Ray Brinzer Talks About the Launch of TOM’s Coaches Club

The Open Mat (TOM) Coaches Club is the newest offering from TOM. Membership enrollment opens on February 28, 2011. Coaches will also be able to sign up for individuals training sessions that same day. TOM will be presenting two webinars per month on an ongoing basis. Coaches have the option of joining “The Club” or participating in stand alone sessions.

TOM is known for taking a different approach. This new service will be led by Ray Brinzer. Coach Brinzer is a true student of the sport. The former Iowa All-American is known for his in-depth knowledge of the sport. He has taken that knowledge and created a curriculum that can help coaches of all levels.

Historically the only real resources for coaches have been one or two day coach’s clinics and or technique videos. Coach Brinzer thinks that there is significant information being missed as it relates to being a successful coach. Coaching wrestling is much more then having a deep knowledge base of technique. It is about athlete development, motivation, teaching and analysis.

The program is designed to provide coaches with a resource that assists them all throughout the year. The focus is on how to become a better coach and manage athletes. This is a different approach then what has traditionally been done in coach’s education and development. The focus is on the coach and not the different wrestling techniques. Technique issues will be covered throughout but not in the traditional sense. A heavy focus will be on coaching philosophy and strategies.

The first webinar will be held on March 22, 2011 and is Titled “Athlete Psychology and Motivation”. You can register here.

Coach Ray Brinzer sat down and discussed this new service being offered by the company he co-founded.

TOM: By starting this new service we assume you feel that there can be more done to help coaches, is that an accurate assumption?

Coach Brinzer: The area of coaches’ education which is reasonably healthy is technique. There are lots of resources for learning moves: web sites, videos, camps, clinics, books, and so on. There are still things I’d like to see in that realm which aren’t being done, but at least it’s a facet of coaching which is being served.

That’s not nearly adequate, though. It’s as if a painter thought only of details, with no thought for composition, color, perspective, and so on. You wind up with an intricate mess, with no theme tying the elements together. I want to help people explore the rest of wrestling: strategy, peaking cycles, managing athletes, psychology, athletic (including strength) training, and so on.

TOM: You have thought a lot about this we see, what do you think are currently the biggest needs for coaches?

Coach Brinzer: I see two areas where there’s a strong need. First, there’s just not enough information out there on all-around coaching. Too often, our coaches miss even the low-hanging fruit. There are areas of wrestling which are legitimately hard to learn, but a lot of it is simple: productive habits, a sensible approach to things, and perspective on what you’re trying to accomplish. A lot of it seems like common sense once you have it, but looking at the community, you realize how relative the term “common” is.

And then, there are those things which we’re just doing wrong.

We bring a lot of new people to the sport each year, but our retention is poor. We have too many athletes who are prospering in high school but can’t make the adjustment to college… or, worse, who don’t want to, because they’re so eager to be done with wrestling. Increasingly, our top high school athletes seem technically narrow, and unable to adapt to changing circumstances. This suggests a problem with the way our *good* coaches are approaching things. As Mark Twain said, “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.”

When you have such problems, there’s no reason to think that you can’t fix them. We need to think about what the causes are, and what we need to change.

TOM: How do you think this new service can address this?

Coach Brinzer: Traditionally, craftsmen gain these sorts of things during an apprenticeship. In such a situation, people learn not just the craft itself, but how a shop runs, how to conduct business, and so on. That works well, which is why so many top coaches were athletes in top programs.

The problem is, wrestling doesn’t have the economic engine behind it to allow such a system to scale. When I can work directly with coaches, we get a lot done… but I’m never going to have a broad impact that way. I’m hoping to use the web to reach a lot of coaches, and a great many athletes by proxy. There’s room for videos and books on this stuff, but “webinars” will give me the opportunity to interact with coaches, answer questions, and have discussions. And I enjoy that sort of thing, so I’m looking forward to getting started.

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