A good foundation in skills and techniques is essential for any sport, including wrestling. This foundation must be built by athletes who practice a lot.
This expression may sound familiar to you. “practice makes perfect.”
Vince Lombardi is a legendary football coach. “Practice does not make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect.”
Bobby Robson was a legendary soccer player. “Practice makes permanent.”
Aristotle the philosopher said that “We are what we repeatedly do; excellence then is not an act, but a habit.”
The key to technical ability
The sport of wrestling is a game where superior technique and strength often outweigh superior strength. Although strength and conditioning are essential to any wrestling program, they should not be your primary focus.
It is amazing to see how so many outstanding athletes, including wrestlers, started their training early.
Bonnie Blair, a former speed skating champion, won five Olympic gold medals. Blair started skating at age two. Lincoln McIlravy, a three-time NCAA wrestler champion, began wrestling when he was five years old. Greg Randall is a former state champion who began his wrestling career in second grade. Cary Kolat was seven when she became a NCAA freestyle champion.
The amount of experience an individual accumulates and how often they practice can impact their ability to perform.
But Mark Schultz, the Olympic gold medalist in wrestling, didn’t start to wrestle until he was a high school junior. He became a highly skilled wrestler. Because he had competed in gymnastics, he already had some athleticism. Dave Schultz was his brother and also an Olympic gold-medalist. He helped him practice and motivated. Mark Schultz also practiced in a way that helped him learn faster. Matthew Syed (author) suggested that he used what he had learned. Bounce: Mozart, Federer and Picasso. Beckham. And the Science of SuccessIt is also known as “purposeful practice”. Deep practice is another term.
Deliberate Practice
Matthew Syed describes deliberate practice as synonyms with “purposeful practice”. Syed says, “Purposeful practice is about striving for what is just out of reach and not quite making it; it is about grappling with tasks beyond current limitations and falling short again and again. Excellence is about stepping outside the comfort zone, training with a spirit of endeavour, and accepting the inevitability of trials and tribulations. Progress is built, in effect, upon the foundations of necessary failure. That is the essential paradox of expert performance.”
Study entitled In the development of expert performance, deliberate practice plays a key role, Ericsson et al. In 1993, Ericsson and colleagues found that individuals need to practice their chosen fields for at least 10,000 hours per year in order to be successful. It is high quality practice, with high concentration that isn’t always enjoyable. Deliberate practice is hard work that requires significant effort. It’s not enjoyable.
It involves repeated practice, as well as feedback and reflection. Doing nothing more than repeating an action (e.g. Repeating the same move repeatedly will not help you improve. It might be better to focus on just a section of a skill. You might, for example, slow down and focus on a specific skill. It might be a good idea to pay attention and think about whether it was done correctly. You might also get valuable feedback from your teammates and coach. It may be that your opponents are pushing you too hard. Or, you might find a better way to gain control of your hands if you practice the move slow and carefully.
In some cases, such as when you’re trying to learn a new move or are having difficulties with an existing move, it might be a good idea not to practice deliberate during preseason. It is important to learn moves quickly. It is important to slow down sometimes and focus your efforts on improving performance. Bad technique will not improve your ability to do hundreds of standing-ups. You can learn to improve by studying and receiving feedback.
Some research specifically focused on deliberate wrestling practice. Study entitled Wrestling with nature of expertise: An sport-specific test of Ericsson’s, Krampe’s, and Tesch–Romer’s (1993), theory of deliberate practiseHodges and Starkes (1996) found that experts wrestlers (e.g. International level wrestlers practiced their skills more frequently than those who were not experts (e.g. The university-level wrestlers were also more likely to practice their skills. The international wrestlers were 20 years old and had more practice time with other wrestlers than the non-experts. The international-level wrestlers, e.g. Olympic competitors increased the weekly practice they did each week to advance in their career.
