Top Greco Juniors and Cadets training & competing in Europe

Right now in Sweden, the top Greco wrestlers in the US at the Junior and Cadet levels are training alongside their Swedish rivals. 

Traveling to a foreign country for most young people is a dream come true, for these young Olympic hopefuls it's more than just a fun trip with their team. This training and competition journey is helping these young men get one step closer to their goal, to make it to the Olympics and represent their country. 

These young Greco wrestlers will compete in at the Malar Cup in Vasteras, Sweden, October 31-November 1 against some tough competition, gaining valuable experience against other top wrestlers from different parts of the world that they would normally never get to compete against, let alone get to spend time training with. 

“While high school athletes across the U.S. are gearing up for folkstyle season, our top Greco prospects are training with the top Junior and Cadet athletes in the world. It’s great to see that young talented athletes have bigger goals than winning state title and getting looked at by a college. These young men decided their goals are international. These men dream of winning Olympic Gold and are making the sacrifice to train and compete overseas.”

— National Greco-Roman Coach Matt Lindland.

MALAR CUP
At Vasteras, Sweden, Oct. 31-Nov. 1

U.S. athletes competing in the Senior/U23 division
59 kg - Ty Pelot, Two Rivers, Wis. (NMU-OTS)
59 kg - Andrew Ibarra, Santa Maria, Calif. (NMU-OTS)
59 kg - Randon Miranda, Palmdale, Calif. (NMU-OTS)
59 kg - Dalton Roberts, Fowlerville, Mich. (NMU-OTS)
59 kg - Logan Kass, New Prague, Minn. (NMU-OTS)
66 kg - Jamal Dearmond, Sacramento, Calif. (NMU-OTS)
66 kg - Hunter Kelley, Ray City, Ga. (NMU-OTS)
66 kg - Ali Khan, Elk Grove, Calif., (NMU-OTS)
75 kg - Michael Donato, Brooklyn, N.Y. (NMU-OTS)
85 kg - Austin Chaon, Geneva, Ill. (NMU-OTS)
98 kg - G’Angelo Hancock, Colorado Springs, Colo. (USOTC)
98 kg - West Cathcart, Genesco, Ill. (NMU-OTS)
130 kg - Parker Betts, St. Michael, Minn. (NMU-OTS)

U.S. athletes competing in the Cadet division
Jordan Martinez, Colorado Springs, Colo.
Alston Nutter, Fenimore, Wis.
Erik Spence, Elk Grove, Calif.
Tyler Dow, Stoughton, Wis.
Cohlton Schultz, Highlands Ranch, Colo.

USOTS head coach Rob Hermann, Marquette, Mich.
Coach - Lucas Steldt, Blue River, Wis.

Why Greco-Roman and why you should care?

If I could show you scientific evidence that Greco-Roman wrestling will make you a better wrestler would you try it? Coaches if your wrestlers will be better as a result of Greco-Roman will you give it a try?

The first rule of selling is what’s in it for the customer. Sure, I would love to see the US be as dominant in Greco-Roman as we have historically been in freestyle. I would love to see USA Wrestling be a dominant force in both international styles. I hate seeing Greco-Roman wrestlers in the US being treated like the redheaded step child of the wrestling world. I know there are wrestling fans, coaches, and even athletes that think we should just do away with greco here in the US. Why not just put all our eggs in one basket and focus all of our resources on being the best in the world at freestyle? I’m not going to try and tell these people why they should even care about greco, but what I am going to explain is how greco will help them be better at their folk style and freestyle or MMA for that matter.

I have always considered wrestling to be just that, wrestling. I never got caught up in the style weather its folk style, freestyle or Greco-Roman. I fell in love with the art of wrestling and I see way too many commonalities in all styles, rather than see differences. I have my club coach, Marc Sprague to thank for that.

As a first year wrestler my high school coach told me there was an opportunity to wrestle in the post high school season and he said he would show me some throws so I could compete. I had no idea if learning some new throws would not help me prepare for this tournament or not. I went to a few workouts and practiced my new throws and was shown what a gut wrench was and that was about the extent of my training for freestyle/greco training.

