I've been thinking a lot lately (I know, quit bragging!) and I guess I am ready to share a few thoughts with you!

First, I need to qualify my feelings! These are not just a "knee-jerk" reactions toward the lack of AA at this years NHSCA Senior Nationals. They are reflections on the whole of Kansas wrestling.

I feel we (Kansas Wrestling) do a pretty good job turning out elite wrestlers. Generally we produce wrestlers who place well in Fargo and those who go on to wrestle D1 or D2. Year in and year out Kansas is producing wrestlers that excel!

However, where I really think we (Kansas wrestling) need to do a better job at is; improving the skills of our average wrestlers. A few teams, STA-'07, Scott City-'04, have won State titles without crowning a Champion. These two were great examples of what I am talking about!

I believe this signifies a great team! These teams and their wrestlers are developed. They come from a good solid program. The parallel that I'm most reminded of ... is a good baseball farm system.

Our "farm-systems" are our kids clubs! I can think of very few solid high school programs that have done so, without that feeder program.

I’ve sat at the Kids State Tourney and seen 1,000’s of matches. I think, for the most part, that our kids clubs are doing an okay job. However, in my opinion, I have seen far too many kids that lack basic fundamentals and skills. Wrestlers too often shoot without a setup or shoot without moving their opponent. They shoot at a far leg with no chance of reaching it; they don’t control their positioning or exploit their opponents.

I feel it is the job or duty of our kids’ club coaches; to develop skills in their athletes. If they are our “farm-system” managers then development should be job 1. Skills are developed by perfect and proper drilling! I have seen far too many wrestlers, with 5 or 6 years of wrestling that lack basic skills.

Now, when kids filter through the conduit from feeder program to high school program, it doesn’t mean that their development is over. High school coaches should take them to that next level. Breaking bad habits that a wrestler has been taught or allowed to get away with should not be part of duties but it is.

Too often, HS coaches, have to re-teach basic skills or undo years of bad habits. This is where I think the problem lies!

The HS coach may not take the time to re-teach and undo; it is a frustrating activity that too often the HS coach will tire of. Instead the coach will put his efforts into his athletes that already have basic skills. (in fact, I might prefer a freshman or sophomore that has never wrestled be in my program rather than a 5-year kids club wrestler that has bad habits)

This creates problems that I have identified. HS coaches do a good job with their skilled athletes. Many HS coaches do a good job teaching skills to our “new” athletes. However, it is that experienced wrestler without skills or with bad habits that we need to do a better job with.

Perhaps we need to divide our group, for part of practice, by skill level. JV tournaments are a great tool. Personally, I am going to use them a lot more next year.

The solution … is for the high school coach to be an integral part of the feeder program. (approach this delicately in programs where this cooperation is not already in place) Wrestlers need to develop and being part of a system, will allow this to happen!

I hope I am expressing my feelings adequately! I guess I will stop now and wait for some reaction!

I agree with you 110%!

... continuing, we need to increase our core strength! We have a pretty impressive upper body but our mid-section is lacking.

If we improve our "core" we in turn, add strength to the rest of our body. If our average wrestlers start pushing our upper end wrestlers we will improve!

Dearest Randy,

Knowing that you are one of souond mind and body, I have to also agree with you. Being both a Middle and High school head coach allows me to break some of those kids wrestlers with bad habits. Perhaps the worst in my opinion is finishing a double leg from the knees!

I feel that not only being banned from coaching Federation wrestling, but not being able to coach freestyle/greco till the end of May, hampers us tremendously. Although I do not need another practice to run(my wife and kids would never see me), I feel that we are lagging behind those states that do finish high at nationals. Kids in Missouri, N.J., N.Y., and some western states have an advantage with their farm style kids programs and young men/women who "want" to wrestle all the time.

But with true grit and determination we still finish in the top half of the 50 states continously and that says something about Kansas. Up here in the "great white north" that is Sabetha, most of my wrestlers are throwing hay, working in landscaping, or being a lifeguard. While the lifeguard may not figure as a "hard" summer job, swimming is great for core strength. The rest of them are moving large objects with the entire body or core and this is a great help. And being in good with your weights coach is a must.

