Alan Fried’s interview with Ohio Wrestling Site (part 2)

(Admin Note: Alan wished to begin this installment of our interview with the following apology to former 2x NCAA Champion and World Silver Medalist Royce Alger)
Alan Fried: I need to recognize that I made a mistake and send out an apology to Alger (Royce) for using his name in a negative way.  I got caught up in the storytelling and what I said came out nasty and negative.  So much for not being “emotionally attached anymore” huh? My point remains true, that is, not to idolize anyone, but I should use more discretion and consider other wrestlers reputations.  So, I apologize to Royce for my remarks.  All that was so long ago, I can’t even remember if he and I cleared things up.

Ohio Wrestling Site:  After your junior year in high school you competed at the Olympic Trials, where you wrestled Olympic Gold Medalist John Smith in the first round.  I understand that you got several takedowns on Smith in that match…..is that true or just urban legend?

Fried: It was actually the 3rd round of what is probably more comparable to the U.S. Open.  I just went out with the idea in my head, don’t give him an easy takedown, don’t take a backseat to him.

Smith got the first takedown in a decent scramble, then I got the next takedown….. I knew right away there was no way I was going to turn the guy. Then, towards the end of period he hit me with a duck-under and took that right into a trapped arm gut.   It was 4-1 at the end of the first period, but it ended 14-3.  I did get three takedowns, but he got four or five, and on the mat, it was all him.  I wanted to take it to him, but it was hard to get a hold of him! 

Late in the match I double-legged him into the out of bounds.  He rolled out of it, but I did get the point…we got into a little shoving match after that. 

Even though he was older, him beating me didn’t have anything to do with strength.  His technique was just much sharper, it wasn’t about anything else, he just outclassed me.  I had, as they say, “bit off more than I could chew”.  I suppose I was only 16.

Ohio Wrestling Site:  Did having faced John Smith at the age of 16 impact your decision to wrestle at Oklahoma State, where Smith was at the time an Assistant Coach? 

Fried: I think that having wrestled John, I really wanted to learn what he had.  Oklahoma State had won it in 1989 (Fried’s senior year).  They had such a good team, but the interesting thing for me was that all ten guys on the team had unique styles.  There was no set Okie State style that they followed…and they had John Smith and Olympic Gold medalist Kenny Monday in the room.   

Growing up, there was kind of a mystique about Oklahoma wrestling.  I wanted to be a part of that, but I really wanted to be a part of what Gable had built also.  I had a personal battle going on in my head.  I wanted to wrestle for Gable, but then again, there was John Smith becoming almost as good as Gable was or maybe better…..and at the same time, the door at Iowa was closing on me.  So although I was sad that I didn’t go to Iowa, I was very happy I was going to Oklahoma State.  I really couldn’t lose, but if I had to do it over, I would have looked harder at my opportunities to go to an Ivy League school.  They just weren’t solid enough when I was leaving high school.  They are now.

Ohio Wrestling Site: Do you think the fact that you came to Oklahoma State as one of the most heralded high school recruits of all-time- competing at the exact same weight as John Smith- ever made you a threat to Smith? 

Fried: Well, it’s hard to say “no” or “yes”.  A “threat”?  I took lumps at first, but after a year, I closed the gap quite a bit.  However, it wasn’t just me, there was another kid on the team, Chris Owens, who was outstanding.  He was right there too, sometimes even better.  We were all just workout partners.  John was winning all the major World and Olympic Titles, but if you wrestled him every day, he had a style that you could figure out….somewhat.  But, results in practice mean NOTHING!!  

Ohio Wrestling Site: Owens was 3rd at NCAA’s the year you redshirted as I recall?

Fried: Yes, exactly, I really can’t believe how much you know! It was almost more drama between me and Chris Owens just to see who would make the team. The only two people Owens lost to his freshman season were Brands and Zuniga, so you can imagine how good he was.  Our final wrestle-off was one week before Big 8’s. Until then, who knew who was going to the post-season.  Owens went up to 142 the next year, weighing less than I did on most Mondays, and took second to Troy Steiner.   

