Wrestling Blogs - Alan Hull

I have had the opportunity to see wrestling from a few different points of view. All of these places have brought me to view our sport from a little different angle.
Technique, strength, desire and training all play a vital role in wrestling. To be the best you have to pay special attention to these areas. We have all been taught that "wrestling is 90% mental", it is easy to realize this if you have taken the mat in competition even once. But I think that some of us or myself at the very least, have over looked a part of this mental aspect of wrestling, CULTURE.
I have been lucky enough in my life to be around some very successful programs and some very successful individuals. I have seen close up what people are willing to go through to win. It is very humbling in some cases. Everything is set aside for one goal. Many people would find some of the things I have seen and we all have done, insane, even bordering on masochistic. But the sport we have chosen has given us a tool that allows for such extreme actions. Others around us are willing to do the same things.
In the case of people like Dan Gable, we are at times given super star status, because of the dedication rather than the accomplishment. Although I would never say it was easy to do, what Gable did during his run as coach of the Hawkeyes, I think was easier because of his status before he ever coached a single match. The "Iowa Style" of wrestling was and is becoming now more of a function of culture in the room than any technique or even philosophy.
I am lucky to have some extremely successful people as mentors and friends in my life. One of my closest friends is a wrestling coach of a traditional power house program east of KC. I have seen his kids work out, I have seen him coach and it still amazes me that he can take a marginal kid and make him good. He can take a good kid and make him great. Like I said I've watched. There is no special formula. They work out like the rest of us.
I've taken several trips with him coaching different teams over the last 15 years. There is something that he told be along time ago that has stuck with me and helped me to realize that there may indeed be a catalyst that brings all of the disciplines of our sport together. When I asked how he made such huge gains in kids and seemly always kept the bar high for his team the answer was plain and painfully simple. "They expect to win when they get out there; it is built into the community."
Some of their fathers had wrestled in the same gym. Their parents either were directly involved or knew someone involved with wrestling in the community. The culture mandated that if you stepped out on the mat in that gym you were expected to win.
Recently I have seen that the opposite is also true. If you are in a situation where others do not value simple work ethic, then you will not achieve. The question then becomes how do I change this situation? What are the steps that I can take to help the culture evolve into one that has not only victory but how we win and prepare to win as the guiding principles?

One way to fix a situation where the expectation is not lofty, or even when expectation is a loss, is to build the expectation around the most raw and bare aspects of the sport. Hard work and sacrifice need to be the expectation before the culture can dictate that victory is.
It seems simple enough but that is far from true. Loosing is a much harder habit to break than winning. Loosing comes with excuses, rationalizations and not much sacrifice.

Sure everyone thinks that they are giving every thing that they have. They are not. It is very, very hard to do. The next time you watch a practice pay attention to the little moments of wasted time, just a few seconds here and there. It adds up. There are times when friends wrestle that the dominant wrestler takes it easy on his buddy. It is not good for him or his friend. So, in practice if we are not eliminating those areas then we are practicing them.

Culture may be the culprit. Is it ok to go at it 90% in your room? Would your friend be happy you let up on him or pissed off that you would let up on him?
What is the culture in your practice room? How will you effect some change in it? Be careful it can be brought down as well as built up.