I showed up for the state freestyle and Greco-Roman tournament and fell into the cadet age group and also was able to compete against the high school age group in both freestyle and greco. This gave me the opportunity to wrestle more matches 0-2 cadet freestyle 0-2 cadet greco 0-2 HS free style 0-2 HS greco, not exactly the results I was looking for.

My high school coach treated this like it was a completely different sport, but somewhere in my mind even back then I though of it all as just wrestling. I heard how important it was to throw your opponent. My coach never tried to connect the commonalities because, he like many coaches think that anything outside of folk style is completely foreign. I went out and tried to throw my opponents, but I ended up being the guy thrown, taken down or turned.

I got a lot of feed back from that tournament, and what I discovered was I needed to find a coach that understood wrestling. I didn’t want a coach that just had a basic understanding of folk style. I needed a coach that could teach me how to wrestle. I decided if I was ever going to be able to compete with these guys I would have to seek out better training. That's how I ended up being a club wrestler and getting the opportunity to work with coach Marc Sprague.

Not only did Marc connect all the styles with basic positions and drills to develop these positions he instilled a love for wrestling in me that I still have to this day.

It’s no secret, the United States is a folk style focused country. Our high-schools and colleges wrestle folk styleand in the off-season wrestlers might do freestyle if they wrestle in the off-season at all. Most college coaches are like my high school coach and haven’t made the connection yet that Greco-Roman is a better style for improving your wrestling overall than freestyle.

I remember when I was in college and our club was willing to pay for post season tournaments only if I wrestled freestyle. My college coach didn’t care if I wrestled Greco, but I had to wrestle freestyle if the club was going to pay for my trip. All my training up to the University national tournament had to be in freestyle and I had to make the scratch weight for freestyle and after the tournament since I was already there and it was just another entry fee I could compete in Greco.

I am happy to say I won two national titles in freestyle wrestling and don’t regret anything or begrudge my coach for making me focus on freestyle. It allowed me an opportunity to go compete in the freestyle Pan-American championships. I won my first international tournament, a gold medal, that's another story for another time.

My focus of this article is not to tell you why I am a fan of Greco-Roman or convince you it’s the better style. First of all I don’t believe there is a such thing as a better style I think wrestling is wrestling, it’s all the same. What I want to show you is how scientific evidence suggests that Greco-Roman is the best for wrestling no matter what style you ultimately decide to focus on.

Everyone knows that practice is a key to success. What everyone doesn’t know is that specific kinds of practice can increase skill up to ten times faster than conventional practice. Daniel Coyle in his book "the talent code" calls this kind of practice deep practice. "The Talent Code" by Daniel Coyle is a book on how to grow talent.

Coyle like me doesn’t believe we are born with talent and it must be developed through practice, what he describes as “deep Practice”.

Coyle's belief is that talent comes from Myelin. Myelin is the insulation that wraps nerve fibers and increases signal strength, speed, and accuracy. When these certain signals are sent down the nervous system, myelin wraps around the nerve fiber. The thicker the myelin, the better the signal. Thus, "skill is myelin insulation that wraps neural circuits and grows according to certain signals”. Skills and talent allow individuals to perform at a higher level, faster and better than those who don’t have talent.

Malcom Gladwell in his book "Outliers" describes the 10,000 hour rule, which basically states that if we practice any subject for 10,000 hours we can become world-class. World-class is Olympic medal caliber top 1% types. Gladwell never said you need 10,000 hours to be and expert at something. 10,000 hours is for the phenoms, the truly elite. If this is the case and you want to be the best in the world start logging the hours. If you want to be great, say win a state championship or a national title, I have some tips on how to hack the talent code in wrestling.

I have tested this for the past decade at Team Quest my MMA gym. We all know that wrestling is an essential skill for MMA. We have all seen what happens when a guy doesn’t posses enough wrestling skills or knowledge. They don’t go too far in the sport. We have seen the top strikers learn enough of the principals to stay competitive using a sprawl and brawl type style. To truly get to the top now days the top guys all have all become adept with wrestling.

I have had the opportunity to send over 20 athletes out of my gym onto UFC, some have fought in championship level fights and even held titles in UFC. I developed a style of fighting known as “Dirty Boxing”. Dirty boxing employ’s the basic principals of Greco-Roman wrestling with strikes. Just like greco dirty boxing uses control positions and angles to stop your opponents attacks and give you opportunities to attack or counter.