Ohio Wrestling Site:  Do you think that you and Coach Smith ever got past that rivalry which began at the 1988 Olympic Trials?

Fried:  There was some friendly tension. John is an ultra-competitive person, but he has a relaxed way about him.  We had a little fun with it.  No doubt the OSU program was centered around Smith at the time.  That was strange for me because I just came from a program where it had become all about me.  But, after I got to Stillwater, I began to realize, this is his hometown, this is his family’s history/legacy, if you will.

Also, you have to remember how great he was already by the time I showed up in Stillwater.  Two World Championships and a Gold Medal already…he was only 23.  It always hurts a little to see someone get the attention you want….that’s life…but you have to look at it objectively and think “This guy may be living my dream….but that’s still no reason to be a ‘hater’,” as they say, right?

But, at the time, I couldn’t turn off the jets enough to see that there’s enough time for him and I to live our dreams.  I just thought I could beat anyone at any time.  The coach/wrestler relationship was off-kilter because of our match a little.  He wasn’t older enough than me for me to just basically learn from him, like somebody like Gable would be, but he wasn’t my “peer” competition either, so it was awkward and less than ideal, but still very helpful and rewarding.

I feel genuinely happy for John for his success in wrestling and especially coaching, because I was a part of his first team title.  I’m incredibly proud of where OSU is now…they have a beautiful facility, which is a complete 180 from when I was there, and even more national and international success stories from the wrestlers.  John has recruited high quality individuals to the program consistently.  Now that some of the dust has settled, I think I’m more Cowboy now than I was when I was there.

I have my own success stories and I can also say that I was one of the main workout partners for one of the greatest athletes in history.  Right next to Lance Armstrong, Muhammad Ali, Dan Gable, Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods….John Smith is on that level.  Me, I may have been headed that direction, but I didn’t get there, so I am no one to criticize…because I know how hard it was just to do what I did.  It was a rare chance to be a part of John’s career and I learned more about wrestling and competing than most people could ever dream.   

Ohio Wrestling Site:  Did you ever feel that in your attempts to assimilate smoothly into Oklahoma State, you were almost a victim of your own (high school) success?

Fried:  It’s kind of like the situation with going to Iowa, where I couldn’t have snuck in under the radar because of my prior matches with the Brands brothers and Troy Steiner.  Same with John Smith, we went in there with a history.  I think that instead of trying to be such a big shot when I was 16, a more patient approach might have paid off. 

I guess it just depends how you are personally vulnerable.  I was a little too tightly wound for all the attention.  I started to feel in my own little world like, I guess, somebody like Gary Coleman or the kid from Eight is Enough.  Sort of like I had a “child-star syndrome”, if their were such a thing.  I had prominent college coaches sitting at the lunch table with me at St. Ed’s, just hanging out.  I had college coaches surprise me once with Bagels- to appeal to my Judaism- when I was working out at a location where I went to avoid college coaches.  It’s not just that, it was all the little things like that just piling up over time.  I handle competitive pressure well, but social pressure is a whole different animal for me --- I never had the right coaching to prepare me for all that mess.  I had to learn that the hard way.

You don’t know until you’re actually in it, that part of success is that you get more praise but you also get a lot more criticism…if you internalize all of it you will explode.  Me, I’m sort of an internalist by nature, if that’s a word!

Ohio Wrestling Site: Speaking of the Smith brothers, many people forget that you actually beat teammate and 4x NCAA Champ Pat Smith in freestyle in college, despite Smith being 2-3 weight classes heavier.  What can you tell us about that match?

Fried: I was going down to 136.5 for the U.S. Open in 1993 (the year OSU was on probation).  That was the first time in my life that I didn’t make weight ever.  I had the unfortunate occurrence of being seated in First Class by chance on the flight to Vegas and this giant goblet-like glass of apple juice they served me was crying out to be tasted…you know how that is when you’re cutting hard.  To me, that apple juice was like the Holy Grail, and I drank from that Grail….and then I refilled it….twice.  I got to Vegas and I was still seven over, so I just bumped up to 149.5 and weighed in at like 144.  

