would have guessed that would've happened!

We were picked up in a van at the airport, and it took us about two and a half hours from the time we landed until we arrived at our hotel. The traffic was pretty bad, similar to New York City. We finally checked into our hotel - the Hotel Cosmos - and went up and ate lunch in the hotel. We then received our credentials, and were lacking access to the warmup area. Gary and I will have to talk to the event press chief to straighten that out.

I exchanged $100 of U.S. currency for 2,700 Roubles, so I could pay $55 for 24 hours of Internet access at the hotel. This is a very expensive city. Jason put $30 in a machine to try and get Roubles, but the machine ate his money. You're not in Virginia anymore, Son!

As I type this late in the afternoon on Friday, Gary is asleep on the bed in our 11th floor room and sawing a few logs. He didn't follow his own advice where he said to stay awake as long as you possibly can to adjust to the time change. We are 10 hours ahead of Mountain Time here in Russia. I am going to try and stay awake as long as I can so my body adjusts, but it won't be easy.

We plan to check out the competition venue tomorrow and we also plan to go check out Red Square.

The U.S. Greco-Roman World Team was scheduled to arrive in Russia on Friday night. They had been training in the Czech Republic for the past few days. The Greco boys start competition when the event begins on Monday.

The travel to Russia was relatively smooth for us. A lot can go wrong when you are traveling overseas, and we made it here relatively unscathed.

Looking forward to a great tournament!

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!

Wednesday July 28, 2010

Don't know how it coulda' happened, but I lost a day in there somewhere.  I know, for sure, it's Wednesday.  My train ticket to Berlin says July 28^th.  I'm in Berlin, so it's gotta' be.  My plane ticket says Thursday, July 29^th, so I'm getting up at 4:00am to go home.

The new rules of baggage weight make airline travel a lot like wrestling: Getting down to weight is not the main thing, but it's awfully important !  Fortunately, my loved ones collect things that are reasonably light weight.  Unfortunately, every time I've given a T-shirt away, this trip, two people have given me replacements.  Ah, the wrestler's life... T-shirts !

I enjoyed my day in Prague, as I did today in Berlin.  Prague lives up to its reputation of being one of the jewels in the crown of European architecture.  Since "The Changes" of the 90's, though, Prague has capitalized to the point where you really have to look deeply to see its ancient beauty.

The History Teacher in me got a big kick out of Berlin.  I spent this afternoon strolling up and down the area of ‘Checkpoint Charlie'.  This is the place where the Berlin Wall got all its attention, from 1961-1989.

I finished up, just outside the Brandenburg Gate, sitting in a sidewalk café sipping a half liter of Hefeweisen.   Every time I enjoy a Wheat Beer, I dedicate it to three men:  Floyd Winter, Vince Zuaro and Randy Couture.  Of course, there's a story there, but you're gonna' have to wait for that one !

Tomorrow, it's back to the world.  I know there's weather in Chicago today, thanks to MSNBC.  I hope it clears.  I am scheduled for a seven hour lay-over at O'Hare anyway.  Don't want to wait another night to get home to my precious Eva !

I have to make some room (quite a bit, actually) for the beginning of school.  We start early in New Mexico.  But, I hope to continue grinding on a 21^st Century view of the Seven Basic Skills of Wrestling, as well as on the psychological implications of internet technology.

If I can manage time well, I will continue this blog through August.  Because our State Leaders Summit is back in Colorado Springs this year, I'll get to spend some time in the room during the last stages of Senior World Team Camps. 

I look forward to thinking about wrestling, and about life, and sharing it.  If you're not into it, a single push of a key will make me go away (one psychological implication of technology !).  I appreciate you playing along and I appreciate wrestling for giving me the opportunity.

Ciao  

Baku Recap:

We ended up with 2 x 3rd place medals today out of 4.  Simply, we are 
capable of so much more.  We have 51 days until the start of the Sr 
Worlds.  We have some time but no time to waste.

My mind hasn't changed at all about this team and these individuals.  
We can win with this group but be must wrestle a certain way.  We must 
wrestle with an urgency and an attitude that expects to win.  The 
question now is how do we get there?

I do not think this has to be difficult in fact I think the complete 
opposite.

First we must decide what we expect, what do we truly expect in 51 
days from now.  As the coach, I know what I expect but what do each of 
these team members expect of themselves and from there teamates?

Next we must put decision that into action each day. Simply put, if 
our process is gold medal our performances will follow.  We must make 
the right decisions on the mat and off.  We must stick to our focus 
areas as we go through days of practice.  We must be willing to punish 
ourselves so that when we step on the mat in Moscow we know we are 
more ready than our foreign friends.  And we must then use our 
preparation and not waste it.  Just because we are prepared doesn't 
mean any thing if we don't use it.  Finally, We must have urgency, 
purpose, and expectation in our wrestling when we step onto the mat.

I think we learned a lot about ourselves today.  Win or loose we need 
to learn and continue to grow as wrestlers and human beings.  Our best 
days are yet to come!

We move,forward, together!  stronger and more prepared than yesterday!

Expect success!  51 days!!

Coach Steiner

Good Morning and Hello,
Day 2 from Baku,

How about a little culture today?

The city of Baku and the country of Azerbaijan is a society that is thriving off of the oil industry.  Many countries from around the world, including USA, Russia, and China are investing a lot of money into this region because of the oil riches located here, because of that Azerbaijan is rebuilding it's infastructure.  The world championships were in Baku in 2007 and since that short time ago the atmosphere in Baku is completely different.  Azerbaijan now is a country with a lot if national pride and you can see it and feel it.

Baku is the capital city of Azerbaijan, with a population of about 4 million and 700,000 of those are refugees from the surrounding area.  Azerbaijan, like I said is a country jstarting to find itself.

So, I heard an interesting tidbit, you can eat the fish in the waters of this region if you catch it in a month that has an "R" in it, if it doesn't have an "R" the waters are too warm and the fish are not good eating.  No fish for me!

The US Dollar is worth about .80 Manat, (AZE Currency)

The language spoken is Azerbaijany, but because of Russian influence and control before the soviet break up in 1991, many of the population understands Russian but it is not the main language.

We finished the day yesterday with a great workout on the mats.  It is hot and humid and the mats were like a a slip and slide.  It could call for an interesting competition.

Now we are getting ready for another mat workout this morning.  We will get some live wrestling and then start to focus on feeling Good and getting our weights in line for tomorrow.

Stephany Lee arrives tonight, she had a little problem, and is arriving a couple days late but in time for the competition.  She keeps it interesting for us.

Over and out!

Coach Steiner

The wrestling camps marketplace is an ever growing industry that is beginning to mature online. Camps like Ken Chertow's and J Robinson's dominate the market but there are literally thousands of camps competing for various markets throughout the United States and your goal is to win as much of your market as possible. I am going to cover a couple basics of marketing in this edition so there shouldn't be too much difficulty grasping this lesson

Promoting through video: For some reason, wrestling took a bit longer than most niches to catch on to using Youtube and other video sites as a promotional tool. This is great for you, Dear Reader, because you will not be competing with any experts. You can reach a heck of a lot of people through Youtube, but the audience is very broad. With FloWrestling and TheWrestlingTalk you have just the opposite - both are niche websites that cater specifically to wrestlers. I want you to promote on both sites equally and what I'm going to show you is pretty easy to recreate for your own purposes.

Step 1: Create videos about your camp that include several sessions of technique, break them down by each move, set up, and variation. Next, ask your campers to do a video interview during the camp, explaining what their favorite part or parts of your camps are. Finally, when the camp is finished, get an exit interview with a couple of your campers and ask them what they learned, if they intend to return next year, and who their favorite clinician was from the camp.

Sidebar: You can either address your camp's website or other contact information in the video or as a voice over after filming, depending upon your skill level with video editing.

Step 2: Once the leg work of creating the videos is done pick out a dozen or more techniques and a couple of the interviews and get ready to put them online. Prepare proper titles (i.e. Cael Sanderson Ankle Pick from Front Headlock, Bob Jones on why he's returning next summer to ___ Camps) and descriptions (i.e. In this video Cael explains that the key to the Ankle Pick out of the front head is keeping position over the top of your opponent and keeping pressure over his back at all times). This step is very important and even those who are doing promotion with videos are neglecting to really identify their videos.

Step 3: Head over to Youtube and upload your videos. The reason you pick Youtube as your video host instead of others like FloWrestling and Blip.tv is because you instantly grab a large audience and every wrestling video system automatically accepts Youtube videos, but there is no reciprocity from Youtube.

Step 4: Now that your videos are uploaded to Youtube they will be syndicated on all websites using Youtube's API to show videos and you can begin the process of manually adding them to FloWrestling and TheWrestlingTalk.com. FloWrestling, as far as I know, does not have limitations on the types of videos you can add there, they have a massive wrestling audience, and their system for adding Youtube is very basic. TheWrestlingTalk requires that the videos you add are technique or coaching tips but they can have advertisements (voice overs or text overlays) within those videos.

Step 5: Follow up on video comments and stay connected to the videos you've added to each site.


Promoting through articles: TheWrestlingTalk.com offers authors the ability to add advertisements to each of their articles. Writing quality, well thought out articles on topics ranging from weight management to college recruiting and everything between find an audience. Be sure to select topics that fits the profile of the campers you're trying to target. (i.e. If you run a camp based out of Maryland write an article about the 2010 state tournament discussing the weaknesses of each of the state finals participants and what you'd do to correct those errors at your camp)

Basics of writing: Create a blog at USAWrestlingNation or TheWrestlingTalk.com in the "News" tab or by clicking this link. Be sure to focus on proper categorization and tagging, just like we described in the video promotion section. For more information on writing for TheWrestlingTalk.com check here.

Promoting through link exchanges:  Seek out sites to propose link exchanges with on Google.com by searching for things like, "high school wrestling", "Youth Wrestling" and similar searches within your target audience.  Request a link exchange in a personal note to the webmaster.  Here is a suggestion on how to form the note:

Dear New Highland Wrestling Club Webmaster,

I am interested in creating a link exchange between our two websites.  I believe my camp website is a great fit for your visitors and would be honored to create an exchange with you.  My URL is: http://www.thewrestlingtalk.com/wrestling-camps/ and you can link to it with the title: TWT Wrestling Camps.  I will be happy to return the favor.  Please send over the title you'd like to use for your link and we'll get our networking started!

Sincerely,

Joe CampDirector

TheWrestlingTalk.com, HS Wrestling.Net and MatFish.com are always actively seeking link exchanges and I would be happy to run you through building a linking campaign as well... just ask in the comments.

I'm sitting in front of Gate B15 in the Athens Airport, readying for my flight to Frankfurt. My flight back from Frankfurt to home isn't until Saturday, so I will be spending some time in Germany and Switzerland for a few days first. Jens, one of my German colleagues, and I are planning on driving to the International Olympic Committee in Lausanne, Switzerland, where we will meet up with a few of our other participants from Switzerland. It should be an enriching experience, but not nearly as enriching as my time in Greece.

When we arrived back in Athens yesterday, most people went downtown to the market. Public transportation workers went on strike yesterday (I'm not sure if this is worldwide news or not), and we heard that there were protests downtown. I was hoping that we would see the protests, but they were either non-existent or in a different part of town, because we didn't see anything.

We packed a bus at the hotel and went downtown. I'm not sure how it all worked, because we got on the B2 bus and went downtown. It sure seemed like public transportation, but I didn't ask questions. When I said we packed the bus, I mean we PACKED the bus. I barely got on, so I was standing on the bottom step in the back. Not a good place to stand, because at the first stop, someone's foot got caught in the door opening up (it retracted on hinges). That someone? Me. I was wearing sandals, so as soon as I was stuck, I thought for sure something was going to break. Solvi and Jens were right by me, so they saw my foot (and face) contorted. This went on for about five seconds, so when the door closed and my foot was released, I was very relieved. No damage, just a strange bruise below my Achilles and some sore toes. Things certainly could have been worse.

I mentioned the fact I was wearing sandals yesterday...never in my life have I worn sandals so much as the last two weeks. I have the sweet tan line across the top of my foot from the sandals to prove it. Even on the nights when it would cool down for comfortable sleeping at the IOA, sandals were the norm. Except for the night run at the stadium of the Ancient Olympics, as I needed my Asics to ensure the fastest time possible.

We rode on four coach buses (no TVs or bathroom, though) back yesterday to Athens, and sleeping was pretty much the only activity allowed. It was funny to see pictures taken with everyone in them sleeping. Like one of my friends said, it looked like the bus had been gassed.

We ate lunch, dinner, and breakfast at the Metropolitan Hotel like we did the first two days of the trip. Wow, it was great to have flavorful food again!

Speaking of the hotel, we had new roommates for last night. I'm not sure what I did wrong, because my roommate spoke no English. None. Murodali was with Solvi, and I was with George. I am amazed at how much better Murodali's English was at the end of the trip, by the way. It now makes more sense to hear people say that when immersed in another language, they have to get better, because Murodali's skills grew exponentially.

People had flights as early as 4:00 AM, so the first shuttle from the hotel left at 1:30 AM. It was a cool scene in the lobby of the hotel from about 10:00 PM on, as people had their computers and jump drives out taking pictures from one another. Of course it was bittersweet, though, as I will likely never see this group of people again. Sure there are chances of running into one sometime again, but those chances are pretty slim.

I have to tell a story about yesterday. When I travel, I always play games with myself when passing people. I will always try to find wrestlers and foreigners, as I tend to think both have a certain look in the US. The last time I flew through Denver, I told my travel partner that the two people across the walkway were both wrestlers. Upon closer examination, I was right, as it was Jon Reader and David Zabriskie.

Anyways, when "having a coffee" in Athens yesterday afternoon, three of my friends and I were talking about how you can tell people that are from our respective countries. The three guys were all from Europe (Germany, Switzerland, and Iceland), and they said they can usually tell which European people are even from. As if almost on cue, a group of five 20-something girls was walking towards us and I thought they looked like a group of American college students. As they walked by, I stopped them to see. Fortunately, I was right. The girls were dumbfounded at how they looked like Americans, which I thought was even funnier.

Throughout the trip, I would ask people how expressions translated into English. Speak of the devil? In Switzerland (French), Jerome says speak of the wolf. All nighter? Make through and white night in German and French, respectively. Amazing what can be lost in translation.

One last story from the hotel last night. Adam (Australia) was chatting with his wife on Skype, and afterwards we talked for a few minutes before he went upstairs to pack. He and his wife have two sons, and his wife is pregnant with their third. When he was in Greece, he found out that they're having another boy. I will have to follow up with him to see if he and his wife are planning on incorporating a Greek name for their son. Maybe Olympus, Zorbas, or even Gangas would be fitting.

Thanks to everyone who has followed my blog, as it is neat to get emails from people following along with the journey. Euxaristo.

As my time in Greece comes to an end, I can't help but think about the new pins and friends from around the world, and the experience I have been afforded. I hope that I have been able to put into words what I have experienced the last two weeks, so you felt like you were part of this journey with me.

On the 116th anniversary of the signing of charter of the International Olympic Committee, June 23rd is recognized as Olympic Day around the world.  I feel embarrassed that I never knew the significance of today, especially as someone who works in the Olympic Movement, so hopefully everyone reading this blog will remember the importance of today as it relates to the Olympic Games. 
 
In honor of Olympic Day, we did a run as a group around the campus of the International Olympic Academy.  Everyone was decked out in the gear from their own country (flags, face paint, matching outfits, etc.), except for Angie, Gina, and me.  I took a walk into town this afternoon to try to find some face paint, as neither of us brought the US flag or matching shirts.  I really wish that I would have packed an American flag, or my American flag bandanna, as I would have felt more in touch with the celebration.
 
I have a pictured of me with my roommate Murodali Teshaev from Tajikistan. He's getting a little better at his communication, which is nice.
 
The dean of the IOA, Mr. Gangos, talked about the fact that he thinks the Olympic Games should not have records, nor should they have flags raised and anthems played for the Olympic gold medalists.  A big part of the reason he feels this way is that he thinks this would limit the amount of doping in the Olympic Games.  Fortunately, I am not the only one to disagree with him about this.  Do you agree with me?  I think that part of what makes the Olympic Games so special is that I am cheering for Team USA, not just someone from the USA. Think about it and see if you agree with Gangos or with the rest of us.
 
Last night was the first social night, where participants from other countries put on a presentation to enlighten the rest of us about their cultures.  The dances were a big hit.  We might do a dance to Steve Earle's “Copperhead Road,” as the audience will be able to easily join us.  That won't help out the with stereotype that all Americans line dance, but it's all good.
 
I'm about to head for dinner, so I will try to write more later.  Before I sign off, how about that soccer game?!?!?!  1-0 baby!
 
Citius! Altius! Fortius!

I have talked a little with the two representatives from Great Britain. Or do I say United Kingdom? I have Welsh and Scottish heritage, so I’ve been curious to learn more about what it means to be English or British, and if there is a difference.
 
For a starting point, the United Kingdom is the nation (not the country) that encompasses England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, and all of the commonwealth’s islands (Falkland Islands, Channel Islands, etc.).  Great Britain, which is noted GBR in the Olympic Games, is essentially the same as the UK, which is why we tend to use “British” as a way to describe residents of the UK, but Great Britain refers to the land mass of the main island (England, Wales, and Scotland) and Northern Ireland.
 
Fergus is from Scotland, so he’s Scottish.  And British.  Emily is from England, so she’s English. And British as well.  Both are said to be from the United Kingdom.  However, Fergus is not English and Emily is not Scottish.  This might sound really simple, but England and Scotland are both countries, have their own national football teams, etc.  For the Olympics, they unite under the Union Jack, the flag of the United Kingdom. 
 
To travel to England or Scotland, a resident of Wales does not need to show his or her passport.  I guess it sounds similar to how we view states, right?  I mean, if I would have had someone call me a Minnesotan while growing up, I would have been very quick to correct them.  I guess I just get hung up on the fact that they’re not states, but rather separate nations. 
 
It gets better, too.  Wales has its own language, Welsh, even though English is the primary language spoken in the schools and businesses.  When Emily’s office (she works for the London Organizing Committee for 2012) produces a document regarding the Olympic Games, it must be done in both English and Welsh.  Of course I could insert jab here about how I think some states have their own language, but I will refrain.

England and Scotland have fought wars against one another (think Braveheart), and don’t have much love for one another.  I was actually in England in 1996 when Scotland and England played in football.  It was a big deal, because the two nations hadn’t played in a decade.  Maybe it is just because of their hatred for one another in football, but Great Britain has never fielded an Olympic football team.  As the host nation (which, technically there is no host nation, just a host city – London), it would be great if the two nations could set aside their differences and field a team. 
This was hammered home when Fergus asked Professor Perrakis this morning to refer to the country as Great Britain and not England. I am sure that others took note of Fergus pointing this out, but it is especially the case for me because I have Welsh and Scottish ancestry, so I have a special interest.
 
Enough about my struggles with figuring the UK out.  After lunch, we have scheduled activities.  We can choose between dancing, drawing, and literature. I went to the drawing session, where I used charcoal as a means for art for the first time.  I drew a picture of a two wrestlers, with one wrestler in on a single leg and the other defending.  Next, I had to draw it with my left hand (I’m right handed) with a marker.  After that, right handed with my eyes closed.  Lastly, left handed with my eyes closed.  Of course none of them were masterpieces, but it was strange to see that left handed, my drawings looked more free and smooth.  The teacher showed how this was the case for most of the drawings by my classmates, and it demonstrated the fact that sometimes you have to do what feels right.  Thinking about things, drying to create what looks right…that isn’t necessarily right.  This seems to hold true in and out of sport in our lives, as at times, decisions must be made simply on if something feels right. 
 
After this morning’s lecture, participants gave short presentations to the group of 170 people.  I drew the short straw and was the first to go, with Angie following next.  I doubt anyone tuned in on-line to watch, but I made sure to find out if the footage is archived.  It is, so I will likely watch it when I’m back home.  After a sentence or two, the professor asked me to slow down.  I took for granted that my audience could understand English as fast as I could speak it, but that wasn’t the case.  After the session, people have asked for a copy of my essay, which was flattering. 
 
