Watch a video about Jake Herbert – check out some of the training he did and find a little bit about his background with Northwestern and now with Michigan. Do all Big Ten schools go by just one word? Either way this video is well worth five minutes of your time.

What do you think of his chances for Gold in London?

One thing that helped me improve my wrestling results was to set some goals for my Senior year in high school. It’s something I wish I would have done my Freshman, Sophomore, and Junior seasons as well. For me it all started my Junior year when I finished exactly with a 500% winning percentage. 20-20-2. Can’t get much more even unless I tied 20 times that season instead of twice. It was the end of the year wrestling banquet, and several of the Juniors had better seasons than me and a few had worse seasons than I did. Coach said something to the effect of we have a nice group of returning wrestlers coming back and named off all the kids that had better seasons than me and even a few that had worse seasons than me, but he completely forgot to mention me as a returning wrestler.

So my first goal was for him to make sure he remembered me at the end of the seaon awards. That would mean to lead the team in pins and takedowns and wins. To be honest I can’t remember if I lead all those categories but if I did not I came pretty close. Also, I wanted to be a state qualifier that season. This goal really bothers me. It’s a goal that was a pretty lofty goal for someone who was 20-20-2 but really, I wish I would have set it much higher. I think you train much differently if your goal is to be a state champion or if your goal is to be an undefeated state champion than if your goal is to be a state qualifier. With your goals, make sure you set them really high and work your butt off to achieve those goals.

When I listen to the athletes who say their goal is a medeal at the end of the year and not specific enough to say, Gold or Silver or Bronze. I get reminded of my goal setting from my Senior year. Set those goals really high.

Much like Gable’s loss in his final college match, I feel that goal I set my Senior year, shaped the kind of person I would become. I simply did not set my goal high enough and now with my business and personal life I have high goals for myself (and possibly too high sometimes). That’s my second bit of advice, set them high but understand they are high.

My third piece of advice on goals is something I got from reading some coaching articles or attending coaching seminars, it’s something I wish I could remember where I heard it from so I could give credit. With your goals to make them more enjoyable is to set them based on effort. This is something we are going to do with my youth team this year. Instead of saying your goal should be to win X matches, we are going to say you need to wrestle in X amount of matches this season. The goal here would be based more on effort instead of results.

So what do you do with your team on goal setting? What are your thoughts on this blog post?

Post your comments below and post your team goals on our WrestlingGear.Com’s Facebook fan page

Learn more about Peak Performance Wrestling with Wrestling Your Perfect Match – this is a must have for any serious wrestlers libray.

Nutrition, and Weight Control
By Dan Gable
Buy Coaching Wrestling Successfully

Nutrition and weight control are probably the most controversial subjects in wrestling. Of course, the key issue here is weight loss. The image of a dehydrated wrestler wearing a sweatsuit in a hot gym in order to lose weight is not a healthy one for the sport. What wrestling needs to promote in terms of nutrition and weight is fitness and health.

Rules on Weight Control

Following the lead of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, the National Federation of State High School Associations has tightened regulations on weight control in wrestling. The NCAA made eight rule revisions after the deaths of three college wrestlers during weight-loss workouts.

All state associations are now required to develop and use a weight-loss program that discourages severe weight reduction. Each wrestler is also required to establish a certified minimum weight before January 15. Certification at a lower weight is then prohibited during the season. Another rule requires wrestlers to have at least half of their weigh-ins during the season at the minimum weight to be used during the state tournament.

Education is the key here. Athletes and coaches need to understand the importance of proper nutrition and end the training practices that brought about the association of starvation with wrestling. School systems should require nutrition courses. In addition, coaches, especially wrestling coaches, should have classroom-type discussions with their athletes about healthy eating and adequate fluid intake.

One key to success is being able to get quality work and effort out of your team on a consistent basis. Without proper nutrition, wrestlers’ attentiveness and stamina will fall off drastically, especially late in practice. I constantly read my athletes to gauge when to do a certain workout or conditioning drill and for how long. The more I can keep them working with quality efforts and attentiveness the better they are going to get.

Water availability along with an electrolyte (sports) drink is a must. The drinks should be cold for incentive to drink as well as for recuperation purposes. Disposable cups should be used and not shared. If your water source is a drinking fountain, make sure the water is cold and easily drinkable. Oftentimes in older facilities drinking fountains are nearby but barely working. Keep them usable and clean. Drinking fountains are not for spitting, blowing one’s nose, or getting rid of gum or chewing tobacco (which should not be permitted, anyway). Keep tissue and plenty of garbage cans for trash handy.

