Why My Kids Will Wrestle by Cael Sanderson

1. Foundation sport. Wrestling is the perfect foundation for all other sports. Wrestling is balance, agility, hand –eye coordination, flexibility, positioning, strength, speed, explosiveness, footwork, hustle, mental focus, mental toughness, core strength, concentration, competition, endurance and fun!! Wrestling will make our youth better at all other sports.
2. Fun. Wrestling is a game. It is the most basic and instinctual game. Toddlers wrestle. The sport of wrestling is the ultimate competition where two individual take their individual strengths and match them up against each other. Wrestling is a battle of wits, technique, speed, agility, flexibility, and toughness. No two wrestlers are alike. Fun stuff!!
3. Exercise. Wrestling is one the world’s most premier physical fitness sports. Wrestling develops strength and endurance. Wrestling is physical fitness. Poor health is a major issue in our society today and wrestling will help develop a love of exercise and physical fitness in our youth.
4. Self-confidence. Very little is accomplished without self-confidence. Wrestling teaches self-confidence like nothing else I know outside of religion and knowing that you are a child of God. The most insecure people have the most difficult time learning from others. The confidence comes from everything that it takes to be an active wrestler: hard work, self-improvement, sense of accomplishment, camaraderie of team, 1 on 1 aspect, and self-defense to name a few.
5. Self-defense. Although wrestling is not commonly considered a “martial art,” it is the #1 base discipline in the world of MMA. Wrestlers know how to defend themselves and neutralize threats quickly. Wrestling is controlling an opponent. If you want your kids to know how to defend themselves, put them in wrestling.
6. Humility. Nothing teaches humility better than a 1-on-1 sport. Winning and losing in a 1-on-1 setting brings humility. There is nowhere to hide and no one to blame but yourself. All wrestlers will lose at some point and doing so in these conditions teaches humility. Hard work and discipline are two keys to success in wrestling and both teach humility.
“…I learned a lot about taking responsibility for my actions when I wrestled for 4 years…All professional athletes ought to spend a year wrestling. It teaches you something, You get pinned; you can’t blame the coach. You can’t blame your teammates. The guy you are looking for is staring back at you in the mirror” –former Phillies pitcher Mitch Williams
7. Respect. The challenges of being a wrestler teach you to respect yourself. After you learn to respect yourself you will learn to respect others. You learn to respect your team mates as well as your opponents. You learn to listen to and respect your coach. After you learn to respect others you are able to learn from them, a life lesson.
8. Self-discipline. Wrestling is discipline. Repetition of drills, hard work, weight management, and continually doing the best thing instead of the easiest thing is discipline. Wrestling requires postponing instant “wants” to gain something more valuable long term. It takes discipline and focus to reach goals.
9. Roadmap to success. Wrestling is the perfect example of what it takes to be successful in life. Goal setting, hard work, determination, focus, love of challenges, love of competition, confidence, being coachable, mental toughness, discipline, creativity, team work and accountability.
10. Toughness. Wrestling is a physical, contact sport. You learn that sometimes you just get poked in the eye. Physical and mental toughness go hand in hand. You learn that a little pain or struggle is part of the process of doing great things.

Two New Coaches look to Build on Tradition

We would like to welcome two new coaches to our program this year; Matt Meuer and Kenny Hatcher.

Matt is a 2010 graduate of Medina, where he earned State Qualifier Honors.  He then went on to wrestle at Ashland University for two seasons.  Matt will now be coaching with Tim Flanagan at A.I. Root. 

Kenny Hatcher wrested at John Carroll University and then coached at Twinsburg for several seasons.  Kenny played a huge role in Twinsburg's upper weight success in the last couple of years.  He recently moved to Medina and we are lucky to have in join our high school staff. 

Both Matt and Kenny have a lot to offer our wrestlers, and will help our program to continue building champions on and off the mat. 

Gilmore's Take: Pre-Season Training

        With the summer ending so is the wrestling off-season. Everyone is back in school and we are now full speed into the wrestling pre-season.  This is the time of the season where you need to start setting your goals and working towards those goals.  There is only five weeks until the 1st day of season.  That is not a lot of time, but a lot can be accomplished in that short time.  This is the time of the season where you should be excited and very motivated to get better.  The pre-season is for getting into shape, getting into the weight room and getting back on the mat.
          Every wrestler knows that there is a huge difference between wrestling shape and running shape, but we need to start running to get our lungs prepared for some very difficult mat time.  wrestling is all about pushing your body to the limits and then pushing some more.  We need to spend the 1st couple weeks of season working on becoming better wrestlers.  If you enter the season out of shape you will be focusing your energy trying to get your wind instead of focusing on wrestling skills. 
          Just as important as conditioning is lifting weights.  I can't count how many times I have had a wrestler walk of the mat after losing and talk about how strong their opponent was, but yet when we are in the weight room they are no where to be found.  You don't have to have special skills, or be naturally gifted to be a strong athlete.  You just have to be willing to dedicate yourself to working at it.  When you have two wrestlers that are equal, the wrestler who is in better shape and is stronger will always win the match.  These are two advantages that only you can gain for yourself.  No one can give it you, these are parts of the sport that you earn, but once they are earned they will take you a long way.
      The 3rd and final stage of pre-season is mat time.  This is the time where you have to go to open mats, open tournament and hit those last minute camps.  lacing up the wrestling shoes now and getting your body's timing back will allow you to hit your moves more naturally once season starts, instead of having to think about them be for you attempt it.  That split second difference is the difference between hitting the move successfully and being stopped. 
      Now many of you might hit the mats and lift, but leave out the conditioning. Some of you might lift and run, but find an excuse not to go to open mats or to miss a pre-season tournament.  The one that you sacrifice now will be very obvious come regular season.  The best part of wrestling is that you don't have anyone to rely on during the match.  Win or lose it is on your, and how much you have prepared.  Wrestling is not a sport you do because it is fun.  Wrestling is a sport that you do because it challenges you every day, and after 6 minutes when your hand gets raised you realize all of that hard work, dedication, and extra time spent was all worth it.  Everyone goes to practice, to be a champion you have to do the extra.  The pre-season is here, and now is the time to put in the extra time.