I just sort of took a “we’ll see what happens” attitude about the whole thing.  It was my first time at the Open, except for ’88.  I beat a former world placer in the second round, John Guira (fifth in the world in 1986 or something) like 11-1.  And then I had Pat in the quarter-finals.  Basically, we just went at it like we had done in the room.  He had cut as hard for 149.5 as I was for 136.5, but he went and lost his last 7 pounds while I had packed it in and started eating, you know, so I had a slight energy advantage.  And, you can’t forget that even though he’s a teammate, he is a three- time National Champion.  And, yes, of course, it’s always a little awkward wrestling against teammates.  But, we were close than and we are closer now.

But, like I said, in the match, we just went at it like we did in the room.  That’s why Okie state was so cool, we went at it all the time.  If you watched us wrestle the Iowa guys during Gable’s best years- which was most of what the general public sees in things like Gables videos or Iowa Public T.V.- sometimes they’d wear us down, however, against every other team in the country we would wear them down.  We just weren’t as brutal about it.  We were more of the kind of guys who would wrestle a dual meet against a team and then go have dinner together, mostly because we had friendships with people from other schools through travel teams and camps already.

In our practices though, the fur was flying everywhere in the room, every day.  Guys would be in the most interesting scrambles and crazy situations.  I’ve worked out in some of the best rooms in the world, but I’ve never seen people who love wrestling as much as the guys at Okie State.  Also, the OSU room has got that technical “workshop” type atmosphere as a collective conscience and like I said before, that keeps it fresh and challenging both physically and mentally.

Ohio Wrestling Site:  Al, your junior year, Oklahoma State was put on probation, meaning you lost that year of eligibility since you had already redshirted.  Why was Oklahoma State sanctioned- and what was morale like on the team?

Fried:  Well, no doubt morale was low for a while.  The NCAA brought us in one by one for depositions, all throughout my sophomore year (91-92).  They were asking about everything….cars, houses, gifts…whatever.  Hey, it’s not like we’re the football team, I said…joking….kind of!  Seriously, I can tell you I never got one thing from anybody associated with OSU along those lines or any other lines.  You know, they even showed up unannounced at my parents house in Cleveland when I was home for break to finish the questioning. 

Obviously something bigger must have happened, but it was either administrative scholarship-type issues or it was from years past.  The only violation I committed was taking a ride with the team to two open tournaments when I red-shirted.  I just didn’t have a car.  The team went to the St. Louis Open every year for the past 1000 years as a team….on a school van.  Every single school does that, but for some reason, we took the hit. 

Ohio Wrestling Site: So, an improper bus trip, that’s it?  I had always imagined there must be some sort of “smoking gun”.

Fried: If there’s more, I don’t know about it.  Free cars and mortgages and things is all total b.s.  I remember Pat Smith, a two-time NCAA champ at the time, and I, drove to our depositions in his car that had more dents in it than a golf ball. I seriously think it was the same car LeRoy Smith drove when he was at OSU about ten years earlier.  A grey Toyota Sport!  I remember it now.  We were all broke, driving broken down cars, or no car like me, and Pat and I had rented his uncle’s double-wide mobile home to live in.

Ohio Wrestling Site: You mean like, in a trailer park?

Fried:  Yep…in a trailer park….in Oklahoma.  Does that sound like the lap of luxury to anyone?

Ohio Wrestling Site:  Not so much! Did you consider transferring? 

Fried: Transferring, yes, I could have done that.  I was not on probation as an individual, just OSU as a program.  I looked into it quite a bit.  I spoke with Gable about going to Iowa and possibly swapping weights with Troy Steiner, but I didn’t want to be a part of him having to suck down and I didn’t want to either.  Steiner actually did end up going down to 134 that year to open 142 for McIlravy, and lost to Cary Kolat in the semis.  But, I was closer to actually going to Ohio State than anything else.  Russ (Hellickson) had my credits transferred and I was ready to do it, but I just couldn’t bail. 

