WrestlingGear.Com "Get Ready for the Mat" Articles, New Products, Special Offer (Sent to you at your request)
October 12, 2004

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Now that wrestling season is very close to starting, make sure to set your goals, write them down, work hard towards achieving them, and monitor your progress towards achieving your goals.

Below we have a special offer for "The Arsenal" it is a training log program that will help you set and achieve your goals. It is written by an NCAA Champion from Oklahoma State. Be sure to find that offer...

This is a full version of the newsletter, in the future customers will receive the full version of the newsletter. However, as a list member you will recieve November's full edition, but in December you will be emailed abbreviated articles. In order to qualify for the full version of the newsletter, simply place an order with WrestlingGear.Com and we will add you to our customer list.

Please forward this newsletter to friends and team members. They may join by simply entering their email information and subscribing.

Be sure to check out the offer below for a 3 month trial subscription to Amateur Wrestling News. It is a great offer, that I would think everybody would want to try...

Index of what can be found:

1) Special Trial Subscription - Amateur Wrestling News
2) Asics Shoes - Profile of the new 54 Wrestling Shoes
3) What to Eat for the Elite Wrestler - Jon McGovern
4) New adidas shoes added to our site 5) Free Book Offer - The Arsenal
6) So You Want to Run a Tournament
7) Competitive Confidence - A preview of next month's article
8) Pre Match Routines - Chris Bono - NCAA Champ
9) Ask the Coach - Rob Eiter - Olympian

SPECIAL OFFER TO LIST MEMBERS FROM AMATEUR WRESTLING NEWS

Amateur WRESTLING NEWS is the oldest magazine devoted to all phases of amatuer wrestling, from kids through the Olympics. Now in its 50th season, it is published in magazine format and serves a substantial community of wrestling coaches, parents, fans and participants.

Editorial features include team and individual rankings at all levels, comprehensive collegiate dual meet and tournament results, training and technique features, individual profiles, regular columnists and special features covering every aspect of Amateur Wrestling.

Try our publication with a risk FREE Trial, Click here to find out how

NEW ASICS WRESTLING SHOE - Fifty-Four

Defeat just got a lot tougher to swallow.

Say hello to ASICS® Fifty-Four™, named after the number of wrestling medals which were handed out in Athens. This is the most responsive wrestling shoe ASICS has ever made. The Fifty-Four™ goes beyond being just laceless, this competition shoe boasts ASICS® Biomorphic Fit™ technology, a technical design philosophy that consists of a series of components that react in unison to help the foot and shoe work together. The Biomorphic Fit™ in the Fifty-Four™ illustrates how these diverse technologies combine together in order to deliver superior fit, function and performance.

To provide a personalized fit, a fully adjustable, interior "X-strap" configuration across the top of the foot allows the foot to be securely locked into place. Outer shell straps further secure the foot and ankle to help reduce friction inside the shoe. The Fifty-Four™ also features an innovative UniSole™, a new approach to ASICS® DuoSole® technology that is lightweight and flexible. This material is a stickier version of DuoSole® that provides more mat contact and better traction. The ankle and sockliner is made of a special material that encourages moisture transfer and helps reduce odor.

VISIT THE NEW ASICS SHOES - CLICK HERE

What To Eat and When To Eat for the Elite Wrestler - by Jon McGovern

Most fitness civilians can recover at their own pace from workouts because they don’t deplete themselves of their carbohydrate stores in a typical workout like wrestlers. However, for elite athletes like wrestlers paying attention to pre-workout and post work-out carbohydrate ingestion is essential to optimal training and performance. Here are some suggestions for using food to your advantage before, during, and after competition.

The pre-competition meals should be monitored closely during the 24-48 hours prior to competition. Often the more intense the competition the higher the anxiety level. If you are too nervous to consume a lot of food before competition eat frequent smaller snacks with easily digested foods like bananas or a sports nutrition shake. In general, it is best to start building your carbohydrate stores in the blood for competition by eating high-fiber, low-glycemic index foods like apples two to three days before competition.