As far as JV or less than developed wrestlers one needs an experienced and qualified assisstant coach. I am lucky to have Aaron Georg as mine and he does a great job with those developing young men. I made sure, when we were both new, that he was on board with the program I wanted to run an I requested his input. Too many times the assisstant coach is left in the wings, I try to ask Aaron for his advice daily. When I started wrestling at Pratt my sophmore year a young assisstnat coach named Kipp Chambers took me under his wing, he started me out and nurtured me as an athlete. I am in debt to him and Coach Bryan Pixler forever, they showed me the light that led me away from the "pumpkin poundin".

Once again Randy you bring up a great point and it is nice to see someone besides me and Chenoweth are still thinking about wrestling. I will be in KC for ten days this summer and I'll give ya a call.

By the way-no cheese for the whine anymore-turns out I have a 1 inch tear in my quad above my knee-not a blown out knee. While it will take longer to heal, 2-3 months, I will not need surgery. As Medreno would say "ki,ki,ki,ki" it made my day.

Coach Brown

Jason ... glad to hear the injury will heal on its own!

Randy good post but you forgot a couple of things… Manhattan won a title with no champs in 2004! OK I just had to pull a Richard.

The other thing is you have to deal with the fact that some of these clubs have straight up volunteers that may have never wrestled in their lives and are expected to teach fundamentals! If the coaching staff doesn’t know a low level from a high crotch then nothing will ever get better. I’m not being critical of these people for the fact they just need help and guidance. I have seen it many times that you have enthusiastic dads with unreal expectations because they have never been instructed on how to teach proper technique! They don’t know it and wouldn’t even know where to start unless they are as fortante as the some clubs that you have mentioned.

First thing is that HS coaches need to embrace their youth clubs, this is their future! They should be the ones that develop a plan and vision for youth clubs to follow nurture a relationship with these people.

Secondly the state body needs to a better job of educating coaches on fundamentals, we spend a lot of time preparing them for the political side of the business… No offense Randy. But nothing to educate them on the proper technique. How many 6 year olds have you seen that have a killer head lock or a double chicken wing? How many times does this work at the HS level or higher? You need to teach a half a dozen things and do them inside, outside and in your sleep. But the simple things are your money game if they are done correctly! They may not be real flashy but this stuff works, ask any college wrestler! You can drive a Cadillac but the VW will still get you to dance!

I would recommend that the State Body should sponsor Technique clinics around the state prior to the start of the season just like Randy does his game! Get Welton, Woodford, Kirk Baker, Akin, Roberson, Johnson, Ludke. Pay these guys to do a road show and instruct these new coaches on what works and what doesn’t! Get everyone on the same page with the basics. The KWCA does this kind of thing with their event… I think it should be done at the Kid’s level too.

Red ... absolutely no offense taken!

One of the reasons for revealing my thoughts was to spawn this type of discussion. As a coaches education director that has certified tons of "Dad - Coaches" this is a genuine concern for me. We are producing far too many kids without basic skills or that have developed bad habits!

Now to bring the discussion back toward the topic a bit ... it is the High School coaches job to help reverse this trend. It is necessary for the success of wrestling in our state. I really am beginning to understand how frustrating it can be, yet we have to do it!

HS coaches, if they have a feeder program, have got to be involved at the developmental level. We have to encourage our HS wrestlers to help with kids practice. We have to have an open pipeline and channels of communication. We have to establish a skill set and terminology that they will use for years.

I believe Abilene in 1998 had no Champs either and won it if I'm not mistaken...that was a pretty good team that year too.

Pulling a Richard?! Is that allowed in public?!

Seriously though, I think too often in smaller programs most of the "non elite" guys are falling to the backdrop of the overall picture. You lose a starter to a knee tweak or something and then have a backup you never suspected to crack the lineup and you are frantically running around pushing him to the brink that the sport is not fun anymore. I wouldn't mind seeing Novice wrestling camps in Kansas for low prices for those breaking into the sport (especially those from 6th grade on that are a few years behind the die hard kid's level wrestlers.