Ohio Wrestling Site:  I never realized you were that close to coming to Ohio State!  What stopped you from transferring?

Fried:  I don’t know, call it stupidity or call it loyalty!  I loved our new coaching staff (John Smith and Mark Perry) and felt like two years more of training at Oklahoma State was going to serve me better in the long run.  So I didn’t win two NCAA titles or place all four years.  Instead of that, I get honored by the OSU wrestlers, fans and coaches for giving up that opportunity so we could get a team title in 1994 and get the program instantly back to the top.  And, when I lost the chance to win four (NCAA titles), what did it really matter?  I think I earned more respect and became more memorable to the fans the way I did it. 

Ohio Wrestling Site: Alan, you wrestled against John Smith, Pat Smith, and Lincoln McIlravy not only in competition but on countless occasions in practice.  You wrestled Tom Brands ten times, and many great international competitors.  If you had to pick who the toughest opponent you’ve stepped on the mat with is (in either a match or practice), who would it be?

Fried: Of the people that I wrestled, it has to be (Tom) Brands, (Lincoln) McIlravy, John (Smith) and Cary Kolat and Miron Kharchilava. Also, a couple of other international guys stick out in my mind.  But you remember different things about the international wrestlers…. how slick they were as opposed to how tough they were.

John Smith was like, if you got the best of him in the room, he would make you keep wrestling him until he got the best of you.  He always had to “one-up” you, if you know what I mean.  If you drilled three moves, he drilled nine.  Most top guys have to wrestle all elite guys with different strategies because their advantages are different. You may be stronger but not as fast as one guy, faster but not as strong as another guy.  With John, it was the bull versus the rabbit…..and he was always the rabbit.  In fact, John is the greatest rabbit of all time.  He was always out-moving and out-slicking, almost never even tying up.  John just had a nice game plan that he could use against anybody.  And on the mat, Smith was even much better than on his feet.

The best three workout partners in my career, outside of the OSU room were McIlravy, Kolat and Miron.  McIlravy for his unreal strength and conditioning -- Kolat for his technique and quickness --- and Miron for all four things.  In fact, I finally started regular workouts with Kolat while training for the 2000 trials.  Now, he’s a good example of someone whom everybody considers more talent than work.  And again, everybody is wrong.  Kolat was a three-a-day worker 4-6 times a week and two-a-days on his days off.  His practice routine was artful and after a few months of learning his drills, I improved immensely.  Unfortunately the improvement didn’t show until after I stopped competing.  Miron was simply untouchable.  He wasn’t competing much so he didn’t have the conditioning of McIlravy or Brands, so he might wear down after 10 minutes or so, but by then he would be up by 15-20 points.  I saw him do that to everyone around the middleweights in practice.  I even saw him beat guys that were so big- up to heavyweight- and internationally successful, I wouldn’t even list the names.  It would embarrass them and I’d have to post another apology.  Royce Alger was not one of them, by the way.

Ohio Wrestling Site: I know its not easy…..but if you had to nail it down to one guy as the best………

Fried:  I never worked out with Brands, but, for pure toughness, I guess if I had to pick someone (pauses)….. I would pick Tom Brands….I kind of have to, don’t I…and he really was that tough. 

Now also, to answer a constant question I get, and for those that are interested stats, our record is 7-3, in his favor and if my memory is right the total points scored from our matches was 57-60 - Brands.  Damn!  Tie his shoes up to the top and were 4-6, with 59-58 points total in my favor.  It’s fun to think about for a VERY brief second.  

Ohio Wrestling Site:  I remember that during John Smith’s great run, many said that although he was great at what he did, he was “one-dimensional”, meaning he only had the great low single leg.  Having wrestled Smith on numerous occasions, would you agree with that?

Fried: Smith has got a unique style, some think he’s one dimensional but he’s not at all.  In his early years he went out and hit a lot of low singles but in his later years the high crotch was kind of his signature moves.  You know he’s not going to tie up, you know he’s going to hit his high crotch or low single. 

