Okay maybe I should have said journal, sounds a bit more manly. One of the main themes I heard from Olympic and World Champions was their thoughts on their journals and how it helped their wrestling.
If a journal to record what you ate that particular day, how sleep you got, what exercises you did, how long you wrestled, what moves you worked on etc. can help these athletes. Imagine what it can do for your typical high school wrestler or your elite high school wrestler.
I like my coaching journals because it allows me to go back and see what the kids liked and did not like about practice. Plus it allows me to look back and the season and identify when we taught certain moves and helps me plan the current season.
As a wrestler, maybe you had a bad weekend of wrestling. After reviewing your journal, you might notice you were burning the candle at both ends for some school projects or had a stressful event happen that week. You can use your journal to help you peak for the next big weekend. It is difficult to constantly peak. Remember at the end of the season you will have to peak for two or three tournaments to qualify or win your state championships or NCAA championship...
Hopefully at this point in the season you already have your goals put together and are working hard towards achieving them. Keep your goals in front of you and make sure you are working towards them.
Parents with younger wrestlers you may want to set goals that reflect effort put forth instead of results. For example a good goal may be to wrestle in 25 matches your first year instead of winning 18 matches. At least if the effort is made, your wrestler will feel like he or she is achieving his goal...
That's all for now...start working towards those goals today !