Last night I scored a German bracelet that is similar to the bracelets that were started with the LiveStrong yellow bracelets in 2002 or 2003.  A few hours later, Jens (one of the German delegates) asked me if I knew what colors were in the German flag.  Glancing down, I said “black, red, and gold.”  Jens said I was the first person that knew it was gold and not yellow.  Glad to know that I semi-guessed correctly!  Jens was happy, that was for sure. 
 
Tonight we have our second football game, against the team that beat the team that smashed us.  Hopefully we play better this time around.  We pretty much have assured ourselves of not getting out of the pool, regardless if we win.  I guess we could still make it out of the pool if we win 9-0. Yeah, that’s not happening.  Not even if we had Jozy Altidore playing on our team for the night.
 
A handful of us are headed into town to eat some traditional Greek food – I’m really looking forward to the gyro I’m going to eat.
 
Citius!  Altius!  Fortius!
 

Greetings from Olympia, Greece.  Olympia is the site of the Ancient Olympics, which were held every four years beginning in 776 BC.  They were held in such a manner (every four years) for 1100 years, until they were stopped.  Greece had recently come under rule of Christianity, but since the newly in charge believed that the Olympics were a form of paganism, the leaders abolished the Olympics.  The site of the Ancient Olympics was only utilized for the Olympics, so once the Games ceased, the site of the Olympics was essentially abandoned.
 
Up until the 1800s, the site was actually under up to 20 feet of mud from a nearby river that had flooded many times over.  Now the ruins are open to the public, so our entire group went to tour the site this morning.  It was actually very impressive to see the stadium (and learn how the word stadium was derived), which could hold up to 45,000 spectators for the Games.  We also were able to see the Palaestra, which is where wrestling was held.  I did not realize that the root of the word palaestra is palaiein, which is the Greek used for wrestling.  As wrestling fans, you will probably all understand why I was more excited about seeing the Palaestra than the others in my group.
 
After the tour of the grounds, we went to the museum across the street.  Just like in Athens, it was nice to get inside of a building with air conditioning, as it is hot again today.  We all laughed when the tour guide this morning said that it’s the beginning of summer and that it’s not that hot yet.  Yikes.
 
Yesterday when I wrote, we were on the bus to Olympia.  We stopped twice along the way at what I would equate to rest stops, and arrived shortly after 2:00 PM.  My new roommate, Marad Tashives, is from Tajikistan.  Of course that is probably the incorrect spelling, so I will try to find out the exact spelling.  Communicating with Marad has been difficult, though, as he speaks very little English and can understand me even less.  I tried to tell him that we had our first meeting last night at 5:00 PM and that formal dress was required, but I was unsuccessful is getting my point across.
 
A few of us went to downtown Olympia last night, which was nice.  Olympia is a town of 11,000 people, so it’s about the same size of my hometown.  We wound up catching part of the England-Algeria soccer game, and then we walked back to socialize at the IOA.  Funny that I say soccer, because as expected, no one else here says soccer, but rather football.
 
Speaking of football, did anyone watch the US-Slovenia game?  I may or may not have been following the game on my phone during a session last night, so I read about the goal that was called back.  I haven’t seen the replay of it, but is it as bad as Americans are saying?
 
After the first session last night, we all signed up for one group sport to play during our time here, and one individual sport.  The team options were volleyball, basketball, and football (soccer, for those of you not following along), and tennis and table tennis were the options in individual sports.  In 2007, one of the American delegates here tore her Achilles while playing volleyball, and last year one of the Americans broke his wrist playing basketball, so I chose football.  Actually, I would have chosen football anyways, as I grew up playing and enjoy doing so.  I have a feeling that this will be the first time in my life where I am the worst player on the team.
 
For anyone who would like to follow what is taking place in the lectures, feel free to visit www.ioa-sessions.org.  I know that my mom caught part of the opening ceremony/first session last night, as I sent her the URL when everything began.  They said that over 5,000 people world wide tune into the sessions, which I find amazing.  Most countries have National Olympic Academies, though, so learning about Olympism is a little bigger deal abroad.
 
Now, I realize that I haven’t explained much about what the Session for Young Participants at the International Academy will consist of.  When Pierre du Coubertin resurrected the Modern Olympics, he did so as a way to promote peace in the world through the mutual understanding that sport creates.  On the surface, this might sound like Sandra Bullock asking for world peace in Miss Congeniality, but when discussed, it is a much deeper and more meaningful topic.  Hopefully throughout the ten days, I will begin to put in words a little more of what we discuss.  I know that I am really looking forward to the week-and-a-half, and I hope that I am able to convey the message back to everyone following.
 
This afternoon we will have a lunch, a lecture, and then some sort of physical activity, followed by a lecture tonight.  At least that’s what I think we have in store.
 
Citius! Altius! Fortius!

I don't know if anyone ever reads these posts but I hope that as things get going on the blog I get into more of a rhythm you will find something you like to read here. If you are even remotely interested in reading these please leave me a comment with any feedback you have.

We are getting ready to ramp up again in Lewisburg and have a couple hundred high school wrestlers on campus for our summer wrestling camp. This is one of my favorite times of the year because we can focus on teaching wrestling and not have to travel all over the country. We will start on July 7th and go until the 11th. I am looking forward to seeing some of the great local PA wrestling talent that the local schools will bring to our campus.

Make sure to check out bucknellwrestling.com too we have put all kinds of great information on there for wrestling fans and I hope that you will enjoy it.

We have been so busy getting ready for camp that I have not had a chance to post to recognize Kevin LeValley for his outstanding accomplishment in winning the University World Team Trials. Kevin was one of Bucknell's two All American's this past season and has been one of the most fun people to work with. Congratulations Kevin.

LEWISBURG, Pa. - Bucknell All-American wrestler Kevin LeValley (Hugo, Colo./Limon) claimed the 66-kilogram title at the Fila University World Team Trials on Friday night in his home state, earning him a guarantee of at least a wrestle-off for a spot in October's University World Games in Torino, Italy.

LeValley, who became just the fifth different Bison wrestler to claim All-America honors this past March when he finished seventh at 149 pounds at the NCAA Championships, pinned two-time All-American Jimmy Kennedy of the Illini Wrestling Club in the championship match on Friday to win the title.

To read more about Kevin's achievement please visit Bucknellbison.com

* Photo courtesy of Bucknellbison.com

*

Kyle Cowan finished his career as an undefeated three-time state champion last month. And after searching for the best place to wrestle at the next level, Cowan found his fit in the University of Pennsylvania.

The Cascia Prep (OK) product ended a spectacular career with three state crowns and a perfect 122-0 record. (He lost his freshman eligibility due to transfer rules, but went undefeated that year as well.) He appeared as TOM’s #3 ranked 215lber.

“The coaches at Penn stayed in close contact throughout the recruiting process. Coach Eiter and Coach Valenti are both great wrestlers and passionate people. I always had the sense they were looking out for my best interests.”

READ MORE HERE...

There are alot of new things on the way at TOM, a new look, expanded coverage and even a few (what we feel) are big announcements. Although last time I said that one reader was disappointed in the deal so we now try and shy away from using words like "big".

Willie is finalizing this years HS rankings and we have some interviews coming up. We still offer basic free sites to clubs.

Thats all for now.

Just a quick post today, we created a wrestling related app that will allow you to post right now to Twitter and Faceook personal pages. In the works, will be the ability to post to a fan page.

All you have to do is set up an account at http://www.wrestlinggear.net and go to your page and check the boxes to publish to Twitter and Facebook. It will walk you through the steps to link those two websites together.

Let us know what you think - get started here - http://www.wrestlinggear.net

It is easier if you already have your Twitter and FB page set up (e.g. create those pages if you don't have them already).

I forgot an important feature - it's free!

Jeff Pape
WrestlingGear.Com

While many of America's most active wrestling fans will be watching the Big Ten Network or scouring the internet for video and stories about college post-season competition this weekend, another major wrestling event will be going on over in Moscow, Russia on Saturday and Sunday.

The Freestyle World Cup will feature the top eight nations from the 2009 World Championships, battling in dual-meet action. This event will feature numerous superstars in international wrestling, with national pride on the line.

Many people have discovered the excitement of dual meet competition, and the Freestyle World Cup is perhaps the most exciting of all dual meet tournaments. For many years, U.S. wrestling fans were able to witness this great event when it was hosted here in the United States in cities such as Toledo, Ohio, Chattanooga, Tenn., Baltimore, Md., Stillwater, Okla., Fairfax, Va. and Spokane, Wash. Since it has been awarded to other nations during recent years, our fans have not had the opportunity to enjoy this treat in person.

A look at the tentative team rosters for this year features numerous World medalists and continental stars on every team. Russia is loaded for bear, with World Champions Besik Kudukhov, Dennis Tsargush, Georgy Ketoev and Bilal Makhov on their preliminary list.

Every team features some star power. Azerbaijan brings Zalimkhan Guseinov (60 kg), Chamsulvara Chamsulvaraev (74 kg), Hetag Gazyumov (96 kg) and Ali Isayev (120 kg). Iran has stars such as Mehdi Taghavi (66 kg), Reza Yazdani (96 kg) and Fardin Masoumi (120 kg). Top wrestlers from Turkey include Tefik Odabasi (60 kg), Sirhat Baljit (96 kg) and Fatih Cakiroglu (120 kg). Ukraine's best athletes include Vasily Fedoryshin (60 kg), Andriy Stadnik (66 kg) and Taras Danko (85 kg). Belarus will be led by Rizvan Gadjiev (55 kg), Albert Batyrov (66 kg) and Murad Gaidarov (74 kg). Uzbekistan will feature Dilshod Mansurov (60 kg), Soslan Tigiev (95 kg) and Kurban Kurbanov (96 kg).

Just spend a little time on the FILA database and search these athletes, and you will be amazed at their achievements on the international level.

The USA will bring its two 2009 World medalists, Jake Herbert (84 kg) and Tervel Dlagnev (120 kg). Most of the team members are competing in their first World Cup. Based upon team placement at the World meet in Denmark, Team USA enters as the No. 7 seed.

What will be a good performance for Team USA? National Freestyle Coach Zeke Jones is upbeat about the young U.S. talents who will be wrestling in Moscow this weekend, based upon improvement which he has seen in recent international competitions. There is no doubt that the Americans are considered an underdog this year with such a loaded field.

"We will put our foot on the line, get after it, and pour our heart out on the mat," said Jones right before getting on a plane to head off to Russia.

Jones said that the World Cup has been an event that Freestyle Team USA has been focusing on all year. Although many of the international opponents may be taking the U.S. team a bit lightly, this is a group which could alter some perspectives with a strong effort.

How will we be able to follow our American team in Moscow this weekend? FILA often posts a website from major international meets, but has not yet indicated if there will be anything available. The Russian wrestling website will have updates (http://www.wrestrus.ru). You can get an English translation if you access this page through Google. Our coaches will attempt to get information back to us each day, which is not always as easy as you might expect from that part of the world. Watch TheMat.com for updates.

So, while you are focusing on NCAA Div. I qualifiers and Div. III All-Americans this weekend, remember that your American freestyle wrestlers are representing all of us in Russia this weekend. Don't be surprised if we have a few surprises for our opponents in spite of the international rankings.

Facebook Ads is a great way to buy fans. Actually, I shouldn't call it "buying fans". You are really just buying awareness. The fans (or prospective fans) decide if they want to "like" you. If you are doing any sort of marketing, you are already buying awareness by using the expensive currency that is your time. Facebook Ads just changes the currency.

If you are unfamiliar with Facebook Ads, they are the ads that appear on the right side of Facebook. They have four parts: a title, an image, the body and a destination URL. You are able to promote your website, your Facebook Page, or a Facebook Event (or an application but that is mostly irrelevant for our purposes here).

If you want to try Facebook Ads to promote your team, here is what I suggest:

1. Create an ad to promote your Facebook Page. When people like your page, then they will continue to get your news in their news feed. If you promote your website, they may visit once and never come back. (Plus, by clicking the like button on your ad, they do not have to leave the page that they are currently viewing).
2. In the body, use the wording "Click "like" to show your support for XYZ Team". Verbiage here is important.
3. Target your community. The ad creator is really simple. You just choose who you want to target by age, gender, location and interests. Tip: Older demographics are more expensive (because they have more money to spend) as are narrower niches.
4. Set your budget a few pennies above the lowest suggested bid. Or you can even go lower and see where that gets you. If it goes nowhere after a few days, bump up your bid.

If this sounds scary and like something that you could screw up, just set a maximum budget with which you are comfortable- $25 or $50. When your money runs out, go into the ads manager to review your metrics and see how you did. Did you get more likes? What were you paying for them? Personally, I think that $1 is way too much. I have had several campaigns for clients that got a CPC (cost-per-click) of less than $0.30/click.

Here's the real question: If you had 1,000 more likes what would that mean for your team?

There would be 1,000 more people that...

• Are aware of your team, your events, your fundraisers and your value to the community
• Might attend your events (buying tickets and concessions)
• You can leverage when talking with local businesses about the brand recognition that they will receive by sponsoring your team

Also, do not just think of the short-term value. When you bring fans together, educate them and engage them, there is a long-term benefit that will help your program be sustainable and successful in more ways that can be measured in dollars and cents.

Take action today. Start a Facebook Ads campaign.

Good People in the World Update:

            When we finally got back to the hotel Friday night, we were starving.  With ten teams wrestling four rounds, we had no breaks at all, through the day.  So, we get to the hotel, only to find that the main restaurant was being used for a wedding reception.  We had to crawl under a balcony and go through the back door to a tiny room with a few chairs and tables and a buffet set in the middle.

            There was plenty of food, but no place to sit.  Everyone came up with their own solutions.  Mine was to sit outside on an empty patio, I found a chair and there were plenty of open tables, probably because it was snowing !

            It really wasn't all that bad, but it was cold.  One of the young women who worked in the restaurant came by, carrying platters of food to replenish the empties.  We nodded hello.  Not three minutes later, the same girl shows up again and she had brought a blanket.  I told her I was OK, but she insisted on wrapping the blanket over my shoulders, then off she went.  The deal gave me goose bumps (not that I didn't have ‘em already, but you get my jest).  And... of course, I made it a point to leave a small gift for her the next day.  I managed to get one of the English-speaking announcers to explain to the girl, and her boss, what an impression her act of kindness made on an old guy from far away.

Monday, March 21

            I'm posting this early because I travel Monday morning.  With no internet at the hotel and, certainly, none at the Makhachkala Airport, I'm either early or invisible.  What's on my mind is that my students are back in class this morning.  I hope you had an exciting and enjoyable Spring Break.

            You guys will get a chance to identify the countries and capitals of the former USSR today.  I hope, as you check out my little blog, you'll notice that, of the eleven teams competing in the World Cup (Hungary and Kazakhstan are a combined team), ten were either directly, or indirectly, under Soviet influence, during the second half of the 20^th Century..

            The big goal is that you can work into your thought pattern the importance of sport in the modern world.  It's no accident that sport has been, in many ways, the launching pad for these new and vibrant economies.

            You'll also be asked to practice converting pounds to kilograms.  The weight classes in international wrestling include: 55kg; 60kg; 66kg; 74kg; 84kg; 96kg; 120kg.  Because of the team nature of the event and its timing (two weeks before the European Championship), each athlete was allowed an additional two kilogram tolerance.

            While we're converting things, ponder this:  The average price for gasoline, both in Moscow and Makhachkala, is 26 Rubles per liter.  Try a site called xe.com to do the currency conversion.  You should be able to convert liters to gallons, using your agenda.

Russia did win the Cup, defeating Iran 5-2.  When I was writing during the dual, Iran made a valiant effort to tie it up.  Russia finished tough.  They looked good winning it.

A quick special hello to my younger brother, Ron:  Got your note.  Glad you're enjoying it.

More from Moscow...

CIAO

Still some blanks to fill in for you, about how they all got there.  But, here arre the team placings, prior to the final between Russia and Iran.  Obviously, Cuba did not pull of the upset, even though Iran forfeited a weight.  Cuba ended up third in their pool.

10th place = BULGARIA; 9th place = GEORGIA; 8th place = KYRGYZSTAN; 7th place = HUNGARY / KAZAKHSTAN; 6th place = CUBA; 5th place = UKRAINE; 4th place = UZBEKISTAN; 3rd place = AZERBAIJAN.

I'm going out on a limb, but it's a solid one:  Russia will be 1st, Iran 2nd.  Ain't nobody gonna' beat these guys, especially at   home !

Saturday, March 19, 2011

There are just good people in the world !  I told you our flight from Moscow was cancelled Thursday night.  People were running around this medium sized airport (Vnukovo), scrambling to figure out what to do. 

I pushed my way through the crowd at the podium, so I could hear the lady tell me clearly, "Makhachkala... NO !"  Upon deeper investigation, I quickly deduced that was all the English she (or anyone in the vicinity) spoke.  Meanwhile, I had gotten separated from our Federation connection, so I set off to find the Iranians.  They were wearing team gear, so I figured they'd be easier to spot.

Walking back towards the main terminal, this guy caught up with me.  He was just a guy, maybe thirty-something.  Apparently he had watched me trying to get information and he spoke just a little English.  He grabbed one of my bags and hurried me down a hallway.

We ended up at the administrative office of Daghestsan Airlines.  My new friend explained to the agent, there, my situation and helped the guy dig my name up on his list.  We got instructions from the agent and my friend hurried me off again, this time to the main entrance.  During this walk, I managed to ask the guy, "So, you're going to Makhachkala, too ?"  "No", he replied, "I go to Vladivostoc.  But, I see you are having problem, so I help."

            We got to the main entrance, where my friend handed me off to another family... big family, with kids and parents and grandparents.  Grandmother was in charge.  I don't have any reason to think the guy had ever met this family.  Still, he made it clear that I needed taken care of and Grandmother made it clear she would do the care taking.  The guy shook my hand, told me I'd be OK now, and was off.

             Turns out, we were all going to the same hostel.  It wasn't 15 minutes until Elena, our Federation support, and the Iranian group found me at the entrance.  So, now it was simply a matter of getting 40 of us in a sixteen passenger van and off we went.

            The point is there are some damned fine people in the world and we should appreciate ‘em.  I will never know the names of the people who stepped up to take care of me in this little hiccup of a situation.  But, I do know this:  It's not the first time I've been taken care of by a stranger.  I have also watched people step up for other people in similar fashion.  The only way I can ever repay the kindness of these good people is to not miss the chance to do some kindness down the road.  I will not miss that chance.

            OK... Here's what I have for results from the Pool Competition in the 2011 Freestyle World Cup.

1. Russia; 2. Kyrgyzstan; 3. Bulgaria; 4. Uzbekistan; 5. Ukraine.  Pool B is numbered:  1. Azerbaijan; 2. Iran; 3. Hungary / Kazakhstan; 4. Cuba; 5. Georgia.

Saturday's schedule is on two mats.  Round I: 1v2, 3v4.  Round II: 5v1, 2v3.      Round III: 4v1, 2v5.  Round IV: 3v1; 4v5.  Round V: 2v4, 3v5.

ROUND I       POOL A                                              POOL B

RUSSIA defeated    KYRGYZSTAN           AZERBAIJAN  lost to IRAN

BULGARIA     UZBEKISTAN                       HUN / KAZ               CUBA

ROUND II

UKRAINE lost to RUSSIA                          GEORGIA                   AZERBAIJAN

KYRG               BULGARIA                             IRAN defeated         HUN / KAZ

ROUND III

UZBEK lost to RUSSIA                               CUBA lost to             AZERBAIJAN

KYRG               UKRAINE                               IRAN  defeated        GEORGIA

ROUND IV

BULGARIA lost to RUSSIA                                    HUN / KAZ lost to   AZERBAIJAN

UZBEK            UKRAINE                               CUBA defeated         GEORGIA

NOTE:  DUE TO TIME CONSTRAINTS, ROUND V WAS MOVED TO SUNDAY MORNING

ROUND V

KYRG lost to     UZBEK                                    IRAN defeated       CUBA

BUL                 UKRAINE                               HUN / KAZ               GEORGIA

More tomorrow...