But the real thing about Smith that no one really knows unless they wrestled him, is that his defense was incredible.  The power of his hips was unbelievable, it was like if you had his legs and were underneath him, he turned into (Bruce) Baumgartner or something.  But yeah, you knew he was either going to do an elbow pass high crotch or low single from his motion, so if you really did stay low you could compete with him but you were going to get in some unbelievable scrambles…and good luck winning many of those. 

Seriously, of all the areas of wrestling: on the mat, takedowns, defense, scrambling.… believe it or not- and I say this half-joking- his leg attacks are the weakest part.  In the other areas, it wasn’t even a competition.  Well, he can’t throw at all, but he knows that.  He wouldn’t even take offense to that comment.

Ohio Wrestling Site:  Alan, you came in at a similar level as most NCAA Champions right out of high school.  However, as we discussed, you redshirted your freshman year, lost to one of the all-time greats in Tom Brands the next two years, and then lost your junior year of eligibility due to Oklahoma State being on academic probation.  But your senior year, everything seemed to click as you put together one of the most dominating seasons in recent history, with only a few matches being decided by less than a major decision, and all major decisions at NCAA’s.  What can you tell us about your senior year at Oklahoma State?

Fried: I felt on top of the world for sticking with my team and coaches and I got one very solid NCAA title for myself.  I got hurt badly in the first period in the finals and thought I might have to forfeit, so I felt incredible about getting through the match.  I had knee surgery a week later and wrestled at the U.S. Open three weeks after that…I was so amped up from NCAA’s, I just wanted to keep banging heads with people! 

I just finally had a great year from beginning to end.  Awesome coaches and practices and the best teammates.  Wrestling was fun again for the first time since high school, really.  Five years of that kind of thing and I can only imagine how my life would be different. I remember, I had one of the most complimentary running jokes made about me throughout the season.  On Monday’s somebody would always come up to me and tell me I won the OW (Outstanding Wrestler) award at a tournament that I didn’t wrestle in.  That’s a sign of having a good year.

Ohio Wrestling Site: After all the success you’ve had, and the great technicians you have learned from, is your understanding of the sport still evolving?

Fried: I put not one bit of pride or ego in my wrestling skills.  If you correct me and you are right, god love you.  I can take any bit of advice in wrestling, kind of put it through my own technical tests and evaluate its effectiveness.  If it trumps what I have been doing, then PRESTO!  I’ve got a new move to use and I’m better.  Have you bruised my ego? No! Did the guy who showed me the now corrected move bruise my ego when he corrected my earlier mistake?  No!  Ego has nothing to do with your skills.  Too many coaches and athletes become strong-headed if you try to correct them.  What’s the big deal, I say?  I love my level of skill, but I’m not gonna defend the mistakes I make because I can’t face the embarrassment of being corrected.

When I get kids on the same page focusing on technique, you start
knocking those dominos down and wresting becomes fun again, like it was when you learned your first move or two.  You can spend hours and hours learning technique and close the gap between yourself and those that are at the next level.  Wanting to learn those skills are the key. Seeking outside sources is necessary sometimes.  If you’re not getting the results you want, I suggest a slightly more academic approach to the sport.  It works every time.  Light bulbs start going on pretty quickly and 6 months to a year later, you can be so improved your head will spin.  And then, doors will open for college!!!”

Ohio Wrestling Site:  You talked about wrestlers and coaches not being open to different technique, even if its better…what other misconception about the sport do you see wrestlers or wrestling coaches having?

Fried:  That’s about it.  Coaches and wrestlers all love what they do.  That’s the no. 1 thing.  So what, really does it matter, in the big picture, if a coach teaches a move imperfectly.  They love their wrestlers and are there more to develop the person than collect wins.  But, if you are dead-set on winning, then you have to correct mistakes.

