The Guru

This is a piece written by Olympic Gold Medalist and former Hawkeye Randy Lewis. Randy has a lot of great articles he has written for inside texas wrestling in the past. Anyway, IMO he is a great read and a sort of fascinating character.

Enjoy!

The House of Seven Gables - by Randy Lewis InsideTexasWrestling.Com

The House of Seven Gables

By Randy Lewis

?2005 InsideTexasWrestling.com, All Rights Reserved

He is, without question, the most famous American wrestler ever. He?s also the most successful college coach in any sport in NCAA history. He won nine straight NCAA Championships and 15 in a 21-year stretch, while serving as a head coach at the University of Iowa. When people find out that I wrestled for, and coached with Dan Gable for 15 years, they always ask the same question. What was Gable like?

That simple question then becomes several more questions. What was it like to wrestle for Gable? What was it like to wrestle with Gable? How tough was he? What were his practices like? I will try and answer these questions with a few short stories involving the man and the legend, along with my perspectives on him. Hopefully I?ll answer the question, what is Gable like?

Gable: The Punisher

It was 1972. I first heard of Dan Gable when I was in 7th grade. People told me that he was the best wrestler in the world. Nobody could beat him. At the time, I was a three-time state AAU age-group champion, and a national AAU age-group champion. My career record at the time was 60-0. I remember thinking, if I was as big as Dan Gable, I could beat him.

Nineteen years later, I would find out I was wrong. In 1991, I was thirty years old and I wrestled at 149.5 pounds, the same weight-class that Gable won the Olympics (without giving up a single point!) in 1972.

I wrestled a dual meet against the 1989 world champion Russian, Boris Budaev. I was pounding him 13-4 and ended up sticking him. One week later, I asked Gable if he wanted to wrestle. At the time Gable weighed about 160 and was 41 years old. I was up to about 163. Gable said yes but wanted to warm up a bit. I just sat there and watched him. Gable went through a 45-minute session of drilling and stretching, moving around, getting ready to tangle with yours truly.

By this time his shirt was drenched. He was ready to go to war. I warmed up in about 30 seconds. I slapped his hand and asked him if he was ready. Gable said, ?go? and I jumped across the mat and threw him with what I would call a Steven Segal-type judo throw and headlock. He went right to his back.

Two seconds later, Gable scored a reversal. For the next forty-five minutes he tortured me. What he likes to do is put you on your back, bar your arm and torture you. Then he will sort of let you off your back, but he will keep the bar arm with just your shoulder down. Sort of like isometrics, only diabolical. Finally, he will let you go and when you get back on your feet, you can barely feel your right arm.

Then, he?ll take you down again and start on your left shoulder. Pain must balance. When you finally get back on your feet both shoulders are numb. Your arms are useless. Death is a fleeting moment away.

After that ?workout? somebody asked me how I did against Gable. I said ?Oh, he beat me about 50-5.? They said ?no way.? I said ?way.? Actually the score was 50-4!

I?ve spoken with hundreds of people who went one-on-one with Gable in the room and they all say the same thing. Unless you have actually wrestled him, you can not understand what it is like. I have wrestled the best in the world �" having competed against 27 world and Olympic medalists and countless others in practice. Nothing is like wrestling Dan Gable.

Gable: The Master Psychologist

My freshman year, I won a close match 13-12 against Bob Logan from Marshalltown, Iowa during our team?s wrestleoffs. One week later, we wrestled in our first competition of the year at a tournament in Minnesota. In the semifinals on the other side of the bracket, a freshman named Ryan Kaufman from the University of Minnesota beat Logan 17-2.

I was to meet Kaufman in the finals. Gable came up to me before the match to get me fired up. I was a little worried that Kaufman had just beaten someone 17-2 that I only beat 13-12. Gable told me that Kaufman had told him earlier that he should have recruited him (Kaufman) instead of me, and that he was going to beat the hell out of me in the finals to prove it.

I started getting psyched up, thinking who does Kaufman think he is, saying that to Gable. Telling my coach that he is going to whip me! I ended up getting ahead 10-1 in the second period, then pinning Kaufman.

It wasn?t until seven years later, in a casual conversation with Gable when Kaufman?s name came up. I asked Gable if he remembered when Kaufman told him that he should have recruited him instead of me. And, that he was going to beat me. Gable thought about it for a second, and then said, ?Oh, Kaufman never said any of that. I just made it up to get you psyched up for that match.?

