Wrestling Blogs - Brandon Scott

This is the second part of a three part series.
UNITY WITHIN THE COACHING STAFF
POSITIVE, POSITIVE, POSITIVE
THEY'RE KIDS, THEY WANT DISCIPLINE AND FUN!


When you focus on positive energy, I focus on three things:
Positive Recruitment
Positive Retainment
Positive Reinforcement

First and foremost. A wrestling team needs bodies. It's simple. In order to have a full team you need 14 different bodies, 14 different weights. If you are not in Ohio or Pennsylvania, it's likely you may have to recruit at least a COUPLE weights, if not all 14. Our recruitment pitch goes something like this:

"Do you play any sports"
"No."
"Do you like to fight?"
"Yeah."
"Come out to wrestling practice today, just bring shorts and a shirt and I'll teach you how to beat people up."

Not much too it. Simple. Effective. Use the explosion of MMA as a recruitment pitch. A number of the top UFC fighters are former wrestlers. "Rampage" Jackson placed third at 189lbs in North Carolina his senior year!!

Football players:
"Who's the best linebacker in the NFL?"
"Ray Lewis" (This is almost a certain)
"Ray Lewis wrestled in high school. When Ray Lewis goes home (Kathleen), guess who he works out with?"
"Who?"
"His wrestling coach."

The reason I say positive recruitment, is DO NOT downgrade any sport or activity they do. Focus on what wrestling can do for that kid. Maybe it's losing weight, becoming a tougher person, having friends. Also, use the MMA guys judiciously, when the inevitable "singlets are gay" comment arises, ask them how gay Chuck Liddel, Matt Hughes, "Rampage Jackson" and Tito Ortiz are. They wear LESS than we do!

Positive Retainment.
This one is tricky, but it's as simple as making your kids feel appreciated. I make it a point to tell them how much I appreciate them working for me. Try to be the boss you would want at work. How long would you stay at a job with a boss who hovered at your cubicle and yelled obscenities for eight hours?

That's a rhetorical question. Limit the yelling and expand your teaching. Ask Tom Brands and Tom Ryan - Gable didn't yell much.

Positive Reinforcement
Once again, tricky. When a kid messes up a technique show them how to do RIGHT. Focus on the correction, not the mistake. Instead of "DON'T REACH BACK!", teach what you want them to do and when they reach back yell "FIND YOUR SIT OUT/GET YOUR HEAD UP/GRANBY." You get the idea.

Overall, there should be a positive energy in your wrestling room. Don't get me wrong, any of my wrestlers will tell you two things - "Practice is hard" and "Don't piss off Coach Scott." Practice is hell, but find a way to let them know that everything you do has a point, and that you appreciate their effort. When you know a guy is slacking, make it a point to say more often, "Hey, I know you're working hard right now, but I think you can work harder." You would be amazed at how well this statement works. I'll end with this quote -

"We don't work on past mistakes. We work for future successes."