Coaches should have their athletes’ body compositions tested and have all the needed data and calculations for each athlete. The maximum weight loss under normal conditions should be no more than two pounds per week. Within this range, wrestlers should be able to maintain their strength and keep a positive attitude. Don’t let the athletes just tell you what they weigh; weight checks are necessary. Keep your eyes open for signs of incorrect weight loss measures or weight loss that is too rapid. Clear warning signs are lack of sweat, jumpy attitude, poorer performance, noticeable changes of body size, and frequent trips to the bathroom.

Because of recent tragedies in the sport involving wrestlers and weight loss, extra emphasis is being placed on education and safety rules. Specific concerns about the role of supplements and possible prescription drugs while training intensely are being looked at as well.

At the University of Iowa we test the body fat composition of our wrestling team once a year, and then periodically check some wrestlers throughout the remainder of the year. Each year in early to mid-September the team has mandatory testing with the team athletic trainer. This is within a month after they have returned to school and right around the start of organized practices. The results are used as a guide for the coaches and medical staff to evaluate the roster and begin making decisions about who will wrestle in which weight class. It also allows enough time to counsel and guide the wrestlers on how to safely and properly lose any extra weight over the next eight to ten weeks leading up to their first competition, which is usually in late November. New weight procedures could make for a possible date change of early testing.

The testing method we use at Iowa is caliperThe testing method we use at Iowa is caliper measurement. We have access to underwater weighing equipment, which is supposedly the most accurate measurement of body fat, but we use the calipers for several reasons. First, it is less time consuming for both the athletic trainer and the athlete. Second, calipers are more readily available and the test is easier to perform. Finally, underwater weighing has a high learning curve for those being assessed. If the testee is not well trained in having this done, the results may vary dramatically.

We test six different sites on the body with the calipers and use a formula developed by exercise physiologists which is specific to male high school wrestlers. Although these are collegiate wrestlers we are testing, the difference is believed to be minimal. The six sites we measure are the scapula, triceps, chest, suprailiac (hip), abdomen, and thigh. (See the worksheet at right)

We also measure their body weight and use the body fat percentage to estimate the “ideal” weight of the wrestler. The ideal weight is theoretically what the wrestler would weigh if they dropped their fat percentage down to five percent fat, which is the figure recommended for college-age athletes not to drop below. For high school athletes, it is recommended that they not drop below seven percent body fat.

In an attempt to be consistent among team members and from one reading to the next on the same athlete, we have an experienced technician perform the tests on all the athletes each time. In our case, the team athletic trainer performs all of the testing.

We recommend that the athletes be tested in the morning hours before they have eaten or worked out. It is important that they are well hydrated since a dehydrated state can skew skinfold readings. This is also when a most accurate weight can be assessed. It is possible and highly likely that with new procedures for making weight, hydration testing will be used along with skinfold measurement.

Attitude

Proper attitude is the last but certainly not the least ingredient for wrestling success. This trait affects all other areas. Without the proper attitude, a wrestler will only go so far. Physical ability can make a wrestler a winner early on in his career, but at more advanced levels where the difference in talent narrows, talent alone won’t do it. Your athletes have to be motivated to a very high level for them to be champion wrestlers. Their competitive abilities must be brought out of them through an internal desire to excel and maximize their abilities.

Through observation and good communication you can tell which athletes need to work on their attitude. Through team and individual discussions, you can bring about big improvements. Even highly motivated wrestlers need personal attention, so don’t overlook anyone on the team. You can address attitude in many ways, but it starts at the top, so make sure you (the coach) represent what you want your wrestlers to accomplish.

Next issue: Practice – Part 5

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dan Gable stands as one of the United States’ greatest collegiate and Olympic champions. As head wrestling coach at the University of Iowa from 1977 to 1997, Gable won the Big 10 Conference Championship in each of his 21 seasons. He also won an unprecedented 15 NCAA Wrestling Championships, including nine straight from 1978 to 1986.