Gable: The Disciplinarian

Later that season, my freshman year, in a dual meet against Northwestern, I came out and pinned my opponent in about 20 seconds. After the match Gable told me ?Lewis, you didn?t even break a sweat, you need to get a workout in.? I laughed and went over and sat down on the bench to watch the rest of the matches. A few matches later, Gable saw me on the bench and said ?Lewis, what are you doing, I thought I told you to get a workout in.?

I said, ?I thought you were joking.? He wasn?t. I said, ?Gable, pinning people is what I do. If you are going to punish me for pinning someone, you are going to take away my motivation to pin. You don?t want to do that do you?? Gable thought about it, frowned and then said, ?Well, okay, I don?t want to ruin your motivation.?

Believe me. That was the only time I got out of a workout.

Our conditioning was always different, and we never knew how many sprint laps or how many of anything we were going to do. When Gable was the Olympic coach, many wrestlers from around the country came and trained in Iowa. During one of our morning conditioning practices, Gable had us doing sprint laps in our gym with a sprint lap being about 300 yards. We would get a short rest after each sprint lap, and then Gable would line us up again and blow his whistle.

After about the fifth one, former NCAA Champion and world-team member Mike Land asked me how I paced myself during these laps. I said, ?what do you mean?? He said, ?how do you know how fast to run if you don?t know how many laps you are going to run?? I said ?I just run every one as fast as I can. I act like it is the only lap I am going to run.? I had never really thought about it, and it had never even crossed my mind to consider pacing myself.

Gable: The Motivator

Just because Gable believed in winning the right way, by attacking and being aggressive and wrestling hard the whole match didn?t always mean his wrestlers would do that. In 1981, in a dual meet against Michigan State, Tim Riley was winning his match but he was getting tired and was backing up.

The Michigan State wrestler was being more aggressive. Gable didn?t like it. He got right up next to the mat and yelled at the referee that Riley was stalling. He kept putting up his hands like he was warning Riley for stalling. With his own coach calling stalling on him, the referee figured Riley must have been stalling. Gable kept telling the referee to call stalling and the referee kept calling it.

Riley was eventually disqualified for stalling, and Gable applauded the referee when he cautioned Riley out. Riley told Gable afterwards that he thought he was an ***whole, but the next night Riley wrestled like a Hawkeye should and went on to become a three-time All-American.

Gable: The Mentor

In 1983, Riley was struggling, having lost a match by about 14 points to Randy Willingham from Oklahoma State. Ed Banach had lost three times to Mike Mann from Iowa State. Senior Harlan Kistler was also down. Gable decided that these three wrestlers needed something to give them a mental edge.

He decided to put them through some special workouts. For the last month of the season, Gable would pick all three of them up at 4:00 A.M., four times a week to put them through a workout at 4:30 A.M. This was in addition to the regular two or three times a day that the team was already practicing. Gable told them that they were working out at 4:30 in the morning because they would know that nobody else in the country was doing what they were doing to prepare for the nationals.

At the NCAA tournament that year, Ed Banach won his third NCAA title, beating Mike Mann in the finals. Tim Riley defeated Randy Willingham to become an All-American. Harlan Kistler finished the season strong and ended up 3rd in the NCAA?s. All of them won the Big Ten?s that year, as Iowa won the Big Ten championships with nine champions out of ten weight classes.

Years later, I was out of coaching and lived in Phoenix, Arizona. Sometimes when I came home late at night I would call the Steiner brothers, Terry and Troy, and wake them up back in Iowa �" usually around 3:00am. I would then crank out about 100 pushups and I would tell them that a forty-year old just did a 100 and what are they doing right now to get better? They would drop the phone, hit the floor and do 100 pushups each. Only then they would go back to bed. They both won NCAA titles.

Gable: The Beguiler

One thing Gable was great at was varying our workouts. You never knew how long the workout was going to last, or what you would do next. Gable also had a different concept of time than the rest of us. A three-minute period often took ten minutes. It didn?t take long in the room to understand that a ?Gable minute? was not sixty seconds.

In 1984, Gable was named as the Olympic coach for the U.S. Freestyle Team. That year many wrestlers from around the country trained in Iowa.

I remember at the end of one practice when Gable said, ? Let?s go a three minute period.? Fifteen minutes later, we were still wrestling, when someone yelled out ?Gable, this is bull****, that?s more than three minutes.? That someone was not me �" but he was an Olympic Champion. Gable then said ?I just wanted to see how long we would go before somebody snapped.?

