By Jon McGovern

In wrestling we learn through physical conditioning to become physically tougher through the sport. You learn to work through pain, muscle soreness, and fatigue. In essence you become a tougher person through the sport of wrestling by never quitting. By definition the word toughness means strong and resilient and able to withstand great strain without tearing or breaking. Wrestlers that endure are tough by definition, so the next step is to turn this physical toughness into mental toughness to optimize one’s potential on and off the mat.

Everyone goes through life with adversity and strain. Coping with these life adversities can make the difference between optimizing not only your wrestling performance, but your life. Remember in your life and wrestling the phrase “If its gonna be its up to me” holds true. You are ultimately in charge of your life successes and or failures on and off the mat. So let’s cover the proven methods to help you stay mentally tough in the sport of wrestling and then you can apply them to all aspects in your life as well.

Mental toughness is a learned skill that can be acquired through habit and practice. It involves using your mind to achieve victory over your environment. Mental Toughness is essentially giving yourself the right messages in critical times stress, hence allowing you to withstand great strain without breaking. Losing composure or breaking during a long practice or tough workout is never a good idea. I suggest wrestlers never lose control of themselves in practice or a match as this is not a habit of developing composure. Swearing and throwing punches are a sign of breaking and a loss of composure and control. In essence they are a sign of breaking. This is something I heavily discourage. The idea is to develop your ability to handle more physical stress and strain while maintaining composure. Being able to withstand great strain and/or pain on the mat without letting it distract you from your goal is essential characteristic to success on the mat and in life. There are many things that could come into play during a match to add strain or cause a mentally weaker opponent to become distracted. The key to remember is that while nothing is ever perfect; you can just keep on going for excellence in your own life. You may have poor officiating, a coach who doesn’t know how to keep quiet, or your girlfriend may break up with you. Coping with these experiences is mainly a matter of attitude. You can either dwell on them and blow them out of proportion to their significance, or you can accept them and work and work on things within your control. Your reactions to these events are entirely up to you. Think positively and know that you can perform well despite distraction. Sometimes just having a sense of composure and control of your thoughts is half the battle and can give you extra confidence when you come to the next stressful event.

You can develop this confidence that will allow you to face pain and struggle with the resilience of an ancient gladiator. Remember to keep in mind the following:

Use only positive statements in your personal affirmations: Change thoughts of “I can’t” to “I can”, never allow yourself negative self-talk while training, change from “I have to” to “I want to” thinking. Through positive thinking and suggestion – say to yourself “I feel good” or “I can feel energy pouring into my limbs” you can overcome times in the match or competition when you feel sluggish. Never run away from a wrestler who may be better than you, they will only bring out the best in you. Correct your mistakes and don’t protect yourself from mistakes. Analyze your losses and mistakes learn from it and move on. Don’t take losses or criticism personally. Your identity in life is much more than that of a wrestler. Being a wrestler just enhances your identity in life by making you one of the toughest individuals on the planet! Realize that life is not always fair and that success will not come easy. Always have a purpose in your actions. Come to practice with a purpose – what do I want to get out of it. If you come to practice, the classroom, or almost any situation in life with a purpose, it is much easier to stay focus when distracts come into play. You will know what you want to get out of it and then make actions to ensure that there is a purpose to every event. I have my wrestlers write down at least one goal of what they want to get out of practice everyday. Not only does this give them a purpose and make them more accountable for their success in that practice, it gives them mental confidence. No matter what happens in that practice they will come away from that practice knowing they added at least one more weapon in their battle armor. If you practice daily never ending in your improvement in your wrestling and in life you will become more confident in yourself.

Again a lot of mental toughness training is learned through training. Your mind is an evolving sporting machine, much of the process of growing tough is in the process of organizing the vast chaos in life and turning it into an organized useful action. So next time you are feeling down or have a low motivation before practice use your positive thoughts and think of all the good in your life to overcome those obstacles. Even using body language can help. Put on a smile, walk straight, shoulders back, head up, get in a position for the neurons in your brain to think positive. Many elite athletes use acting to help they act how they want to feel. If you’re tired in practice but are smiling you have just acted your way into a successful mindset. Remember you’re too tough, too resilient, and too focused to lose control. No matter what the situation, no matter what your coaches throw at you, or what your opponent does, nothing can break you.

You are able to withstand the great strain in life without tearing or breaking. Toughness is being able to create those positive emotions upon command, thus enabling you to bring all your ability to life in that moment. Good luck this upcoming season: and remember that thinking successfully leads to acting and living successfully.

By John McGovern

Most fitness civilians can recover at their own pace from workouts because they don’t deplete themselves of their carbohydrate stores in a typical workout like wrestlers. However, for elite athletes like wrestlers paying attention to pre-workout and post work-out carbohydrate ingestion is essential to optimal training and performance. Here are some suggestions for using food to your advantage before, during, and after competition.