The two control positions that Greco-Roman emphasizes are 2-on-1 and the under-hooks. The third control, comes into effect when your opponent doesn’t want to engage in a chest to chest battle and back his hip away. That control is head, when your opponent tries to avoid the pummel for position he literally “gives  you head” which is the third control.

I have successfully been able to take guys who have never wrestled a single match in their life, to out pummel and out wrestle college level all-Americans. Coaches and other fighters often ask me where my fighters wrestled in college.
Using some basic principals and deep practice of these positions, my fighters have constantly out wrestled most all of their opponents in the cage fighting arena. I want to share these basic concepts with you in hopes that you will use them in your wrestling to improve faster and hack the talent code of wrestling.

Wrestling from the outside is wasted training time. 

In these moments this is time we could be building skills. Having to react and correct there actions, motions and positions. Building skills is literally myelin insulation that wraps neural circuits and grows according to certain signal. When wrestlers are required to stay in constant contact fighting and attacking from the correct chest to chest position they get more circuits firing in the right parts of the brain and for the correct muscle groups which allows them to optimize there circuity.

These athletes are in the optimal position for greatest learning, forcing them into the deep practice zone, making and correcting errors, and constantly coming up with solutions and adjustments to correct those errors.

So if we can get to a position in wrestling where we are required to train in a constant contact chest to chest position this will create the right atmosphere and leverage our time on the mats and improve wrestling skills faster. This will compress the essential skills and place wrestlers in the deep practice zone, making and correcting errors, and constantly coming up with solutions and adjustments to correct those errors.

If you want information on myelin please do your own research. If you want to get better at wrestling fast, spend time training in a chest to chest head up position, like in Greco-Roman. I am not saying you can’t trip, sweep, prop or pick up a leg but all attacks should start in this position, in MMA it’s referred to as the clinch position. I am not saying there is not a time and a place for an outside attack, what I am saying is give my theory a try. Have practice once a week that requires from this position without separation. Make it a challenge for every time the coach see’s you not in constant contact taking a step back as he implements a penalty, I use ten burpees or push ups.

Make it fun and keep it light hearted, as you start to see the improvement, increase the time your spend training in this position.

Coach Matt Lindland

Andy Bisek Earns Prestigious Jacob Curby Award

Dr David Curby presenting the Jacob Curby award to Andy Bisek at the OTC in Colorado Springs. 

The Jacob Curby award is given to greco-roman athletes who show acts of outstanding leadership and character. This year's recipient from the Colorado Springs based Greco-Roman National Team is Pan-Am games champion and 2015 world bronze medalist , Andy Bisek. Last Friday, Dr David Curby, founder of the Curby Cup and the Curby foundation presented the honors to Bisek in person at the OTC. 

The Jacob Curby Foundation has been formed to honor the memory of Jacob Curby, and with the mission of teaching strong values through wrestling participation, growing youth participation in wrestling as a path to success and personal growth, and the advancement of Olympic-style international wrestling competition in the United States.

Curby vs Lester 66kg

In an effort to memorialize Jacob and what he stood for with his wonderful character USA Wrestling established an award called the “Jacob Curby Memorial Award.” Every year USA Wrestling recognizes a Greco-Roman athlete from each of our two Olympic Training Centers. This award is given to a wrestler who has displayed strong personal character and commitment to the sport of Greco-Roman wrestling. 

Curby said, “Presenting this award in Jake’s name gives our family great joy. Andy and Travis are both talented wrestlers, as well as classy people. Andy and Jake were friends and teammates in Marquette for about 6 years. It has been a thrill watching Andy win his two world championship bronze medals. My wife and I look forward to presenting Travis his award in New York at the Bill Farrell International Tournament on November 5th!”

The Curby Cup is the flagship event on The Jacob Curby Foundation calendar, showcasing the finest wrestlers from around the world in a competition with the American National Team.

Travis Rice is the 2015 Jacob Curby award recipient from the Northern Michigan University. 

Each year Dr. Curby awards two wrestlers from the Greco-Roman national team program with the Jacob Curby award that embody the character and spirit of his son Jacob who passed away unexpectedly several days after returning from a wrestling tournament in Russia. Recipients from Colorado Springs at the OTC and from the Northern Michigan University in Marquette Michigan are eligible to win this award. This year's winner from Northern Michigan was Travis Rice. 