Gable: The Icon

When I came to Iowa as a freshman in 1977, I had to ask the other wrestlers what do we call Coach Gable? Do we say Mr. Gable, Coach Gable, Dan, Sir or what? The wrestlers on the team looked at me and said, ?We just call him Gable.? I tell you this because it is significant to understand the relationship that Gable had with his wrestlers. The wrestlers who came to Iowa were among the best in the country. Gable was almost God-like to us, and we were his disciples. We all felt at ease enough to simply call him, Gable.

I do recall one time however when someone called him something else. In 1990, Gable was giving a speech to our team before a pre-season practice. He said this year?s squad could win the NCAA title but we had to do everything just right. In walks two-time NCAA champion Royce Alger, obviously late, and Gable says, ?Alger, stuff like this, you being late, is why you lost to Melvin Douglas and didn?t make the world team.

Alger didn?t break stride as we walked towards us and said, ?what?s that, Larry?? Gable had a confused look on his face for a second and then hit him. He lowered his head, shaking it back and forth covering his eyes as he started laughing. Alger beat both Douglas and Kevin Jackson later that year and made the world team. He went on to win a silver medal.

Gable is sometimes a mystery to some people. I found it easy to get to know him, much harder to fully understand him. It?s funny, but the world is made up of two groups: those who know or think they know Dan Gable. And those who wish they did.

http://www.insidetexaswrestling.com/

Paul Young (IU)

the one from Bloom North?

Blasphemy!

Yeah Kinser has quite a little buzz going around him this year. He is always that wild card that could upset anyone in the weight class, but this year I see his name thrown around a lot. How he performs @ big10's this year will be very telling. Can't wait.

I do to but there are a lot of guys hovering around the middle of the pack that are right at Patacsil's level. Guys like Juaregui, Chinn, Steve Brown and Chamberlain. I was very impressed with Chamberlain.

Reece has some huge wins this year! He looks very very tough. I expect him to High AA this year.

Monster wins over Grey, Hochstrasser, Ness and Crane! Confidence builders for sure.

Reece Humphrey (Ohio State)

Year: Junior (RS)

Weight Class: 133 LBS

Hometown: Indianapolis, Indiana

Accomplishments:

                Big 10: 2008 7th Place, 2007 8th Place

                NCAA:  2008 Qualifier, 2007 Qualifier

2008-09 Results:

1. Reece Humphrey Fall Kevin Green (Niagra CC)  5:50  1-0

2. Reece Humphrey Tech Michael Baxter (Mercyhurst)  25-10  2-0

3. Reece Humphrey Fall Garret Henry (Ohio State)  3:28  3-0

4. Reece Humphrey Dec Kevin Smith (Buffalo)  9-5  4-0

5. Reece Humphrey Fall Matthew Sharp (UNC-Pembroke)  1:50  5-0

6. Reece Humphrey Fall Trevour Smith (Campbell)  4:45  6-0

7. Reece Humphrey Dec Jason DeLuca (North Carolina)  14-7  7-0

8. Reece Humphrey Dec Mike Nash Jr. (UNC-Pembroke)  10-5  8-0

9. Reece Humphrey Dec Will Livingston (Virginia Tech)  9-4  9-0

10. Reece Humphrey Fall Paul Rose (Notre Dame)  3:27  10-0

11. Reece Humphrey Fall Josh Palivoda (Cleveland State)  3:47  11-0

12. Reece Humphrey Maj Rick Deubel (Edinboro)  14-6  12-0

13. Reece Humphrey Dec Dan Mitcheff (Kent State)  5-4  13-0

14. Reece Humphrey Fall Josh Baldridge (Northern Iowa)  6:26  14-0

15. Reece Humphrey Dec Mike Grey (Cornell)  10-3  15-0

16. Reece Humphrey Maj Taylor Crane (Missouri)  19-7  16-0

17. Reece Humphrey Dec Andrew Hochstrasser (Boise State)  6-4  17-0

18. Reece Humphrey Dec Jayson Ness (Minnesota)  5-4  18-0

Floundering as it appears Slaton and LeClere have done this year?

Slaton obviously is struggling to make 133 and it showed when he got destroyed by Fanthorpe, and Dennis is wrestling very focused and performing well. Slaton is 5-1 with a nice win over Connor Beebe. LeClere can't beat Tshirts. He is 8-2 on the year but dropped his last two important matches. Having said that, I would bet Leclere could step in at 141 for Alex and finish middle of the pack at big 10's and win a few matches at NCAA's. These guys are obviously getting better and better under Brands where some guys just never developed under Zalesky.