CIAO

One of the strongest thoughts in that last entry was me "Not wanting to Jinx it".  Well, I did !  I knew things seemed to be going way too smoothly.  My luggage arrived. Connections going great.

I finished that last piece about 9:00pm, Moscow time.  My flight to Makhachkala was scheduled at 10:30 ( along with the entire Iranian delegation ).  We're all lined up at the gate, about 10:20, and boom... flight cancelled.  Apparently there was some kind of devastating fog in Makhachkala.

After falling into another string of luck and some really good people (I'll tell that story when I get some typing time), we ended up in a kind of apartment / hotel / hostel place.  But, I got to sleep for a few hours, lying down.  That part was good.

After some more gate changes and delays, we arrived at the airport, about a half hour out of Makhachkala, at about 1:45pm today.  The referee's clinic started at 2:00.  With the help of the President of the local Federation, who drove like a NASCAR champ, I got to the clinic about 15 minutes late.

OK, here's some data.  There are two pools in the World Cup.   Pool A is numbered:  1. Russia; 2. Kyrgyzstan; 3. Bulgaria; 4. Uzbekistan; 5. Ukraine.  Pool B is numbered:  1. Azerbaijan; 2. Iran; 3. Hungary / Kazakhstan; 4. Cuba; 5. Georgia.

Tomorrow's schedule is on two mats.  Round I: 1v2, 3v4.  Round II: 5v1, 2v3.      Round III: 4v1, 2v5.  Round IV: 3v1; 4v5.  Round V: 2v4, 3v5.

It'll be a very long day and there's already talk of pushing the last round into Sunday morning.  I'll get you results, as I can. 

There's zero internet access at our hotel, so I have to depend on being able to sneak a little time while we're at the venue.  Might be tough, but hey... that's why I make the big bucks.

Ciao

Knock on wood !  So far, this has been way too easy.  Plane left Dallas on time, got to Frankfurt on time.  Got a decent nap somewhere over the Atlantic.  Left Frankfurt on time, got to Moscow's Domodedovo on time.

Here's where I don't want to jinx it.  Cleared customs and got baggage at DME, came out the big glass doors, and there's a guy holding a cardboard sign with my name on it.  He loaded my bag and me up, in a pretty nice Toyota, and drove me around the southwestern perimeter of Moscow to another airport, Vnukovo. 

We spoke little.  I don't even know the guy's name.  My Russian is way better than his English, and I don't speak very good Russian !  The ride took us right at an hour.  I have seen some pretty tough rush hour traffic, but never anything like I saw this afternoon.

My friend delivered me right to the counter of Dagestan Air, who will take me to Makhachkala.  I'm traveling, this leg of the journey, with part of the Russian delegation and all of the Iranians.

I got to this airport around 6:30pm and my flight is at 10:30.  Much of this entry is me struggling to stay awake until it's time to board.  There's no internet available, so I'm saving this part and will post it, hopefully, tomorrow morning.

It's almost 2:00pm in Philadelphia, right now, so the first session of the NCAA D1's should be done.  I'm anxious to see who stepped up and who got upset.  More from Makhachkala, tomorrow morning.

Ciao

You know, I spent a lot of space in that last post thinking of people who are either close to me or close to a few of us.  As I was flying into Dallas, it occurred to me I might have missed something.

One of the teams scheduled to compete in the World Cup is Japan.  I do not have information about where the Japanese team has been training for the last several days.  But, I think it is safe to say that, even if the team and its training were not directly affected by the recent tragedy in Japan, their are families within that team that were.

Here I am, caught up in the drama of all three NCAA Championships, anticipating what the competition will be like in Russia and enthralled in my good fortune to be part of such a cool event.  All the while, people are hurting, more than, I've ever known and, doubtless, some are wrestlers and their families.

So, I offer my respect to those whose lives have been, and are being, torn by the series of natural disasters on the islands of Japan.  I hope my personal friends there are doing as well as possible.  I hope the Japanese Freestyle Team will somehow be able to compete in the World Cup, but I certainly understand if they don't.  I count my blessings to be safe and comfortable, whether at home or on the road.

Closer to home, I want to pay my respect to a different kind of tragedy.  While it does not actually involve life and limb, the gutless, classless, cowardly assault on the UNO program, by "Terrorists" from within, leaves us all wondering.  The true irony is that, in a time when people all around the planet are suffering from all types of tragedy, some man-made, men with small minds and smaller fortitude cannot see the desperate need for the honor that the wrestling lifestyle begets in men and women.

CIAO 

I want to get enough preface work done that I can overcome what I expect to be a tough time getting internet access. I’ve heard some horror stories about price per minute in Moscow last September, during the World Championship. I’m going to be in Makhachkala, which is south, on the coast of the Caspian Sea. That may make it easier or it may make it harder. Makhachkala is the capital of Dagestan, a Republic that has not yet achieved independence but, I believe, would like to.

Dagestan held their Parliamentary elections last weekend. Depending on how that went, internet access at the hotel could be flowing or restricted. Being the only American at the event, I’m going to choose to be very sensitive to the wishes of my hosts. The Russian Federation has treated me like a king, just being able to get to Makhachkala. I feel like I should respond in a respectful manner.

This trip is unique, by most standards. The United States is not represented in the 2011 Freestyle World Cup. The top ten teams in last September’s World Championship are. Those ten include Kyrgyzstan (10), Hungary (9), Ukraine (8), Uzbekistan (7), Bulgaria (6), Georgia (5), Iran (4), Cuba (3), Azerbaijan (2), Russia (1).

I asked permission, from both our Officials' Association and the Russian Federation, to pay my own way to the World Cup. The reason starts simple, but gets slightly complex. Simple: The World Cups, in all three styles, offer a Type IV clinic for officials. For a Category I official to maintain that category, we are required to attend a Type IV clinic annually. Complex: There are 17 Category I officials in the United States now. FILA offers very few Type IV clinics, so it is often a scramble to find one we can afford. Being on Spring Break allows me to travel without having to lose pay. Getting my clinic early takes some pressure off me personally. Getting this clinic also means I can help one of my colleagues get his. I can pull myself off the waiting list for summer clinics and allow a guy who needs his to move up. It's not often we get to do something that's really good for us, and be able to take care of the "team". Feels good !

I mentioned that traveling to Dagestan is somewhat challenging, and I want to talk some about that. But it'll have to wait for another paragraph. It's important that I not go any further without giving some regards and thanks to some other people. One of those is my dear friend and teacher, Vince Zuaro, who passed recently. I hope you got to read Gary Abbot's obituary for Vince. Wrestling, coaching and officiating, especially in the United States, are richer for having known this wonderful human. Vince was inducted into FILA's Hall of Fame in Moscow, last September. I want to make it a point to honor his legacy, as I work in Russia this weekend.

Earlier, I mentioned elections in Dagestan, last weekend. The Freestyle World Cup was originally scheduled for March 12th and 13th. The decision was made to bump the event forward a week, in order to insure the safety of the participants. For me, the date change was a tough one ! I had already purchased all my flights, at least as far as Moscow. I had everything worked out so that I could begin and end my international journey in Philadelphia. That would have put me back in Phillie on March 15th and I would have been able to volunteer at the NCAA's. The plan was perfect... until FILA moved the World Cup. Now, I know, I'm going to miss one of the best Division I showdowns in recent memory.

I want to extend my best wishes to all the participants. I know Brands and John and Rob and Cael will enjoy the pressure. I know this is Spates' last show. Sorry to miss it. I hoped to be there for Robles' next Standing O'. Consider me standing, Anthony. Thanks for the honor your have brought to our culture. I wish Hag, Ben Miller and the rest of the officials a good tournament. To say smooth or easy, really doesn't fit the environment of the event. I'll just offer that old officials' blessing, "Don't screw up !"

My Thank You's begin with Jamie McNabb, at USA Wrestling. Jamie has "mothered" me through a lot of trips, but none as challenging as this one. Jaime takes care of all of us, often behind the scenes. Know that you are appreciated. Jamie's Russian counterpart, Olga, has also gone the extra mile to help me. What a wonderful representative of one of the world's most respected fedrations. Thank You.

Thanks to our US Officials Association's International Committee and De Heyman, our Executive Assistant. Tucci, Stecklein, De... all three made some valuable conections for me to get permission to attend this World Cup.

Thanks to my family. Eva and Sterling... without you two, I would never be able to dare these little adventures. It's beyond description, just how wonderful it feels to be loved by you. OK... enough syrup... but it comes from the heart and it deserves to be made public !

I mentioned that getting to Makhachkala is a little tricky. Makhachkala is in a region that still experiences a touch of instability now and then. Our State Department frowns on Americans visiting the region, and they make it impossible to purchase a ticket to fly in there. So, all of my ticketing ends in Moscow. From there, I lean on the hospitality of the Russian Wrestling Federation to get me the rest of the way, then back to Moscow. This is where Olga and Jamie took care of me. I'm on the flight from Albuquerque to DFW now. From Dallas, I go to Frankfurt, then Moscow.

If I understand it right, I will hire a car when I clear customs in Moscow. The driver will take me to a smaller airport, about an hour and a half away. There, I will meet a member of the Russian Federation and take a 'Red-Eye' to Makhachkala. I like the adventure of it all... Get to live out a little 'Bourne Identity' action... but this one may tax my abilities in managing logistics, not to mention my limited ability to speak Russian. I read Cyrillic pretty well, but my conversational abilitite are limited.

I'll be attending and officiating the 2011 Freestyle World Cup in Makhachkala, Russia next week.  Many of you have asked me to keep you in the loop.  I realize we are in an extraordinarily busy time, with the NCAA D1's happening at the same time.  I hope you are able to get to Philadelphia for what promises to be a great tournament... wish I were there, too.  I will find time, and internet access, to keep up with the NCAA's.  I hope you can find time to keep up with whatever I can snag for you in Makhachkala.  Ciao

We posted a bunch of photos of Asics wrestling shoes for 2011 - 2012 on our blog.

Check out a bunch of photos from different angles for the new colors of Cael V4.0, new Aggressor wrestling shoes and new Split Second 8.

Here are one of each of the new shoes - there are 6 or more photos of each shoe on our blog.

USA Wrestling has three Fortune 500 Companies among its family of corporate partners. In fact, two of those companies are Fortune 100 companies! (Liberty Mutual Insurance (Responsible Sports) #71 and Merck (Lotrimin) #85) The third sponsor, American Airlines, is just out of the Fortune 100 at #120. These very large companies have joined USA Wrestling’s other corporate sponsors, ASICS, Body Bar Systems, Maximized Living, Dollamur Sport Surfaces, The U.S. Marines and USA Wrestling’s newest sponsor, Hibiclens.

Each of our corporate partners are just that…partners, said Larry Nugent, USA Wrestling’s Director of Development. “Each brings assets to USA Wrestling that go beyond just financial considerations and in turn, USA Wrestling leverages its marketing platforms and good will to help those companies grow”.

Liberty Mutual Insurance is one of USA Wrestling’s largest sponsors. Their Responsible Sports Program supports volunteer youth coaches and parents who help our youth athletes succeed both on the mat and off. (responsiblesports.com)

Nugent credits his department’s success to hard work and USA Wrestling’s investment in developing and maintaining strong communication platforms. He said, “through a sports sponsorship, a company wants to create brand awareness, advertise one's products and services, as well as reaffirm the company's reputation as a responsible corporate citizen in the business world. Because USA Wrestling has stayed current with cutting edge communication technologies, companies like Liberty Mutual can leverage those technologies to get their message out. One of our business principals is to network the wrestling community and the communication vehicles we developed to accomplish that helped attract Liberty Mutual to USA Wrestling”.

USA Wrestling’s Development Department is a two person show. Joining Nugent is  Manager of Development, Harry Kalofonos. “It isn’t easy to get the attention of a large company like Liberty Mutual”, said Nugent. He continued, “Once I brought them to the table, Harry and I put together a presentation that they couldn’t walk away from. Harry really hit it out of the Park at their Boston corporate offices”!

Corporate sponsorships are only one of the ventures USA Wrestling’s Development Department has successfully taken on. Producing special events and fundraising initiatives are another way that the Development Department has raised resources for the USA Wrestling mission. “In 2008 we conceived and executed Fuel the Dream a program designed to raise funds to assist our Olympians with their expenses leading up to the Olympic Games. In 2009, in the run up to the Winter Olympic Games, we collaborated with a winter sport, USA Hockey and staged The Night of Champions. Both of these events were recognized by the U.S. Olympic Committee as “Most Unique and Creative Marketing Initiatives of the Year!”

Last August, USA Wrestling’s Development Department challenged itself to support the “Living The Dream Medal Fund” with a Benefit Telethon. “I was a little nervous attempting to do something no one in the Olympic Family here in Colorado Springs had ever tried”, said Nugent. “I’m lucky our own Jason Bryant was a great host and that Al Bevilacqua and Greg Warren brought passion and humor to the program. Their talented efforts inspired our World Team Athletes to do a really great job on the telephones!” he said.

Big things are in store for the Development Department moving forward. Nugent explained, “We are planning another Night of Champions in April and this time we are partnering with the U.S. Soccer Foundation. With London 2012 rapidly approaching we are putting the finishing touches on a slate of London hospitality packages that will result in unforgettable memories for Olympic Games fans of all sports and economic levels. Our plate is nearly full but we are always ready to create additional partnerships and I encourage those with questions or ideas to contact us”, said Nugent.

For more information on USA Wrestling’s Corporate Partnership opportunities go to:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdSl5O4QhW8

found this on a local forum...

all off season long i thrive to get better
to do more this year than a varsity letter
countless sprawls shots and drills
to enhance my awareness and sharpen my skills
now the season is here and its time to shine
my goal is to win it all this time
i could feel it through my veins every second i breathe
that i can dominate my opponents if i only believe
so i shake my foes hand and look him in his eyes
the ref blows the whistle and my jitters just die
every drop of sweat every drip of blood it all boils down to this
i vow this season to begin consistent, ref's will always raise my fist...

authored by nj2mustang

Is wrestling easier today than five years ago? How about ten? Fifteen? Twenty? Technology has given wrestlers, clubs, teams, and families the ability to see wrestling opportunities from coast to coast as well as across their home state. Growth has created more tournament opportunities and state organizations often face the enviable task of whether to sanction two or more events every weekend. Visibility and growth have created more choices for wrestlers and clubs. Has this made wrestling easier or is it harder to decide which competition to attend? Throw online registration statuses in the mix and you have another visible factor in the decision making process.

So is wrestling easier today than five years ago? This question prompted us to try and prove the answer is yes.

Here is our solution to make wrestling easier this December.

1. Five match guarantee
2. Satellite weigh in
3. Economical entry fee
4. Positive environment

These four things make wrestling easy. Need more? Check out the Moore County Scramble for details.

LINK TO EBAY AUCTION

These all leather converse wrestling shoes are circa 1972 (estimated). They have never been worn and still have the tag on them.\ They are in excellent condition and are undoubtedly collectible. There are two cosmetic imperfections which are visible in the picture the leather on the rear upper and the interior of the collar are cracked and peeling from being in storage for 30 years. These shoes were donated for auction to benefit the Friends of North Carolina High School Wrestling efforts to purchase custom medals for the 2011 NCHSAA State Individual Wrestling Championships.

TWO DAYS LEFT!!!

It is the end of September and the sports media is all about football. The obligatory article about volleyball and other high school sports dot the sports pages but football dominates.

Stories about wrestling...not many, believe me I know. I get them delivered to my inbox daily and then I post them on a very popular forum in NC (www.ncwrestlingscoutreport.com) to share with the community. I haven't posted an article since 3 September and that was about a coach being honored. This week three North Carolina wrestlers commited to or were accepted to the Naval Academy and a fourth committed to Penn State. This is a big deal here, heck it should be a big deal anywhere. Military Academy's are very tough to get into and it is an honor to be accepted and honourable to commit to the Service of our Nation. I haven't seen anything in the news, of course that doesn't mean there hasn't been anything written. And yes, I know that the media usually waits for the signing ceremony for publicity but come on, this is North Carolina's second wrestler to commit to a Big Ten school. That makes this pretty darn historic. For those of you that don't know the Big Ten is college wrestling.

It wasn't that long ago I wrote about publicizing your own programs. If you don't understand why you should publicize your program, team, or club; youth, high school, or college; please stop reading you probably should get back to doing whatever it is you were doing.

So wrestling news is slow but that doesn't mean that there isn't wrestling news, particulary here in the great state of North Carolina. The Super 32 isn't around the corner anymore it is right in front of us and our Nation's best will converge in Greensboro, NC to compete. We had four BIG commitments to collegiate programs. Parkland High School is perched to stretch their record holding dual win streak to new heights as well as defend their dual team and individual state championship titles for the fifth straight time and the second time after moving up from 3A to 4A. There are numerous clubs and high schools accomplishing things worth publishing. Our state affiliate of the national governing body just had some significant changes in its leadership and revalidated its commitment to folkstyle wrestling (which was a big change in the middle of last season).

So there is plenty of wrestling news but not enough of it being published. The answer is simple; write you own stuff! It is not hard and it does not take a bunch of time. Write it and send it to every reporter or media outlet's email address in your area, be sure to include a note that says you don't need a by line and they can modify the content as needed for a story. You may not make the front page of the sports section but that shouldn't bother you. Get one person or outlet to publish it and then send that link to everyone you know (including your principal and AD). Take advantage of local and national media blogs and post away, by the way they are free.

There are 32 days until the first day of high school wrestling in North Carolina. Don't wait until 1 November for your wrestling news, get it out now.

<originally posted at Team Rhino LLC>

LINK TO EBAY AUCTION

These all leather converse wrestling shoes are circa 1972 (estimated). They have never been worn and still have the tag on them. They are approximately size 13. They are in excellent condition and are undoubtedly collectible.

There are two cosmetic imperfections which are visible in the picture the leather on the rear upper and the interior of the collar are cracked and peeling from being in storage for 30 years.

These shoes were donated for auction to benefit the Friends of North Carolina High School Wrestling efforts to purchase custom medals for the 2011 NCHSAA State Individual Wrestling Championships.

When I look back on events like the Junior Nationals, I talk about evolution. I wrote in WIN Magazine a few months back about how Fargo used to be a wrestling purgatory, a strange place where we waited and waited for results.

Now, with Trackwrestling on the scene, results are updated quickly following the completion of bouts. Fans back home don’t have to wait hours to get the results they want.

Recently, USA Wrestling released information about the 2009-10 webcast schedule and all the players who made it possible. Well, not all the players. One major player in the entire success of USAW’s webcast initiative was a company called NewTek. They provided us with the Tricaster technology that took normal, one camera webcasts to another level. This past year in Fargo, we had three camera angles on our featured mat, and integrated another NewTek add-on, TimeWarp, to add replays.

They weren’t mentioned in the release, and they should have. Some of you who dabble in webcasting might know about the Tricaster. It’s been widely used in college athletics for the past few years – so much so that CoSIDA, the national organization of Sports Information Directors has sessions about using NewTek’s products to provide a cost-efficient alternative to buying TV time. I first heard about the Tricaster at the CoSIDA convention (I’m an affiliate member) back in Tampa, shortly before I left the NWCA.

While USA Wrestling did have a position open where my technical knowledge and broadcast abilities benefit our events, NewTek has been there since before my arrival. Before I was even hired, NewTek was at the World Team Trials. In the past 10 months, I’ve had the opportunity to learn and evolve with the technology. When I spoke about integrating Trackwrestling into our webcasts, NewTek’s DataLink provided the engine.

Websites I frequent, like Takedown Radio and Swimming World Magazine, use the Tricaster for their daily and weekly shows. It’s not new, but something we’ve hit the ground running with. I sometimes wonder if we’d have had the technology last year at Wrestling 411, would the show have taken off.

But it’s all hindsight.

The reality is NewTek and Ustream are now pivotal players in our promotion and presentation of wrestling. Their work is not overlooked and it’s used heavily during the season.