Coaches could be helped by getting on the same page technically with the most basic of wrestling skills.  Since coming back to Cleveland I have looked into opening a school for wrestling.  I really want a place to teach everything I know.  What good is it otherwise?  Ohio and mainly Cleveland is still at the top, but there are several clubs around the country that are ran by guys who have competed internationally and the wrestlers they’re producing are outstanding at younger and younger ages.

This is the truth.  All moves are the same, whether they are right or wrong.  It’s just as easy to throw yourself on your back when the whistle blows as it is to get into an effective collar tie.  It’s just a matter of what becomes comfortable.  I know that I’ve gotten somewhere with a kid when they are in perfect position but they think it feels weird to be in that position.  Over time, that perfect position gets comfortable and the mistakes evaporate.  Not just in that specific move, but in everything, because they begin to unearth what wrestling feels like when it’s done right.  I’ve seen it many times that a very young wrestler can learn a world-class high crotch or escape or whatever just as easily as one wrought with mistakes.  And, when you teach a kid a move that works and can tell him that that exact move will work on everybody that’s ever wrestled ever at every level, you have the makings of a championship career.  And, the crazy thing is, there is just not all that much to teach.  Yes, there’s a billion permutations of each move, but that’s all fluff.  The basic principles are rarely violated.

That’s why I get so discouraged when I hear people say “oh, you have so much talent”.  Those who know me well, know my success wasn’t talent at all. Maybe I’m a little stronger and faster than the average guy, but there are other areas that as far as what God gave me, I lack much ability at all.  I’m not a naturally flexible person, which is an underrated wrestling quality.  I was never particularly smooth or technically proficient, that is until I worked and worked at it.  And, in all honesty, I applied almost no strategy when I competed.  I was more of the “win ugly” school.   But if you live and breathe something you can get really good, seemingly really fast.  People often have trouble accepting that as a rule, because then the accountability falls on them for not getting the moves down.

When you see someone who is a real expert on something, take it to the bank, they quit riding their talent long ago.  Whether people succeed in anything, it has so little to do with what god gave you, it has to do with what you’re willing to do with it.  Look at a guy like Kyle Maynard, with partial arms and legs he places at state.  Does it really take that much talent?  And, that’s not to say that Maynard isn’t a gifted athlete who just happens to lack full use of his limbs.  What it means is, that when somebody has an obvious obstacle like he had, that there are still a million ways to improve in wrestling.  Who taught him?  There’s no wrestling system or camps for people with partial limbs.  That person really did what he did in the real world.  I read about that and was inspired to my core because there is a kid who accepted his responsibility of learning wrestling when hardly anyone in the universe would support his dream.  All of that ‘you either got it or you don’t’ is “garbage”, as Coach Urbas would say.

I know this is off topic, but maybe it will effect some people.  As a young child, my first love was music.  I wanted to play, naturally, the guitar.  I heard “Juke Box Hero” on the radio in my room 1000 times as a kid.  Now, I love my parents (may they both rest in peace) as much as any person who ever lived, but when I was little, they discouraged me from studying music.  I was just a little noisemaker anyway, so they had to be thinking I’d end up breaking the family up if I actually got an instrument to bang on.  Well, I did finally get a guitar when I was a junior in high school and I played all the time….sucking very badly. 

After a year of this annoyance, my Mom saw how much I loved music and being the best Mom ever, she surprised me with a 1978 Gibson LesPaul for my high school graduation.  Ferg also gave me his daughter’s acoustic guitar that year.  He always heard me messing with it, when I was at his house, then one day I got a call to report to the athletic offices at Ed’s and there was the guitar, with a note on the case that said, “Become the Greatest”.  That’s how Ferg was, ya see.  That’s what high quality people like my Mom and Ferg do for other people.

I loved playing, but I believed, like so many others, that if “I just had the talent, I’d be good”.  I rejected the idea of lessons, though they were strongly suggested, because I believed I would just wake up one day and know how to play. 

When wrestling began taking off for me, but I still sucked at music, I became one of those guys who was labeled, you know, “good at one thing, but lousy at everything else”.  I began to believe it and I just never got better at music.  As of last year, I’d played for 17 years and knew the equivalent of maybe a “bridge” – pun intended.  You know, a real “canvas-back” of a musician. 