The pre-competition meals should be monitored closely during the 24-48 hours prior to competition. Often the more intense the competition the higher the anxiety level. If you are too nervous to consume a lot of food before competition eat frequent smaller snacks with easily digested foods like bananas or a sports nutrition shake. In general, it is best to start building your carbohydrate stores in the blood for competition by eating high-fiber, low-glycemic index foods like apples two to three days before competition. Do not experiment with new foods or supplements during this the time period, save that for the off-season. Build into the quick release good carbohydrates such as single ingredient whole foods like raisins and potatoes. Remember when you eat a regular meal it takes about three hours to digest before your competition. Avoid a meal that is too heavy for example a steak or hamburger. Eat a light snack apple, banana, yogurt, about one hour prior to competing. Make your pre-competition meals about two-thirds easily digested carbs, and only about one-sixth protein and one-sixth fats. Fats and proteins take longer to digest and can make you feel bloated prior to competition. Do not avoid protein and fats altogether, just make them lighter on the digestive track. Instead of hamburger or steak go for chicken soup, turkey, tuna, or a protein drink. You want the blood ready to pump in the muscles and not in the stomach kicking in enzymes to digest the proteins from steak during your match. If you take liquid nutritional supplements or energy bars make sure they are cleared by your coaching staff and/or athletic trainer. Many substances once thought of as harmless are now banned by the NCAA and many high school associations.

When deciding whether to eat or how much to eat before a wrestling workout or competition, make the decision based on your energy level during your workouts or competitions and adjust accordingly. If you find yourself sluggish or running out of steam during your workouts, then you may need to take in more carbohydrates. If your last meal was three to four hours before your workout, then you should eat a snack high in quick energy carbohydrates. Foods like whole bagels, crackers, fig bars, juice, granola, or carbohydrate drinks or a even small meal within the 30-90 minutes before your workout would help keep your energy and bloods sugar levels stable.

After making weight, focus on foods and fluids that will help you recover and won’t negatively affect performance. The best choices for replacing sweat losses include: juices, which supply water, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals (electrolytes). Watery foods such as watermelon, grapes, and soups that supply fluid, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals, high crab sports drinks, and water are excellent choices. Good competition day snacks include: bagels, bananas, apples, fig bars, cereals, applesauce, granola bars, sports drinks, and grapes, whole grain bread, brown rice, pancakes, fish, fresh fruit, beans, peas, and lentils. Avoid bulky, fatty or seedy foods. Again choose foods high in carbohydrates and moderate in protein and fats. If you become dehydrated during an unusually long and strenuous bout of exercise, you should drink frequently for the next day or two. Your body may take up to 48 hours to replace the sweat losses. That is why in wrestling you should never lose more than 2% of your body weight in practice (for example 3 lbs for a 150 lb person). You should always drink water throughout the practice. On day of weigh-ins if you need to lose more than three pounds make sure that you keep the water intake high and do your sweating no more than four to five hours prior to weigh-ins. Studies have shown that being deprived of water for longer periods of five hours or more and your body starts to turn cannibalize muscle protein for energy. If you start losing the water weight more than five hours prior to weigh-ins, you have just cost your muscles some serious protein and in the end you will be a weaker competitor for it. If you do need to lose a few pounds for a match, don’t stop liquid intake until two hours before weigh-ins then rehydrate immediately after weigh-in.

To properly recover from making weight a wrestler needs water. Water and electrolytes are needed to replenish glycogen stores, reduce muscle and oxidative stress and rebuild muscle protein. The role of hydration can not be overstated. Fluid and electrolyte replenishment is crucial in maintaining cardiac output and regulating body temperature during exercise. Water is important but it is not the only component. Electrolytes must be replaced as well and this cannot be accomplished by water alone. Supplements that could be considered for post weigh-ins are a carbohydrate/protein mix or fluid replacement drink, vitamins c & e, glutamine, and branch chained amino acids. After your workout eat carbs and a moderate amount of proteins in your meal within thirty minutes of your workout. Then eat a main meal about sixty to ninety minutes after your workout. Good examples would be: fresh fruits, bagels, raisins, yogurt, tuna, pretzels, granola bars, fruit juices and sports drinks. Ideally, you should consume carbohydrate rich foods and beverages within fifteen minutes of making weight. That is when the enzymes responsible for making glycogen are most active and will most rapidly replace the depleted glycogen stores. You’ll need about 75 grams of carbohydrates or 300 calories within the first thirty minutes to aid your recovery. Two hours later you should eat another 300 calories of high carbohydrate and high protein foods. Some examples might be an eight ounce glass of orange juice and a peanut butter covered bagel, twelve ounces of cranberry juice and an eight ounce cup of yogurt, or one bowl of corn flakes with a milk and a banana. Don’t avoid protein in your recovery. Protein, like carbohydrate can stimulate the action of insulin, the hormone that transports glucose from the blood into the muscles. Eat protein rich foods with carbohydrate rich foods. Combinations such as protein rich milk with cereal, turkey on a bagel, protein rich yogurt with juice are good examples.

Remember if you decide you must experiment with your diet, do so in the off-season. This will give you an idea of what sits best with your digestive tract. Focus more on healthy eating than dieting in the off-season. The best approach to take for healthy eating and nutrition is a year round approach. When choosing your meals and snacks base your nutrition game plan on variety, moderation, and wholesomeness. Each food offers special and unique combinations of nutrients in their most bio-available form. Oranges may offer vitamin c and carbohydrates but no iron or protein. A slice of roast beef offers iron and protein but no vitamin c or carbohydrates. There is no one magic food. Remember you’ll do best eating a variety of fresh foods that are low in processing.