Speaking of the State team from MHS in 2004, I want to get my ring Red...any idea how I can get my ring for being a coach on that team?
Just wondering, never thought about it till Kale Mann called me an idiot for not getting one on the plane ride home from VIrginia. Let me know who to contact, I assume either Woody or Tony but I am unsure.

Thanks
Jason

From this official's perspective:

I've been around wrestling for 30 years now: wrestled through Federation (Dennis Bowersok in Lyons), HS (Murray Anderson at Colby) and coached at the asst. and head level at MS & HS, now completed my 11th year officiating and the biggest thing I see as a ref is the low percentage of pins with the basic 1/2 nelson. More and more kids see the good wrestlers using advanced moves and they try to run a marthon before they can crawl!

Someone, somewhere needs to stress the fundamentals and make the kids learn them. Even basic moves are carried out wrong: sitting on your butt with a headlock, knees on the mat or not "T"ed out with a half, trying to "finish" a single or a double from your knee(s), etc.

Those programs that are successful either have fundamentally sound feeder programs (federation or MS) and/or have those coaches that stress the basics! I agree with red when he said "You can drive a Cadillac but the VW will still get you to dance!" I've sat there many a times watching a match thinking, "You're wasting time and energy trying to run this or that and the half's just screaming to be thrown!!!" or "There's the armbar/wing, Ride the ankle, You have to break them down before throwing that" etc.

Our kids need to learn how to crawl, then walk and if they start winning championships, jog. But too many of them are worried about being flashy when the "good ol'" will get the job done.

I agree that the club teams need to work very closely with the high school coaches. I am not a high school coach but I think it would be very frustrating given the rules imposed on them that do not allow them to work with their high school kids after the season is over. With that said, the following is an idea of how we try to work with the high school coaches in the Leavenworth area....

As the head coach for the club, my coaching staff and I make a coaches book for the year. We identify the technique we want to focus on and break it out by age/experience level. We then develop the type of practices we want to conduct and then create a detailed daily practice schedule that helps keep us focused during the season.

The first step in this is that we go and talk with the high school coaches and get their input on the kind of technique they want the kids to learn. We tell them what we are seeing in the kids club and they tell us what they are seeing at the high school level.

Once we get that we develop the plan. Once we get the book done we give it to the high school coaches and ask them to review it and provide feedback. We will then incorporate their input into our practice plans.

This system definately is not perfect but it seems to at least allow us to teach the basics of what the high school coaches want and to keep them in the loop without getting anyone in trouble.

Coach Schmidt and Coach Averill are very good at providing their input and support to our club. We greatly appreciate their efforts and help.

Shawn Budke
Leavenworth County Spartans

Removing the bad habits is vital. Many really good wrestlers are getting away with sloppy execution because they are facing competition that isn't that tough. When they start having tough matches every time they step on the mat(college) it is so frustrating when their "bread and butter" moves aren't going anywhere. Take my word for it.

Footwork, hand control, and head position are the small basics that really should be stressed.
Jumping rope is a very important basic workout that has recently helped me control my steps so I don't get off balance when I'm trying to create an angle, and I have more control of my penetration step, especially when shooting through the man (which most high schoolers aren't doing!)
Those are my thoughts from personal experience. I think the main goal should be making the transition from high school to college as smooth as possible, and remove the necessity to go backwards for some kids in order to breadk those bad habits.

... and in 80% of your matches, you can be competitive with any old technique you choose to use. Kids make up for a lack of technique by being athletic or being a brawler!

I'm reminded by the saying, hard work can beat technique if technique doesn't work hard!

However, a kids goal is seldom to be an average wrestler. If you want to beat the top 20% you have to rely of technique. Now if you've grappled for 10 years without ever learning how to wrestle, you will be behind the 8-ball.

Amen Brother! one other thing... physicality with a capital PH! And this is from a guy that was decient kids wrestler, and excelent High schooler and will make a great college type. Why? because he has listened to his "knowlagble" coaches over the years! he has made full circle! back to the basics!

