It's Not Where You Start, It's Where You Finish

This past weekend was great. It's been a long time since I have enjoyed a trip so much. After one of the longest breaks I have had in over 5 years, we were finally back on the mat. Four club wrestlers and I traveled to Virginia Beach for back to back tournaments on Saturday and Sunday. The weekend started off with a 6 hour drive to Virginia Beach. The first part of the trip went about like normal, everyone but me was asleep, but the last 3 hours were different. Everyone was awake, and we were having a great conversation about priorities. It's times like those that keep me going. It was a nice give and take, and it was rewarding to hear some thoughtful ideas from the wrestlers. These are the times that you get to know each other better and you find out who these young men really are.

I am a strong advocate of wrestling out of season. My elites compete almost year round. I do not demand that my wrestlers train out of season, but I do not think that any wrestler can be consistently good without it. There is no secret to success, it just takes HARD WORK! Heck, you will outperform over 80% of the people just by showing up and performing on a regular basis. If you work hard and have some desire you can beat another 15%, but that last 5% is always going to be a dog fight. Hard Work is the key to success in anything you do, but what separates "GREAT" from "GOOD"? It's Hard Work on the "RIGHT THINGS!" And that is where good people often wander off the path. They work hard, they put in a lot of time and effort, they are just not working on the things they need the most. How do you know what those things are? You get help. You surround yourself with people that can see what those things are. In my program, that's my job. But I can't see what you need help with if I don't see you compete.

I think hard work in the practice room is crucial to your success, but it's just busywork if you do not have a way of measuring your improvement. Competition gives you that. It will reveal what you have improved on, and what you still need to fix. But so many of my athletes avoid competition outside of the season. They are afraid that they will not do well, or are not good enough. That is exactly why they should be competing, especially out of season, it doesn't count. It's a free chance to see what you've got.

We will be competing the next two weeks in very tough tournaments. We will get to see some of the best wrestlers in the US. Justin sounded like the Champion he is when responded to another wrestler's verbal jab at him. In the first 10 seconds Justin was thrown to his back in his last match on Saturday. The wrestler said, "I thought you were going to get pinned, what were you thinking? That would suck to lose the last match like that." Justin responded, "It was a nice throw, but if I had gotten pinned, I would know what to look out for next time. It's a long season, and my goal is to be ready at the end. I'm not perfect and I'll make mistakes along the way, but as long as I have them corrected by the end it's ok." It was nice to hear one of our best wrestlers explain what I am always telling our team, "It's not where you start, it's where you finish that matters." That's also a good reason to avoid looking at where your opponents are ranked, but that is for a different blog.

Resiliency

Resiliency

"We will never participate in the promises of the future if we allow ourselves to be held captive by the pain of the past! " - Byrd Baggett

Resiliency - The ability to bounce back from failures.

I think resiliency is one of the most important traits necessary to become, but even more to remain, a champion. There are many traits that are needed to be successful: Persistence, Commitment, Focus, Desire, and Character are just a few. But resiliency is the one that separates the "Champions" from the winners.

Over the years, I have seen many wrestlers who start at a young age and are very successful early in their careers, but never make it in high school. I have seen wrestlers who do very well in their freshman or sophomore years but disappear later on. It takes a lot of work to become a Champion and it takes a special person willing to make the sacrifices in order to do the work. But once you achieve that Big Goal it takes a lot more work to stay at the top. There is an unspoken pressure on a Champion to have championship performances every time they compete. Everyone they compete against is out for them because of their accomplishments. This alone can be enough to wear some people down, but when they finally come up short in a big match or tournament (and they will because we are all human) the inability to let go of that pain can break people.

I have seen countless examples of wrestlers who could be great, but settle for less because of fear of failure. So many good high school athletes stop competing not because they have lost the will to win, but because they fear losing more. Coming up short of your goals hurts. Coming up short when you’re already a top performer hurts even more. But add to that loss the weight of your team’s performance, and the pain can be intolerable. A lot of people never recover from this, others continue but just go through the motions, never putting themselves on the line again. All of them have scars from the experience. A special few overcome those and rise to the top again.

East Gaston's wrestling program has a long tradition of excellence, and the risks for our top athletes to have a poor performance affect the team outcome are great. We have athletes now that I am sure feel the pressure every time they step on the mat. I am thankful that they have the courage to continue to step up in spite of the risk. I am thankful also to be around young men who have what it takes to get up and carry on. Two of our alumni have had to demonstrate great resilience in the past year.

Dusty McKinney, who is training to be East Gaston's first NCAA All-American has shown it. Just under a year ago Jared "Boo" Hogan died in a car accident. Dusty was a redshirt freshman at George Mason University. It was the first time since he started wrestling that he was not competing, and when we lost "Boo" it was especially hard on Dusty. They had been almost inseparable for years. Dusty was ready to pack it in. But he didn't. Slowly he found the strength to get up and go on, and this year he is more focused than ever.

Rob Tate has shown unbelievable resilience. As a defending state champion, and one of only 3 seniors, I'm sure Rob felt the silent expectations. A lot of them were his own. Rob suffered two losses at the end of the season that I am sure he believes cost him a state title, and worse, his team two state titles. This of course is not true. There are 14 weight classes and we had plenty of opportunities. But most people would never step foot on a mat again after experiencing such agony. Rob suffered from those, I can't imagine how much, but he has found the courage to get up and go again. He is competing for Gardner Webb University, and his coaches say he is one of the hardest workers they have. He is working to become one of EG's first NCAA All-Americans also. I am proud to know both Dusty and Rob and the many Warriors before them that have not only met the challenge of loss, but have used it to STAY WINNERS.