Congratulations to Andy Bisek and Travis Rice for their outstanding character and leadership abilities both off and on the mat. 

Gearing Up: FLWC Training Camps in Oct & Nov to Feature Top Wrestlers & Coaches

from newyorkwrestlingnews.com 

A week before the Journeymen Classic, over 80 wrestlers prepared at the Finger Lakes Wrestling Club (FLWC) in Ithaca at a two-day training camp featuring numerous New York State champions and placers as well as out of state standouts.

“The training camp we had in September was a huge success,” said FLWC’s Kris Harrington. “It was a great training situation for everyone and it was nice to see the kids have success afterwards at the Journeymen Classic. Now, it’s time to gear up for the Freak Show and the Super 32. We’re trying to make these training camps a monthly occurrence now.”

The next one, which will be held October 17-18, has already reached capacity. Attendance is set to include New York’s Yianni Diakomihalis, Theo Powers, Kelan McKenna, Evan Barczak and Jack Buell as well as nationally-ranked wrestlers from out of state such as Ohio’s Ben Darmstadt and David Carr as well as Pennsylvania’s Brian Courtney. 

Members of the Big Red team will be there as counselors, while coaches like Kyle Dake, Enock Francois, Nate Carr Jr. and Kris Harrington will be among those leading the event.

And this time, there will be another addition in the mix. Team USA Assistant National Greco-Roman Coach and Iranian Olympian Ahad Javansalehi will be there to offer an international perspective and more high level training.

“I’m absolutely very, very excited to be coming up to Ithaca,” said Javansalehi, who will be making the move in December to establish a Greco Roman program. “I look forward to participating and to getting to know the area and meeting everyone.”

While the opportunity to work with these wrestlers and coaches in October is no longer available due to full registration, FLWC announced that a similar camp will be held on November 21 and 22.

“The October one sold out so fast, we are excited to be holding another one in November,” Harrington said. “There will be one session on Saturday (4-6 p.m.) and then two in the morning on Sunday. It’s a great opportunity right before the season starts to grind out some good practices with really tough guys."

It's one of many events taking place in Ithaca that weekend. At the youth level, there will be the FLWC Fall Kickoff, which already has 18 K-8 teams as well as four girls teams signed up, according to Harrington. In addition, Cornell will open the 2015-16 campaign with a dual against Drexel before all of the more than 20 New York State college programs descend upon Ithaca for the NYS Intercollegiate championships.

"There will be so much going on," Harrington said. "It'll be a great weekend of wrestling."

Traditions are important for teams

Hank Jr. said it best “Family Tradition”

And like country music singers GRECO Wrestlers have always been a real close family

Traditions are behaviors and actions that you engage in again and again – regular rituals that you perform at the same time and/or in the same way. Traditions can be big or small, but they differ from routines and habits in that they are done with a specific purpose in mind and require thought and intentionality. 

Traditions are important for teams, when done right  they lend a certain magic, spirit and texture to the team. Traditions offer numerous benefits to our families, including but not limited to the fact that they:

Traditions and rituals often tell a story or at least get the conversation started. Tradition can teach where we came from, give insight into the culture and history of the program. Traditions can serve as reminders of events and experiences that have shaped the program.

Traditions, and the stories they tell play an important role in shaping the teams identity. There’s something about understanding your past and knowing you belong to something bigger than yourself that instills confidence.

Researchers have consistently found that families that engage in frequent traditions report stronger connection and unity than families that haven’t established rituals together. Traditions provide an all-too-rare chance for face-to-face interaction, help family members get to know and trust each other more intimately, and create a bond that comes from feeling that one is part of something unique and special. I would argue that teams are no different than families in this sense.  It’s comforting to have a few constants in your life.

As the coach I want this generation of Greco wrestlers to know who their predecessors are and to get to know them. I also want the previous generation of Greco wrestlers to know and support the current athletes.

Traditions are a great way to cultivate that valuable involvement from the former generation.