As coach of the 1984 Olympic wrestling team, Gable led the United States to seven gold medals and two silvers and was named “best coach.” An Olympic wrestler himself in 1972, Gable dominated the field, going unscored upon in six matches to take the gold. Now serving as assistant to the athletic director at the University of Iowa, Gable has been inducted into both the Olympic Hall of Fame and the National Wrestling Hall of Fame, and in 1996 he was listed as one of the top 100 U.S. Olympians of all time.

From Coaching Wrestling Successfully by Dan Gable, Copyright 1998 by Dan Gable. Excerpted by permission of Human Kinetics, Champaign, IL.

By Randy Lewis, InsideTexasWrestling.com

In the fall of 1969, Jim Brandt, the gym teacher at Meadowbrook Grade School in Rapid City, South Dakota announced that in six weeks all students were going to take the President’s Physical Fitness Test. He posted the school records for each event. He told all of the 5th graders to try and pick out one record and see if any of us could beat it.

I saw that the school record for chin-ups was 18. I tried to see how many I could do. I did 12! When I went home that day, I told my dad about it. He said, “Why don’t you try doing 12 every day for a week, and then the next week, do 13 every day and then the next week do 14 every day until you get up to 18.”

I listened to him, and by the time of the fitness test, I could do 18 chin-ups. I tied the school record.

I also started wrestling that year for the first time. I became the school champion at the lightest weight class of 65 pounds. I knew only three moves, the double leg, half nelson, and the stand up. Jim Brandt and my dad, Larry Lewis took a bunch of us kids to the AAU Age-Group kid’s regionals to qualify for the state tournament. In my first official tournament, I went 5-0 and won the regional. From there it was on to the state tournament.

As I warmed up with the other wrestlers before the tournament started, I was in awe of competing against the best kids in the state. Some of them had been wrestling for three or four years. They had medals on their jackets, too.

I went and told my dad that some of these kids looked tough with their medals. With all their experience, I didn’t think I could win. My dad said “They might look tough, but I’ll bet none of them can do 18 chin-ups like you can.”

He also told me not to think of them as the best kids in the state. He said what if they were from Rapid City, and they went to Meadowbrook Grade School, and what if they lived right next door to us? If you couldn’t beat them, then you wouldn’t be Meadowbrook school champion, and you wouldn’t be the toughest kid on your own block. He said, “you are the toughest kid on the block aren’t you?”

I smiled, and said, “I sure am!”

Before my first match, I asked my opponent, a kid named Dan Blye, if this was his first state tournament. He said that last year he got second place. Feeling a little more nervous, I asked him how many chin-ups he could do. When he said 16, I felt better.

Knowing I was stronger than he was convinced me that I could overcome his experience, and beat him. I can vividly remember thinking that if he lived in Rapid City, if he went to my grade school, and if he lived next door to me, I could beat him. I knew I was the toughest kid on the block.

When the referee blew the whistle, I immediately shot in on a double-leg and would not let go. The matches then were two 2-minute periods, both starting on the feet. I ended up winning the match 4-1, getting both takedowns, and losing a point for choking.

I had five more matches that day, and I won them all by scores of 4-1, or 4-2, or 4-3. In every match I got points against me for locking hands or choking. I got every takedown and I would not let go once I got on top.

Before every match, I asked my opponent how many chin-ups he could do. Not one could do 18, like I could do. I also remembered to think about every match, not as if I was going up against the best kids in the state, but I brought them back in my mind to Rapid City. To Meadowbrook grade school, and all the way right next door. To my block.

At the end of the day, not only was I the South Dakota State champion at 60 pounds, but I was still the toughest kid on the block.

The next year, I went on to repeat as state champion at 65 pounds. From there, it was on to my first national tournament in Miles City, Montana. While I was warming up I saw a mean-looking kid with a crew cut about my size.

I went up and said hello and asked him what weight class he was wrestling. He said he was at 65 pounds and he was going to easily win the tournament. He said he was a two-time state champion from Wyoming and had never lost a match.

I told him I was a two-time state champion from South Dakota, and I had never lost either. He said he was going to easily beat me, and I had never had any kid tell me that before. I figured he must really be tough to go around telling other kids he was going to whip them. (This was the days before Muhammad Ali.)

I went over to the brackets to see who I had to wrestle, and wouldn’t you know it, I had the two-time state champion from Wyoming. Truth be told, I was scared. Then I asked the kid how many chin-ups he could do? When he said he could do 18, I smiled.