Well, many things have happened in my life over the past six years that rattled me to my core.  Some of it was my own doing and some of it was out of my control.  Overall, it’s mostly horrible news, of course, but you know what, if and when you ever feel like nothing, then maybe try to look at it like I finally taught myself to -- being nothing means it’s easy to get over the embarrassment of completely sucking at whatever you’re interested in and allows you to start practicing at it fearlessly.  It’s the “nothing left to lose” factor that is scary but can be interpreted as liberating at the same time.

So, about a year and a half ago, my brother, Adam, who is a very smart guy, went to a silent auction and bid on a piano lesson for his little brother.  He won the auction, I reported to the lesson and I finally saw the light.  There is actually a method to learning music and if you follow it perfectly you can learn how to play some decent stuff. 

My instructor, Anthony Smetona, who is an accomplished Concert Pianist and Julliard Performance Degree winner, was the only one to ever tell me I could learn music if I followed a program.  I finally tossed out the “talent or not” idea finally and sat down at the piano with a lesson plan.  Of course, the music we study isn’t Foreigner, it’s Bach, Mozart, Chopin and Rachmaninoff, so I won’t be a Juke Box Hero, but I like studying the more technical stuff anyway. 

The crossover between music and wrestling is so profound, I just never knew.  Like, I kind of said before, my thinking is that all technique or form is basically the same basic thing.  When you’re learning technique, you are always finding balance points and connecting seemingly unrelated movements as you move through space.  And, I know that sounds ultra-deep and like complete rhetoric.  But tell me, If I can coordinate myself to shoot a single with a finish, why can’t I learn to play through a scale on the piano?  It’s not like somebody’s trying to pull my hand away from the keys.  You just have to work through the levels starting from zero---and get a good instructor!

Ohio Wrestling Site: Any recordings of yourself playing?

Fried:  Yeah, in fact I will send you a link to a short little Bach piece Called “Invention No.8.”  I put it to a backbeat in a different time signature but I like the effect.  I love this piece.  I’ll play it as fast as I can to keep it interesting – and to cover the more obvious mistakes, of course.  I’m using a camera that straps on to your head for snowboarding and stuff, so you won’t see me, but who else’s fingers are that crooked? 

For all you wrestlers out there who have been told you don’t have talent, take it from me, you do.  You may never be the world champion, and I may never play Carnegie Hall, but if you enjoy the work and performing/competing, you can reap lifelong benefits and enjoyment from your skills…that is what it’s really about.  Take the focus off of the results or accomplishments and back onto the work.  You’ll save your own life.    (Ohio Wrestling Site Note: Link of Alan playing is at the bottom),

Ohio Wrestling Site:  So would it be fair to say you feel that people say that a guy just has more “talent” to give themselves an “out” for not being more successful?

Fried: Everybody does, I do the same things in other areas of my life, I sometimes take on that “loser” or “cop-out” attitude, with things.  You don’t always catch yourself.  That’s why you need guidance some of the time.  Especially, if you really want to improve at something.  I tried to apply the correct philosophy in wrestling…always holding myself accountable.

Ohio Wrestling Site: With all the great people that you have trained with at Oklahoma State, Iowa, and at numerous other places, who stands out as the hardest worker you have known?

Fried:  I hope by this point in the interview I’ve earned some credibility as an honest person- because I can’t in good conscience tell you how great everybody else is right now.  The hardest worker I have ever known was me for the first dozen years I wrestled.  I was completely obsessed with training from the first day I started until about the middle of college when things slowly began to crumble at OSU and the injuries were getting more serious.   

 

Ohio Wrestling Site: What would a week of training look like for you?

Fried:  Not very complex.  I just did every little thing my coaches told me to do as hard and intense and focused as I could possibly do it.  That, and about 10-20% extra with the same attitude. 

Ohio Wrestling Site: I understand you have developed a training aid known as “The Arsenal”.  How will this benefit current wrestlers?