How To Build Confidence - Part 1

Has a setback dropped your confidence? 
It’s normal, and is a part of the normal process of climbing to higher levels.  Think about it: if something has got you down, or it seems daunting, that means that thing Is Hard to Do.  If you aspire to become your best, then this cannot be accomplished by doing easy things, since anything of value will require energetic input, hard work, and effort to achieve.  In your quest to reach high goals, it will invariably require you to learn to do new things that are challenging and which may suck, and which will push you beyond your comfort zone.  Embrace this. If you were already good at it, then you wouldn’t need to learn it (though you should still practice it).  

By the nature of something being difficult, it will guarantee that there will be some tough moments along its road to success.  Don’t lament this, but seek it.  Olympic Champion Jordan Burroughs had several mantras leading up to his Gold Medal, once of them was ‘embrace the grind’; when you’re in the midst of a grind – be it in sport or in life- see it as a sign of progress on the way to something better because you’re doing the right things needed to get better (e.g.: you could ensure 100% that you would never fall down if you always kept the training wheels on your bike).  Embrace this grind so that you can use it to grow.  As you may imagine, this feeling of being down, daunted, or overwhelmed is only temporary if you can reach deeper to push further towards your goals. 

Stew Smith is a former US Navy SEAL who has trained hundreds of people to successfully navigate their famously difficult training program that forges some of the most famously confident men on earth.  His advice to guys before entering the gauntlet: “Doubt Yourself”.  This seems odd at first, but then he explained it to mean that not only is it normal to doubt yourself at some point, but it is actually inevitable that it will happen if you push yourself hard enough to – might as well get it over with and get past it.  You realize that the task is actually manageable to do it, and the rest, as they say, ‘is gravy’.  The idea is that you are going to end up doubting yourself at some point in the process anyways when things get really tough, so that when you later get to that point again of things getting so tough that others contemplate quitting, you simply soldier on to get through it with a confident grin because you have already resolved that doubt will not stop you; you can even laugh it off when it tries to get you again because you have already beaten it.  From here, you develop that outer and inner armor which protects you from the negative doubts and distractions, and you thus become a hardened machine committed to achieving your goal no matter what obstacle or adversity may try to interfere.  So get ahead of the game: Doubt yourself early, and then Dispense with it.  You become unstoppable.

If you’re endeavoring to do hard things, sometimes setbacks will occur and on occasion you’re going to feel overwhelmed. Don’t sweat it.  Know that it is normal, and that you shouldn’t succumb to it.  It’s part of the process of getting better, so take encouragement in it and don’t let it get you down.  In fact, if things have been coming too easy to you for too long, it may be time to find ways to push yourself to new challenges in order to keep your competitive edge.  In time you will develop a supreme confidence with the knowledge of having persevered through a tough time and that there is nothing that is too tough to accomplish, built on the foundation that you know you took on great challenge and that it could not break you, but built you.

Winners Pull the Trigger

Winners Pull the Trigger

By Steve Fraser

July 29, 2014

The day I started realizing that “going for it, all out” was one of the biggest keys for me to compete at wrestling’s top level was the day I started to dramatically improve my skills, my physical conditioning, and thus my success in the sport of wrestling.

I remember the day. It was a cold, dark morning, around 6:15 a.m. in the month of December, 1981 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. I was struggling to get out of bed, tired and sleepy, not wanting to get up. I was so not a morning person! I remember thinking, “What am I doing here? Almost everyone I knew was still sleeping comfortably and warm under the blankets of the cozy, snug familiar place they called their bed.” 

Here, I was scheduled to meet my boss, the Washtenaw County Sheriff Thomas R. Minick, on this frigid cold winter morning at the department for a workout together. We would regularly run outside and then end up lifting weights at the department’s work-out facility, prior to starting our day on the job. 

Sheriff Minick, who was a tough and rugged man, was in great shape and always kept a great workout regimen. He was the “top dog” in the county, respected fiercely among his peers and county officials. He was the ultimate example of what a Sheriff should be like. And I was in awe of him.

He had hired me at the Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Department to run their County Jail “Community Work Program” (an alternative jail sentencing program) with the idea that I could also continue my quest and training for the 1984 Olympic Trials and Games. He allowed for some flex in my eight-hour work day to still train and make my afternoon practices at the University of Michigan, where I wrestled daily.