By now, I had set the Meadowbrook school record with 20 chin-ups. I knew I was stronger than the kid from Wyoming was. I remembered that if he were from South Dakota, if I couldn’t beat him, I wouldn’t be a two-time state champion. What if he was from Rapid City, and went to Meadowbrook grade school? What if he lived on the same block as me?

If I couldn’t beat him, I wouldn’t be the toughest kid on the block. Well, I got fired up and went out and whipped the kid from Wyoming 16-0, on the way to winning the tournament. Not only was I now a national champion, but I was still the toughest kid on the block.

It was this mindset that I continued to have great success, winning national titles at every age-group and winning the NCAA’s as a sophomore and making the world team as a true freshman. That took me to January 1980.

That was my junior year in college. In the middle of the college season, I went to Russia to wrestle in the toughest tournament in the world, the Tbilisi Tournament. This meet is considered tougher than the world championships or the Olympics, because so many Russians entered. The Russians at the time as they are now, were considered the best freestyle wrestlers in the world.

At the time, I was 20 years old, and wrestled at 136.5 pounds. Gene Mills and myself were the only two collegiate wrestlers to make this trip. At the time, I was a junior in college and thought I was the best wrestler in college at any weight.

I was the only collegiate wrestler at that time who had made both the world team and had won a NCAA title. While Mills was also a NCAA champion, he had not yet made a world team. I considered myself to be a better wrestler than Gene Mills.

What I saw from Gene Mills on this trip totally astounded me. “Mean Gene the Pinning Machine” as he became known, went on a tear. Wrestling at 114.5 pounds, Mills went 8-0 in the Tbilisi tournament, with 7 pins. In the finals, he was ahead 18-0 when they cautioned the Russian out of the match for stalling. I went 0-3 against the Russians and 5-0 against other foreigners on this trip.

Mills was pinning Russians right and left. How was he doing it, I asked myself? He was getting really psyched up before each match, saying I’m going to pin this Russian, I’m going to tear him up, nobody can go the distance with me.

I remember thinking, these are the Russians he is talking about, the best wrestlers in the world. How can he think he can pin them and beat them so easily? I thought, I am better than Gene, why is he pinning these Russians, and I am losing to them.

And then it hit me.

Mills was pinning these Russians and I wasn’t for the simple reason that he believed he would pin them. I was thinking, these are the best wrestlers in the world, how can I beat them? After the tournament, I remember thinking that if Gene Mills can pin these Russians, then so can I.

A few months later, the United States and the Soviet Union had a dual meet in my hometown, Rapid City, South Dakota. I was picked to wrestle for the United States team against the best Russian wrestler at 136.5 pounds, Victor Alexeev, a two-time world champion.

At the time, my record against the Russians was 0-5. Back in my hometown, my dad and all my friends all asked how I thought I could do against the Russian. I told them all I was going to pin him. They all said Randy, “how can you say you are going to pin the Russian? He is the best in the world, and you have never beaten a Russian.”

I told them, “Last night I looked through my old high school scrapbooks, and I counted all the matches I wrestled here in Rapid City in high school. I was 50-0 with 48 pins, and I won the other 2 matches by scores of 12-0 and 23-2. That’s what I do in Rapid City is pin people.”

And then I looked at my dad and told him, “Dad, tomorrow night, I am not going to be wrestling the best wrestler in the world. I’m going to be wrestling another kid who may have grown up in Rapid City, and may have gone to Meadowbrook grade school, and may have lived right next door to me, and tomorrow night we are going to see who really is the toughest kid on the block.”

Over 7,000 fans showed up the next night to watch the dual meet between the United States and the Soviet Union. The Russians won the first 3 matches before I stepped on the mat against Victor Alexeev. They had the momentum going their way.

Two minutes later, when I threw Alexeev on his back, I heard the loudest roar I had ever heard, only to be eclipsed 20 seconds later when the referee called the fall. With victories by Lee Kemp, Chris Campbell, Ben Peterson, and Larry Bielenberg (over 2-time Olympic champion Ivan Yarygin), the United States scored our first-ever dual meet victory over the Soviet Union.

My father, Larry Lewis organized the event, and former USA Wrestling Executive Director and now head of the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC), Jim Scherer has said it is still the most successful USA–Russia dual meet he had ever seen.

After the meet, I hugged my dad and told him I was still THE TOUGHEST KID ON THE BLOCK.

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.