Wrestling Blogs - Ohio Storm Brush Wrestling

Achieving goals requires:

1. Commitment to persevere: When one understands what commitment is all about, quitting is NEVER an option.

2. Discipline: Whatever it takes. Make a decision to do the activities that don’t feel good, that don’t come natural, and quite frankly you don’t feel like doing them However you do them anyway ,( I call this training out of your comfort zone ), and after much training you will begin to experience the benefits and rewards for your hard work.

B.) Mental toughness – for competition (ICS & FRC): By definition, toughness is to be strong & resilient; able to withstand great strain without tearing or breaking.” Mental toughness to me is being able to reach your Ideal Competitive State (ICS) or in the ZONE on command.

What exactly is your Ideal Competitive State? Your ICS is your personal state of being that allows an individual to perform with their greatest potential. It is a state of being where an individual feels most energized, most confident & most strong. A state where you are generating positive emotions that help you be most alert, instinctive, responsive & creative. When you have that positive fighting attitude & are enjoying the battle (competition). Typically this is when a wrestler is in the ZONE. They are so mentally focused that they wrestle at a level which appears effortless and their moves instinctive and very creative. How does dials into this your Ideal Competitive State (ICS) on command.

One strategy is to follow the steps of being Focused, Relax, and Confident (FRC). FRC simple means a mental state in which a wrestler is Focused, Relax and Confident and as a result is able to reach their Ideal Competitive State (ICS) and wrestle in the ZONE.

>Focus:

There are several emotions that can block your potential such as fear, confusion, low energy, fatigue, and helplessness. There are everyday situations that can challenge your ICS: Lack of sleep, which makes you sluggish & tired; referees, that makes bad calls; girlfriends/boyfriends that break up with you; pressure from school/work/family…

It will be easy to get ‘psyched out’ by all the hype and excitement, and pressure of wrestling in a major tournament. You MUST remain focus. You should only focus on places you need to be and the wrestling at hand. This is not social hour….you shouldn’t be running around trying to socialize with everybody you can. Stay within yourself, surround yourself with team members and the coaching staff. Block out the crowd, block out the other matches going on around you even if your at the State tournament. Just focus on the 30’ x 30’ mat that you’ll wrestling on. Visualize yourself executing your moves on the toughest opponent you will face this year. It’s not unusual to hear a champion say that they have visualized themselves hitting a perfect double leg takedown in the finals of the NCAA 1000 of times in their head, so when they actually pulled it off it wasn’t a big deal.

Focus on the task, not outcomes. Much of the stress this person is feeling comes from paying too much attention to results. The classic fear of failure syndrome. When you are motivated by the fear of losing or not embarrassing yourself, you are handcuffed before you even start the competition. You need to learn how to focus on one move at a time and let go of the "what ifs."
Have a game plan.

What are you going to do in the first period? What are your bread and butter takedowns, how do you plan on setting them up?

Second and third periods – if you get the coin toss will you defer, if not and your opponent defers what is you choice? If you on the bottom what is your first move, what’s you second? If you on top what is your first choice to break your opponent down, what you primary pining combination you’ll use?

Overtime – stay calm, stay in good position, no bad shots, good defense, solid aggressive offense. Keep the pressure on your opponent.

>Relax: Enjoy the sport of wrestling and having fun in the heat of competition. Practical suggestion to help you relax: use a portable CD player/ IPOD/ with headphones to ‘pump you up’ to your favorite music. Music not only relaxes you it triggers emotions. Choose music that will pump you up for the challenge and redirect your negative emotions by relaxing you.

Also, chewing gum help to expel nervous energy and keep you focus on the job at had. You may want to chew gum (Gator Gum) right before competition.

Toughness is being able to create these positive emotions upon command, thus enabling you to bring all your talent & skills to life at that moment, no matter what negative thing(s) might be affecting you.

>Confident: You’ve worked hard, now represent your training. Allow your ability (based on all the hard work & training you’ve put in).

Confidence comes from having the Courage to submit yourself to an extremely demanding challenge, a challenge which most ordinary students will avoid. Confidence is the fruit of experience. The more you put yourself in challenging situations and endure through them, the more confidence you will develop. ( A very tough tournament, a very tough training situation – camp, off season participation in open mats, wrestling with a very tough wrestler, Competing in styles that stretch you – such as freestyle or Greco roman – will all build your confidence).

Toughness is learned - make no mistake about it! If you are not tough…it just means you need more practice. Just like learning or perfecting a technique or skill, toughness can be learned, refined and honed.

The confident person doesn’t hope to succeed, they EXPECT to succeed.

The confident person consistently displays ‘Raw Guts’ and courage when they compete: the ability to withstand pain and the heart to ignore it. To fight back with ever ounce of remaining strength in the face of adversity, unbelievable odds and overwhelming circumstances.

No matter how old or young, weak or strong…you can be tougher! Never believe that you can’t achieve because you are not talented enough, smart enough or weren’t given gifts to succeed. Your future is much more dependent on the decisions you make and what you do than on what you are genetically made up of. Believe me, the level of toughness you acquire through mental toughness training will be the most powerful FORCE in your athletic career as well as your life