Where does Team USA go from here?

Op-ed – By the Open Mat Staff

So let’s start off by saying Congrats to these wrestlers for their efforts and preventing the US from brining home zero medals. The Women’s team did take home two medals with Elena Pirozhkov taking home a Silver Medal at 63 KG. The other medal was a Bronze by Tatiana Padilla at 55KG. Well done.

Well to say that people are disappointed with the performance of the Freestyle and Greco teams would be an understatement. I am not sure people had the highest expectations for this World Championships, but we did expect to bring home medals in each of the three styles. We as a country fell well short of that.

This will not be a typical event recap. I have intentionally not read much on the boards this morning with the exception of ours (which I have to monitor). The reason is simple; we wanted to give our thoughts with out the influence of what others are saying.

We plan on looking at all the arguments, debates, or reasoning as to why the USA seems to be on a bit of a decline. Many have different views as to why this may be happening. Our staff has spent endless hours discussing it among ourselves. We do not write much on the international styles (we just do not have enough time). But, we do discuss it in detail, share ideas etc… Below we will look at some of the theories out there and what we see as possible solutions.

Freestyle/Greco vs. Folkstyle

Let’s start with the most common debate we see out there. There are many in the wrestling community that like to blame our countries heavy focus on folkstyle wrestling as the reason we struggle internationally. In all honesty that is a sensible argument and has some valid points. But, considering the current freestyle rules I think this argument looses some of its shine. Why would we say that?

Simple, under today’s rules, all you need is one takedown or push out and you hold on for a win. Now think about that and think about how little that differs from folkstyle. There is no “special” double, single or Hi-C in freestyle. Yes, you have to worry about exposure on the way down, but any decent wrestler would not fall to their back in folkstyle either. Now some of you are saying, “yea but the mat wrestling is very different”. We reply to that by saying, “Really”? Have you watched much High School and College wrestling? Most coaches focus so heavily on takedowns only; we do not see mat wrestling being much of a factor. At the end of the day a takedown is a takedown. You need to score points to win matches. Go and watch the matches by US wrestlers and let us know what specific folkstyle technique made us lose matches.

Where the argument holds some water is that if a wrestler was able to compete in freestyle all year (and attend international level events) than yea it is reasonable to assume we would see improvement. I am leaving that vague for now as we will address it in its own section.

Leadership/Coaching

One thing we have seen and heard for awhile now is that we need a leadership change. We are not sure that’s the exact answer. But, what we do believe is that we need a serious shift in thinking and approach. We need fresh out of the box ideas; we need to evaluate our approach. What is the one thing that successful business people and successful wrestlers have in common? They both believe in one thing, constant improvement. They are never happy with the status quo and are always looking to make changes that will improve them and put them closer to their goal. With that said, our leadership needs to have that same approach. What ever we are doing now is not working the way we planned. We need to step back, revaluate, design a new plan and execute.

This also goes back to the old debate of whose to blame the Coach or the Athlete or both? Some blame the coach and say they are not doing enough or that they are not providing the appropriate tools. Others blame the athletes, maybe they are just not that good, they don’t work hard enough, they lack experience etc… First off, we as fans most likely will never know the answer. Second, the Country’s success and failures are made up of numerous factors and we should not over simplify things.

Fans do have a right to have expectations and demand a better product. We hope that the leadership and coaches come out and address the issues and let us know what the plan is going forward. Also, remember that nobody is more disappointed then the athletes themselves. We urge you to continue to support our athletes and their dreams.

“Money, so they say…”

Ok we did not really mean use a Pink Floyd song, but we think you know where we are going with this. One of the biggest complaints we hear is that it about the money. Wrestlers do not make enough, international events are expensive, and “who is going to pay for it”? That is what we hear and see discussed.

Now this is a touchy subject and has been the center of some pretty heated debates. Recently USA wrestling held a telethon for the “living the dream fund”. It was a good event and in our opinion was a success considering it was the first of its kind in wrestling.

The goal of the program is provide financial incentives for World and Olympic medals. This is a step in the right direction, but misses one key aspect. That would be the development aspect of the equation, which we will address in the next section.

