I wrestled for 15 years and have good experience but this is my first year coaching. I am a middle school assistant coach, my head coach is also a first year coach. Over those 15 years I have gathered the good and bad things that my coaches have done and will implement the good into my style but, is there any advice you can give me?

Nothing has, or ever could have, prepared you for the parents you are going to have to deal with. Some will have you question why you ever took the gig. others will be great though and the kids are awesome. Frustrating at times, but awesome.

The absolute BEST advice I ever heard from someone when I got in to youth coaching was, "Think very hard about the words that come out of your mouth before they leave your lips. Something you say can stick with a kid forever." This can obviously be a good thing, but it can also be a bad thing. As they say, it is impossible to un-ring a bell.

Enjoy and good luck. You are doing the Lord's work. This generation of kids needs wrestling now more than ever.

Thank you! I already learned that anything I say sticks, it wasn't anything bad thank goodness. I am already in love with it, I have those certain kids that are passionate about learning new moves. It makes me enjoy going in everyday. Along with the challenge of getting the less motivated kids going it is very fun! Our first tri-meet is tomorrow excited yet very nervous.

One of the best pieces of advice I got from a respected veteran coach when I first started (nearly 20 years ago....man, I'm getting old!) coaching was the phrase, "Nothing is learned until it's taught and nothing is taught until it's learned"! I used to get extremely frustrated, to put it mildly, when athletes couldn't do what I asked/coached/taught. He told me every time I get frustrated remember that phrase! I used to get pissed at him!! LOL!

The point is.....never stop teaching/coaching, if they don't get it, teach/coach it again...and again...and again......................... : thumbup:

GL today at your meet!!

One of the things I learned over the last 20 years of coaching various sports is to make sure you teach in great detail and drill until it is second nature. When I first started I had kids wrestling live for half of the practice if not more. Now, we may wrestle live for 15 minutes a day. We focus on learning moves and situational tactics and then drill them at match speed (once they have drilled it slow and learned it). We get a better workout with hard drilling than with live wrestling at this point. I used to think the live wrestling would help them figure things out but all it does is create bad habits and kids who quit because they haven't learned anything.

I know that seems like common sense...but you would be surprised how many coaches still just have kids wrestle live all day and don't teach in detail.

JH level...keep things fun and get everyone involved. Maybe not involved in all the matches, but definitely involved with the team. If you have "THAT" kid - make him the captain of a dodge ball team a few times. Make sure to do one thing (the same thing) each day that builds the individual and the team. Make it meaningful to the present and their future - be it in wrestling or not.

The sport teaches many of things - the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing. Lose sight of that and you'll be left only with wins and loses.

Basically adding on to ksig ...

- Limit the number of moves that you show, and work on them daily so that the kids get them down. You don't need to show 27 moves to novices.
- Guys need to have something on the right side and something on the left side, but those moves don't need to be the same ones, or start with the same ties or set-ups. Help each kid perfect the things that he is catching onto (as well as improve on fatal weaknesses of course).
- HARD drilling beats live wrestling for technique improvement, and for conditioning. Live situations are better than "matches."
- If there are experienced guys who need some acceleration of instruction, try to provide it, somehow. My son was on a terrible JH team ... nice kids, but they were all novices ... and the coach balked at my suggestion that he attend one advanced practice per week (elsewhere). I understood why (team unity, no one is "special," etc.), but it hindered his development during those two seasons.

Good luck.

In my 9 years of coaching and 20+ involved in the sport, the biggest thing I can think of for a JH coach is that one dad who insists on screaming matside as if he is Dan Gable... My advice is to nip that in the bud asap... Address it at the parent meeting and if it continues to happen address it to the dad sooner rather than later...Much like a 4 year old, the longer the dad gets away with acting like this, the more he thinks it's OK...if you address with him and it hasn't stopped, tell ur Ad... God forbid the dad have another kid coming through the program and instead of dealing with him for 2 years you'll be putting up with him for 4...just my unsolicited two cents... Well technically my two cents were solicited... Anyhow Good Luck!

Thank you all! a lot of good pointers! I've told the kids I want them to drill hard ("you will wrestle how you practice") I've also shown the kids how I want them to drill so they could see how it should look but they just either don't understand or lack the motivation to drill hard and properly. any suggestions on how I can get them to drill with a good pace?

Bring in a couple current college wrestlers to show them. I have learned that no matter what you say, they will believe the same thing more if it comes from another athlete instead of the coach. Even if you wrestled 4 years in college that means nothing to them in the place of a current college wrestler.

takedown20;1767122 wrote:Thank you all! a lot of good pointers! I've told the kids I want them to drill hard ("you will wrestle how you practice") I've also shown the kids how I want them to drill so they could see how it should look but they just either don't understand or lack the motivation to drill hard and properly. any suggestions on how I can get them to drill with a good pace?

Definitely good to show them what it should look like. Maybe set goals / expectations for each few minutes? "Each guy should be able to hit 6 reps in the next two minutes." Stay on them ... keep harping on how intense drilling will make them better; then if you can find some correlations between the guys who have been trying to do it right and success in competition, highlight that to everyone and it might sink in with others.

I like to drill various techniques for 30s and 1min intervals and give them a set # of reps that should be performed in those time intervals. I also like to pair experience with inexperience or someone who gets it with someone struggling (helps pickup the one struggling). I also agree, if able, with bringing in current college wrestlers to show and wrestle with our guys. : thumbup:

We also go for a number of reps in a time...we use 5 reps in 35 seconds. We talk constantly about attacking or faking every 6 to 7 seconds on our feet.