Off Season Opinion Question

[aoberlin]

44 minutes ago, Mattyb said:

Great points that you bring up. These are perfect examples of issues as we as coaches and / or parents should pay attention to and make adjustments accordingly. I’m thinking communication is the key. I believe that we all do a better job of that. Definitely going to ask my guys to come to me with any of these feelings. Hopefully… if these or similar issues arise, we can adjust before it gets too bad. I really appreciate your insight. 
 

I used to coach a faith based youth football team. One a week we had a 30 min fellowship where we talked about faith and feelings. I know in most schools we would have the leave the faith part out… but… I think a fellowship talk for a team would be an awesome tool to prevent some of the adverse feelings that you have brought up. Make sure that everyone know that they are not the only ones having these negative feelings and help guys work through adversity. 
 

Maybe Andy can do something like this at The Fort. I’m sure the kids would love it. 

Communication is key for sure. Then it is a case by case basis of how the kids are doing. The fellowship part is huge also. Good stuff.

[nkraus]

On 9/17/2021 at 9:26 AM, aoberlin said:

What is everyone's opinion on how much off season it takes to compete in wrestling anymore at the High School level? My belief is that it has changed quite a bit in the last 20 years.

 

Different levels:

Be on the team/Be Varsity - (How many hours a week in the off season, how much time off, any off season competition)

Semi-State Wrestler -  (How many hours a week in the off season, how much time off, any off season competition)

State Placer -  (How many hours a week in the off season, how much time off, any off season competition)

 

For arguments sake lets say they do one week long camp in the summer.

 

We are talking the average wrestler in a program that at least has some wrestlers in his room that can help push them.

 

At our school if we get a good athlete introduced to the sport by 7th grade or sooner I feel there's a good chance that kids goes to semi state or state as long as they wrestle during season.  Most of those kids have at least wrestled in the spring.  

 

The kids we've had that have placed, or maybe not placed, but have been capable and right at that level made it a decision to wrestle during season, spring, summer, and make some fall wrestling workouts around their fall sport.  

 

So, there's no right answer, but to be a placer or champ, you at least need to be wrestling 9 months out of the year is my opinion.  Taking a season off to do a sport is never a bad thing, but I don't think you can completely forget about wrestling during those 3 months.  During those 3 months I think you should still be able to do a light drill to stay current.

[aoberlin]

4 minutes ago, nkraus said:

At our school if we get a good athlete introduced to the sport by 7th grade or sooner I feel there's a good chance that kids goes to semi state or state as long as they wrestle during season.  Most of those kids have at least wrestled in the spring.  

 

The kids we've had that have placed, or maybe not placed, but have been capable and right at that level made it a decision to wrestle during season, spring, summer, and make some fall wrestling workouts around their fall sport.  

 

So, there's no right answer, but to be a placer or champ, you at least need to be wrestling 9 months out of the year is my opinion.  Taking a season off to do a sport is never a bad thing, but I don't think you can completely forget about wrestling during those 3 months.  During those 3 months I think you should still be able to do a light drill to stay current.

This is also my opinion. Except I was thinking 10 months out of the year. Yes wrestlers need to take a break too prevent burn out but in my opinion it needs to be on their own timeline.

[Jcjcjc]

On 9/22/2021 at 7:19 AM, MOTOWNCOACH said:

Burn out being manufactured doesn't seem like the right terminology to me. Bobby Douglas said in an interview that Cael was burnt-out before winning his Olympic gold medal. From the what Cael has done he does not seem like the type to manufacture that type of mindset. Same goes for David Taylor who has mentioned when he was in high school he struggled to find motivation because of how burnt-out he was from the sport. Two of the most well known wrestlers in the sport have experienced the feeling of burn out. I'd like to think they didn't manufacture it but what do I know.  Just my two cents.

I think people who love the sport get burnt out from the sport when others dictate their involvement in it.

 

cael and David are creative in some/many ways and they can’t be as creative in some environments. David has mentioned his high school training being great but not as mentally stimulating due to the repetition. Cael seems to be extremely innovative end you can’t innovate as much as you want when you aren’t in charge of a program. 

 

The tough part of coaching and parenting is that the primary goal is to foster great habits that stay with the child for a lifetime. Everyone often shortcuts this goal by lighting fires under kids that burn brightly but are extinguished as soon as the parent/coach’s bellow stops feeding the flames. 
 

as a coach you have to dictate others involvement in many ways, so there will always be places of push back or burn out or abandonment from athletes who aren’t taking every opportunity to improve. This is natural, but it is the art of coaching a high school closed community team.