PreparetoWin Posted February 15, 2010 Share Posted February 15, 2010 How much is too much during the off season? Is there to much? What kind of mat time is needed to take a semi state caliber wrestler to a state caliber wrestler? any thoughts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattM Posted February 15, 2010 Share Posted February 15, 2010 I don?t have all the answers and I?m sure their as some very experienced coaches on this site that can tell you more than me, however, this is what I have discovered. Obviously the goal is to improve on skills and not get burned out in the process. Many people feel they have to attend every single type of practice, camp, and competition and that frankly is not true for everyone. Yes you do need to keep up on things but its more about smart choices over doing everything. For example some very talented individuals go most of the off season without attending too many competitions. Instead they find the best places to practice in order to improve their skills and pick the competition they feel will test their abilities. Here are five things I feel are important in the off season to focus on doing. #1 Focusing on improving your technique not just being on the mat. Sure you can show up and just have fun going live against the same guy you practice with during the season but, but what are you actually achieving. Spend some time actually trying to improve the details of your moves. This is one reason many top wrestlers seek out clubs or academies because those are places they can get more individual attention and also learn the ins and outs of specific techniques. #2 Seek out different and better competition than you see during the off season even if its mostly practice over actual matches. If you don't test your abilities against better wrestlers you are not going to get any better. Sometimes wrestling the same guys in practice or during the season gets you in a bad pattern. Use the off season to open up your moves and also test yourself against better competition. Even if you get beat at least your learning something more than if you just wrestle your same practice partner during an open mat all off season. This is again why some of the top guys seek out certain clubs and academies because they get to face some top talents from their part of the state in a live situation. #3 Get a few team mates involved in the process. This does two things. Holds each of you accountable for keeping up with an off season program. This does not mean take them as a practice partner (see #2). Secondly it ensures you have some teammate you can trust to keep working hard during the season. It would also give you a good practice partner for the in season if others in the room have not work to that level. #4 Make sure your still having fun in the process. Most wrestlers (except the insane few) can not handle keeping up with in season style workout over the entire off season. Pushing yourself to do everything all the time is a sure way for most guys to get burned out and that leads to you disliking going each time which is what you do not what to happen if you want to use the time to improve. Keep learning and working hard but make sure you are enjoying things or in the end the negative effects of burnout may be worse than the positive effects of improving. #5 At some point in the summer it may help to work in some more strength training routines. You can?t expect to get much out of strength training if you just do it right before the season starts and let?s face it you?re not getting much strength training to amount to much during the season. So the best chance to work on strength is probably during the summer which will give you a good break from wrestling. If possible keep the team mates involved to everyone?s accountable for showing and it helps to keep things going. When you lift make sure your actually lifting correctly and to get stronger not just going through the routine and wasting time. Look into lifts that help with wrestling. Try alternative ways of working out to break of the monotony of just lifting plates. Keep up with the routine over time because if you don?t you will lose everything quickly and wasted all that time that could have been used for something else. Also keep in mind the best way to improve wrestling is to actually wrestle so lifting by itself is not going to make you a better wrestler it will just give to a slight edge over another wrestler that has similar abilities to you. As you get into the fall make sure you work in some cardio and flexibility routines. That way, when the season starts you can hit the ground running instead of having to spend several weeks getting back into the grove. Now saying it, planning it and starting it are the easy parts. Getting enough wrestlers to buy into that type of plan by looking at what it could mean for the future and having the desire to keep working on it is the hard part. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CHS Fan Posted February 16, 2010 Share Posted February 16, 2010 Last year, my grandson lifted weights, and participated in as many tournaments as he could, he went to mishawakas as well as clays wrestling room. He was a regional qaulifier as a freshman and now he's a state qaulifier as a sophmore. All i can tell u is lift weights, run, and get around to as many tournaments as you can, 20-25 matches could be a season, so say for instance your a freshman and u get 20 matches in the regular season on varsity, during off season u get twenty more matches ( so this acts as your sophmore season ) then your sophmore year comes around and your wrestling like a junior, mat time and technique drills helped him out alot this year! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PreparetoWin Posted February 16, 2010 Author Share Posted February 16, 2010 Good info...Thanks for the input...I am sure there are other coaches who have a idea of what they would like to see their wrestlers do during off season...Does anyone require an off season regiment? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MARC16IANO Posted February 16, 2010 Share Posted February 16, 2010 my coaches want me to lift weights and my dad wants me to go to more camps so im going to do both a see what happens for next year Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevinl Posted February 16, 2010 Share Posted February 16, 2010 My son did not start wrestling beyond small camps until the 8th grade. We knew we had a lot of ground tomake up so we hit a lot of tournaments the first two years then backed off to the better turnaments. Over his four year HS career he has had 168 varsity matches. Over the same four years he has had 190 matches in the off season. Mat time is great. Mat time against quality opponents is priceless. But listen to your son. He will tell you when it is time to back off. My son had less than 20 matches between State 2009 and the start of thise season. It was time to back off and now he is ready. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regionrat1 Posted February 16, 2010 Share Posted February 16, 2010 1) Dedicate yourself to 2 days a week of wrestling. I like the RTC since you can meet up with different kids and coaches. Concentrate on perfecting your technique / drill, drill, drill/ try judo or BJJ - breaks da montonomy 2) Don't worry about your weight/ eat healthy - hey your a kid you don't want to be a midget the rest of your life !! 3) Hit Da Gym 3x per week minimum. Set goals - every workout needs to have a meaning- seek out a expert to help you- concentrate on explosive movements - core work - remember weights before dates ! 4) Be a kid/ have fun too / your only a kid 1 time / life is about balance / also be a good citizen hang out wit da right kids/ you might be surprised some young wrasler might look up to you so be a good role model. Be good to your parents and siblings since your were probably grouchy from dieting. 5) Hit da books / no college coach is going to invest any $ money in you if you spell like da rat !! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hammer Posted February 16, 2010 Share Posted February 16, 2010 My son did not start wrestling beyond small camps until the 8th grade. We knew we had a lot of ground tomake up so we hit a lot of tournaments the first two years then backed off to the better turnaments. Over his four year HS career he has had 168 varsity matches. Over the same four years he has had 190 matches in the off season. Mat time is great. Mat time against quality opponents is priceless. But listen to your son. He will tell you when it is time to back off. My son had less than 20 matches between State 2009 and the start of thise season. It was time to back off and now he is ready. Good advice, Kevin! You have to find the proper balance between getting enough wrestling in, without getting too much wrestling in. Many wrestlers will burn out if you push them too much, year round, for too many years. Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wrestlinghog Posted February 16, 2010 Share Posted February 16, 2010 Chris Hogendobler didn't wrestle until last year, he did alright in his 1st year, but got sick the day of the NLC conference. The coach put in the JV wrestler that Chris beat out, Drew Lopez and let Drew wrestle for state, he made it to Semis. Chris wrestled all the USA Tournaments he could, went to open mats at Mishawaka, Penn, and Memorial, went to a couple camps( Michigan Extreme, Culver Military, and American Elite), went to Border War Tournaments, and Border War Nationals, and he worked out hard on strength and conditioning. Then this year he made it to the second round of the Semi-State, was winning 12-7 and got pinned. He finished with a 21-6 record, losses to Corp twice, LaRowe twice, Pickard, and Weber. This year he will do alot of the same, go to alot of open mats, join Penn Wrestling Club, hit alot of tournaments, and work out hard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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