It was also noted that both the enjoyment and improvement of wrestling-related activities were highly rated by both group members. It doesn’t mean that practice has to be boring. The truth is that practicing takes time and can be tiring. However, the improvement you make over time is rewarding and can even be enjoyable. You may stop learning new moves and only keep practicing your favorites. Although I find learning new moves and practicing them can be very enjoyable, you will need to put in the work and discipline necessary to improve your skills. It’s not fun to practice in the traditional sense. It’s easy to get bored of drill moves, but that is not a problem.
Research has found that different levels of wrestlers (e.g. Research has shown that wrestlers of different levels (e.g., Olympic and high school) only spend about a quarter of their practice time sparring. Instruction and drilling are more important than full-contact wrestling at elite levels. Although some practices include more live wrestling depending on the phase, instruction and drilling remain the foundation of any good wrestling practice.
Excellent Repetitions
As we can see, it is not only the amount of practice but also the quality that counts. Brian Copeland is a personal fitness trainer who has discussed the importance and value of performing perfect reps. If you wrestle for long enough, there will be hundreds of thousands of moves and skills that you have learned. Is it perfect repetitions, or are they just doing the same thing? It is not enough to practice a skill repeatedly. Copeland says, “Deep practice literally means developing your technique to an absolutely amazing level and working on every single aspect of it… really owning it.”
It is important to practice well to reach elite ranks. You must be proficient in the correct technique. Incorrect wrestling techniques can only be perfected by repetition.
Granby School of Wrestling’s videos are very entertaining. The Granby School of Wrestling breaks down each move into small steps, and then shows the finished move at maximum speed. As I said, it is important to take your time when learning new moves or skills.
Practice is a key ingredient in the success of elite athletes across a range of sports. Practice is a powerful tool that has been used by many athletes, including Tiger Woods, Wayne Gretzky and David Beckham.
For example, golf legend Jack Nicklaus states, “Nobody – but nobody – has ever become really proficient at golf without practice, without doing a lot of thinking and then hitting a lot of shots. It isn’t so much a lack of talent; it’s a lack of being able to repeat good shots consistently that frustrates most players. And the only answer to that is practice.”
David Beckham, soccer legend states: “My secret is practice.”
The Great Wrestling Drill
John Smith was a four-time World Champion and two-time Olympic winner. Drilling was a part of Smith’s training. Drilling was his mainstay in training. According to him, “I probably hit a million low single legs in my lifetime. I probably drilled a leg lace 40 or 50 times a day. I earned the right to be able to hit sharp techniques. It had nothing to do with talent.”
Former Iowa Hawkeye wrestler Mark Ironside, a two-time champion in the state and two-time NCAA champ, often returned to high school to drill.
John Smith, Ken Chertow and both are supporters of shadow wrestling (i.e. Shadow drilling. Shadow drilling doesn’t require you to have a buddy. It’s easy to practice any moves or skills that you are interested in improving for as long time as it takes.
The best wrestlers know many techniques
As I said, Olympian Mark Schultz did not begin wrestling until high school juniors. What did Mark Schultz do to turbocharge his knowledge? Schultz created what he called “a technique book”.
Schultz states, “Anytime I learned anything, I’d write it down. I made my technique notebook and I divided my techniques by tie up. I’d make a page like front headlock on the top of the page and write down all of the different techniques I could finish with. I’d have all the counters to the front headlock on the back page. I’d have another page and write high crotch and write all of the finishes from there, lift, trip, spin, go behind, run the pipe, switch to another move, backing down to hip, go out the back door, etc.”
Schultz attended camp and gained a lot of knowledge by copying great wrestlers. He was very focused on practice and I believe that this helped him to learn faster.
They have an extensive repertoire of moves and techniques that make them elite wrestlers. The finer details are what make a technique work or fail. They can deal with every situation on the mat. You can listen to your coach and watch videos.
Video Study
It is possible to improve your wrestling skills by viewing both video of technique and match footage.