Oh I do. A lot of guys floundered under Jimmy Z. Tsirtsis is one of them. Morningstar, Perry, Meneely, Bradley, Magnani etc. Tom Brands is on a different level than Zalesky. Helping a kid eliminate his mistakes and develop in his weak points is what coaches at the D1 level do. Not only did Alex stutter on the mat, he lost focus off the mat as well. Since Brands has arrived, Alex has been on track and getting better. M* is a different wrestler as well. Zalesky let the guys do too much nonsense and get away from sound fundamentals. M* is a great example of that. He still has a style that differs from most on the team but he is solid on his positioning and finishes with better intensity.

I really hope they all do well. But I'm not sure any will AA. Hinkle is a good coach but I still think they made a big mistake in not going after Mark Branch.

Man t shirts looked extremely tough at national duals. He looks to have some type of Brands brothers mean streak going on. Too bad he had to suffer under Jim Zalesky for a couple years. Brands has him on full blast.

Reece looks really solid this year. But Baker thrashed him. Only thing that matters is can he put together a good NCAA tournament. I think he is certainly capable.

Support your teammates! Even when they don't walk around talking to people, some just sit on the bench and goof with their buddies. It's not that big of a deal because they are kids. But it sure says a lot about the environment and attitude of the team.

TAKE THAT!

LN

Need to start teaching the fishhook counter:

 

The direct counter to the fish hook is the eye gouge. If that technique isn't there, you hammer fist to the ballzac region. Remember to teach your youngsters, look away from the half-nelson, but in to the fish hook.

 

If you want a really nice place then try out fogo de chao. It is amazing. So much food.

 

http://www.fogodechao.com/dining.htm

 

How much is it gonna set you back?

Two people can't eat at fogo for less than $100.

IMO, the major piece to continually upping the caliber of your state's wrestling is a steady cycle of kids wrestling in college at some level and returning to take over or contribute to high school programs. That's what the best wrestling states have, and what we have been lacking up until recently. We are doing better with coaches education and we are starting to see a lot more kids compete in college. But we can do better. I had the thought of having a recruiting page for graduating seniors. A place where we could do a bio, a GPA breakdown, wrestling career information and highlights, videos (bandwidth I know) professional aspirations/majors  etc for kids wanting to go to college and compete. You could keep it simple and informative or you could make it more like a Flowrestling for individuals instead of teams. Either way, It's a solid idea. You could even charge a small fee if need be for this service to prospective seniors. Of course we would need to come up with a way to get this information out to college coaches. Maybe through mailings, phone calls, advertisements etc. But the bottom line is we need to get as many Indiana kids wrestling in college as possible. I'm willing to help... feel free to contact me if you like the idea.

I guess you could have a "great kid" team or something like that. But it wouldn't be all-state. While we all have learned the life lessons that wrestling has to teach, what you achieve is what you achieve. If you don't finish top eight, you're not all-state obviously. Although you may be a good potential recruit or future coach or referee, you are not all-state. You could have an honor roll team and take suggestions and background info/academic achievements/community service/activities etc. then have a panel pick a top twenty kids in the state for it. Regardless of where they finished in the tournament series.

Nogueira has just taken too much abuse. Normally, he weathers the storm early and then uses his superior conditioning to beat opponents later in the fight. The blows that dropped Nogueira would've been shrugged off in the past. The guy that lost to Mir is a shell of the fighter that dominated Pride before Fedor. Mir wrecked him, but Minotauro looked awful.

 

 

I couldn't agree more. He seems to have fallen fast though. That kick he took square to the face from Herring might have had something to do with it. He eventually shook that off too and came back to win. But he didn't look the same at all after that. He had no bounce in his step and is usually a fair to good boxer. He stood in front of a slow and (surprisingly) fat Mir and blocked punches with his face. Sad.

Hendo get's big knockouts when people chase him and are eager to engage him. Franklin will most likely not pressure him much or at least in an uncontrolled manner. I like Hendo in a G&P decision or late stoppage.

Smokey Bones on Meridian has awesome BBQ

Shapiro's Deli - awesome - south meridian

Buca di Beppo on Illinois street - family style italian - take a group

Adobo grill on washington - love it

Iarias - on college ave

There are all kind of good steakhouses downtown too:

Mortons - washington st

St Elmo - Illinois st

Shulas - on capitol

Ruths chris - illinois st

The IHSWCA Board is back up.  This is not an advertisement.  I hope that if you are happy here and never want to even look at the iHSWCA Board that you do so.   

