Shootfirst

Blackman High School in TN is in desperate need of a head coach. Blackman is a top ten program in TN. Blackman has current 189 Soph NHSCA champion returning with 10 state qualifiers. The problem has been finding someone that can fill advanced English teacher slot . All PE slots currently taken by football and baseball coachs. If interested contact Ken ( Hamm) Hammonds at yaboyhamm@yahoo.com . Hamm currently is the Matman TN state individual ranker for DIV 1 and Asst coach at Blackman and Middle Tennessee State University.

Deadlift you should look into attending the Grizzly Ironman next year. A group from Tenn attended this year and enjoyed it . Compatition is going to be alot tougher than your use to in Tenn.

Rumour in TN is that Chris Bono (UT-Chattanooga) is the lead candidate for the ISU head coach position.

One of the problems no one has hit on is the combination of kids cutting weight and taking creatin. When taking creatin to get stronger kids don't realize that they have to increase their intake of water. Serious damage can be done to their kidneys when this happens.Kids take supplaments today without proper instruction or supervision. Problems come, not from hard work and sweat but from weight loss supplaments , poor diet, lack of fluids. A teammate of my sons couldn't stay out of the restroom at a resent tourny . when we asked him why he said he had taken a laxative to make weight. Needless to say he lost twice to kids he had previously beaten. We have to remember these are kids that often think they know what they are doing but have no idea or concern of the consequences.

The easiest way around weight management plan is cut the weight BEFORE you certify.We had kids in Tennessee miss a portion of the season just to get to where they wanted to be for state before they would certify.

Graduated in 83 .What about you insanoflex?

Yes I'm a former resident of Laporte and Michigan City and still have family that live in both. I graduated from LPHS a long time ago. We will be with the group from Lion's Pride Grappling from Tenn. There was a possabilty we were going to return to the area .

I would agree with Karl Hungus in that improving neutral wrestling will improve your overall wrestling. My son attended a camp by Pat Smith(formerly of Oklahoma State) in which he said the most important thing in wrestling is to be good at the Neutral position. The order that wrestling should be drilled and practiced is that neutral should get the most time followed by coming off the bottom with the least important of the three being the top position.

Anyone coming from the Laporte - Mich. City area?

This will be our first venture into Indiana from Tennessee to wrestle what should we expect? Will probably have a group of about 20. Interested in who to watch at 135 or 140 in high school div.How many mats will be going and about how many kids per weight class?

I saw Tenn was listed as having two classes but it is much closer to only 1 class . Div 1 is public schools and private schools that offer no tuition assistance. Div 2 is Private that offer tuition assistance and has only about 12 teams . Div 2 does have some very good wrestlers but is dominated by several teams. How would changing IN to a public vs private be? Would it be similar to TN with 1 large group and one small group dominated by just a few? We do have a Large and small div when it comes to state team duals based on attendance.Doing team and individual differently, class wise, seems to be the best choice.

Early on in my sons wrestling training we noticed by watching film of his matchs that he won every match that he took the first shot in.It wasn't because he had a good shot it was because he was very good at reversals and dominated if on top so the sooner we got out of the neutral position the better off he was.Guys that would take him down and then cut him usually won.Now it's just the opposite his shot defense is to the point he scores more on his opponents shots than on his.But before every match my last two words to him are still shoot first.

Tennessee also holds Team State Dual Championships before Individuals.Wrestlers on teams that don't qualify for Team Dual Championships are more likely to stay ready for Individual state tourny, than kids that are dropping off because their team won't make it to state.Having the dual championships before indivduals isn't perfect either,there is a chance at being injured at duals and not making it to state for that shot at a state title. There are always mysterious injuries that keep ranked kids from wrestling each other in the state duals to save there rankings or seed for individual state brackets.Not to be harsh but todays kids don't have the team first attitude and focas more on individual titles.If a kids chance at individual state is over your probably not getting their best efforts for team state duals.Before you jump on me about my last statement let me say not all kids are that way, most(especially good wrestlers) give their best all the time.

Some of the boys from our school that haven't won state championships are getting looked at by D1 schools.They both are nationally ranked in their Grad class at their weight and perform well at National tournys.They also attend many offseason camps at schools they are interested in and have gotten to know coachs. Showing ability and a strong work ethic along with good attitude at a camp goes alot farther than just filling out a form and sending in a tape.Lastly grades are important,coachs don't waste scholarships on kids that can't cut in the classroom.

Tennessee what are your oppinions on the level of wrestling between IN and Tn high schools. I know that recently one of the top programs here (Father Ryan HS) wrestled Mater Dei and it was pretty close if I remember correctly.Do you still have any affiliation with any of the schools here in TN. Brookfield from Wisc. came down to TN this year and only finished 5th or 6th out of about 24 teams in the tourny the attended.Union Co. from KY attended the same tourny and finished 1st.