Do not experiment with new foods or supplements during this the time period, save that for the off-season. Build into the quick release good carbohydrates such as single ingredient whole foods like raisins and potatoes. Remember when you eat a regular meal it takes about three hours to digest before your competition. Avoid a meal that is too heavy for example a steak or hamburger. Eat a light snack apple, banana, yogurt, about one hour prior to competing. Make your pre-competition meals about two-thirds easily digested carbs, and only about one-sixth protein and one-sixth fats. Fats and proteins take longer to digest and can make you feel bloated prior to competition.

Do not avoid protein and fats altogether, just make them lighter on the digestive track. Instead of hamburger or steak go for chicken soup, turkey, tuna, or a protein drink. You want the blood ready to pump in the muscles and not in the stomach kicking in enzymes to digest the proteins from steak during your match. If you take liquid nutritional supplements or energy bars make sure they are cleared by your coaching staff and/or athletic trainer. Many substances once thought of as harmless are now banned by the NCAA and many high school associations.

When deciding whether to eat or how much to eat before a wrestling workout or competition, make the decision based on your energy level during your workouts or competitions and adjust accordingly. If you find yourself sluggish or running out of steam during your workouts, then you may need to take in more carbohydrates. If your last meal was three to four hours before your workout, then you should eat a snack high in quick energy carbohydrates. Foods like whole bagels, crackers, fig bars, juice, granola, or carbohydrate drinks or a even small meal within the 30-90 minutes before your workout would help keep your energy and bloods sugar levels stable.

Article brought to you by Jon McGovern Camps

Click Here to visit Jon McGovern.com

NEW ADIDAS WRESTLING SHOES

One word, WOW! Adidas has once again outdid themselves with their new shoes. Almost every shoe is new this year. The only carry-overs are the Combat Speed, Pretereo, and Pretero Jr. The new Adistar, Super Lites, Responses and more are now available in colors not normally offered in wrestling shoes like White & Green, Black & Grey, Black & Orange, and more.

VISIT THE NEW ADIDAS WRESTLING SHOES - CLICK HERE

FREE BOOK WITH PURCHASE OF OVER $100

This offer is going out first to our list members and then will be put on the website if additional books are available. We expect to have purchased enough books to satisfy demand, but quantities are limited to those in stock. Simply spend $100 (not including shipping) and you will get "The Arsenal" by Alan Fried for FREE. If you expect to purchase over $100 of gear, do not add the book in your shopping cart. Simply make sure you purchased more then $100 and put in the special instructions, "Include The Arsenal for Free." You must mention this offer when placing the order. The book normally sells for $16.95 and you get it free - offer expires October 31, 2004 or while supplies last.

A brief bio of Alan includes:

In the sport of wrestling, Alan Fried is a rare three-time NCAA finalist, claiming the top spot in 1994 and finishing with a career record of 129-6. He also owns two University and two Espoir (20 year and under) National Freestyle Championships and became the Espoir World Freestyle Champion in 1991, where he was voted Best Technical Wrestler.

Alan holds the high-school record as the only four-time Junior National Freestyle Champion and was voted Outstanding Wrestler of the tournament his senior year in 1989. Alan had a career in-season record of 139-3 and was a three-time Ohio H.S. State Champion for the national powerhouse program at St. Edward High School in Lakewood, OH

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THE ARSENAL - CLICK HERE

So You Want To Run A Wrestling Tournament? - by Jeff Pape

So you want to run a wrestling a wrestling tournament? For the next couple months, I will discuss various aspects of running a successful tournament. You may ask what a successful tournament is, and that is one of the first things I will talk about. How do you define a successful tournament?