Even when play-by-play resources are at a minimum or being saved for finals, the on screen graphics and steady stream is a direct result of NewTek and Ustream’s ability to provide groups like USA Wrestling the resources to give the fans a better user experience.

I didn’t personally webcast anything but the finals in Fargo, but as a fan, you really didn’t need it, because there was an on-screen scoreboard, updated live, as well as a clock. You knew who was wrestling, what mat (well, the only mat in this case), what round and bout number everything was on. It made our lives that much easier.

This year, we’ll be adding more feeds. We will have a featured mat at each event (at least each event I’ll be traveling to) with all the Tricaster/Trackwrestling add ons when available. Since Track is what we use for all our USAW events, it’s safe to say when a Track scoreboard is available, you’ll have those graphics. Supplementary events will be a different story, but with Tricaster, we’ll still be able to do the on-screen scoreboards, but manually.

We look to have at least 20 events covered this year live, and at the lion’s share of those events, will have more than one feed. Ideally, we’d love to have a feed of every mat, but manpower and managing that will still be evolving.

In the time being, I want to thank NewTek, Ustream, Trackwrestling and all our events staff for being able to facilitate this very important aspect of USA Wrestling – free live webcasts of our events.

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.

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 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.

Its day two for men's freestyle and it should be a great one. Returning World silver medalist Jake Herbert and past World silver medalist Mike Zadick will be hitting the mat today. Those two studs will be followed by J.D Bergman, who has the potential to beat anyone in the World!

I was unable to watch Obe wrestle yesterday because I was managing my weight cut but after talking to teammates and coaches it was one of the best Obe has ever competed. First round he had the returning World silver medalist and defeated him in two periods. Obe won his next match making it to the quarterfinals where he lost a hard-fought match to the eventual bronze medalist. Obe proved that he can wrestle with anyone in the World at his weight class and leaves the tournament with a clear understanding of what he needs to work on.

I make weight today at 6:30 and will be happy to get that out of the way. I feel very prepared coming into this tournament and am excited at the opportunity to represent the USA. Just looking at the time I need to get organized and start getting my weight down. This will be my last blog until after I'm done competing. Thanks for all the emails and texts of support and God Bless America!
TP2

MOSCOW, Russia - One of the biggest challenges when you travel overseas is trying not to get sick.

The food in foreign countries is different from what we have back home, so it's a challenge trying to make it through a trip without your stomach having a bad reaction to something.

This is my seventh overseas trip. I've been pretty fortunate to avoid getting sick in the past, but this year has been a different story. I have been sick twice on this trip. I had a bad reaction to some Russian cuisine and a Big Mac from McDonald's, and it has been affecting me for the past three days. I feel a little bit better today, but I'm not going to eat a whole lot until I get on the plane Monday to head back to the U.S.

My diet today will consist of two granola bars and bottled water.

The U.S. is looking for a big day today with past World silver medalists Mike Zadick and Jake Herbert set to compete along with J.D. Bergman. All three guys have wrestled well this season, and all three are legitimate contenders to win medals.

It would be nice to put a couple of guys on the podium today.

At my second World Championships, Craig Sesker, Travis Shives and I walked around a market area in Baku in search of something, anything, to get our minds away from the Heydar Aliyev Sports Complex. What we found, was McDonalds.

In Baku, it was a welcome sight. Something that we longed for -- something uniquely American in size and stature. Something that gave us thoughts of home. In Moscow, it's very much the opposite.

While we search high and low for anything American, or even something British or an avatar of something from any English speaking country, we're stuck with those Golden Arches.

For the fifth straight day, I've eaten McDonalds for lunch. It's not sitting well with Craig, who left the Friday tournament after the first session concluded with some stomach issues. He alluded to such in his blog.

I've been ducking the breakfast at the Hotel Cosmos, so by the time the day rolls around to near completion, the only thing I've swallowed has been greasy Russian McDonalds. I'm eating a Royal with Cheese (insert Pulp Fiction line) and some soggy fries. The Mountain Dew I bought from the concession stand is anything but as tasty as the beverage state-side.

Joe Williamson from Flo and I walked over there -- both feeling rather worried about what this would do to us. I won't spare you any details about how my "system" works, but let's just say I might be living on borrowed time.

Here's the biggest problem I have with it. It's not the fact that I hate McDonalds, I hate fast food, pretty much in its entrity. Chick-Fil-A is the only real exception. Culvers, at times, also hits the spot. White Castle ... not so much any more now that I'm married. I used to come in with White Castle after I had bad dates in Minnesota. When the roommates saw me with a bag of sliders, they knew I wasn't going to see that person again.

Anyway, you guys don't care about my date life, but back in 2003, I was a very unhealthy guy. I smoked a pack of cigs a day, did the "college lifestyle" with what I'd consume and working at a newspaper, I ate a lot of fast food. I was standing next to Jeff Rusak in the ODU wrestling room one day in January of 2003 and stepped on the scale. I jumped off of it as soon as I saw the "3" in front of the first three digit digital readout. Ultimately, I was 325 pounds.

I then didn't eat fast food or drink a single drop of "regular" soda for the next four months. And I lost 70 pounds. So I'm personally a believer in the fact fast food erodes your health and has ZERO benefits. The only benefit is right now is to cure hunger, but I'd probably be better for my body to just drink water and nothing else than consume the amount of grease and fat and calories a Royal and Fries will put into my system.

I equate this to my distain for Buffalo Wilds Wings the three days after Fargo. I don't want to see a B-Dubs for at least a week (because we have one in the Springs) ... thankfully, I don't frequent McDonalds anyway.

So when I get back to the states, I think I'll re-enlist myself into the no fast food, no soda thing. I'm about 255 now, but I'm curious to what this trip has done to my immune system, voice and overall cholesterol level. I'm going to go on a detox when I get home with fresh food, tons of veggies and fruits and a mountain stream of water.

Макдоналдс can be gone!

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.

MOSCOW, Russia - Winning is a great cure for what ails an athletic team.

And the U.S. achieved some much-needed success on the mat Thursday when Elena Pirozhkova captured a silver medal, Tatiana Padilla won bronze and Kelsey Campbell placed fifth.

The U.S. displayed some of the fire and fight it traditionally is known for.

The Americans had been shutout in the medal department in the first three days of the event.

Ran into Olympic gold medalist Randy Lewis in the lobby of the hotel last night. Randy, in my opinion, is the best Iowa Hawkeye of all-time. Randy wrestled an entertaining, wide-open style and wasn't afraid to go for broke. He may have won a second Olympic title in 1988, but he was beaten out for the U.S. team by a young man named John Smith. All Smith did was win four World titles and two Olympic titles.

The Metro train system has been a life-saver on the trip. The underground trains go everywhere. A one-way ticket from the hotel to the venue is 26 Roubles (just under a buck in U.S. money).

My stomach is in knots today. All I've been eating is McDonald's, so maybe it finally caught up with me.

Team USA has arrived in Moscow!! We had a great training camp in Germany and travel was relatively easy getting here.

The team is feeding off one another and firing on all cylinders. The work is done and now is just a matter of time for all of us to put it all on the line. Personally, I can't wait and wish I was competing tomorrow! A lot of my family and friends get in today and I'm excited to see them.

Obe weighs in today and competes tomorrow. Herbert, Zadick, and Bergman wrestle Saturday. Sigman, Metcalf and myself compete on Sunday. We are all eager to bring back some medals to the U.S. and are proud to represent the red, white, and blue.

MOSCOW, Russia - One of the coolest parts of the World Championships is seeing all the different people from around the World gathered in one location.

On the bus ride over to the venue today, I sat in the seat next to the girl from Kazakhstan who American Clarissa Chun defeated to win the 2008 World title in Tokyo, Japan.

Seated directly in front of me was a wrestler from India and to his right was a women's wrestler from Russia.

A Bulgarian wrestler was in the seat directly to my right.

After returning to the hotel last night, Gary Abbott and I were on a jam-packed elevator and at least five different languages were being spoken at the same time.

Our seats in the press tribune are right next to the Iranian broadcasters. The guy sitting right next to me, Pirirani Gholam Ali, is a great dude. He speaks good English, so we've been able to chat. He offered me some cashews they brought from home. They weren't bad. I gave the Iranians some of the USA pins we brought along. Jason Bryant, who is doing our audio webcast for USA Wrestling, said he doesn't speak a lick of Persian but he thought the Iranians sounded good on their broadcast.

Wrestling is the National Sport in Iran, so the Iranian broadcasters are major celebrities back home

The Iranians are taking the day off today since their women do not compete in athletics. They will be back for the freestyle competition over the final three days of the tournament.

Our hotel is having some issues with its elevators. Terry Brands, a two-time World champ who is one of our freestyle coaches, got stuck in one of the hotel elevators after the freestyle team arrived a couple of days ago. Fortunately, he was able to make it out of there OK.

Blogs are a funny thing sometimes. I've written short ones, I've written long ones, I've written ones I didn't want to deal with and I've written ones that no one wanted to read.

But from the 2010 World Championships, blogging has become a way for the U.S. contingent to get exactly what's going on across in a less than sterile format. Basically, we write how we feel.

That can affect how one writes ... how you feel, that is. Right now, it's Wednesday, September 8 around 6:20. We're just over an hour from the start of the medal rounds and it's not one I'm looking forward to. The U.S. got blanked today, and in Greco overall. It really sucks right now. I feel really bad for our team, especially Alyssa Lampe. She was tooling the Polish wrestler before getting taken right over to her back with a 5-0 lead. Since it was just minutes after Greco-Roman wrestler Jake Fisher lost, it took all the wind out of the proverbial sails.

My tone and inflection changed on the webcast and generally, the rest of the first session stunk. I tried to keep people up to date, then the chat room crapped out, so I was really in a lurch.

Now, we're three days in, about 20 hours into the live webcast and my throat is outright shot. I'm trying to not talk at all and tonight, I'm just going to go to sleep right away rather than stay up and mingle.

Last night, Gary and Craig and I took the metro back. I took a few pictures from my phone and posted them here on the Nation and its photo gallery. Here's some notes from yesterday and the tournament as a whole  ... in pictures.


We took the shuttle bus in the morning on Tuesday. There was the head of a stuffed cat on the wall. I mean, I'm all for honoring the memory of ones passed, but this was either a really, really close cat or it was a scrumptuous dinner that the bus driver wanted to remember. Either way, it was creepy.


I have no idea what this is, but it's cool. Hammer and sickle


Here's the outside of the Olympskiiiiiiiy (however you spell it) Sports Center. It was built for the 1980 Olympics. It's gigantic really.


I haven't decided whether or not this is Cyrillic for something or just a normal translation. Crapdogs? Really? Nice.


McDonalds ... I hate fast food, but this place has been the savior from a world of "the trots." That's all I'll say about that.


This is a VERY long escalator. Good practice for the incline, I guess. That is, if it didn't work.


TETRIS!


This one's for DF.

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.

MOSCOW, Russia - One of the misconceptions about Russians is that they are not friendly.

In the week I've been here, the people have been very nice. We had a young lady help give us directions at the train station. She went out of her way to walk us down to make sure we boarded the right train in Moscow's massive, Metro underground train system. It would be very easy to get lost here.

The people in the hotel and the venue also have been very friendly and polite. Many of them are eager to try out their English when they see an American.

The people here have helped us feel very comfortable here. That makes a big difference when you are here for a seven-day tournament.

We returned to the hotel last night and received some bad news. The Internet was down in the entire hotel. We still had some work to do, plus I was hoping to talk to a friend on Skype. It was a little frustrating, but you have to expect things to go wrong when you are halfway around the World.

The shuttle buses from the hotel to the venue have been very helpful. I rode over this morning with Jake Fisher and his training partner Cheney Haight, along with the entire U.S. women's team. I didn't recognize Keith Wilson, one of our women's coaches, until he pulled a white towel out of his bag and wrapped it around his head.

This tournament can be a grind. The days are long - very long - and sleep is a precious commodity.

Gary Abbott and I arrived early at the venue this morning, so we could get online and catch up on a few things. I've traveled overseas enough times now to know the drill when things go awry.

The U.S. is 0-for-6 in medals so far in this tournament. Hopefully, the Americans can change their fortunes today with Jake Fisher, Alyssa Lampe and Jessica Medina taking the mat in Moscow.

My old buddy, Bill May, is back for his 999th World Championships (actually he guesses it is around 20). The veteran journalist grew up in Minnesota and is part Japanese. He now lives in Prague, Czech Republic. He covers the Japanese teams here and knows everything about this tournament from a media perspective.

Bill also is fluent in Japanese, and just had a question about a Japan women's wrestler answered for me. I was asking him why six-time World champion Hitomi Sakamoto had moved down a weight class from 51 kg/112.25 lbs. to 48 kg/105.5 lbs. Sakamoto, 29, reportedly is moving down to prepare for a run at the 2012 Olympics. Her weight class of 51 kilos is not an Olympic weight class.

MOSCOW, Russia - Covering the World Championships has been a bit of an adventure for the media and the press officers in past years at this event.

Internet has been hit and miss, and we didn't even have a press tribune to work at in 2007 in Azerbaijan.

But this year's Worlds have been run much better.

We have a press tribune, press center and access to the athletes in the warmup area. Plus the Internet is working well and they have done a nice job distributing information to us here. That makes an already difficult job that much easier for us.

I have covered sporting events all over the World, and it can be a bit of a challenge with the language barrier. But the folks here should be commended for their efforts.

Hopefully, that will continue in the five days we have left in this event.

The support from everyone back home means a lot. It's great to see messages and comments on Facebook, and e-mails from a lot of friends and wrestling fans. Hopefully, we will have some more good news to give you over the next few days.

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.

Today was a busy day full of wrestling. I felt pretty good with my performance, but I can't say that I wasn't disappointed with my losses. I did my best, but I still wish that I could have brought home a medal. However, I am grateful that I was able to place top five at the world championships. I will use this competition to build on the next two years, and I see it as being useful to help me reach my ultimate goal of winning the Olympic Games. 

Well tomorrow is another great day full of wrestling as we get ready for Jeremiah, Jake, and Dremiel to wrestle. I wish them the best of luck, and I am looking forward to them representing team U.S.A well.

MOSCOW, Russia - The first day at the World Championships was a prime example of how tough this event really is.

The American squad fell short of winning a medal on the first day of the event Monday. Justin Ruiz reached the bronze-medal match, but fell just short and settled for fifth. Teammates Spenser Mango and Faruk Sahin both lost to Olympic champions en route to finishing outside the top 10.

Mango looked like he might get to wrestle back, but Russian Nazyr Mankiev lost in the semifinals on a controversial call. Mango would've had a chance to come back if Mankiev had made the finals. Mango could've come back to make a run at a bronze medal if Mankiev wins his semi.

It was an extremely long day today. Wrestling started at 1 p.m. local time and didn't end until almost 10 o'clock tonight. There was no break, so we were pretty exhausted when we got back to the hotel. We left the hotel on a shuttle bus at 10 a.m. today, so we could grab our seats in the press tribune and set everything up.

The U.S. sends its heavy hitter, Dremiel Byers, to the mat on Tuesday. Byers is on the opposite side of the bracket from where Olympic champions Mijain Lopez of Cuba and Khasan Baroev of Russia are. Byers was second in this event last year and beat Baroev earlier this season. Byers could deliver a spark for the whole U.S. team in all three styles with a big performance.

Jason Bryant, Gary Abbott and myself took our chances by riding in a cab back to the hotel. The cab had no markings on it that it was actually a taxi, but it only cost 300 Roubles (10 bucks U.S.) so it was worth it. Not sure I want to do that again.

We hit McDonald's again as Gary popped for dinner. McDonald's is good here, but it's probably not a place I will be hitting much when I get home.

The wireless internet in the hotel has helped us a lot. We typically have more work to do when we get back to the hotel.

2010 World Championships

Coaches Apprentice Program (Day 1)

Cody Bickley collected the coaches participating in the Coaches Apprentice Program (CAP) at Gate 8 in Terminal 3 of JFK Airport in New York.  Cody manages the National Coaches Education Program for USAW.  The coaches arrived from all over – Florida, Virginia, Maryland, Illinois, Montana, Colorado, California, and Hawaii.

The CAP provides coaches the chance for professional growth with field experience on an international tour with the U.S. team.  This year’s tour is to the 2010 World Championships in Moscow, Russia.  CAP coaches must have attended a USA Wrestling Silver College within the NCEP program, and must be progressing toward a Silver or Gold level certification.

The non-stop, packed-to-the-gills flight from JFK left at 4:10 p.m. on Saturday, September 4 and touched down three movies and two bad meals later in Moscow exactly on time on Sunday, September 5, at 10:10 a.m.  We cleared customs, collected our bags and headed out in search of our shuttle.  We walked right by the beautiful blond girl with a poorly written magic marker sign.  As we passed, she hurried up to Michael Stokes from Montana and asked, “American?  American?” and then, through half-English and gestures, told us that she had a 15 passenger van for the 19 of us who had just arrived.  The chosen 15 wedged into the van with suitcases filling the aisle and stacked in the doorway.  The van came back for the others later.

The previous day Mitch Hull, the Director of National Teams, had e-mailed us about the 1 ½ hour commute from the airport but even though the heavy traffic seemed to be without fixed rules and the roads are either under construction or should be, we arrived at the Cosmos Hotel in less than an hour.  Check in was longer.

The huge, half-circle hotel opened in 1979, “intended” as it says on its website, “for catering to the XXII Moscow Olympics.”  It faces the V.V.C., All-Russia Exhibition Centre and the Space Explorers Monument.   A giant bronze statue of Charles de Gaulle stands at attention in the majestic granite staircase that rises from the main road to the port cochere (the majesty somewhat marred by the gaggle of 13-year old skate boarders who practice tricks with cigarettes dangling in the corners of their mouths). At night, the skate boarders are gone and thousands of small lights blink like stars all across the front of the 25-story hotel. 

It supposedly takes 15 – 20 minutes to get from hotel to the sporting venue.  After lunch some CAP coaches went to the venue to watch wrestlers cutting weight and going through light pre-competition workouts.  Cody led the rest of us into Moscow to see Red Square.  With no map.  With no directions.  With no one who spoke Russian or read Cyrillic.  Yankee wrestlers are fearless.

We walked underneath the highway that fronts the hotel to get to the BOHX (closest spelling possible) subway station.  Unable to make the middle-aged lady selling tickets understand where we wanted to go, we resorted to pointing at our Team USA warm up jackets and then touching our forefingers to our thumbs.  It was great fun.  Once she realized that we wanted to go to Red Square, we made a back & forth arching movement with our forefinger and she nodded, handing us magnetic cards, good for a round trip.  At least by pantomiming we didn’t resort to the classic American tourist device of slowing down our questions in English and raising our voices.

Tickets purchased, we followed the fast moving ranks through the glass doors and onto the faster moving escalator that took us at least 10 stories underground.  A kind guard told us to go down and turn right.  We did and caught the first speeding train through the terminal.  There, another kind Russian passenger pointed out where we wanted to go on the subway map mounted on the wall by the sliding doors.  It involved a train change.  When we tried to change trains we got to explore the stairs and walkways at the exchange point for about 10 minutes before a third kind person altered his own travel plans and actually rode with us to the right station.  Still, even he was not quite sure where to go and he called a friend who spoke English.  When Cody took the phone to talk with her she said, “Get off!  You are there.” 

And we were.  As we walked out of the subway and turned around, we saw the front gate of the Kremlin.  Thousands of people walked around in Red Square.  Vendors sold soda and ice cream.  A concert given by military bands caused the Kremlin to be closed to tourists so we walked the perimeter counter-clockwise.  We joined the thousands of people strolling through the Alexandrovsky Gardens, stopped to watch the stoic guards on either side of the eternal flame at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, watched six young men doing a combination of acrobatics, capoeira, and submission grappling on the grass, and walked obliviously by the obelisk that marks the Monument to Revolutionary Thinkers.