What is the solution? Do we keep giving more and more money? Yes that is part of it. But the wrestling community itself can only do so much. What we need is a major corporate sponsor. Matter of fact we need more then one. USA needs to hire a fulltime corporate fundraiser. We need a professional that has in-depth experience. Maybe we have this already and we are unaware of it, if we do not we hope that it becomes a consideration.

Also let’s remember that money does not fix all problems.

Development

For us, this is the biggest area where change is needed. Here is an example and makes some reference back to the Living the Dream fund. Junior Worlds tends to be a good indicator for future success at the Senior Level. The question is what does the Living the Dream fund do to impact this, if anything? We ask because we do not know all the details. We love the idea that the fund represents and believe it is a major step. But what (at least based on what we know) does not address is the development side of things. How do we get guys to a position to win the medals in which they can receive a financial incentive? That is the question that we would like to see addressed most.

One thing that we think is needed is a training center or a resident (home) in Europe. This would be owned by USA and operated as a European training center. Think about it another way, almost every study shows that the best way to learn a new language or culture is through emersion. Why would that same logic apply to international wrestling? The idea is that you would rotate athletes in and out every few months. This would provide athletes with training and competitions against international opponents. It also makes more events accessible as travel costs become greatly reduced.

We also would like to see Clubs step up and take more ownership. In Russia a young wrestler joins a club and gets a coach. That coach stays with them throughout their career and coaches them at the World events. This model seems to work. The closest thing to that we have seen in the US is the Minnesota Storm Club ran by Dan Chandler. Take a look at how many medals that small club has pulled in. Dan has trained most of the athletes since their youth and the results have been pretty impressive. We have seen a growth in clubs in the US and hopefully that will lead to more success on the world stage. We also hope that USA takes the position that each athlete should have their day-to-day coach in their corner at big events. Synergy is a very important factor.

Another program we would like to see come back into existence is the Tour De Monde program. Where the top 3 place winners at each of the regional’s have the chance to attend an overseas tour. Sometimes they compete in tournaments and sometimes they compete in duals and train with foreign teams. This is an invaluable asset to young wrestlers and now gives them a taste for international competition. Currently there is so little exposure to international wrestling for our young athletes, it is no wonder that few have the goal or dream to win Olympic and World Gold.

Finally, we need more education and access to information that can benefit young wrestlers. We need a clear path as to what an athlete needs to do and what opportunities are available to them. Post a list of all events both domestic and international that is easy to find and search.

MMA

We have all heard the arguments how MMA is hurting our international teams. It is easy to see why people make this case. There is the incentive to make money off their wrestling skills. But let’s remember not every wrestler turned MMA has success or makes the big bucks right away if ever. Joe Warren recently stated he will be stepping away from MMA to focus on winning the Olympics. That is the hunger we need and is proof that the two can coexist. “Whoa wait a minute we have to see if he can be successful first” is what you may be saying. Correct, we do have to wait and see, but it is a positive step in our opinion. MMA could provide athletes with a living while they are training. It is a better idea then having a regular job and trying to train and compete on the world’s largest stage. At least with MMA you are focusing on your conditioning and training. It becomes a matter of technique and focusing on the skill set you need to improve.

We need a relationship with MMA and as we all know recently Dana White of the UFC stated that MMA needs to support amateur wrestling. Well, let’s make that happen. Our question is what steps have been taken to create a dialogue between USA and the UFC? We are hoping that USA jumped all over that and have engaged Mr. White or at least has the ball rolling. But, we also hope that USA takes the position that the two need to work together and not a position of “You need us more then we need you.” A relationship between the UFC and Amateur wrestling could possibly lead to some very positive things for our sport.

In summary, we believe there has to be a major shift in the current thinking and approach. More emphasis needs to be focused on the development of our young athletes and we need to create an atmosphere where young wrestlers develop a desire to win World and Olympic medals. We have stated some suggestions or ideas we have and we know we are not the experts, but the sharing of ideas can lead to positive change. Yes, this year was disappointing and if we recall correctly was the worse performance since 1935. We can sit around and complain or we can start discussions meant to encourage change.

To our world team members, thank you for your efforts and your hard work. We support you and hope that this experience serves as a motivator.