What you (or your wrestlers) Should be Doing Right Now: Alan Fried Weighs-In on off-season training for Ohio Wrestling Site.

OFF – SEASON???

Is there an off-season for this sport?  Yes, and it will be over in a week or so.  You’ll wake up in a few days, and all of sudden you’ll have that guilty feeling.  The “bloated-ness” won’t go away like it had been.  You can’t even remember which ankle was hurt that you were whining about last month.  Your PSP battery always seems like it’s running out.  You are at the crossroads already.

No doubt about it, if you do nothing at all, you’ll come back a better wrestler.  We all just get better with time.  All that full-go wrestling, competition, and drilling you did, which didn’t feel like it got you anywhere, is still settling into your mind and muscles every moment.  Ask yourself, why your coach is so good and he almost never practices.  That is the results of ten or fifteen more years of this process.  So, there’s some comfort in that fact. 

But, at the same time, you can only pull in the greatness from way outside the comfort zone.  Way outside!!

On the other extreme, our community lets you really put the Jets on, if you want.  There’s way more activity in the wrestling world these days than ever, and Ohio probably tops the list.

The fact is, it’s still early, so for now…we just Consider things:

Let’s call these, “The Four Considerations”:

Consider the extremes: doing nothing vs. doing everything. 

Consider your actual opportunities to wrestle or train: Other sports, Plans already scheduled, Family obligations, Injuries.

Consider who you might learn from and who you can workout with…should you choose to.

Consider what would go onto “the drawing board” if and when the time comes:  Be specific on each technique, joint flexibility, major-muscle group strength.  For example:  Someone might think to him or her self while drifting off into a light - Number six Biggie-sized-with-a Coke- induced coma, “Hmm, If I can just find ten hours a week this summer to improve in wrestling.  I bet my time would be best spent working on a single finish, increasing my hip flexibility and the strength in my upper legs and hips. Great!” That’s the “smart” part of working hard.

But, Consider one final thing.  The long-long-term.  Where do you NEED to be in wrestling to get where you ultimately want to go…to school and in life.  Come up with a good answer to that and you are on your way. 

Alan Fried

OWS Admin Note:  This is the first in a series about off-season training that will be provided by Ohio Wrestling Site.  Alan Fried is perhaps the greatest high school wrestler to take the mat in Ohio, a four-time junior national freestyle champion who dominated like no wrestler in the past twenty years.  Fried was an NCAA Champion and three-time finalist in college, finishing with a 129-6 career mark with five of those losses (and two wins) being to 3x NCAA Champion and Olympic Gold Medalist Tom Brands.  Those who would like to learn from Alan can do so by attending his camps at Beachwood or Canal Winchester in June.  You can learn more by clicking on: http://www.alanfriedwrestling.com/camps.htm

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OhioWrestlingSite.com 2005