The Kremlin’s west wall is a massive red brick structure behind which stand honey-mustard buildings, one of which the guidebook says is the Poteshny Palace.  We walked the south wall that faces the Moscow River and we saw the onion domes, some a shining gold, that give the Kremlin its distinctive look.  Soldiers leaning casually on barricades blocked our walk along the east wall and we missed much of Red Square as we detoured around St. Basil’s Cathedral, its onion domes and spires looking like a variety of large and small Dairy Queen cones dipped in swirls of gold, orange, red, green, and blue.

Cody led us back to the subway station for the not-nearly-so-unnerving ride back to the hotel.  Matt Hampton from Illinois wouldn’t let the fun end so soon though.  We were all thirsty and he’d heard rumors of cheap beer at the carnival in the garden near the All Russia Exhibition Centre.  All the people in Moscow who weren’t walking in Red Square or strolling through the Alexandrovsky Gardens were going to or were already at the carnival.  We wound through the crowd and under the arches that mark the entrance.  We resisted having our pictures taken with a dressed up monkey on a motor scooter (think Marcel from Friends).  We watched 4 Burmese pythons slowly unwind on a stretch of grass while little kids knelt close to see the huge snakes better.  We watched out-of-control Go Cart racers with bumper car fenders speed around a tire-lined track at full-throttle – a place of probable return.  And we had a tepid cheap beer before heading to the hotel.

Tomorrow we catch the 10:30 a.m. shuttle to the venue to learn how to use the cameras and to get our filming assignments.  Competition starts at 1:00 p.m. and we’ll be filming every match on all three mats for quick downloading into a computer where the footage will be digested, cut, and reassembled by others so as to be available to the athletes and the coaches preparing for their next match.  Our credentials also allow us into the warm up areas and that’s a wonderful place to watch the world’s best wrestlers as they prepare physically and mentally for the most important tournament of the year.

So today was a big day the day that the first group of greco wrestlers weighed in. The weights that weighed in were 55kg, 66kg, and 96kg. For me the day started off pretty well. I woke up and checked my weight. I was only 900 grams overweight so I had a breakfast consisting of a granola bar and a glass of water. I usually weigh around 100kg, but as I get closer to the tournament, I only eat one helping at meals instead of the regular two or three and the weight just seems to come off really quickly. 

MOSCOW, Russia - We have arrived at the Olympiysky Sports Complex.

We hopped on the shuttle bus for the short 15-minute ride from the hotel to the arena early Sunday afternoon.

On the drive to the venue, we spotted two McDonald's restaurants. McDonald's may become my new favorite restaurant over the next week. The mystery meat we had at lunch in the hotel today did not agree with most of us. And the McDonald's I had yesterday actually was pretty good.

I took about two bites of the food on my plate at lunch today, and simply couldn't eat anymore. Jason Bryant and I decided to walk down to the grocery store that is two blocks from the hotel. Nothing looked too appealing, so I bought a small can of Pringles and a Coca-Cola for 88 Roubles (less than 3 bucks U.S.). Good thing I brought some crackers and snacks with me from the U.S.

One of our Greco-Roman coaches, Olympic gold medalist Momir Petkovic, told me he can't eat the food they have at the hotel. And he grew up in this part of the World.

The venue for the 2010 World Championships is massive. It is an older facility, but the set-up for the tournament appears to be pretty good. The Olympiysky Sports Complex was the home for the basketball and boxing competitions during the 1980 Olympics. The U.S. did not attend those Games because of a boycott by President Carter.

The press work room and the press tribune in the arena all have good working Internet, which is a must for us to cover an event of this magnitude. We will be doing an audio webcast of the event, with Jason doing the play-by-play.

The warm-up area is adjacent to the competition area, making it easy for the athletes to get back and forth. In 2007 and 2009, the warm-up area for this event was not close to the competition area and created some problems. Doug Schwab nearly missed a match in 2007 and Jake Varner nearly missed his quarterfinal bout last year. The bout order was changed in Varner's class, and none of the American delegation was notified of the change.

We ran into Justin Ruiz at lunch in the hotel. The 2005 World bronze medalist is wrestling in his fifth World Championships. He was scheduled to weigh in later today, and had a plate filled with food. He assured me he has his weight down to 96 kg/211.5 lbs.

Ruiz, Spenser Mango and Faruk Sahin will compete tomorrow as the seven-day event kicks off in Moscow. I ran into Spenser down in the hotel lobby and he is ready to go. This is Spenser's third straight World-level event, after he placed in the top 10 at the 2008 Olympics and 2009 Worlds, and he's ready to win a medal.

We received more good news when Gary Abbott and I were able to receive credentials to gain access to the warm-up area. That is critical for our coverage of the event as press officers for USA Wrestling. We need to be able to follow the athletes back to the warm-up area to conduct interviews.

I'm not one for public transit. I didn't grow up in a big city and I sure as heck don't like dealing with subways and trains in New York or Philadelphia. But on Saturday, Moscow celebrated its City Day, and I navigated the Metro with extreme ease.

Craig Sesker and I had the chance to zip down to Red Square on Saturday afternoon. With the tournament not starting for another two days, this was really the only chance we could possibly get to see the Kremlin and all the history surrounding the capital of our former Cold War rival.

Moscow is a huge city, with over 10 million people and a cramped network of roads make nagivating the Metro a must. I didn't care for this initially, but with some questions answered from the concierge up front at the Hotel Cosmos, we were on our way.

We took the #6 down five stops, then got on the #1. Two stops later, we were walking around amidst a sea of Moscovites. The drawback -- Red Square itself was closed, but everything else around it was open. So after we strolled through the smelly, but drafty Metro station, we were staring right at the Kremlin.

Many people seem to confuse the spinning blooms of St. Basil's Cathedral with that of the Kremlin. And if you've enjoyed any video games from the 80's and 90's ... the theme from Tetris was stuck in my head all day.

We saw it from the far side of Red Square, then started to walk around the entire structure. I stopped to walk around the park and take some photos of some fountains, while Craig checked out what the price of a Big Mac was in Moscow. Actually, a #1 was about six bucks ... so that wasn't too bad at all. I snagged a few of his fries. Not exactly the same kinda taste.

There's just something to be said about good ol' American grease. You can't duplicate it. I've eaten at McDonalds in Amsterdam, London, Baku and a few fries in Moscow. None of those places can equate the taste of salty McDonalds fries because their grease just ain't up to snuff.

As we were about to leave, we ran into the U.S. crew of officials, Tom Clark, Rick Tucci, Zach Errett and Ardeshir Asgari, an Iranian-American who wrestled at Cal State-Fullerton and is coaching the one Nicaraguan entry.

Our day then got extended a few more hours, which included picking up some Russian nesting dolls, called Matruskha's. My former boss, Pat Tocci, has been bugging me about picking him up one (as has Tammy Tedesco) ... I added another to my collection, bartering down to a reasonable price for three dolls. So note to Pat and Tammy - you're taken care of.

Coming back, we run into some Canadian coaches, the same ones I was talking shop with the night prior, then Tech-Fall.com's Tony Rotundo. In this crowded Metro in the middle of one of the world's biggest cities, I see a short bald man with thick-framed glasses -- "Hey Rotundo!"

Sure enough, it's him. I mean, this guy is unmistakably easy to spot in any crowd, even if he is in a sea of very tall Russian women. Yes, they are tall here.

I snapped nearly 150 photos that I posted on my facebook site, I tried to add a few here to the Nation, but only about 40 showed up. We'll post some on our facebook site soon, too.

I've also found a small grocery store near the hotel. So buying $5 quarter-liters of Pepsi Light (they don't call it diet over here), is over. Now, I can get four liter-and-a-half bottles of water, two powerades, an iced tea and a Coke Light for 10 bucks.

Nice.

Oh, for those wondering how the room assignment is, I'm with our Polish everyman, Paulie Kieblesz (Kee-blitz). This guy can speak several languages and is as good of a negotiator as I've ever seen. This guy can literally get anything, anywhere.

MOSCOW, Russia - Red Square is one of the most historic places on the planet, and it more than lived up to its billing on Saturday.

Jason Bryant and I climbed aboard the Metro train system in historic Moscow - a great deal at 52 Roubles round trip (less than a Starbucks coffee, with a train ticket at $1.69) - and headed down to Red Square.

It was an amazing day, to say the least.

We started by hitting McDonald's. It was mid-afternoon, but the place was still packed. I got a No. 1 Value Meal with a Big Mac, french fries and a Coke for 180 Roubles ($6 U.S.). It tasted about the same as McDonald's in the U.S., plus I hadn't eaten all day so the timing of the trip there was perfect.

We saw Moscow's showpiece, the spectacular St. Basil's Cathedral, along with the Kremlin. The buildings are nothing short of impressive.

We walked nearly all of the way around Red Square before running into officials Rick Tucci, Tom Clark and Zach Errett, and Iranian native Ardeshir Asgari. We decided to walk around with them, and checked out the large outdoor market there.

I ended up buying a black, fur Russian hat, a Matrushka doll, and a few other items. We had fun negotiating with the merchants and driving the price down.

Tom was the master at driving the price down, walking away a couple times to get the man to drop the price. I was giving him crap for buying an Ohio State Buckeyes Matrushka with OSU quarterback Terrelle Pryor on it. I grew up near Iowa City and I am a big Hawkeye football fan.

After dinner, we did some more shopping and then started walking back to the train station.

There was a huge festival going on, with a Russian band playing Hip Hop music. It was amazing to see thousands of people singing along. The streets were filled with people. It was Moscow City Day. They were celebrating Moscow's 863rd birthday today. Around 3 to 4 million people were expected to be out celebrating. Russia is a city of approximately 10 million people.

We found our train and headed back to the hotel. We spent about seven hours at Red Square. On the way back, we spotted a familiar face in the subway. Photographer Tony Rotundo has arrived in town, and he rode back with us to the hotel.

It was a great day! The tournament is set to start on Monday afternoon at 1. Looking forward to seeing how the Greco-Roman boys from the U.S. fare. The first three U.S. Greco-Roman wrestlers - Spenser Mango, Faruk Sahin and Justin Ruiz - will weigh in and receive their draws tomorrow afternoon.

Yesterday was quite the long day of travel. For the most part things went smoothly, however, I have learned that traveling never really quite goes completely without hitches or glitches. The team gathered in the hotel lobby at 9a.m. where there were a few vans waiting to take us to the airport. Myself and 5 others loaded our luggage and hopped into the first available van. We drove to airport and got there in about 30 minutes with no problems. In fact, it seemed too easy especially for a foreign trip. After the driver unloaded our bags and we were out of the van he asked the question that none of us were prepared for. "Who's going to pay?" he asked. Unfortunately we were all under the impression that the driver was paid in advance, and none of us had come prepared to pay the driver. To his dismay, we told him that he would just have to wait until the other vans showed up with the other athletes and coaches, and then he would be paid. He wasn't too happy about it, but there was nothing more that we could tell him and we left him to stew about it.

In Andy Stanley’s book, “Making Vision Stick,” he makes the point that it is better to have a vision statement that is incomplete and memorable than complete and forgettable.
 
USA Wrestling’s Mission Statement is:  “USA Wrestling, guided by the Olympic Spirit, provides quality opportunities for its members to achieve their full human and athletic potential.”
 
But what is our vision?  Our vision is to be The World’s Best Olympic Sports Organization.
 
Nice, but in wrestling like other sports we often struggle with the how, not the what.  At USA Wrestling we are committed to accomplish this vision while holding dear the following values:
 
Responsibility
 
Integrity
 
Dedication
 
Honesty
 
Accountability
 
Respect
 
What are we doing to carry out our Mission and Vision?
 
We are guided by four core business objectives:
 
#1 Build the Brand
 
#2 Grow the Base
 
#3 Sustain Competitive Excellence
 
#4 Network the Wrestling Community
 
It is my hope and goal that everything we do at USA Wrestling connects in some way to one or more of the core business objectives.  If a project or program does not, we should question whether or not we should be involved in it.  Training and supporting athletes from the grassroots to the Olympics…fits; Organizing quality wrestling events…fits; Educating tomorrow’s wrestling leaders and coaches...fits; Creating and maintaining a top shelf website and social network…fits; Passionately pursuing sponsors and partners to bring new resources to the organization...fits.
 
Finally, all our work at USA Wrestling ties in some way to our organization’s Long Range Plan.  The plan lays out strategic goals and objectives that we mold our work around.  The Long Range Plan goes into considerable detail, but let me share with you the goals.  The goals are not in order of priority, because different departments and areas of USA Wrestling have different prioritizes.
 
#1 Assure USA Wrestling’s financial ability to carry out its mission, vision and goals.
 
(Solid Fiscal Management of the precious resource we have and the constant quest to develop additional resources.)
 
#2 Strengthen public awareness of USA Wrestling programs and accelerate membership growth.
 
(We do this through the use of technology and social networking platforms, through providing safe high quality events, through offering top level member benefits, by providing a high level of customer service, the USA Wrestler magazine, extensive insurance coverages, Coaches' and Officials’ education, and solid grassroots opportunities at the state and local levels for America’s youth to be exposed to the sport.
 
#3 Maintain Flexible Organizational Structure, sensitive to the changing needs of the sport.
 
(This is all about governance and transparency.  The old saying, “It can’t be about me without me” holds true.  We want everyone to feel they have an opportunity to contribute and take ownership to the organization.)
 
#4 Build strategic alliances to raise the profile and strengthen USA Wrestling’s international and domestic position.
 
(This is an area where we need to put additional focus.  It is obvious that we are sometimes viewed as trying to be all things to all people.  This is not practical, and we need to reach out to others who have developed certain areas of competence and form alliances for the betterment of wrestling.) 
 
#5 Be the dominant force in National Wrestling.
 
(As Al Davis said, “Just Win Baby!”  and to do that we need to build a solid and seamless pipeline for wrestlers in this country.  We need to support all ages of development from those just stepping onto a mat for the very first time to those who are podium-ready for London.
 
USA Wrestling has a great deal of material to share with you as you work to develop, improve and maintain your state programs.  It is my dream that you will use opportunities like this weekend to share best practices, create new friendships, and most importantly take back home with you to your state a better sense of belonging to the USA Wrestling Family committed to providing quality opportunities to each one of your members to achieve their full human and athletic potential.
 
It is my incredible honor to serve along side you in support of the greatest sport on the planet.

 

 
 
 

Justin Ruiz 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!

I never get nervous to travel. I love seeing different parts of the country, blogging and talking about my experiences and I really enjoy taking pictures. I depart from Colorado on Thursday for the 2010 World Championships, and I can't help but feel a bit anxious.

It's been a busy month for me here at USA Wrestling. We hosted a successful telethon with the Living The Dream Medal Fund and hosted the State Leaders Summit at Cheyenne Mountain Conference Center. This month just flew by.

This will be my fourth World Championships. I first covered the Worlds in 2003 in New York City, then traveled to Azerbaijan in 2007 and Denmark in 2009, but there's something about Russia that really gets me going. I haven't quite figured out what it is yet.

Elena Pirozhkova was born in Russia, so she's got a natural want to go back. I don't have that type of Russian tie, but my grandmother was born and raised in the Ukraine, which for a very long time was a part of the USSR. I don't have to tell you that, most of you already know. With German and Ukranian heritage, there's a small tie to Russia, but more of it is my own curiosity.

Before going to Baku in 2007, I'd only left the U.S. once, and that was Canada, which really doesn't count. It's like leaving a cool party to go upstairs to see what the neighbors are up to, chatting for a while, then going back. I've been to Canada twice. I'd like to go to Vancouver or Edmonton or Saskatoon, but right now, I have to settle for Niagara Falls and Fort Frances (across from International Falls, Minn.).

Since then, I've been to Azerbaijan, Germany, Denmark, South Africa, Aruba and England. Russia, though, is one of those places that is full of intrigue. I remember growing up in the 80's reading "Scholastic News," a little newspaper distributed to elementary school students to help them get up on current events. I remember seeing one edition with Reagan and Gorbachev staring face to face. I didn't know that the red spot on Gorby's head was a birthmark. We thought it was just a printing press error.

Anyway, it's Tuesday before I leave and I still have a ton of stuff to do. We've got a membership renewal blast to send out, Craig Sesker, Gary Abbott and I have to coordinate who is blogging for us from an athlete perspective and then there's the packing.

I know I'll be bringing a slew of t-shirts to give away and trade from my personal collection. I'm not getting rid of everything, but some shirts that I've collected over the years no longer find themselves in my regular wardrobe. You can chalk that up from having to go into an office each day, rather than doing a Wayne's World wrestling show from my basement, but I digress.

I'll be sure to pack a bunch of throat lozenges as well. We're planning on doing 63 hours of live audio from the World Championships -- and I'll be handling those duties. It's like seven major tournaments in as many days. I hope I have a voice left as we get to men's freestyle.

Athletes and USAW staff will be blogging throughout the trip and posting photos and having fun while bringing you the information. We're 8 hours ahead for you in the Eastern Time Zone ... so while you guys are discussing the days happenings, we'll be getting some much-needed sleep.

I know two Russian words as of now. I should have used Terry Steiner's Rosetta Stone while I had the chance!

Cheers,
JB

We are in the process of photographing some of the new and current year wrestling shoes for this year. We will shoot each shoe from a bunch of different angles.

Post a comment or a question here too about wrestling gear and I'll answer it.

Let us know which shoe you think we should post next on http://www.wrestlinggear.com

Don't forget to check us on facebook - over 22,000 fans can't be wrong - http://www.facebook.com/wrestlinggear/

Good morning Coaches, Wrestlers, and Wrestling Fans. We need your help.

Last year we included women's and girls' folkstyle divisions in our dual event. We even waived entry fee. Only one girls' team registered. This year we did not plan on including a female division until we were approached by a couple of coaches and parents who requested we do so. We are all for supporting grassroots efforts for wrestling so we are including the division this year and are waiving the entry fee again to help offset travel costs. If you know of any team, club, state, etc. that may be interested in attending please have them contact us immediately at the nationaldualsdirector@rhinowrestling.org. Thanks and "Never Quit".

http://nationalduals.rhinowrestling.org/national_duals/nationalduals.html

~ Marty Bartram

August 21, 2010

Surprise !  I'm back.  I really want to take my shot at keeping this monologue alive.  I'm sitting quietly, the last evening of the USA Wrestling State Leaders' Summit and Board of Directors meeting in Colorado Springs.

I was so proud of Les Gutches today, I could just burst !  Les is our newest member of the USAW staff, the Director of Program Development.  He is and Olympian, a World Champion and a damned fine man.

Les has a very quiet courage... always has.  He's been working, since March, with that same demeanor, on a major shift in paradigm for our organization.  He presented the basis for this paradigm shift today, to a tough audience... our Board of Directors.

Gutches and I go back a ways.  I was part of the staff for our 1989 World Cadet Team.  Gutches  competed on our Greco team and Brandon Paulson wrestled freestyle.  Both were members of our 1996 Olympic Team... Paulson, a Silver Medalist in Greco, and Gutches, 7^th in freestyle.

What I admired so much, today, was the passion Les brings to our current, and future, state of affairs.  I believe it would make a lot of our leaders uncomfortable for me to start running my mouth about the details of this strategy, so I'll leave it at my favorite word... Passionate !

It does my old heart good to see what our program has produced.  Les Gutches is a shining example of the many young men and women who feel like they profited   from our organization and find ways to give back to it.

I was inspired, today, by the ethics and passion of Les Gutches.  He makes me determined to do my part.  You'll get your chance to do yours... don't miss it !

Ciao

Ciao

After qualifying 11 of 14 wrestlers for the NCHSAA 3A State Championships in 2009 from a young team, the apparent big preseason story for the Vikings is starting the 2010 season with 7 returning state qualifiers including two transfer student athletes. However, if you look a little deeper, there is something going on behind the scenes. A quiet revolution in Moore County is brewing and Coach Matt Ragsdale is leading the way.

