Wrestling Blogs - Mike Tamillow

There is a shuttle that leaves to the wrestling facility every hour at the :20. We took the 4:20 shuttle and got there by five. However, I can only take this shuttle one time if I have a day pass and then I have to go around the whole venue just to pick up my passport. At that point I have to leave because I can't get in again. We jump on the bus to the arena with the mongolian womens team and some dutch swimmers. Larry has to change into his singlet when we get there. I think it's funny that Larry goes to the bathroom to change into his singlet while the mongolian women just dropp trow right there. We have a whole mat to ourselves, which is good since we want to work on pushouts today. There is a lot of good technique to pushouts and avoiding pushouts. Wrestlers have to constantly be conscious when they are putting opponents in a position to push them out. I am not only talking about avoiding putting your back towards the edge, you also have to level change, get your shoulder into the chest, get a wide base with knees bent, and constantly change directions. Sometimes it makes freestyle wrestling seem like sumo wrestling but that should be a good thing. Being more aggressive and being able to hold ground while giving up none is a sign of a better wrestler. So we have a six minute block larry drills everything, focused on technique but not breaking contact and taking his time. Then we slow down and work on pushout technique, finally we get him some live in. He looked good. He is a lot more smooth when no one is watching which means he is going to have to work on focusing solely on the action and himself and not feel the pressure of the environment when he competes. That is an difficult thing to develop but can still be done quickly. The live wrestling goes are great and he's ready as long as he competes at that level. On the ride back the Mongolian woman's coaches fell asleep and we joke about playing with the guys that are asleep which we all have a laugh about. Today was a good day for preparing.