Now is the time to develop some season goals. What would you like to be able to bench, squat, deadlift, hang clean, power clean? How many push ups will you be able to do at the end of the season? Will you be able to run 2 miles under 12 minutes…work with your coach to develop some season fitness goals? How many 400 meter sprints will you be able to do, how fast, etc?

Start to think about how you want to finish the season. Do you want to be a Regional Champ? Sectional Champ? State Place Winner? State Champion?

Set a long term and set some interim goals to make sure you are making progress towards that long-term goal. Make sure you review your progress at least once every couple of weeks. The key is to set a specific goal. Don’t set a goal to wrestle well. That particular goal is not easily evaluated to see if you achieved this goal or just as important you can’t objectively see you are making progress towards that goal.

Set a goal to win a State Championship then set interim goals to win a couple interim tournaments. Make sure you work hard to qualify for each stage of your year-end tournaments. Make sure you don’t overlook your qualifying tournaments to get to the state finals. E.g. don’t say you want to be a State Qualifier and then forget that you still have to take Regionals (the first qualifying tournament) seriously otherwise you won’t have a chance to qualify for the State Finals.

Challenge yourself on and off the mat. Make sure you set some goals that relate to your educational goals. First make sure you are eligible then start working on getting grade for college or post high school training.

Article written by Jeff Pape and updated 10/28/2009

Jeff Pape is the founder and current owner of WrestlingGear.Com, Ltd. Jeff wrestled for one of the winningest coaches in the country, Charlie Farina of East Leyden and Leyden wrestling. He qualified for the Illinois State Tournament reaching the State Quarterfinals but failed to place. Jeff continued to wrestle at the University of Illinois – Urbana/Champaign before hanging up his wrestling shoes after about 3 semesters on the varsity practice team (e.g. never broke the line up). He has a Bachelors of Science in Accountancy from Illinois and a MBA from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management with majors in Marketing and Operations.

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