The revolution is the development of a district wide wrestling program built from a foundation of highly qualified young coaches. First Coach Brian Gray was hired as a Math teacher and assistant wrestling coach. Coach Gray wrestled for James Madison University where he was a four-year starter. Coach Gray was the head coach at Alfred State College and was a New York high school state champion. Another stone was laid in 2008 with the hiring of Coach Chris Vondruska as a Social Studies teacher and assistant wrestling coach at Union Pines High School. Coach Vondruska was a two-time NCAA Qualifier and two-time NWCA Academic All-American while in college at Hofstra and Ohio State. The National Wrestling Coaches’ Association named Vondruska the 2009-2010 North Carolina Assistant Coach of the Year, one of the most prestigious honors in the nation for a high school assistant coach. Coach Vondruska is also the head coach of the Copperheads Wrestling Club, a youth wrestling club serving Kindergarten through High School aged wrestlers from Moore and neighboring counties.

Coach John Lowery was hired over the summer as an English Teacher and head wrestling coach at Crain’s Creek Middle School. Coach Lowery is a graduate of Walsh Jesuit High School, one of the premier wrestling programs in the nation. At Walsh Jesuit, Coach Lowery was a two-time Ohio state placer finishing fifth and second as well as a two-time high school All American on Team Ohio’s national championship teams. Lowery’s collegiate wrestling career includes two years at the Virginia Military Institute as a varsity wrestler and co-captain and two years at Campbellsville University where he was a two-time NAIA national qualifier. Coach Lowery was the NAACP 2009-2010 Teacher of the Year. Coach Lowery is looking forward to his first year at Crain’s Creek, Moore County’s new middle school as well as coaching with the Copperheads Wrestling Club.

Coach Ragsdale says, “The 2010-2011 season is going to be another breakout season for Union Pines.  We have been very busy this off-season and once again we expect it to pay off.  We are looking for short term success with the additions of our coaching staff but it will surely help in the long run.”

Jordan Rogers finished with a silver medal and wrestled extremely well all day. It was nice to see a supportive contingent of people there to cheer him on. He made quick work of his opponents from Benin and Guam, and won a tough battle against the Egyptian wrestler. In the finals Jordan was defeated by a Turkish wrestler. It was funny to see all of the Singapore kids that were volunteers run up to Jordan after the tournament because they thought he looked like Zach Effron or Justin Beiber, I'm not quite sure which one. He had quite the fan club!!

Quinton Murphy also wrestled well in the competition to finish in fourth place. He had 2 wins and 2 losses. He also wrestled with a lot of heart and aggression.

In my opinion, Quinton and Jordan have very bright futures in the sport of wrestling and the sky could be the limit if they continue to put the time in and work hard. They now know what its like to compete in an international competition and handled themselves well.

The day after competition was spent visiting Chinatown and buying souvenirs for family and friends back home. We also saw a few temples and took pictures of the beautiful scenery. On the way back to the hotel we saw a man that was playing an instrument for a snake. I don't know what possessed me, but I asked the man if I could hold the snake. My friends took quite a few pictures. We also visited Marina Bay where the Olympic Games ceremonies were held and took pictures with their Singpore monument of a lion. Tonight we plan on going to the lobby of our hotel to the Sporting House, which has offered free drinks and food from 5pm to 10pm for the duration of the Games.

The people of Singapore have been very accommodating and it has been a wonderful experience. Again, thank you USA wrestling for sending me to Mexico to have the opportunity to be evaluted to come here.

Mr./Mrs. Rogers please send the photos to me email that were taken of team USA after the competition yesterday. I would really appreciate it.

Jenna Burkert battled tough to finish in fifth place at 60 Kg. This weight class was probably the deepest of the event, there were numerous talented girls in many exciting matches. I ended up being the mat chairman for the finals of this weight between Mongolia and India. These two girls let it all out on the mat, they showed a lot of heart.

Quinton Murphy and Jordan Rogers weighed in today and received their draws. Refer to the FILA website to find the draws. I talked with Coach Halvorson and he said they look like favorable draws for our athletes. I wish them the best of luck and hopefully we can bring home two medals tomorrow!!

I have been trying numerous different foods over here from asian cuisine to spicy tofu to szechaun (excuse my spelling- I think I butchered that one). Everything has been great and they have been treating the officials very well. We receive transportation to just about anywhere via bus, train, or taxi, although most things are walking distance. I joined some of my fellow officials for dinner last night and then we went to the 71st floor bar in our hotel and that is quite the view of Singapore. It is extremely nice. You can check out my hotel by looking up the Swissotel of Singapore (The Stamford) to find pictures of this luxorious place.

To the parents of the USA wrestlers that requested my email here it is: sam_ccwc1@yahoo.com or smjulian@bmsd.org

Hopefully we can get the entire USA team together tomorrow for some pictures.

Thanks again,
Sammy Julian

After two very long flights, one from Chicago to London and the other from London to Singapore- I finally got here. It took me a while to get internet access, so I apologize. The opening ceremonies were definitely a sight to see and very well planned. I would recommend trying to find it online, hopefully it is archived somewhere on the Youth Olympic Games website. Day 1 of competition kicked off in Greco Roman, where we only had one wrestler competing. Lucas Sheridan from California wrestled well today. He opened the tournament with an 18 second fall over an opponent from the Soloman Islands. Sheridan launched him with a sweet front headlock throw from the feet. His next match was a tough defeat against a wrestler from Egypt. Sheridan lost 3-0, 0-3, 0-1. Sheridan bounced back with a 40 second fall over his opponent from Iraq by using a sag headlock in pretty dominate fashion. In his bronze medal match against a wrestler from Uzbekistan he battled tough. but fell 0-5, 4-3, 0-4 to finish the event in fourth place in his weight category.

In my opinion it was a very smooth day in Greco Roman from an officiating standpoint, very few video reviews and coach complaints. I was a mat chairman for Mat B and my co-chairs were David Rey from France and Vaclav Scheiner from the Czech Republic. Our mat was great, we worked extremely well together and shared some good laughs. During the break we ate lunch in the Food Court in the venue and attempted to eat some spicy tofu, it felt like we were on fire! It was one of the hottest things I have tried in recent years.

Jenna Burkert received her draw today after weigh-ins and her pool includes female athletes from the following countries; India, Singapore, and Bulgaria. Wrestling starts tomorrow at noon, Singapore time and I think that is a twelve hour difference in comparison to the east coast in the United States.

One thing that is very different with the culture over here is that they drive on the opposite side of the road and the steering wheel is also on what we would refer to as the passenger's side. Overall, the people here are extremely friendly and this is definitely a spot to get to if you have the chance. I am very thankful that USA wrestling gave me the opportunity to be evaluated in Mexico for this honor. It is a once in a lifetime experience.

I hope to post something else soon, but as for now I am off to dinner with some of my fellow officials.

Thank you,

Sammy Julian

Thursday July 29, 2010

Travel Day !  Things went smoothly.  All the planes were close enough to on time.  Got a good sleep on the long flight from Heathrow to Chicago. 

I always thought it was just me that is enormously entertained by TSA security in American airports.  Then, earlier this month, I got to listen to some comedy routines on the Sirius Satellite Radio thing.  There were more than a few good shots at TSA.

There really is a noticeable difference in the security routines of different countries.  I'm not going to beat up the American's here.  I'll leave it at saying, "Some systems make sense".

So... another adventure in the books.  This was a good one.  Got to see as good a quality of wrestling as is available anywhere.  Got to spend some good time with many of the finest people alive on the planet today.  Got to see some of the most beautiful cities in Europe.  And, I get to come home to the most beautiful woman alive !  Life's good.

Ciao

Hello and thank you for stopping by. This is my first post, as I am a new blogger here on the mat. My next few post will be a recap of the past 12 months of what I have covered in wrestling, and a preview of what's to come. After my recap post, I will jump into current wrestling event. Every post will be loaded with content, action, news and events, so please follow my blog and I promise to feed your wrestling appetite.

Terry Brands (born April 9, 1968 in Omaha, Nebraska) is an American Olympic wrestler who won a bronze medal at the 2000 Summer Olympics. While wrestling at the University of Iowa, Brands won NCAA titles in 1990 and 1992, both at 126 pounds. He was a two-time world freestyle champion at 58 kg, winning titles in 1993 and 1995.

His twin brother, Tom Brands, a fellow wrestler, won a gold medal in the 1996 Summer Olympics. Brands grew up in Sheldon, Iowa. After serving as resident coach for the United States Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado, he currently is an assistant coach for the University of Iowa Hawkeyes, serving under his twin brother, head coach Tom Brands.

Brands lost to Kendall Cross in the 1996 Olympic trials in one of the most exciting series of matches in the history of the trials. Cross went on to win the gold medal in Atlanta.

Frank Popolizio is the founder of Jerneymen wrestling.

Sunday July 25,2010

As I suspected, my internet connection DID run out before I could get this posted.  So, this is coming to you from somewhere down the road.  There's a story to be worked on in that statement.

First, wrestling.  You know by now that our freestyle men brought home another bronze medal.  Chris Perry looked good throughout the tournament.  I thought all our guys wrestled well, today.  Russia dominated, but not as totally as Saturday.

If this relates back to my description of our early Coach Education goals, that'll be a good thing.  Here's my point: We've got to get past this attitude we're bringing to this level of event.  It appears like what I would call a "Sense of Entitlement".  After a few years discussing this at matside, I'm positive I'm not the only one seeing it.

I'll tell you, up front, I don't claim to have the magic wand.  I'm not even sure how  and when this thing developed.  I know, simply, that the wrestling world changed along a parallel course with the political and economic world over the last two decades.

When the Soviet Union first split, we enjoyed a period of prosperity, on the mat and off.  Now, all of the Republics formed by the split are up and running.  They are maturing, quickly and well. 

I'm not the guy to comment, intelligently, on the impact this has had on global economic flow.  There's a chance I'm not the guy to comment on the impact on the flow of World and Olympic Wrestling medals.  But, I am convinced that I see the latter.

I can't tell if our solution lies in being more innovative, technically, or in a return to some kind of ‘good old days' work ethic.  I do know the problem is complex and the solution might be, as well.

But... it might not be.  I pay attention to the performance of the Russian athletes and those of the former Republics.  I can't see their preparation, but it can't be Rocket Science.  Their kids, male and female, junior and senior, put their singlet on one leg at a time, just like we do.

I'm going to continue to look for simplicity in this.  You look, too.  If we can write a successful recipe, we'll all be heroes.

Ciao

Monday July 26, 2010

Yesterday, I promised you a travel story, then wandered off (pun intended) into solving wrestling's problems.  I'll get back to the story.

As I told you on day one of this adventure, my flight from the U.S. ended in Frankfurt.  On the way home, I fly out of Berlin.  This was intentional, as was the trip inside it.

My inside trip started in Frankfurt, went to Baku for the Golden Grand Prix, then ended in Budapest.  Now, I have until Thursday to get to Berlin.

Today, while our other guys are flying back to the states, I will go to the train station and end up in Bratislava, Slovakia.  Tuesday morning I do the same thing and end up in Prague, Czech Republic.  Wednesday morning's train takes me to Berlin where I will catch my flight on Thursday.

You are certainly not the first to think what you're thinking and ask what you're asking.  I am referring to this trip as ‘Rusty's Last Walk-About'.

Over the years, I have taught myself never to settle for mediocrity in adventure.  I'm a poor school teacher, but wrestling lets me live rich.   These are three cities and three countries I have never seen.  I've always heard great things about each one.  My clock is ticking.  I'm going to go see for myself.

My first overseas travel was the '88 games in Seoul.  At that time, wrestling was split and had a three day break between Greco and freestyle.  I took the train from Seoul to Pusan for a soccer match.  Best decision I ever made.  I was hooked!

Since then, it is rare for me to go somewhere and ‘Only' see wrestling.  Most of the side trips are short excursions.  In 1995, though, I had what Sterling calls, the "Big Walk-About", six countries in 45 days, backpack and all !

After 2002, it got slightly more taxing.  That's when I blew my right hip out.  I still made some good adventures, but I spent six years crippled up, pretty bad.

I got my new hip in June of 2008, refereed in Fargo 23 days later, and used a cane to get around Beijing three weeks after that.   I thought, with only five years left until FILA requires that I retire from officiating, I'd better get some mileage out of this hip. 

So, here I am.  Sterling always chuckles when I say this, but I can't help it.  "I've been a lot of places and this here's one of ‘em."  Tomorrow, I'll tell you my impressions of Bratislava.

Ciao

Tuesday July 27, 2010

Things went smoothly enough, getting out of Budapest and into Bratislava.  I was able to store my big roller bag at the train station, so I didn't have to drag it through town.  I was luck a guy told me I was on the wrong trolley, hopped off and was only a 12 minute walk from Hotel Kiev... NOT a Five Star establishment, but... hey !

I wandered around town all afternoon, in the rain.  Bratislava has a rich history as part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.  I saw some really cool architecture, both ancient and modern, then walked the bank of the Danube.  This ‘Mother of All Rivers' in Europe has always fascinated me.

In the evening, I called up my friend and fellow official, Miroslav.  Miro had just finished his first day back to work after having been with us in Budapest.  He picked me up at the hotel, drove me around to the parts of Bratislava I couldn't walk to and took me to dinner.

We had a traditional Slovakian meal of Goat Cheese and Dumplings.  It was really tasty !  We walked off the fullness, visiting their Veterans' Memorial and the ancient Castle Devin.  Finally, we visited the Pilsner Urquell brewery outlet for a night cap.

Both of us are still going through decompression from the intensity of last week's tournament.  That's one of the less tangible perks of my Walk-About strategy.  Going straight home, my loved ones, just like everyone's, have to deal with the withdrawal we all go through after one of these big tournaments. 

It can't be much fun being around any of us, official, athlete, coach, those first few days.  I'll still go through a couple of quiet days when I get home, but Eva will get a much healthier version of me after I‘ve had some down time here.  

The rain is supposed to clear tonight.  Tomorrow I have an early train to Prague.

Ciao

Saturday July 24, 2010

The wrestling part of our day was pretty rough for the Americans.  Nick Roberts was pulled back into the tournament and had a shot at the bronze.  He ended up fifth.  Our other three were one and done.  We'll get up tomorrow and give it another shot.

The morning gave us a chance to see the historic sites of Budapest.  The organizers of the event have really done a great job planning outings for us.  We got a two hour tour and hit a couple of the highlights.  This is really s beautiful city.

I have always heard the two most beautiful cities of Europe are Budapest and Prague.  I've never seen Prague, but I'm going there Tuesday.  I'm anxious to compare.

I leave here Monday morning, just like everyone else.  The difference is, I go to the train station and they go to the airport.  I leave Budapest around 9:00am and arrive in Bratislava, Slovakia around noon.

Tuesday morning I go Bratislava to Prague, Czech Republic.  Wednesday morning I go Prague to Berlin.  Thursday morning I leave Berlin, go through London and Chicago, into Albuquerque.  I keep referring to this as my "last walkabout".  Somewhere along the way, I'll try to explain that.

I can't tell exactly when my seven days worth of internet connection will run out.  I'm hoping for Monday morning, but may be disappointed.  If it runs out tomorrow night, this will be the last time I can transmit until at least Bratislava. 

I'll keep you posted.  For tomorrow's results, go to Gary's articles.

Ciao

Friday July 23, 2010

It was a great day.  Thanks to Victoria Anthony, we got to hear our Anthem tonight.  Victoria's now a two timer and there aren't many of those!

Not positive, but I think the last one was Ali Bernard and I got to Coach her during her first one in Istanbul.  I was fortunate enough to watch Victoria win her first one in Ankara.

In the early part of this trip, I talked a lot about the blog as a coaching tool.  Ali Bernard is a pretty strong example, supporting my hypothesis.  Ali is an information junkie and worries a lot.  If you want some cheap entertainment, you gotta' watch Ali's mom worry.

Using technology for communication really can help athletes, parents, club coaches who find themselves in that "worried" state.  By planting seeds early, the coaches of any particular tour of team can create more "buy in".  Sharing individual and team goals and focus points early, kind of lets the people most affected come to the conclusion that "it's their own idea".  People who feel ownership in the process usually perform at higher levels of precision and intensity.

OK... enough precision and intensity, for now.  It's bed time and we have to get up early tomorrow.  Our hosts are taking us on a sightseeing tour.

Ciao

Thursday July 22, 2010

Gary had his first article on the website before we could even get across the street to the hotel.  That's why he makes the big bucks !  So if you read the headlines, you'll find that we put another American on the podium.  Amy Whitbeck turned it up a notch in the second and third periods and scored with three seconds to go.

Amy showed what Coach Steiner is referring to as a "Sense of Urgency".  She never gave up her focus or composure, but battled like the medal depended on it.  I hope our others, who came up short, were paying attention.

I spent an hour, this morning, with another of those Dear Friends that have become part of my life.  Agi Rabakozi and her family kind of adopted me in 2001.  I was in their home town, Szekesfehervar (quick... pronounce that !) competing in the Veterans' World Championship of Greco. 

Agi was a university student at the time and volunteered as an English translator.  We have stayed in contact over the last nine years.  Agi was married to Oliver in 2006 and I got to visit here and meet him in 2007.

Since then Agi has become a Mom to Oliver Jr, 16 months, and is expecting Lujisa in early September.  This is just one of those typical families that you meet in the wrestling world... damned good people.

So, I got to be Grandpa' on the road for an hour this morning.  Little Oliver is very active and very clever.  Many of the Greco delegations were in the lobby for busses to the airport.  The little one had a great time inspecting all the guys and their baggage.  So many cool toys and hiding places !

I'm not going to dwell on any so-called ‘down-side'.  Rather, I will simply say that there is always balance... in wrestling... in life.  My friend... Our Friend, Cliff Buerke died last night.  Cliffy had taken a fall recently and discovered some cancer hiding inside him. 

Cliffy was a gentle human who knew how to love and be loved.  I am one of thousands who are smiling at memories of Cliffy's life tonight.

Ciao

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Ellis Coleman made us all look good today!  Winning a bronze medal at 66kg, this guy did it the right way.  I overheard President Martinetti tell Rich Bender, "I think your guy is crazy, but I like it".

I agree 100%.  This kid is fun to watch !  All our Greco guys went after it.  I saw some sincere respect for our development in the Greco world shown here... little things, but important ones.

We used to lose a lot of the "close" calls.  Now, it's really about 50-50.  I get to eaves drop on some conversations with officials who "hope" the Americans do well.  Think that through, with a historical view.  Remember how revered Dave Schultz was, across the planet?  Remember the success our freestyle team found in Barcelona?  I think Garrett Lowney, Joe Warren, Adam Wheeler... not to mention Rulon... have earned us the respect we now have in Greco.

Our Hungarian hosts took us on two cultural adventures today.  We went downtown to a pretty upscale mall this morning.  Most shopped for gifts, but I'm kind of saving that for next week.  I'll tell you more as we get closer to Sunday.

Tonight we all went to a restaurant called Sir Lancelot.  We had the medieval meal that you eat with your hands... and several types of "Grog".  There was a pretty good show along with the meal.  The organization of the social part of this championship is something we should study, as Americans.  Very classy !

Our first four girls are up tomorrow.  Keep an eye on Gary's column for details and results.  Watch what Craig and Jason are running for Fargo.  It's a busy time to be an American wrestling fan.

Before I close, I have to say Happy Birthday to my friend Momir Petkovich.

Ciao    

Tuesday July 20, 2010

Day One of Competition is in the bag.  It was not a great day for our American kids, but Max Nowry did wrestle for Bronze.   Be sure to check Gary's articles for complete results and tomorrow's draws.

Our kids have great hearts, no doubt.  Unfortunately, it's just so obvious that we are starved in the Greco world.

The Juniors from Europe and Asia are so well tempered by this time of the season, very little shakes them or gets ‘em out of position.  Our guys are just now completing any kind of transition from the folkstyle season to Greco.  They're just now getting into a rhythm.

The exception is always our USOEC program, but most of those guys compete up one level.  Knowing that I'm preaching to the choir... I just don't get why our High School and University coaches don't emphasize the skills that are natural overlaps from Greco to folkstyle technique.

Think about what I just said.  Maybe that wasn't true under the Greco rules of the 90's.  But, considering today's rules... really... Greco technique and tactic is much more similar to a complete folkstyle match than freestyle is.

