2008 End of year discussion

I wish I could've written this sooner, but I recently hurt my back pretty bad and just got back from the hospital, so apologies in advance.

After helping coach the Jr National team this year, our MS National Dual team, kids at West Jr's in Vegas and my own teams, I feel an end of year discussion about OR's progress in wrestling is due.

After seeing a ton of wrestling this season from various parts of our nation, I will try and dissect what I've seen and what we need to work on in the future. So, for those that read this, don't take this personal but use it as a learning tool to make your programs better. I'm sure others may take it personal, but rather than get upset, add to the discussion.

1. Reffing-Our reffing in OR has to improve in certain parts. We need more consistant stall calls, need more refs to understand what a takedown is or isn't and what's legal and isn't.

In the midwest and east coast, they call stalling all the same. If wrestlers start down and they come to their feet and the top wrestler doesn't bring his opponent down within a certain time, the top wrestler is dinged for stalling. If the guy is parallel riding, its called immediately. If the guy is not working to get away on bottom, its called immediately. You get my point. Stalling is called consistantly and accurately.

A takedown is called even if one wrestler has ahold of an opponents leg and the top wrestler has hooked the bottom wrestlers ankle and is controlling him. Too many times I see our refs avoid calling it a takedown when clearly the top wrestler is in control.

They also let kids run and arm bar or hold a chin when applying a move. Too many times I hear a coach yell "watch the arm" before the bar is even ran and then the ref stops it, even though its clearly legal. Or, I see where a ref won't even let you touch an opponents chin, even though this is clearly legal as long as you don't tweek it. The point is, refs need to call the moves according to the rule book.

Now don't get me wrong, we do have some good refs here in our state, but we also have a lot of inexperienced refs on the mat and its not doing our sport a service. Especially when it comes to wrestling at the state tournament or at national tournaments, where the calls are different than what may be called at home. We have a lot of young new refs that with a little work, could be very good. Especially when a lot of our older refs are starting to retire.

My suggestion is to get a refs clinic going in our state every year, with the lead ref being from the midwest to go over the rules and how they should be applied. This should be mandatory for all refs at least once every 2-3 yrs.

2. Our wrestling styles- Some of the moves we are teaching kids are putting us at a disadvantage . Not every move, but a few here and there.

For instance, when a kid shoots in and we defend with a whizzer, instead of staying side by side with our opponent, we should be coming around front to a front headlock, instead of trying to bump them over.

From the front headlock position, we give up elbow control way to easily. Our kids bury their arm so deep, that the opponent simply grabs ahold and puts us bad position almost everytime. Instead of even locking up the front headlock, we should be looking to spin behind without ever locking ours hands. This frees us up more and we should be scoring everytime.

And from our feet, when an opponent shoots, why even bother looking for a front headlock? Why not just bury their head and spin. Too many times I see us let a wrestlers in on our legs and rather than fight to get our legs back and keep their heads down, we look for a front headlock, and end up in terrible position, then give up the takedown.

These are things we should be teaching our youth now, so these bad habits don't stick with them as they get older.

3. We need more HS coaches involved at the club level-This is a trend I see happening more and more every year.

Many HS coaches aren't very involved with their club teams. Every year at the Cadet/Junior state tournaments, we see the same HS coaches their every year, with very little new blood coming in. I can remember when these tournaments had 40-50 wrestlers deep at each weight, with coaches from all over the state. Now we're lucky to get 15 per weight. Not acceptable as far as I'm concerned.

Also, these are the same coaches who have the same programs at the top every year. Coaches from Roseburg, Newberg, Crater, Sweet Home, Tillamook are just a few of the teams I speak of. Is it any wonder, they are at the top every year at the HS ranks.

I think some of our coaches simply forget the reason why they got to the top of the podium when they were younger. They were the ones going to the FR/GR tournaments in the spring and then attending Cadet/JR nationals to represent our great state in the summer. Or attending an occasional camp here and their.

What it comes down to is committment to your program. If you're just a seasonal coach for the paycheck, then why are you coaching? To me, if you're coaching a sport, you either do it 100% or not at all. Sometimes that means taking a little time away from home, taking your kids to some FR/GR tournaments whether they have wrestled the style of not or just getting them info on camps during the summer. The point is, the success of your program lies solely on the person leading the way.

4. We don't have the depth other states do-In states like CA, PA, NJ, IA, MN and OH are sometimes 3-5 wrestlers deep at each weight class when it comes to quality wrestlers.

My point is that if those states' 5th best wrestler is beating our top wrestler, we have a problem. Now don't get me wrong, our top guys are right up there with most states, but what kills us is that our 2-5 wrestlers are sometimes not at the same level as the top guy. Now some will say its due to our 5 classifications in OR, but that's where I don't agree.

What I think it has more to do with is our coaches lack of wanting their kids to work out with other teams or wrestling clubs because they are only concerned with their team or don't want to give up any "secrets." Sure, there's nothing wrong with that, but imagine how good our kids could be if the top 5 at each weight worked out on a weekly basis. This is what these other states are doing every year and are pulling away from most states, including Oregon.

Now, what thing I'm starting to see is more coaches being open to this idea, but again, it tends to be the same coaches that have their teams at the top every year. Salem Elite is a new club that has placed more emphasis on making all their area teams better and its starting to show as we are seeing the Central Valley Conference starting to be a pretty tough league. My club alone has been open to outside teams, including out of state teams and its been beneficial to all those wrestlers development.

Bottom line is, area teams need to get over this trend and start opening up their rooms more regardless of which teams show. This way our states wrestlers are getting the best workout partners available and making the entire state better and not just a select few. Our state is only as good as our weakest link.


To conclude, these are just a few of my observations throughout the year. This is in no way trying to ridicule wrestlers, refs, coaches, but to simply open your eyes and hopefully make our state that much better from the youth, jr high, HS and eventually college levels. Add to the discussion what your thoughts are.