Wrestling Blogs - Mike Tamillow

...I think that's how you spell his name... well he's my new roommate. Half japanese coaching a mexican polevaulter by the name of Giovanni. I get back from this great wall experience and I find him in my room to my surprise. He speaks fluent japanese and he seems to know everything shady that the mexican team is likely to pull. His guy is one of Mexico's really legit contenders for a medal. And by legit contenders for medals I mean he has vegas odds of winning the gold at 1/25. But he's only about 5 inches away from the height he'll need for a gold. He tells me a lot about his sport. Polevaulting is a sport where you can't actually do many jumps per week. Max 20. So instead you have to improve with explosive runs, lifting, and other workouts. Then you just go for it. It's just too big of a drop. Them he shows me some video of Giovanni jumping and it's actually really beautiful. He has a great pushoff and clears the bar with a nice gap. That's 19.1 feet. But even Brian admits that track and feild bores him in watching for the most part. He lives in LA and coaches at a community college there. He looks at the northwestern website and is surprised to find that NU doesn't have a track team. I learn a lot about Brian in the next day. First I learn about the whole situation. It isn't much of a surprise to him that the US couldn't get us in Beijing Normal. The US is very focused only on winning it's own medals it is very unlikely for them to do anything for anyone else. Which begs me to ask, why don't they offer more money for medals? Yeah well I, personally, am looking at my future in international wrestling as I looked at my future in college wrestling. I choose where I want to go. If I can go to another country that offers me a better deal and a better training situation, I am there. Brian offered to talk to Japan's team for me which seemed great for both of us. Like Tom Brands said. First local (neighborhood), then state (high school), then national (college), then world (after college), then universal (I have no idea?)