OK, sermon's over.  Something new in the schedule this year is that we don't start , each day until 1:00pm.  We wrestle straight through the finals in a single, long session.

Not everyone likes it, but I do.  In past years, many events have had housing very far from the competition venue.  The drain of riding busses three hours every day was much worse than a long session.

In Budapest, we are a three minute walk from the venue.  Still, I think the single session is healthier for athletes, coaches, officials and spectators.

Speaking of Marathon Sessions... I know my colleagues are working some long days in Fargo.  Focus on the positive.  You're getting to be part of the greatest age group event on the planet, today!

Ciao  

Monday July 19, 2010

We had our officials' clinic this morning.  No big shakes.  This year, most of the clinic emphasis has been on three issues: administering the ‘clinch' in both styles; defining ‘fleeing the mat' or ‘fleeing the hold'; and protocol for the video challenge.

There are around 80 officials here, which will put 20 on each mat.  That means you don't many chances to be seen.  Some view that as a good thing, because you don't have as many chances to screw up.  I am not of that mind set, which I'm sure does not surprise you.

Last night, the organizers took us out in the country for dinner.  We were at the estate of a family called the Lazar Brothe

rs.  They are known for producing World Champion Show Horses.  Nice place!

The crowd included the members of the FILA Bureau, who are here for the prelude meetings of their upcoming Congress in Moscow.  All of the officials and team leaders were invited.  Many of the local people who make up the Organizing Committee brought the group to a total of about 200.

After drinking a toast with the Hungarian native drink, called Palinka, we had a large hours dourves kind of plate out on a huge patio.  Most of us thought this was dinner.  We were wrong!

We had champagne and moved down to the arena for the show.  We saw ‘four in hand' carriages, Medieval warrior riding, ox-drawn carts and a variety of, what I would call, trick riding.  Much different that what we think of as a ‘horse show', in the states, this was a pleasant cultural perspective.

Moving back to the patio, we found out we were in for the real dinner.  Wow!  With several types of meats and side dishes, this was a real feast.  At the advice of some of my Hungarian friends, I focused on the traditional Goulash.  It was wonderful.

We got back to the hotel and pulled up the draws for the first four Greco weights today.  If you haven't already, follow Gary, Jason, Craig, in their front page articles.  They will give you links to updated brackets.  I will give my focus to more of a ‘color commentary'.

OK, then.  I'm off to borrow Jerry's travel iron and tackle a pile of light blue shirts.  The arena here is huge, but not air-conditioned.  So, we'll go through some shirts.  We start tomorrow at 1:00.

PS... Those draws look favorable for our American four.  This is one of the most talented groups of Greco Juniors we've produced in a while.  Keep high hopes... or maybe I should stay with Fraser's line... "Expect to win with relentless intensity".

Ciao

Results

48kg
Lampe over Matkowska
1/2 final
Suzuki (JPN) over lampe
4-0, 0-1, 0-1
Lampe will wrestle Lukasiak (POL) for 3rd

Lampe won the bronze medal match.

59kg
Yamana (JPN) over Campbell

63kg
Pirozhkova over Sementsova (AZE)
2-8, 3-0, 1-0
prozhkova over corbani (ITA)
1-0, 1-0
Ochirbat (MGL) over Pirozhkova
0-1, 3-1, 0-1
Pirozhkova will wrestle Fajardo (ESP) for 3rd


72kg
Lee over Gastl (AUT)
8-1, 3-0
Ochirbat (MGL) over Lee
3-1, 0-1, 0-1

We are wrestling to timid, we cannot come in hoping people will fall
down for us.  We need to have more of dominating mind set.  I think
this is a good wake up call for us,  we cannot go into the worlds
wrestling "hoping to win". We need to expect and know that we SHOULD
win.  Today we didn't do that, we have some work ahead of us.

Over and out

Coach Steiner

Hello from Baku, good morning to all.

Day 3.

It is Friday morning here.  Today are weigh-ins, and tomorrow
competition.  We are finally all here.  Steph Lee arrive last night to
the hotel at about 12:00 midnight, head shaved and all.

The girls had a good day of training yesterday.  We were on the mats
in the morning, had a great workout and last night we stayed at the
hotel fitness center and worked out.

The girls had some down time yesterday to sleep, do some homework, and
whatever else.

I had some time to sit at my outdoor office and lay our world team
camps out.  I think I work better out in the sun sitting by the
ocean.  I definitely didn't mind working all day in those conditions.

Learned a little more about the culture yesterday.  Our driver is very
willing to talk and answer questions.  Of course, he speaks Russian to
I can great him and the rest is up to Miss Pirozhkova.

In Azerbaijan the minimum income people can really make and just keep
afloat is about 1200 Manat per month.  This is about $1440 in USD. 
Rent for a small apartment is between $360 and $420 USD which is about
300 to 350 manat.

It is hard for people to get ahead here because of government
oppression.  Like I said the other day Oil is big money here and
really does have the countries economy thriving but the government
still has control of the people.  Private business and the goverment
are closely tied together.  A lot of corruption still exists.

One interesting point, our driver punted out is this,  out sourcing of
labor exists, many foreigners are brought in to work the oil industry
and paid high dollar around $5000 per month but when a local person is
hired for the same job they are paid around $500 per month.  It is a
way that the goverment controls the people.  He said that is what he
repecys about the USA is that the goverment wants us to be successful,
it is not so much the case here.  But people, he said are not stupid
they understand and are starting to fight back.  He is optimistic that
change will be here in a not so distant future.

By the way don't eat goat in the summer!  Don't know why, bad taste!

I will keep you informed on the competition.  I know USA Wrestling
will keep you up to date on themat.com but you can also go to the
tournament website at:
www.fila-wrestling.com/bakugp10

Over and out!

Coach Steiner

Arrived Baku last night around 9:00 pm - then we had to get our credentialling done and finally arrived the hotel at about 11:30 pm. A very long day of travel.  We are 11 hours ahead of mountain time in the USA.

This morning we woke, had breakfast, (a very mediterrainian meal) and worked out at the hotel fitness center.

We are staying at The Crescent Beach Hotel and Resort on The Caspian Sea in Baku.  Our hotel overlooks the Caspian Sea and from our hotel there are 4 oil rigs in the water within about 1 mile of each other, $$
$$$$!  Needless to say, the accomodations are very comfortable.  The weather if very warm (mid 90's)

We will workout on the mats tonight.  It is Wednesday here - Weigh-Ins are Friday and the competition on Saturday.

Until next time, have a great day!

Coach Steiner

Asics Aggressor Wrestling Shoes

The Red & Black, Blue & Gold, and Gray & Blue Asics Aggressor wrestling shoes are now available on MatFish Wrestling Gear for immediate delivery. This shoe is essentially a renamed version of the Rulon from seasons passed. 

Hey I just posted a photo blog on flickr of the new Asics Aggressor Wrestling Shoes. You can of course purchase the wrestling shoes directly from us. Here are a few of the shots to see what we are talking about:

This will be my last blog entry from Olympia, Greece.  Tomorrow morning we will head back to Athens, and then most people are flying back on Wednesday, June 30th.  I hope that you have enjoyed reading about my time so far.  I am fairly sure that I will be able to blog at least once more, as we have our final social tonight.   More on that in a little bit.
 
Before I get writing, I just wanted to thank two people.  One, my brother-in-law Jeff for being the first person to suggest that I blog on this trip, and two, Jason Bryant at USA Wrestling, as his prompt was enough to get me to start typing.  Jason has also been the one posting these blogs for me, so thanks to both of you guys.
 
I was talking with one of the British delegates yesterday, and we both agreed that our English skills have diminished in the last two weeks.  It's simply a case of speaking with very simple words and taking out words that really aren't needed to communicate with someone who does not speak English as a first language.  I notice myself talking in the same not-so-good English (how's that to describe my diminishing English skills?) when even speaking with Angie, one of the other two delegates from US.
 
For people who aren't familiar with Switzerland, it is a country that has four languages – German, French, Italian, and Romansch.  One of the Swiss delegates, Jerome, is from the French speaking part of the country, but his English skills are quite good.  If he doesn't catch something we say, he'll ask us to repeat it.  Suffice to say, he's picked up a few of my favorite expressions, most recently "gong show."  No, I'm not talking about the old TV Show, either.  
 
After the closing ceremony this morning, many pictures were taken.  Angie, my fellow River Falls High School alum, and I were sure to get a picture together.  She remarked that it reminded her of graduation, as people were running around snapping pictures with their friends.  Not that you don't want to help and return the favor, but if one person sees you not taking a picture, quickly you wind up with a half-dozen cameras wrapped around your wrists listening to people say "cheese!" or "Greece!"  Fortunately I haven't seen the rabbit ears in any of my pictures.
 
What is going on with my Minnesota Twins?!  They have been struggling since I left, losing 6 out of the 9 games since I landed on foreign soil.  Hopefully they can turn things around before I get back, because I just do not like seeing that they're losing.  They have a half-game lead on the Tigers, so a sweep of them this week would be lovely.  Hopefully it starts tonight with Liriano on the hill for the Twins.
 
I will fully admit my naivety about the differences between Norway, Sweden, and Finland.  Like most Americans, I know that we refer to them as Scandinavian countries.  I also know that I'm 1/8th Swedish (my second reference to my ethnic heritage in this series), but beyond that I really don't know much.  We have spent a good amount of time with the Swedes and Finns, and last night I heard something interesting from Tiina, one of the Finns.  She said that she wishes that she were Swedish – a comment that surprised me, as I thought that people would be more "proud" to be from where they're from.  Anyways, she went on to explain that Sweden has a better economy, better weather, among other things, so it made a little more sense.  Like I said, I was surprised by this comment, but after thinking about it, I guess that all of the Nordic nations have been packing around together while in Greece.  No animosity, I guess.  I wonder if Nina, who competed in the 2008 Olympic Games as a judo player for Finland, would feel the same.  
 
As I previously mentioned, the last social is tonight.  First we were presenting, then we weren't, but as of yesterday, we were put back on the docket.  We will be playing a quick trivia game with people from the crowd shouting out the answers.  Sounds like chaos a little in the making, but we'll throw out some cool swag to those who know the answers, and then we're going to teach the Cupid Shuffle.  Wait, let me rephrase that – I'm going to teach the Cupid Shuffle.  I'm telling you, being in front of 180 people on back-to-back nights DANCING is totally out of the ordinary for me.  My dancing rivals my singing, as I am a star when no one is around to see or hear me.  
 
Oh, one quick story that reminded me of home last night.  Most motorcycles in Greece aren't "motorcycles" in my mind, but much more like mopeds.  I saw a Harley-Davidson downtown in Olympia, and it even had drag bars and S&S chrome.  Reminded me of being on my motorcycle on mountain roads in Colorado…
 
Citius!  Altius!  Fortius!

Greetings!  Before I begin my blog, I just want to apologize for not having a post yesterday for everyone to read.  Our schedule was packed and didn't allow for me to sit down and type, so I will summarize a few things from yesterday in this blog.
 
Yesterday morning was our last session in the lecture hall, but it was individuals presenting on their experiences as Olympians or in the Olympic Movement in a different way.  Adam, the swimmer from Australia, was the first to present.  It was pretty interesting to hear him say that the most important thing he's gained while competing in three different Olympic Games is the friends.  He has one gold and two silver medals from the Olympics, yet the medals he's won were his fourth most important thing – that truly is an example of the Olympic Spirit.  He also told us that he was the oldest swimmer to compete in the Olympic Games since 1930.  Crazy, because he was only 32 in Beijing. 
 
Adam was asked by Professor Gangas about what his most memorable moment of the 2000 Olympic Games.  Being that it was a home Olympic Games for him, I can imagine how special that would be.  But the best moment was when he was there when fellow Australian Kathy Freeman struck gold in the 400 meter run.  He and about 150 of his Olympic teammates didn't have tickets, so they had to crash the party.  The funny thing is that was not the last time that Adam had to sneak into an Olympic venue.
 
The next presenter was Vatche Zadourian, who competed in the 1992 Barcelona Games in cycling as a teenager.  Vatche is from Lebanon, where a civil war was fought from 1975-1990.  When Vatche was 14, his brother competed in the 1988 Seoul Games, and that is when he dreamed of being an Olympian.  Imagine cycling in a nation where a war was being fought … as a teenager.  Every morning before training, Vatche would put in his cassette tape listen to "Barcelona," the duet by Freddie Mercury and Montserrat Caballe.  We all know of people using music to motivate themselves, but I found this to be a great story.
 
After our last group discussion yesterday, we had a competition that is modeled after the Olympics.  Each discussion group (mine was English Group 8) was a team, and we had 10 events to compete in.  Each team could have one member compete in each event.  We had a sprint (about 90 meters), 1000 meter run, 500 meter relay (with six members), standing long jump, standing tennis ball throw, and arm wrestling.  I was able to stave of the requests of my group to have me do arm wrestling, so I was able to do the tennis ball throw.  I came in third, behind Solvi (Iceland) and Lazcur (Turkey).
 
Under the full moon late last night, a few of us upheld a tradition of participants at the Session for Young Participants at the IOA and ran on the track on Ancient Olympia.  It was truly an awesome experience for the 14 of us who did this, as we were the first ones to do it this year.  It was simply 192 meters down and 192 meters back, but it was incredibly memorable.  Fortunately, it wasn't cold. 
 
Countries were allowed to show videos to the group last night, so it was cool to see footage from places like Malaysia, Iceland, the US Virgin Islands, among others.  The video we played was a highlight video of the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, but even though it was an American video, the audience liked it.  Of course I liked the video, too.
 
Tonight was our Arts Happening, which was a show of acts (dancing, singing, poetry, etc.) that have been worked on this week.  I actually was part of three dances, and all were entertaining.  The dances were traditional dances from Russia, Italy, and Greece.  The sirtaki (I swear that it's pronounced tsiltaki) was the last part of the evening for everyone.  I mean, it was the last item scheduled for the Arts Happening.  After we performed the sirtaki, everyone who had a role in the show tonight came to join us on the "stage." 
 
Tomorrow morning is the last session at the IOA.  The discussion groups will be presenting our papers, so I put together our PowerPoint presentation that we will use.  After the session, which will also serve as the closing ceremonies (I think), we will have time to head to Olympia to further explore the town.  I've been to town a handful of times, but I think the feeling of accomplishment and the lack of looming tasks will change the atmosphere for us, and town will be even better.  I need to find the post office to put some postcards, as I have yet to do so. 
 
I realized that this experience at the IOA is difficult to put in words, and has been all along, but I know that it has changed me.  I guess I equate it to when people talk about athletes who have "it." No one can define it, they can just identify those people who have it. Similarly, I just know that I'm changed.  In addition to that, I have certainly met some great people who I hope to remain in contact with.
 
Citius! Altius! Fortius!
 

Greetings from day 8 at the International Olympic Academy in Olympia, Greece. Today was the last of our lectures (we had two this morning), and now we have group discussions as we prepare for our second presentation.
 
Our last lecturer this morning was HRH Prince Faisal Al-Hussein from Jordan. Yep, the Prince of Jordan was the last lecturer of the Session for Young Participants.  He flew in a helicopter to the IOA, so it sat on the football field all last night and until around 2:00 PM today when he left.  He's the President of the Jordan Olympic Committee, so he is very involved in the Olympic Movement. 
 
I've been going to the dance workshops in between the last two days, which, as those who know me can attest, is fairly out of character.  At yesterday's session, we learned a traditional Greek dance called “tziltaki.”  I'm sure the spelling is incorrect, but it's a fun group dance.  Unlike the dancing that I am used to, that you can count either 1-2-3-1-2-3 or 1-2-3-4-1-2-3-4, there is no counting for the difficult part.  Well, I guess you can count to 13, but it doesn't repeat itself, so it was good that we practiced it again today.  Actually, it was good that I practiced it again today.  I'm not sure, but the 10 people or so that have practiced the dance are going to do the dance in front of the entire group tomorrow night, so if that's the case, I will try to get the video up for people to see.
 
I was thinking about the group of friends I have gained over here, and I can't help but be amazed at how well I have connected with some of the people.  Of course I will forget some, but Denis, Fergus, Emily, Sarah, Jens, Jerome, Megan, Tiina, Adam, Florian and Jesper, and Anne all come to mind. 
 
Certainly I need to mention Murod, too, as part of my group of friends. His English has really improved and we're able to talk to one another now.  From time-to-time, we have to write down the word(s) we're trying to say, but we're able to more freely communicate.  And to think, English is Murod's third language, as Tajik and Russian are his first two. Rafiqi mon Tojik.
 
Last night was another social presentation, and there were about a dozen countries who presented.  The Estonians had a great presentation that tied their Olympic past with a game.  Estonians are traditionally strong in cross-country skiing, wrestling, and cycling.  20 pairs of people were needed, so I was one of the 40 people who went in front.  It was a great game that wound up with just one group left – not mine unfortunately. 
 
I think that there are different mosquitoes in Greece than what I'm used to.  I have 8 mosquito bites on my left arm, but none of them itch at all. I'm certainly not complaining about that, but I am confused.  And the second difference – they don't make noise when they're flying around to give warning.  So each day I wind up with more bites, but I have no idea when they're attacking me!
 
Quick update on the tennis.  I won my first round match against Qiu, but haven't played since.  I'm not sure how it worked out, but the posting for the semi-finals came out about three hours ago, and I wasn't one of the semi-finalists.  Hmm…not sure how that worked, but it's fine.
 
Tomorrow morning more of my contemporaries are going to read their essays, so I'm looking forward to hearing what people have to say.  I always enjoy hearing about other people's journeys in the Olympic Movement.
 
Citius!  Altius!  Fortius!

It's Thursday, which is the first day of group presentations.  I put together the 22 slide PowerPoint presentation, so I was glad when I was able to knock that off of my list of things to do yesterday.  There were 12 groups who presented (2 French, 10 English), and each presentation lasted about 10 minutes.  Each group had the same compulsory topic to present on (what is the purpose of the Olympic Movement), and then we were able to come up with our own questions for the last two.  After hearing the same lectures this week, there wasn't a ton of variety in the questions, but everyone had a little different take on them.
 
During the two presentations that were in French, I found it funny that when the speakers changed, they still sounded the same.  Of course the speaker didn't sound the same, but the translator in my headphones sounded the same!  Maybe I was more amused by my revelation than everyone else.
 
An interesting item was the use of "handicapped" instead of "disabled."  That was hammered home during college at Wisconsin, as I had an Adapted Physical Activity concentration, so every time I hear the word handicapped, I automatically want to tell the person talking that it's disabled. 
 
Murod just told me that he's been married for 6 months, and then he said that if I get married, I'm supposed to write him and he'll come so we can dance together.  I might have to take him up on that offer, as I think everyone would thoroughly get a kick out of him.  I had a tough time keeping a straight face, but I was able to respond.  Murod's English is getting a lot better.  Maybe it's the "Tony my brother, Tony my brother American" statements he says every time I enter our dorm room that has catapulted him forward in his quest to learn English.
 
On my last three trips to town, I have managed to jump in a car that has brought us to the IOA.  The road here is under construction, so it actually involves taking a detour on either a gravel/rock road or a detour on the road with the most potholes I have ever seen.  Fortunately the detours aren't long, but lining up a ride always makes for a good story.  Last night was the best of the three stories so far.  We were walking down the main street in Olympia, and there were seven in our group.  Three hailed a cab (it costs 4 Euro per fare, regardless how many people are in the car), so the four of us kept walking.  The ride should have taken about five minutes, so we figured if we really didn't want to walk, the taxi would be back in 10 minutes. 
 
About a block later, a guy was standing on the sidewalk between a store front and a car.  We just started asking "Taxi?" repeatedly.  The guy was clearly not a taxi cab driver, but he told us that if we helped him take down his jewelry shop for the night, he would give us a ride home.  Sweet! The four of us immediately got to work, bringing in the displays in from outside and setting the goods down on the counter.  We made quick work of the task, but we made sure to take some pictures of it all, as it looked like we were robbing the place.  One of the Swedish representatives, Sofia, was with, and her father is Greek, so she can speak Greek fluently, which eased our minds.  The driver spoke great English, too, so I figured we were covered. 
 