Ken Chertow was a great wrestler in folkstyle as well as freestyle. “If a move works at the highest levels of competition, it would probably work for you. Take the time to acquire and study footage of our nation’s and world’s best wrestlers. I videotaped the 1984 Olympics on my home VCR and copied and bought tape of world class competition ever since.”
Additionally, he also writes. “I wish I knew the different techniques I know now during my competitive career. I started to realize how valuable of a learning tool video could be early in college.”
Mark Ironside used the videos from his high school matches to analyse them. Ironside had each match taped by his mother so that he could evaluate his technique later.
A story by Steve Hoffman about his experience with the half-nelsons series, a former Wisconsin wrestler standout, is a great read. He got a tape of a fundamental move every wrestler knows. However, he was able learn new techniques and pin numerous opponents from the video.
Lincoln McIlravy, Cary Kolat and Cary Kolat watched instruction videotapes when they were children to improve their wrestling skills.
Practice Mind Skills
Corky Fowler is a star ski instructor and was the one who created the art of aerial acrobatics using skis. Many credit him with mastering an aerial maneuver called the “full-layout forward flip”. Christopher Smith, he and him co-authored “The Full Layout Forward Flip”, a book. Hidden Skier(1977) contains many visualization activities for skiers.
Fowler states, “I’ve been mentally practicing my skiing during the summers for years. On the first day of each ski season, I ski as well as I did on the last day of the past season. Before I began mentally skiing, it would usually take me several days to be able to ski as well as I had the year before.”
Your skill development can be enhanced by mental rehearsal. You can mentally train your wrestling skills even though you don’t have a partner, or if it is difficult to practice with them. It is possible to practice at night in school, or even while sleeping in bed. You can practice any time by visualizing or mentally rehearsal.
How to drill
You can’t do live wrestling with drills. Your partner doesn’t have to be 100% supportive. Your partner should have the ability to master his techniques. You must also resist his attempts to do the same. You should give your drilling partner some resistance. When drilling new moves or techniques, you need to slow down. You can then speed up the process once you become more familiar with it. Your drilling partner can communicate with you and ask him for his opinions on how to execute a technique. Ask him to do certain things to you so that you have a chance to see what he does.
Drilling can be used to improve your skills and conditioning. Hard drilling, a technique Dan Gable introduced to Royce Alger as a way to improve his wrestling skills and make him a two-time NCAA champion in NCAA wrestling, is the reason for his success. Alger states, “I had to lift, penetrate and keep going through the full range of the move while guys were giving me 30 to 40 percent resistance.”Alger says that drilling for conditioning is better than wrestling.
John Smith was also known to incorporate some sort of lifting in his takedown drills, while simultaneously pushing himself hard. High intensity drills are a common method used by world champion Russian wrestlers.
You might want to take your time when you are learning new skills. However, it is a good idea to practice skills that you are familiar with and do high-intensity drilling when needed.
You should consider these resources:
- Bounce Matthew Syed
- Talent is not enoughGeoff Colvin
- The Talent CodeDaniel Coyle
- OutliersMalcolm Gladwell
- Wrestling can be toughMike Chapman
- Granby School of Wrestling Technique Videos
The Key Points
- To be a successful wrestler, you need to have the right technical skills
- Although you may have natural talents, practicing regularly can improve your performance.
- Both quantity and quality are important in practice.
- More important than the number of repetitions total is how many perfect repetitions there are
- The drill is an essential part of great wrestling training.
- Make sure you are familiar with a lot of movements and techniques, as well as how to use them.
- Instructional videos as well as videos from matches are great ways to improve your skills.
- You can improve your mental skills by practicing mentally
- Although drilling may not be the same as hard wrestling, it is an opportunity for you to practice your technique.
- Drilling can help you improve your technique and condition.
Conclusion
Your technical skills will decide your success on the mat. It is important to have strong and healthy muscles in order to be able perform those skills well. Technical prowess, however, is essential. You must train your techniques and practice drills to become the best wrestling champion you can.