I believe it is just like anything else in life, it is a lesson I learned from my high school teachers. One in particular was my Freshmen English teacher who spoke at the beginning of the school year about the power of setting goals. The second was my wrestling coach, Charlie Farina, one of the winningest high school wrestling coaches in the nation. He never had us write down our goals on paper, but he was always asking us what we wanted to do after high school or accomplish at the end of the year. So getting back to how this relates to running a tournament, figure out what your goal or goals are.

Is your goal to make money? Is it to offer wrestlers an opportunity to wrestle on an open week end in your states wrestling calendar? Is it a last minute tournament you are putting together on a whim and a prayer? Is your goal to develop a prestigious state or national tournament? Depending on your goals, you will need to do different activities to meet your goals.

I will write about two of my goals, one was to make money and two was to offer a nice environment for both the wrestling fan and the wrestler. I wanted teams and parents to come back to my tournament year in and year out. One of the keys in developing this long term view was that I did not have a huge tournament the first year. I used the first year to get the kinks out of my system. We did have some kinks that first year, but we still managed to get out by 2:00 p.m. We had about 350 kids that first year, and after that we averaged about 500 kids with our max of 673 kids out the door at 4:30. The year we had 673 kids everyone hit their number of wrestlers, normally this does not happen. I will write more about this in next month’s column on marketing.

A few things our club did to make money for the long term was to decide on the awards we would use for all future tournaments. This allows you to roll over awards to the following year and you do not have old medals lying around from previous years. We gave away a t-shirt to the champion after our second year, nothing like advertising for your next tournament. Most who attended had a good experience, so it was well worth the cost (plus the kids loved them). It was just another way we tried to distinguish ourselves from any other tournament. We shopped at food stores that allowed us to return unopened food like boxes of candy bars, nachos, drinks or similar items. This allowed us to keep our concessions open through out the entire day. We always doubled our cost on the item, we did not do this our first year, but learned a very valuable lesson for the years to come. You need to build in a profit margin in your concessions. A final note, we generally manned the gates to charge people through the end of the day. Most people understood we were doing it as a fund raiser, so they did not have a problem with it.

The second goal of making it a nice environment was the planning of what side of the bleachers would be open, arranging the mats and scorer’s tables for optimal viewing, creating seats to eat lunch at, having enough food throughout the day, and basic things that you can come up with that you like when you spend all day at a tournament. I am sure you and your parents can come up with a list of things you liked and disliked about a tournament. Another thing we did that most clubs do not, is we asked for a coach from every team to come in and help bracket. This helps you in two ways, one if you have to ask the coach a question about the wrestler’s skill level, he/she is right there and if there are any questions about why this kid was put here or there, I was able to say, “A coach from your team was invited into the bracketing room for this very reason.” Not too mention, I always needed the help writing up brackets and the coaches had a vested interest in getting the tournament to start and was properly bracketed.

Next month, look for ideas on how to market your tournament. In December we will talk about operating your tournament and in January we will have our top twenty list.

Competitive Confidence - by Steve Knight

As experienced coaches and wrestlers you have to be asking yourselves what improvements will make the biggest improvement for the 2003-2004 season that is fast approaching. All to often all that we consider is technique and conditioning. The purpose of this article is to motivate you to “think” about a third area: competitive confidence.

Let me frame the thinking like this: Picture a scale from one to ten. Now, evaluate yourself (Coaches--one of your wrestlers) in all three categories: technique, conditioning, and competitive confidence. Here are some examples.

Technique: a zero would be a rookie who knows very little or nothing at all; as opposed to a 10 who is a wrestler who is highly proficient in all positions: on his feet, down, scrambling, riding, etc.

Conditioning: a zero would be a wrestler who can’t make it through a tuff practice without hurling, let alone a grueling three period match; as opposed to a 10 who can go all out for as many overtimes as necessary.

Competitive confidence: a zero would be a wrestler who is experienced and conditioned, but has never won a match against a formidable opponent because he can’t manage his doubt and fear; as opposed to a 10 who is a wrestler who loves the sparks; looks doubt square in the face, and regularly defeats opponents who are better wrestlers.

Got the idea?