 

I am hoping that the IHSWCA Board will begin to  serve the purpose it was originally intended to serve which was to be a place for High School Coaches to get information, and the IHSWCA to get information out to it's membership.  The Board was never really meant to be a "smack board", or a place for all of the things it ended up being.  It simply morphed into what it was because there was nothing else.  I think we did a good job with it.  I think we would still be doing that job if we would not have been repeatedly hacked, but as I told someone after the first time we were hacked, I feel it might be a blessing in disguise because now we can get our Board back to what it was originally meant for.  Around thirteen years ago I told JD that I thought we needed a website.  He told me to go for it.  I did not know anything about it (and still do not know as much as many of you), but I started working and we had, what I think, was the first real website for an Indiana High School sport.  Some of you want to crack jokes about, and make fun of, the old discussion board.  That is fine, but I am not sure why you feel that you need to do this.  You may feel that you need to belittle anything going on at the other board once it gets back on track.  Again, it is certainly your right to do so, but I am not sure why you need to.   

 

I like some of the things that Indianmat is doing and hope they continue.  I do not plan to be anything but supportive.  I would be supportive if fifty different informational websites about wreslting popped up around Indiana because it would mean there is interest in a sport I love.  A number of people have complained about the IHSWCA, and I do not have time to address all of those issues at present, but would be glad to at some point, but I can tell you this...without an organization like the IHSWCA (as well as the ISWA) Indiana Wrestling would be nowhere near where it is.  One case in point is the Sectional tournament.  If not for some of the people, that a few of you have belittled, standing up to the IHSAA we would have a Sectional tournament that is one and done.  I have been involved with the IHSWCA for around 30 years, and I was at one of the first meetings ever of the ISWA.  Both of those organizations have come a long way.  I remember when JD Minch took over as Treasurer the outgoing Treasurer gave him a popcorn bag with around fifty bucks in it.  That was the treasury and that was the way the books were kept.  At that time the IHSWCA did nothing, and now it does several things to build wrestling in Indiana although it is not enough for some of you.   Guys like Tom Cameron, JD Minch, John Cook, Tom Miller, and Ed Fox have been great leaders for our organization.  Can our organization get better....I believe it can.  We have some good people running for office this year, and I think any of them can take our organization higher.  People say that they are not involved because no one has asked them.  I guess I would say if it is important enough for you to be involved then no one should have to ask you.  We are wrestlers and I do not think a wrestler has to wait to be asked...I think a wrestler would attack.

 

Thanks, Rex

 

The IHSWCA has proven itself invaluable in maintaining and expanding the best interests of our sport in general, and our athletes in particular. In my opinion, the organization doesn't begin to garner the type of respect it should from a blatantly arrogant and intentionally repressive athletic association. I hate to think of where Indiana wrestling would stand without the concerted efforts we have been able to represent to the IHSAA on behalf of the kids, the fans, the parents and coaches alike. Even the casual wrestling fan owes the men behind the organization a great deal in terms of the product we now see. While at times it seems we can be completely flattened by ignorant bureaucrats, one can imagine where we would be without the efforts of the IHSWCA, and that vision is not a pretty one. The only reason we have an inkling of control over the destiny of Indiana wrestling is through those ongoing efforts. Having said that...

I think Indianamat.com is EXACTLY what Indiana wrestling needs right now. As a wrestling junkie, I am very excited about the possibilities of this website. And I think the format right now is professional and informative. Both the Indianamat and the IHSWCA can be extremely influential in our sport today, and both could be served by working together to a certain degree. If the IHSWCA board is for coaches information, announcements and policy issues, why not serve the IHSWCA with an area or hyperlink to important information or causes that need the backing of our wrestling community? And this type of partnership can and should be reciprocal. Perhaps a small advertisement on the IHSWCA website? Who knows? We are all part of the wrestling community. Our goals and information/content needs may differ, but if it is the goal of Indianamat and the IHSWCA to serve the wrestling community, working together in some sense makes the most sense.

There...

The Guru has spoken. Feel free to make the necessary changes now.  8)

What he really loves is hanging Tom Brady posters over his bed.

You know, for fun we should all spend some time voting for gymnastics as well and get it to the point where it's beating basketball as well. ;D ;D ;D

HAHA!

You can watch the archived video of the NWCA convention clinics on LiveSportsVideo.com for free. You will need to create a free account to watch the archived material.

http://www.livesportsvideo.com

http://www.livesportsvideo.com/sportselector.asp?sport=Wrestling&subcat1=NWCA&subcat2=NWCA%20Convention%20Clinics

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ur8AwQHusZw