Sheriff Minick was doing me a great favor in supporting my Olympic wrestling goals while employing me. Needless to say, I did not want to disappoint him in any way. Thus I had no choice but to get my behind up out of bed and go to meet him for our workout. Now keep in mind there were many mornings when he did not show, for various reasons, but I did not ever want to guess wrong and not show up fearing that he would. 

It was this morning, as I contemplated whether or not he might show, that I came to a realization and decided that I had to totally commit to this whole idea of training like a mad-man and pulling the trigger 100 percent. I decided that I was not going to second guess myself or my training and I was going to “go for it! All in! Both barrels a-blazing!” Tom Minick was the catalyst that helped me determine this.

I think it comes down to making a conscious decision in life. Am I going to do this thing or am I going to keep holding back?

I don’t know what holds us back sometimes; fear or failure, past experience, over analyzing, doubt that we can actually succeed? Whatever it is, we must realize that all great champions have the same issues. The great champions become great champions because they don’t let these emotions keep them from pulling the trigger. They take action regardless of their fears. Action is the main ingredient that moves athletes and people forward.

I remember thinking that I was going to “act” no matter how many setbacks, failures, and obstacles got in my way. I took the attitude that I was going to exhaust all the mistakes I could possibly make, until there were no mistakes left to make. The only thing left would be success!

I took the approach that I would pull the trigger, shooting first, and then aim later. Too much aiming (analyzing) was holding me back. I thought better to “shoot first and aim later”, and yes, I was going to make some mistakes but at least I would be “all in.”

Few people might think that a hitter who struck out the most times in baseball history would be thought of as a good player, much less a Baseball Hall of Famer. Tell that to Mr. October, Reggie Jackson.

Let’s go for our dreams, all out, no hesitation, no holding back! Pull the trigger each and every day and our dreams will become reality.

Death, Life and Wrestling

Its funny to hear that people don’t like to think about death. I think about it everyday, I am grateful each morning I wake up. I fought in a cage, traveled overseas to strange places put my self in situations all the time where I have to face the reality of death.

I love the thought of death and do not think it’s something that should be feared because inevitable. I already know whats going to be on my tomb stone and the songs that are going to be played at my funeral. 

By no means am I ready to go, but I do accept the fact that we are all going to die and I am comfortable with it. Life is short enjoy it. 

In Coach Frasers blog he writes about death and life give it a read:

June 18, 2015

Death, Life and Wrestling

By Steve Fraser

Many people don't like to talk or think about death. Death can be a scary subject for many of us. However, the fact is death can be our best teacher about life. The simple reality that death is so imminent - makes life so precious. Without the contrast of death, as compared to life, life would have less importance. If we lived forever there might be less urgency to experience and cherish each day and each moment of life.

The truth is that at any moment we could breathe out and then never breathe back in. We never know when our last breath will take place and our time on this wonderful earth is up. No matter what we are doing right now we can be assured that someone has died doing exactly the same thing. It happens when one is eating or when we are sleeping or reading or driving or running. Death happens to babies and teenagers and people in their fifties - not just to the aged. 

Someone should tell us when we are young, "hey... make each day count - because you are dying!" It might be one month or one hundred years but it is going to happen for sure. It happens to the rich and the poor. It happens to men and women no matter what race, religion, or country you are from. We should realize that life is really precious, and each day, each moment should be experienced and cherished to its fullest. 

How many days do we waste with the thought that we will be on this planet for a very long time? What’s the big deal about wasting a few days in our lives? No biggie! We’ve got time. No hurry.

What sometimes keeps us from really going for it in life? What holds us back from relentless action and tenacious forward motion? Could it be fear? Are we living our lives in fear? Fear of failing? Fear of making a mistake? Fear of putting it all on the line and coming up short? Are we wrestling scared? Are we afraid to get tired or scored upon or injured? What is it?

Let’s get some perspective here. As is quoted in the book The Untethered Soul, by Michael A. Singer, “Walk outside on a clear night and just look up into the sky. We are living on a planet spinning around in the middle of nowhere. Trillions of stars are all around us and we are standing on one little ball of dirt spinning around one of those stars. Do we really care about making a mistake or doing the wrong thing in our quest?”