Lets create a list of what we think are the fundamentals that ever youth wrestler MUST know and understand. Its easy to say youth coaches are not preparing their wrestlers for the next level but like list out some solutions. I like how Andy listed out 3 things he thinks are important... lets hear from some others.

I myself try to focus on positioning. I don't teach my youth wrestlers quick fix moves not to say moves like the twister are not good moves to use but in my opinion that is more of a quick fix for most younger wrestlers. I tend to spend more time on foot work them maybe i should however I think the ability to move your opponent into a position where u can attack and creating angles is something that is seldom seen in youth wrestling.

It may not be perfect but it has got to be pretty close to it. That is a very impressive game plan.

Another reason why I believe Andy Hurla will be a very good college wrestler is that he loves wrestling and has a burning desire to succeed in wrestling. He never gives up and works hard every year to improve. Andy reminds me of the stories I have read about this year's Master golf champion from Cedar Rapids Iowa. He did not even make the starting golf team his freshman year at Drake. As I recall it said that he stayed with it until he was the fifth player as a senior at Drake. From this humble golf beginning he decides to launch a pro golf career. He starts out on several of the mini pro golf tours for several years and keeps plugging away at it. He only made about $7,000 in his first year on one of these mini tours but he said he kept getting a little better each year. He worked his way up to the Nike tour when he was about 29 years old and set a record for earnings of about $500,000. The next year he made the PGA tour won one tournament and over a million dollars in earnings. This year he wins the Masters. It is incredible story of humble beginnings in a sport but working hard and never giving up on the sport that he loved. I see Andy Hurla as that type of wrestler at all levels (kids, high school and now college). I know he has been an inspiration to a lot of young men in that Aquinas wrestling room.

As a kid's club coach this is a very frustrating topic. Our high school coach said from the beginning that he wanted to do away with our kid's club. That has made cooperation very difficult. In response, our club asked our HS coach to be on our board of directors to provide us with guidance. He came to meetings the first year and then was a no show. I went to his summer camps when he used to put them on. I took notes and used those notes to change the technique we taught in our club. He has not had a summer camp in years. Each year I ask our HS coach for advice on technique. I don't get any feedback. This year I took the time to write down all of the technique/moves that are taught in our club with a brief description and teaching points by each move/technique. I gave one to each of my assistant coaches and the HS coach. I asked the HS coach to make comments and/or suggestions. I got ZERO back. I have tried to get high schoolers to help with the kids club but cannot get any volunteers. I asked the HS coach to make a video of what he wanted taught at the kid's level. I wanted to use the video to teach our volunteer kid's coaches some technique. Out of the 6 or so assistant coaches I have had in the past 10 years only 2 have had wrestling experience. When you are trying to teach young kids to wrestle, safety dictates that you have an adult closely supervising each group. I rarely have an experienced adult available. I spend my time moving from group to group correcting the coaches as often as the kids. Shock and disbelief is the only way I can describe how I felt when our HS team fielded only 4 wrestlers at our league meet this year. I agree whole heartedly that high school programs and kid's clubs must work together, but cooperation is a two way street. I don't know what else to do. I feel like I'm banging my head up against a wall. The kid's club has a life of it's own and is here to stay with or without me or the high school coach. The only practical solution is to work to improve the club and hence improve our high school program.

Mr. Nowak,

Thank you.

TRAVIUS,

Great idea on listing some of the basics. I absolutely agree with Andy Hurla's 3. I submit the following as ideas and would appreciate thoughts/feedback....

Feet Defense:
1. Good Sprawl, control the head, cross face (I see too many younger kids immediately reaching over and going for ankles and funk type moves. These moves work but I see too many young kids that do this instead of the good solid basics)

Bottom:
1. Good stand up, short sit, switch. IMO if young kids can get good at these then everything else will follow.

Top:
1. Basic pinning combinations (half, wrist control, arm bars).

Just my two cents.

Shawn Budke

FWC-there is no wonder you HS teams stink, from the way you paint the picture. You need to go to the Athletic director for the district, find a board member that will listen or go to the superintendent. Anything to shake this guy up or get him removed as HS coach. Or you can move, but it doesn't sound like it's going to be any different as long as your current HS coach is at the helm.

24/7