Fried:  Well, I was always a note-taker.  I had a stack of unorganized papers where I wrote about wrestling workout routines, techniques, thoughts, etc.  I always wanted to give something back to the sport and I didn’t just want to be another guy with some cheap t-shirts and posters.  My thought was that if there’s a kid out there like me, he’s going to love having a single place to keep track of all that information, which I had scattered around over 20 years.  And, quite honestly, my thinking is, if I’m going to take $15-20 from a hard working family who is trying to educate and further their child’s opportunities through wrestling, then I’m going to try to give them every penny’s worth, not just some useless bobble-head.  But, I understand that novelty items have their place also.  I just don’t spend much time thinking about earning money that way.  I feel good accepting money for this product, because I worked hard to make it as complete as possible.  I do truly think a copy of “The Arsenal” and “Championship Nutrition”, is an excellent way to start a wrestling career or a new season.  I would have picked them up when I was wrestling.  That’s why I did it.

Ohio Wrestling Site:  Alan, one match I will never forget was your match with Greg Genovese at the Medina Invitational Tournament your senior year.  You were up a weight, and Genovese would go on to win his first of two state titles that year.   There seemed to be some bad blood between the two of you- but you quickly took charge by putting Genovese to his back twice in the first period, at which time he was disqualified for trying to twist your thumb while he was on his back in a cradle as I recall.  What can you tell us about that match?

Fried:  Nothing really.  We wrestled once my first year and he beat me, so I had something to prove to myself.  Also, Ferg gave me a solid talking-to before I went out there.  He got my energy level up to over 100% sometimes.  He loved watching me crush guys so much and I liked entertaining him.  That was for him that day.  He was taking too much crap from other coaches about possible outcomes for that match.  You gotta love your Coach, at least I needed that.  Genovese, however, is a great guy and so is his whole family.  He messed up when he pulled my thumb, and it’s sad that he’s remembered for that.

Ohio Wrestling Site:  It’s hard to believe that other coaches felt the outcome was in doubt! Changing gears, as the first 4x Junior National Freestyle Champion, NCAA Champion, and a three-time NCAA Finalist, what accomplishment or what matches do you look back the most proudly on?

Fried: Biggest match I ever won was when I beat the Soviet in the Espoir (20 and under) World finals.  That was at the tail end of the cold war when there was still tension between us and the Soviet Union.  I beat the Soviet and it was a wild match.  There were lead changes like 3 or 4 times, and I threw him with about 10 seconds to go when we were tied 5-5.  That wasn’t a headlock either!

Then, the big surprise was when they give me the “Most Technical Wrestler” award.  That is most definitely the award I am proudest of in my career.  Being recognized as having the best wrestling skills by the coaching staffs from the Soviet Union, Iran, Bulgaria etc. is my greatest accomplishment.  Being known as “Technician”, is cool in my book.

Ohio Wrestling Site: I recall watching you beat a Russian on television once early in your collegiate career, is that the match I’m thinking of?

Fried: No, but that is a great story.  I qualified for a Tblisi-type tournament in Russia during my true-freshman year of college, by taking 2nd in the Sunkist Open.  I lost 12-11 to John Fisher in the finals, but I was down 12-0. 

In Russia, I lost badly to a guy who then got tech-falled in the finals.  Now, the guy who won the weight class had also beaten another of my U.S. teammates earlier in the tournament.  I was coaching my U.S. teammate and after the match when I went to shake the Russian’s hand, he “shoulder blocked” me and pushed me out of the way.  He considered me to be nothing. Gave me no respect at all! 

So about six months later I got asked to wrestle a dual at Sea World against the Soviets.  He turned out to be the guy.   With international duals, you never know who you’ll be wrestling until they arrive.  I beat him 5-2 with five takedowns.  That match was totally personal!  In fact, he was the first Russian/Soviet that I ever beat.  I beat him by 15 points the next time we wrestled in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia in 1995.  I was still ticked off!

Fried playing the piano! (5.07 MB)



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OhioWrestlingSite.com 2005