Think about how you might live each day if your angel came to you and said, "My friend, just know that you are being “called” and you only have one year to live.” How would you experience each of your last 365 days? How would you react to all of the people in your life and all of the people with whom you come in contact? How would you enjoy each day and each moment, knowing that your last days are clicking by? Would you fear anything? Would you hesitate or hold back in your actions? Or would you make every moment count?

Morgan Freeman's character "Red" in the movie Shawshank Redemption so aptly says "get busy living or get busy dying." We have nothing to lose by giving life our all - and everything to lose by not giving life our all. 

Let’s live with tenacity. Play and practice full-out. Have no fear, have no hesitation, and have no timid attitude. When you don't feel it, generate it. Only you control how you feel. Only you can take full action. Only you can go for it without any reservation. No excuses and therefore no regrets. 

I encourage all of us to live life with abandon! Wrestle with abandon! Experience life with abandon! Let’s let go of our fear and realize we have nothing to lose and everything to gain. You “do” know that… none of us are getting out of here alive anyway, right?  

And, as always...Enjoy the Battle & Expect to Win!!!

The Time is NOW

This is the time of year where everyone sets out to make big life improvements. The previous year didn’t go as well as you had hoped or, you may have regrets or things you still want to achieve. 

You can hope for hope for 2015 to be better, but that’s not exactly how it works. 

You can’t hope and pray for 2015 to be better, but you must act. 

I am all for positive thinking but nothing actually works until you do. We must take action and put the work in if we want things to be better, or different. The more you work, the more it will work out for you.  Start now? There isn’t a better time.

There is nothing wrong with picturing a future that that you want, its call creating a vision. This is what setting goals is all about. 

You create a picture in your minds so vivid that you can see all the details and then it start to feel real. Next you set goals to achieve that vision. You also set time-lines to achieve those goals. You set monthly, weekly and daily goals that move you closer to the vision of what you ultimately want to achieve. 

Don’t obsess over what has happened in the past or lose yourself in visions of the future. 

Create the vision of what you want then focus on what is right here, and now in front of you. Take action and do what you can to move yourself closer to your goals. 

Make the most of it, and enjoy yourself, it’s a process, things take time. Have fun, and enjoy the journey.

This moment could be all you have, it’s so much better to think that your next day is not guaranteed and be grateful for all that you have, then to have expectations and entitlements that go unfulfilled.

We need to take risks and try new things

Since taking over as head coach of the USA Greco-Roman program I set my goal to get Team USA back to the best team in the world. I understand this is a process and I’m willing to put the time and work into making this a reality.

The truth is we need to take risks and try new things until we figure out what works. What may have worked in the past may not still work in the same way. As the leader of the program I have to be willing to make changes and try new ways of doing things. It’s been just over a year since the IOC decided to cut wrestling from the Olympic games. The worldwide wrestling community did an outstanding job of saving our sport. Wrestling is back in the Olympics. At least through the 2020 games’ wrestling is still an Olympic sport. There are no guarantees at this point that wrestling will remain an Olympic sport, as hard as that is to believe.

The fight is not over! We need to ensure that our great sport will remain in the Olympic program. We can only do this by growing an audience and assuring the IOC that wrestling is a viable sport that has a solid fan base and a following. I feel, as the head coach of the US team, it is my job to not only build the best team in the world but also grow our fan Base.

Andy Bisek at the 2015 Pan Am Games in Toronto, Canada. 

In the US Greco-Roman style of wrestling there are some challenges. Many in the wrestling community do not think Greco-Roman when they think of wrestling in our country. The US has a great system for developing a large pool of wrestlers; the problem is we are focusing on the wrong style of wrestling. I’m not talking about the other Olympic style, freestyle. I am talking about the folk-style that Americans wrestle in high schools and colleges all across the country.

When the general public thinks of wrestling the first image that comes to mind is our American folk-style. Most of the best American wrestlers have come through this folk-style system, and this isn’t going to change.  I came through this same system. I admit, I loved my time competing in college and wrestling for the University of Nebraska. I didn’t really consider at the time that I was wrestling in the wrong style if I wanted to reach my Olympic goals.

This article is not about how we change college wrestling to Olympic style to help better prepare our best athletes to compete at the world level in Olympic style wrestling.  Although I would love to see our American system convert to Olympic style wrestling.