Now we get to my point. If we’re truthful with ourselves this example is striking. Hypothetically, if you think you’re an 8.5 in technique and an 8.0 in conditioning, what about competitive confidence, maybe a 4.0 or a 5.0? Perhaps less? As you look to the coming season, which do you think is your weakest category? Again, most of the time we ignore competitive confidence. Do you think improving your technique to a 9.0, and conditioning to a 9.0, will make a dramatic difference this season? I don’t think so. That is solid improvement, which is good thing, but its not going to make a dramatic difference at a high level. Are you starting to see the answer?

Yes, conquering doubt and fear; learning the mental skills of a competitor is what will make the biggest difference for the coming season. I’ve watched thousands of athletes, from kids to pros, in a variety of sports who are very skilled at technique and highly conditioned, but don’t know how to compete. So the real question is: Do you want to win or just practice? If you want to win, it’s about your mind, not your body.

The problem is the “how to” information on building competitive confidence is very limited. Next month I’ll start a 7 part series that will briefly (limited space) touch on the key step-by-step processes that build a winning tournament mindset, which dramatically elevates competitive confidence.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that working your butts off on technique and conditioning aren’t critical factors for winning wrestling tournaments, they definitely are. But, if you ignore actively working on your competitive confidence your chances of winning at a high level--becoming a champion--lessons.

Until then, here’s to believing.

Steve Knight is the author of WinningSTATE-Wrestling, a groundbreaking new book that teaches wrestlers how to conquer doubt and fear and effectively manage the craziness of a tournament environment. An engaging speaker, Steve is available for seminars. For more information, contact Steve via email: steve@winningstate.com.

Click Here to Order "WinningSTATE"

Pre-Match Routine by Chris Bono

Any successful athlete/wrestler knows that a specific routine before every event/match is essential. It all starts with the basic warm-up of jogging, stretching, light calisthenics followed by more intense jogging and a few sprints to get your heart rate up. After a brief cooling down period where I change from my running shoes to my wrestling shoes, I start my drilling process. A little side note: this routine is something I do each and every day before practice to get warmed up. Your routine should not vary from day to day; this is why your warm-up before practice should be taken seriously to determine your body’s needs to get loose and ready for a match. My drill routine is simple: drilling my basic techniques, getting my heart rate up, and making my body feel good and ready to compete. After my basic moves on my feet, I will drill in the top and bottom positions to stretch out even more. Then I do another activity to increase my heart rate, either a mini match or sprints.

I make sure to start my warm-up long enough before my match, in order to cool down and relax before it is time to go. It sounds weird, but that is how my body works best. I warm up, cool down and get my mind right, then get loose right before my match and get ready to scrap. The only time my routine will alter is when a warm-up mat is not available or there is no place to run. This does happen, but you must be able to overcome these obstacles and go out and win. For example, when I wrestled in a tournament in Russia, the venue was freezing cold and they did not have a mat to drill on. I decided to stick to my usual routine, knowing my body and that it would respond as it always does, no matter how cold. I soon became loose and comfortable and let my mind forget about the surroundings and focus on the upcoming match.

Even though your warm-up is really about getting your body physically ready, I use my routine/warm-up to get my mind right as well. When my mind is right, I feel I am the best in the world. I make sure to talk to myself in my warm-up, letting myself know that I put the time in, I am ready, and I believe in myself.

In conclusion, a consistent warm-up and pre-match routine should be something you do to get your mind and body ready for every competition. It should be something you feel real comfortable with and something you do every day in practice and in every competition.

Article brought to you by WrestlingGear.Com.

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Ask Coach Eiter??

Here we will feature different coaches responding to your wrestling questions...You can post the questions on or message board and if we pick your question, Rob Eiter, Olympian and current Division I Assitant Coach at Northwestern, will answer your question. Whether you are a coach, wrestler or parent learning to more about a particular topic, Coach Eiter can help you.

Click Here to Visit our Message Board to post a question

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