The drive took probably as long as it would have taken to walk, but what fun would that have been?  We learned why the Alpheus/Alfeios River is named so, and we stumbled upon a one-car accident about 100 feet from the entrance to the IOA.  More on that in a second.  Our driver took the gravel/rock road, and didn't go over 15 kph.  We came to two intersections on the road, so I made sure to say "clear" because no cars were coming.  Of course the three in the back seat laughed each time, as there wasn't a soul in sight!  We were probably the only car that drove on the road the entire day, so of course there wasn't going to be traffic to contend with.  I did this, though, because our driver put on his blinker both times and came to a stop (I shouldn't complain about his good driving habits, should I?).  After the second time, I was informed that I didn't have to say "clear" anymore.
 
Okay, now the car accident.  A little black Audi actually went in the ditch at almost a 90 degree angle.  His back right wheel was in the air, the hood/bumper at the bottom of the ditch, and the rocker panel resting on the edge of the ditch.  In other words, he was going no where quick.  When we came to the scene, the tow truck was there with the lights flashing.  A rope was already hooked on, presumably to winch the car out.  Nope, no need for a winch when you can just put the wrecker in first gear and pull the car out of the ditch.  Since the wrecker and rope was blocking the road, we sat and watched everything happen.  Once the car was back on all four wheels, they unhooked the rope and the car pulled ahead 50 feet like nothing happened!  We quickly took off, and as we drove by the car, our driver said "no damage, just grass."  Um, I don't think that's quite the case, but in the dark it was tough to see.  Nonetheless, it was a very entertaining ride home.  If you ever come to Olympia, Greece, be sure to pay a visit to the friendliest jeweler in town, Athanasios Fotinakopoulous, a visit.  In case anyone is wondering, I had to look at his business card about 8 times to make sure that I spelled that correctly.
 
Tattoos aren't nearly as common here as they are in the US, so Tony the Tiger tattooed on my right calf has drawn a lot of attention.  Most people say "Kellogg's," "Tony," or "Tigre."  I guess that Frosted Flakes are sold worldwide, and that Tony the Tiger is Tony the Tiger. 
 
We had an early morning today.  By early I mean that we left the IOA at 5:10 so we could walk to a hill that overlooked the entire valley.  Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the IOC and the modern Olympic Games, spoke of watching the sunrise from this point, so we trekked there in the dark.  I was the first to the top (it wasn't a race, I was just first in line), so I took pictures of my colleagues one-by-one as they summited the hill.  Unfortunately the clouds didn't lift in time, so we didn't get to see the sunrise.  From the hill, though, we overlooked the site of the Ancient Olympics, the International Olympic Academy, and the city of Olympia.  We did find a different route to ascend the hill, so a handful of us will organize another trip one of the remaining mornings.
 
Lastly, I just saw a funny sight.  The semi-finals for the football tournament are going on right now, and one of the participants (who plays in 13 minutes) just walked by my room smoking a cigarette.  Classic.
Citius!  Altius!  Fortius!

LEWISBURG, Pa. - Bucknell senior Andy Rendos (Brockway, Pa./Brockway Area), a member of the Bison wrestling team, received a special award at the University's annual Senior Athletic Awards Banquet, sponsored by the Bison Club and held at the Elaine Langone Center on Tuesday, May 4.

Rendos won the Christy Mathewson Award, presented to "the outstanding senior athletes." Rendos shared the award with Courtney Warren of the women's swimming and diving team, who was the female selection.

The second two-time All-American in program history, Rendos finished in sixth place in the 165-pound bracket at this year's NCAA Championships. The sixth-place finish followed a fifth-place showing in 2009.

One of just three wrestlers in Bucknell history to qualify for four NCAA Championships, Rendos posted a 33-7 record in 2009-10 and finished his career with a program-record 121 victories. He became Bucknell's first-ever EIWA individual champion and posted 24 career pins, good for seventh in program annals.

Rendos went 5-3 at the 2010 NCAA Championships and claimed 12 victories at the national tournament in his career. He is second on the Bucknell single-season wins list (33) and tied for 10th on the single-season winning percentage list (.825).

Bucknell is a highly selective, privately endowed liberal arts institution with an enrollment of approximately 3,500 undergraduate students. Bucknell competes in NCAA Division I as a member of the Patriot League and has full membership along with American, Army, Colgate, Holy Cross, Lafayette, Lehigh and Navy. Bucknell has won the Presidents' Cup, signifying the Patriot League's all-sports champion, in 15 of 19 years, including 11 of the last 12.

The Bucknell wrestling program held its end-of-season banquet on campus inside Hunt Hall this past Saturday evening and head coach Dan Wirnsberger and his coaching staff recognized this year's team award winners and celebrated a successful season that concluded with two All-Americans and a 27th-place showing at the NCAA Championships. The two All-Americans - senior Andy Rendos and junior Kevin LeValley - shared the prestigious William A. Graham IV Most Outstanding Wrestler Award, given annually to the Bison grapplers who perform best at the NCAA Championships.

Congratulations to all of the award winners and to the Bison wrestlers for their accomplishments throughout the season.

The Full Release is available from Bucknellbison.com

For most of us Social Media is becoming part of life. I never thought that part of my coaching duties would include writing in a blog but here I am an these things are quickly becoming part of the way we promote our sport and team. For us as a somewhat new team it is really important to be able to reach our fans.

So, I want to share with fans of Bucknell Wrestling, Bucknell University, EIWA Wrestling, or just wrestling links to Bucknell Wrestling's Social Media profiles.

Twitter: @BUWrestling

Facebook: Bison Wrestling Page

Make sure to add us or follow BUWrestling so that we can keep you up to date on all of the exciting things in the life of the Bison.

I often hear people complain about the lack of coverage wrestling receives locally. In truth it is rare that it receives as much publicity as basketball or football, particularly in the South. However, it pays to be aware of the limitations your local media outlets have; most would consider themselves understaffed; newspapers in particular are fighting financial solvency nation wide. If you are complaining but not taking any other action, are you part of the solution or part of the problem (sorry to be cliche')?

The advent of electronic news allows your local media outlet to harness the power of the people to provide news. 910Rec and 910Preps are two sites that have little financial overhead and provide a coverage outlet. They do have the same constraints as the newspaper that owns them; a lack of reporters. The good news; they will print it if you will write it. Take the time to understand and get to know your local media outlets and find out how you can leverage them. Once you make this initial investment, taking five minutes to write a short article weekly can pay big dividends. If you are not comfortable writing, enlist a parent, a staff member, a student, or a student athlete. Chances are, there is someone you know looking for another outlet for their literary talents.

OUR LATEST 910REC ARTICLE

MatFish.com wrestling store has released a free classified ad system for wrestling gear (http://marketplace.matfish.com/) that allows users to sell their used wrestling gear, memorabilia, and remnant stock (clearance gear).

The goal of MatFish.com’s classified ad system is to provide a free service where individual wrestlers and families can connect with buyers and sellers quickly and find the gear they need on the cheap.  This is why MatFish has decided to limit the gear provided on the marketplace to only clearance/wholesale prices wherever possible.  Some items are not generally available in used condition, but those items will be available on MatFish Classifieds at a minimum price of $1.00 below their retail (Meaning those items are cheaper on MatFish Classifieds than anywhere else.).

Categories currently include:

• Wrestling Shoes -  Nike, Adidas, Asics, and other brands…
• Wrestling Headgear – Adidas, Asics, Cliff Keen, and other brands…
• Wrestling Singlets – State, National Team, Freestyle/Greco, Custom, College, and other designs…
• Wrestling Memorabilia – Posters, signed photos, pins, buttons, and other memorabilia…
• Wrestling Videos – Technique videos, events, site subscriptions, and other videos…
• Wrestling Supplies – Clocks, timers, score boards, mat cleaner, and other supplies…
• Wrestling Mats – Home mats, competition mats, and other padded surfaces…

New submissions are 100% free and will be featured in the on the front page of MatFish.com until five newer submissions are made and will also be published to the Merchant section on TheWrestlingTalk.com.

I jus built a wrestling color selector for wrstling shoes, singlets, and headgear on MatFish.com.. After I get the system more organized the Open Source version will be released on osCMax for all to use.

Wrestling Shoes Additional Options: Grey Wrestling Shoes | Green Wrestling Shoes | Blue Wrestling Shoes | Red Wrestling Shoes | Orange Wrestling Shoes | Yellow Wrestling Shoes | White Wrestling Shoes | Black Wrestling Shoes | Green Wrestling Shoes | Cool Wrestling Shoes

Available Brands: Adidas Wrestling Shoes | ASICS Wrestling Shoes | Cliff Keen Wrestling Shoes Wrestling Headgear Additional Options: Grey Wrestling Headgear | Green Wrestling Headgear | Blue Wrestling Headgear | Red Wrestling Headgear | Orange Wrestling Headgear | Yellow Wrestling Headgear | White Wrestling Headgear | Black Wrestling Headgear | Green Wrestling Headgear | Cool Wrestling Headgear

Available Brands: Adidas Wrestling Headgear | ASICS Wrestling Headgear | Cliff Keen Wrestling Headgear

Here is where I'll post all the links to my photos. So far I am done with Friday's Greco Roman Quarter Finals Matches. There are always going to be some that are not what I label them (e.g. I'll sneak a few others in)

Greco Roman US Open - Quarter Finals

2010 US Open Saturday Afternoon Photos

2010 US Open Finals

Jeff Pape
WrestlingGear.Com

Dan Gable is the most influential person in the sport of wrestling. His influence as a competitor and coach is still felt today. Olympic champions still aspire to accomplish what Gable has and youth wrestlers, high school wrestlers, college wrestlers and coaches are all influenced by Gable.

Gable provided information for the new book, The Ultimate Guide to Wrestling Camps, available at wrestlingcampguide.com. The book features interviews, resources and stories from over 40 top college and high school coaches, olympians, national champions, parents, father/sons and much more.

In fact, the book concludes with a question and answer with Gable about the benefits of wrestling camps and how they can help young wrestlers. Gable provides information that both wrestlers and parents can benefit from, including this from a q&a with the sports greatest legend. Here is an excerpt from Chapter 14 of The Ultimate Guide to Wrestling camps, titled:

Conclusion: A message from Dan Gable - wrestling camps are most beneficial when you reach beyond your goals

Why are younger wrestlers tougher to reach today?

GABLE: Chances are they do not have a single-minded focus and they don't have to be. Things change and if you don't make the appropriate changes from a standpoint of doing what you need to do, you don't keep up with the times. If I coached exactly the way that I trained, then I wouldn't be keeping updated and modern with training techniques that are better.

There are better mats. You keep up with that. There are better shoes. You keep up with that. There are better machines that are smoother. You don't do deep squats with heavy weights on your shoulders, which crunch your shoulders down.

Do kids have the same work ethics today as you did back in 1971? Would today's young wrestlers take on the challenge of running 20 miles to prove a point like you did?

GABLE: It all has to do with what their environment has been before they get to a camp. A lot has to do with the parental environment, people they have been associated with on the grade school and junior high levels.

There was a father one summer, who came in a day early with his son. The Hawkeye Wrestling Club was having a practice. After the practice, I was walking by the father and he said that he had never witnessed wrestling like he watched where Daniel Dennis and Daniel LeClere just went after it for 45 minutes. He said it was a treat.

There are kids who learn things on tapes or the internet, who may think they are already experts. Do you have to tear down all those to help kids reach their potential?

GABLE: It's kind of like (Olympic gold-medal swimmer) Michael Phelps. He swims unbelievable practices. What he claims he does between workouts is recover, rest, eat good and play a lot of video games. There is a difference between what Michael Phelps does and what I did back in my day, when I'd work a ten-hour day in construction before going to wrestling practice before going home to bed.

What helps you more? Working hard in construction for ten hours or playing video games for six hours?

Want more great advice like this? Then order your copy of The Ultimate Guide to Wrestling Camps today.

After much debate the Eagles are TOM's National Champions

First off we want to congratulate all the teams across the country. This was a long difficult decision between two exceptional teams this season. This is the first of TOM's off season awards. Apple Valley will receive an engraved plaque. Next week we will announce the Clinch Gear All-American Team and the Clinch Gear Wrestler of the Year by TOM.

By the Numbers

2. 5. 7. 9. Simple numbers that tell an impressive story when speaking of the Apple Valley, MN wrestling program. 2 - the number of years it's been since the Eagles lost a dual meet (to Montini Catholic, IL on January 5th 2008 34-29). 5 - the number of consecutive state titles they have earned. 7 State Champions in 2010. 9 State Finalists in 2010.

Those are just some of the numbers that pushed Valley to the top of the list. Valley faced some tough competition this year in the likes of #4 Brandon, FL, #6 Wyoming Seminary, PA, #11 Simley, MN, #15 Montini Catholic, IL, and #17 Wisconsin Rapids, WI. Valley topped them all.

"Historic - remarkable - gratifying" were the three adjectives used by Head Coach James Jackson. This coming from a coach whose program owns 18 team state titles and has produced 64 individual state champions.

When TOM staff notified Coach Jackson about the news he said "It means a great deal to our school, team, wrestlers, families and coaches. The credit goes to the families and kids; they are the ones who have put numerous hours on the mat, on the road, in gyms and in the wrestling room."

READ MORE HERE

The last of the big post-season tournaments now complete, our rankings for this season conclude. At the NHSCA's in Virginia, we got to see how a good number of studs from lower profile states stack up. The results were interesting, to say the least, and influenced our final positioning.

At FloNationals, there weren't too many surprises. Other than 152 and a relative mess at 145, the brackets played out as expected.

This is the last rankings that will include this year's seniors. Next week, they will be removed, so check in to see what they look like, and on every Wednesday for updated rankings as the international style season shakes things up.

This being our final rankings, the honorable mention list has been omitted. It will return next week with our fresh set of underclassman rankings.

We have notes on most wrestlers, so check them for details.

We're sure, like any rankings, there will be some derision and debate. So feel free to discuss it on our forums, or drop us an email. (We are the ‘open' mat for a reason!)

See the full ranking here

The discussion has already covered most of the Big Ten, including Iowa, Minnesota, and Ohio State.  Check out the line ups in TheWrestlingTalk's College Wrestling section.

Andy Rendos became the first EIWA champion from Bucknell at the 2010 EIWA championships. He talks about his career at Bucknell, rebuilding the team and his future in this interview with Scott Casber.

http://intermatwrestle.com/articles/6695

I posted a few hundred photos from the IL vs IN All Star Classic Duals - check them out let me know what you think - http://www.illinoiswrestling.com

Check out our first 360 Degree view of the Dan Gable Ultimate II in Black/Gold/Silver.

Also, we have our Asics rep coming in today. Let us know if you have any questions for him. I'll check back in an hour or so to see if anyone has any questions.

Remember this is our first one of these they will get better and better Dan Gable 360 Degree View

Honest question: How much do you know about Colorado wrestling? How much do you know about how awesome their state tournament has been reported to be? I didn’t know, but I was going to find out.

Saturday night, I sat and watched my third different state complete its high school season. Reared in Virginia, I saw nearly a dozen Group AAA and Group AA/A state championships. I went to two Pennsylvania state championships in Hershey while I was working for the NWCA.

The Pespi Center, home of the NBA’s Denver Nuggets and NHL’s Colorado Avalanche would give me my largest finals crowd for the 2010 CHSAA State Finals.

I wasn’t incredibly amazed by the size of the crowd on Friday for the quartefinals and semifinals, but I knew I was in for a sight when I drive into the Pepsi Center lot and park roughly a quarter-mile (probably more) from the arena. Compound this by walking completely around the facility to get to the media entrance and you can see early, this was going to be a big crowd.

There’s 337 high schools in Colorado (according to the announced sportsmanship PSA that was read repeatedly throughout the event). The 337 are split four ways, with the smallest of the schools competing in 2A, while the largest schools are 5A.

With much of my season now focused on international and collegiate wrestling, I haven’t seen near as much high school since moving to Colorado Springs. One thing that did peak my interest in regards to this event were the local kids.

Some of you might remember the Metro Championships broadcast we did on TheMat.com at the end of January. The Metro is a local high school event with all the local Colorado Springs High Schools. USA Wrestling puts this on as a way to serve the local high school wrestling community. Well, with that, I had a chance to see a few solid kids in the finals of the Metro.

Right off the bat, the approximately 13,000 (I’m guessing, but the arena seats 18,121) were ready. The first two kids I saw win state titles were familiar. Geordan Martinez of Pine Creek (in 5A) picked up a major decision over Standley Lake’s Ryan Adams. On the far mat, there was A.J. Rees of Discovery Canyon over in 3A. Rees was leading to start the second over A.J. Salazar of Lake County. Could Colorado Springs claim two of the four state championships at 103?

Nope. Salazar pinned Rees in the second.

Josh Martinez (no relation) stepped to the mat for Pine Creek and worked through a 3-0 victory at 112 pounds. I started feeling some of the emotion running through the facility. Pine Creek didn’t quite shake things up for me, since they’re sitting on the second level about 180 degrees from my perch in the press area.

The first notable eruption that jolted me in my chair came from the fans from Pueblo South. They were celebrating the 112 4A championship by Timothy Urenda. I’m about six feet from the edge of the Pueblo South section. Pueblo’s about two hours south of Denver, probably more tonight because snow and fog have made traveling on I-25 north or south rather unenjoyable. Have I mentioned how much I hate snow?

Pueblo South wasn’t going to keep the credit for too long, as Broomfield snatched it away from them with Courtland Hacker’s victory at 119 pounds in 4A. They were notably louder for each score, including a third period score in Jerry Huff’s 125-pound final with Greeley West’s Joseph Martinez. You could hear the sigh moments later as Huff locked his hands and then gave up a reversal.

One mat over, another local product and Metro champion, Carter McElhany gave up  a takedown three seconds in to his 125-pound final against Mountain Range’s Cory Mitzke. McElhany, from Coronado, had little of it … scoring 13 straight points to pick up a 13-2 major decision. For a fleeting moment, Coronado seemed to own the arena, that was until a late throw in a tight match in 2A stole the proverbial thunder.

Bon Kinder ignited the fans from Burlington, who are sitting in most of section 120 to my left. Kinder was up three and fought off a late takedown attempt, putting Simla’s Andrew Scherrer to his back to end the match.

So at this point, I’m starting to draw some comparisons. Being from Virginia, I’ve seen (and been a part of) some of the more boisterous contingents at state tournaments. We were notorious at Poquoson. One of my teammates once said, “If I wasn’t from Poquoson, I’d hate you guys.”

I’m sure a lot of you can relate to a program (if not your own) in your state. I didn’t see that too much in Pennsylvania, because everyone’s passionate and vocal about their programs, with the pockets of “Poquoson-like” fans residing mostly in District XI.

Also in Virginia, there were the pockets from Great Bridge, Grundy and Christiansburg. In Pennsylvania, Central Dauphin’s fans were out in full force, mainly due to the magical season in 2007 (captured by the documentary Takedowns & Falls).  At least, that’s the season I’m comparing to this, the 2010 CHSAA state championships.

Arena size – Pepsi Center has both VA and PA topped. Arena intimacy? Salem Civic Center … that place doesn’t absorb sound, it amplifies it. Virginia’s AAA state championships have been at 4,000-seat Oscar Smith H.S. in Chesapeake and Robinson Secondary in/around Fairfax. Colorado’s atmosphere’s great … but as much as I like all four groups in one place, I think the most I can handle at one time is two finals. That’s more of a product of coming from the AA & A tournaments in Virginia being held side to side. Pennsylvania’s state championships could have more flavor if there wasn’t such a dry introduction and mat literally surrounded by nothing.

Here in the Pepsi Center, the four finals doesn’t seem to matter as much as I might think, because there’s action to follow everywhere. The awards don’t take too long and there is a crew of announcers ready to go for each class.

After a while, I decided to get a better view, so I headed up to a suite where some friends had some space.

Taking a spot in suite 18, I had a birds-eye view of all four finals and this allowed me to take in more of the tournament than I could from an endzone seat.