This article is about how we need to build a fan base for Olympic style. We must do things differently than we have done in the past. I know it’s cliché but it’s true.  If we keep doing the same things, we will keep getting the same results. To make change we have to look at things differently. We have to be willing to experiment and try something new.

Coach Matt Lindland versus Jacare Souza in Strikeforce

Many of you know that after I finished wrestling I went into MMA as a full time career for over a decade. As an athlete I was one of the top middleweights in the world. I managed over 20 athletes that went from zero MMA to UFC. I have had guys fight for UFC titles and had champions out of my gym Team Quest MMA.  My time in MMA I learned a lot about how sports are promoted and marketed. I watch as the UFC convinced fans to tune in and invest their time and money into watching.

In MMA it’s not always the best fighters that get the biggest fights and biggest paydays. It comes down to promotion and building and audience. The better the fight is hyped the more viewers tune in. 

As wrestling purist, we need not say that is MMA and this is wrestling. I see way more similarities in the two sports than I do differences. It’s time for wrestling to take a page out of the MMA playbook and follow the marketing plan that has proven successful. With an open mind and a willingness to do things differently than we have done in the past, I am confident we can grow our audience outside of our core.

One of the main things that MMA has done so well and this was copied from HBO boxing is the 24/7 type stories based around a fight. These shows not only let you feel like you know the fighters. You get an inside look and find out who these men are, what makes them chase their dreams. As the viewer, you want to either cheer for or against one of the fighters. Either way- it doesn’t matter as long as you tune in, buy a ticket, order on PPV or watch the next week on free TV the audience cares. It doesn’t matter if you like the fighter or want to see him get his ass kicked; the point is you’re invested in the sport, the athlete or the organization.

There is no reason not to try new ways of promoting and marketing the great sport of wrestling. If we don’t, we may not have a sport in the near future, at least at the Olympic level.

Part II

After winning my medal in the Sydney Olympics I decided I was going into MMA to make some money. I was tired of toiling in the obscure sport of Greco-Roman wrestling. I was struggling to earn a living. Here I was, one of the best athletes on the entire planet in my chosen sport and I had to work a couple extra jobs just to be able to compete in my sport. The Olympics were in October and by December I was competing in the UFC. 

I didn’t have time to learn MMA in less than 2 months so I focused on the similarities of wrestling and MMA. I knew how to train, prepare for major competition, and I was a master at competing. I took my knowledge and applied the same principals to a different sport. I knew very little about MMA when I first became involved, but I focused on the similarities of the two sports and applied the principals that I used to have success in wrestling to MMA and found success in that sport as well. I fell in love with martial arts as a whole. The same things I loved about wrestling were what I loved about MMA.

I know looking back it was a risky proposition to leave a sport I had so much success in and try something entirely different. I had no idea what to do or where to start, so I took principals from wrestling and was able to apply them to MMA. I found coaches and training partners. I knew how to train and how to compete. I focused on the commonalties of the two sports and I took the same process I used to learn wrestling and applied it to learning MMA.

I am blessed to be involved in the great sport of wrestling. I have learned so much at all levels of my career in wrestling. I have taken all of the other lessons I have learned through wrestling and applied them to other areas of my life and my businesses. 

Now it’s time to take the lessons I successfully used in MMA, business and apply them to growing the audience of Greco-Roman in the US. Trying something new often encounters resistance and critics. Many leaders wait too long to take action out of fear. There is nothing to fear if we don’t find a way to grow and promote Greco-Roman. We may be done anyways. We are only guaranteed to be in the Olympics through 2020. I see this as an urgent situation. It doesn’t’ make any sense not to try and do something new. Greco-Roman in the US can no longer follow the path of folk-style or freestyle we need to carve our own path.

I understand we will face criticism. Obstacles in our new path need to be faced and overcome. Those at the bottom who dare to promote and rise up will be seen as self-serving, while those at the top who practice the same strategies will be seen as creative and resourceful.

Look for Greco-Roman to make some changes, starting with the new trial procedure that the Greco-Roman sport committee just approved. I am excited to be working together with such a bold group of men who are not afraid to take risks and look for opportunities to grow and promote our great sport.