Gilmore's Take: Cuyahoga Falls

Great win last night!  Overall as a complete team this was the best dual meet that we have wrestled all year. We did a great job of losing small and winning big.  It was great to see that some of last nights biggest heroes were some of the guys who have not had the success and glory throughout the whole season.  That shows me we are growing as a team and as individuals.  Even though not everything went as planned, we did what we had to do to win.  We have corrected a lot of small mistakes that we have been making and our progress showed in each match last night.  We are now entering the part of the season where we have to start peaking.  It is now tournament time, starting next week with the NOC and then moving on to sectionals, districts, and states.  Each week the competition gets better and the pressure builds.  Just like the tournaments we need to get better and more confident each week.  The final stretch is here, we as coaches will help make your final preparations  for the journey and guide you to the path of your goal.  It is up to you to accept those preparation challenges and fight to accomplish those goals.

Gilmore's Take: Josh Hephner Memorial Tournament

Last week we took a long look at our individual weaknesses, and focused on trying to make them our strengths.  It is easy to continue to work on what you are good at, or what comes easy for you, but champions are always trying to improve.  Even though we did not win every match and we still made some of the same mistakes, I saw an improvement in these areas.  I saw that in a lot of the matches that we lost, we are more competitive.  I also saw that we won more of the close matches.  This was a good building block for the last stretch of the season.  Many wrestlers saw some success and how little changes can make the difference.  We need to continue working on our weaknesses and build them into our strengths for the final stretch of the season. 

Gilmore's Take: Hudson

Going into this dual we knew it was going to be a tough match.  On paper it looked like it was going to be 7 wins for each team, with 3 of those matches being swing matches.  Bonus points were going to win this match.  Both teams earned 3 pins, and a tech.   Unfortunately, we lost the swing matches.  We are improving on our technique, but today when push came to shove when we got shoved we folded too many times.  We lost several matches that we were winning.  To truly be able to compete you need to be able to close out the win.   You can't slow down your pace and try to hold on.  If you just try to hold on you will always get beat.  On the opposite hand, we can't panic when we are losing or in a close match.  when you panic in a match you stop wrestling and just try to hold on.  Once again when you just hold, you lose position and it always ends bad.  Some of us are going into matches afraid to lose.  You can't go into matches worried about winning or losing.  You have to go into matches looking to just score points.  If you get scored on, who cares.  Build back into position and start working to score.  If you are always working to score points, you will never be out of a match.  If you are so worried to lose the match that you shut down, you will never win the close matches.  90% of wresting is mental.  If you can change your mindset to focus on the small picture instead of the large picture you will become a better wrestler. 

Gilmore's Take: Brunswick

     Last nights come from behind win was great!  What was even better for me, was the fact that after the match individual wrestlers were coming up to me and asking if they battled in their match.  That means it is on their mind, and they are focusing and trying to implement what we are teaching in the room.  Even though we gave up some pins by being out of position, now that we are "competing" in the matches the small mistakes will be easy to correct.  It was fantastic to see our more experienced wrestlers step up to the challenge that was set before them and conquer it.  Being down 36-12 with only 5 matches left is a huge deficit to overcome.  This is a match that would have slipped away from us a few weeks ago.  Mental toughness is a key component to being successful in wrestling.  Once you have confidence and a never give up attitude, techniques practiced in the room start to find their way into the matches.  This was a great step in the right direction. We now have to use this momentum to motivate us in the room to keep competing and perfecting technique. 

Gilmore's Take: M.I.T.

     With the M.I.T. in the books, it is now time to reflect on this fantastic event.  As expected there were many ups and downs throughout the tournament.  As a whole I believe that we made many improvments.  I also believe that this tournament was an eye opener for many, if not all of our wrestlers. We talk a lot about "battling" or "being competive in matches", until you see top quality competition that can be sometimes hard to understand.  Everyone had at least one match where they wrestled someone who was more physical or constantly in their face making it hard to wrestle their match.  These are the matches where we need to still improve.  Matt Hammer did a fantastic job of this in his semi-final match, against the state champ from Michigan.  The Michigan wrestler attacked Matt right away with double underhooks and tried to push Matt around to throw him.  Matt battled for position and took his opponents agressivness into his own takedown.  Sometimes, as in this match, winning that 1st battle can set the tone for the whole match, and you can start to mentally break your advesary.
    As competiton increases so does the difficulty of capitalizing on scoring opportunities. When you can frustrate your opponent and get them off balance, then scoring opportunities present themselves more often.  The best way to do this is to combine handfighting with foot movement.  Too often we get caught doing one or the other, but not both together.  This is a skill that can only be impoved on in the practice room, it won't just show up on match day.  We are getting better at it, but we are still not where we want to be.  Everyone is always motivated after a loss or a poor performance to improve on these skills, but what is more important is to still be motivated to improve on them the following days and weeks in the practice room.  By continuing to improve on these two skills we will be able to "battle" and be "competitive" in every match.  Once you learn how to compete, you can win any match you are in.