How to Coach Wrestling

Today’s podcast features strength and performance coach, Ethan Reeve. Ethan is the director of strength and performance for MondoSport USA.  He is the former president of the CSCCa, and has 44 years of experience coaching in college and high school ranks.  In addition to decades in NCAA athletic performance, Reeve was a SEC champion wrestler, and was the head coach of the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga wrestling program from 1985 to 1990, achieving 5 Southern Conference titles in 6 years. In the process of strength and conditioning/physical preparation; we can never get too far from the process of physical education and routinely observing the core qualities of athleticism An interesting element in sport performance, and sport coaching in the past decades is that, compared to the pre-2000’s era, there are less coaches now who have physical education backgrounds.  Perhaps, this is because, as the industry moves forward, physical preparation/athletic performance has swung more towards the quantitative aspects, than the “art” form of the process.  Maybe it’s that most strength and conditioning jobs are working with high school or college athletes who are “further” along in their athletic development.  Maybe it’s how the role and funding for physical education has been devalued over time.  Despite all of this, as I get older, the more and more I realize just how much physical education has to offer, not only young athletes, but also the thought process in working with more established ones, and I believe physical education, and multi-sport coaching principles (such as wrestling in the scope of today’s show) should be far more common-place in athletic development conversations. On today’s podcast, Ethan talks about his blend of the principles found in physical education and wrestling, and how these funnel into a sports performance training session.  He speaks on how he views physical training through the eyes of a wrestling coach (of which he was a very successful one) and the learning environment he looks to set up in his training sessions.  We discuss “belly up” speed training, key ground-based training movements, and other important principles of building a total athletic development program. Today’s episode is brought to you by Lost Empire Herbs and Exogen wearable resistance gear. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for free (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 2:57 – Ethan’s journey physical education and wrestling training, and how that blended into his strength and conditioning practices 6:10 – The importance and correlation of integrating basic physical education movements, into sport performance training 12:41 – “Belly Up” movements transitioned into sprinting, for athletic development 19:31 – Examples of blending physical education principles into track and field and sport performance training settings 23:16 – Ethan’s take on how to be a better student of learning and teaching in one’s sport coaching process 35:10 – The importance of the total environment in the learning process for athletes 41:00 – How to use the 80/20 or 90/10 principle to help determine one’s core principles and focus in practice 46:19 – The intersection of what wrestling and track and field has to offer in terms of general physical preparation 54:42 – How Ethan views the role of the weight room from middle school, up until college in training 59:12 – Calisthenic, gymnastics, and rolls that Ethan feels great athletes can do well in the movement section of training 1:03:13 – Gymnastic, tumbling type work, and its impact on athlete mobility Ethan Reeve Quotes “(In physical education) We were taught dance, and rhythm, as well as lifetime sports” “We had ropes we climbed, we had pegboards, we had tumbling mats, rope skipping was big, just a lot of good human movement; I wish we will had that structured movement for the young kids” “I think the eye of the coach is still the best way to do this” “If you want to be able to move, you have got to be able to bend, and if you can’t move, you can’t help us” “When you start doing tumbling, the fluid in your ears gets jumbled up, but when you do it every single day, you get more athletic… when you can do it without getting dizzy, you can orient yourself quicker” “Our best wrestlers were those that could be in a wrestling stance, get their chest belly to the ground, and then get back to that stance the most quickly; those tended to be our better wrestlers, something about getting down to the floor and getting back up…. We did a lot of speed work getting up from the belly” “Every 9-15 minutes out of a 60 minute lift, I would spend on athletic movements” “When I walked into a weightroom, I approached it like teaching wrestling” “The term in wrestling is that champions come in pairs” “If you are going to teach and coach, the first thing you need to have is, is you have kids that are coachable and teachable” “We found that the kids that did the poorest with that hand-eye coordination (test) were the ones who got injured” “If you ever get the chance to go to the baboons and chimpanzees, you can sit there for hours and watch the moving, wrestling, and jumping around of these baboons and chimpanzees” “That’s my favorite, the Silverback gorilla, nobody messes with it, but it also has that gentleness to pick up that baby gorilla” “In middle school, their strength is going to come from climbing ropes, and pushups, but now you are in 9th grade, you got to put some weight on the bar” I think skipping rope is one of the best things, still, and ladder drills, that connection to the ball of the foot is so important” “What’s going to help with skipping rope, hurdles, tumbling is if you do it every day” About Ethan Reeve Ethan Reeve is the director of strength and performance for MondoSport USA.  He is the former president of the CSCCa, and has 44 years of experience coaching in college and high school ranks.  Ethan has worked as a strength coach at the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga, Wake Forest University, and Ohio University, as well as the high school realm.  In addition to his experience in athletic performance, Reeve was a 2x NCAA All-American and 4x SEC champion wrestler at the University of Tennessee.  He was the head coach of the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga wrestling program from 1985 to 1990, achieving 5 Southern Conference titles in 6 years.