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Good crop of questions today, let's keep the momentum rolling. How much of a gap do you see between PSU and OK St. or VA Tech? - Wesley I think it is still significant. I think Oklahoma State has the momentum and could trend upward to closing it in the next few years. They have a great staff, the plan looks pretty clear and they seem to have the funding necessary to get there. VTech is also crushing it and should be near the top for a long time. How often should a young leader take a walk in the woods? - Kevin McGuigan One more time than he did yesterday. How much influence did you have in developing the women’s program at Wyoming Seminary? Was Fuller referenced in the early days of the program? - Kevin McGuigan I've spoken pretty extensively about this in the past and I consider the start of the program more important than the two National Titles we won at Sem on the boys side. It was a lengthy process and a lot of collaboration with Terry Steiner to get it going. The guiding principle I used was that programs with a big platform in Men's Wrestling have a RESPONSIBILITY to support Women's wrestling/. I'm glad that it has survived and hope to see it continue to be the standard for prep schools. Any thoughts on modernist literature as well? - Rhino I used to teach a class called the Lost Generation, so I'm a fan. Here are my rankings 1- Joyce 2- Scotty 3- Kafka 4- Eliot/ Pound 5- Hemingway General discussion on kids who are registered for Super 32 and back out of going. Understand that some kids do sustain injuries, but there are also others who no-show that are not injured. Some had bad preseason showings in other tournaments. Some are committed to schools already. Feels like some kids are worried about their stock going down further (e.g., selectively wrestling). From a college wrestling standpoint, especially high school seniors who are committed, are college coaches able to pull scholarships if your results start sliding? Follow-up to question #1 - how do you penalize those that selectively wrestle? Do you start removing them from rankings or moving down in the rankings if they do not compete for a certain period of time?- Matty D My most honest answer is I don't care because I think Super 32 is by far the most overrated event in terms of importance, and I think HS rankings are essentially meaningless. Both are more important to Moms and Dads than they are to kids and college coaches. College coaches go because there are so many kids there and it is cheaper than doing a bunch of home visits, but they aren't pulling scholarships based on Super 32 results alone. The registration process is such that you need to secure your spot early, and a lot can happen between then and the event. I have no issue with kids choosing not to compete and have advised it in the past. It is October. If someone only competes in season, they aren't "selectively wrestling." They are being a normal HS athlete. I guess I don't really think too much about whether that means what number an old dude should put next to their name on the internet. A lot of these kids are 14/15 years old and they need time to train and allow their bodies to grow. Pushing them into competing 13 months a year may be great for the top 2% of kids, but it is harmful for the majority.

Hey guys, Not much on the mailbag question box today, so making sure I give you some content to digest for the weekend. Have a good one! So we were going over some technique last month and it was valuable, but I wound up sharing more of my philosophy of teaching and learning than I did actual detailed technique. I thought I might drop some of that here too. Let’s face it- this will be a long post and some of you won’t read past this paragraph. Those that do - thanks! I hope you agree with some of it. Conversations about teaching and learning are always productive on this page. I think all wrestling technique should be presented in its simplest form and that wrestlers need to understand the concepts behind the move. We spend an RTC day working two-on-one technique (big surprise, I know). I’ve seen a lot of people teach off a 2 on 1 and picked up a ton of good stuff. But I didn’t really fully UNDERSTAND it until I saw Andy Seras teach it about 10 years ago. He talked about the need for the guy to feel like if he didn’t react, I am going to go behind and score, and that pressure to react needed to be constant. Very astute, because everything from the move stems from that pressure. Everything else (head placement, motion, how to obtain it, offensive attacks, etc… ) builds off of that concept. So that’s how we drilled. A mistake I have made, and a mistake I see made often is spending too much time early debating the very minute details of technical wrestling. That’s why I have come to favor play wrestling over station-to-station drill. The wrestler needs to understand the big ideas of the move before they are ready to hone in on the details. You have to establish the base/ core and then build out. Here are a couple of analogies I use to drive this point home. The dad in the backyard throwing a baseball - the ones who are most successful teach their kid to have a catch by standing a few yards away and throwing the ball back and forth. The ones that aren’t do that crazy "stand behind their kid and grab their arm and put the kid through the throwing motion" and correct every single mistake. The reality is if you just give the kid the opportunity to throw the ball, and keep catching it and throwing it back - they are gonna want to play catch with you. After that love is established, and the concepts are understood, build on it. If you strive for perfection too early in developmental stages, they are going to hate baseball and wanna play World of Minecraft all day. My other analogy was as a teacher. The worst thing in the world as an English teacher is seeing kids that hate to write. This typically stems from a lack of confidence that is often reinforced by archaic grading practices. A kid needs to be able to present big ideas first in their writing. There is nothing more discouraging to a student than getting back a paper that had great insight/ ideas/ arguments/ etc…..but still gets a D due to mechanical/ spelling errors. Again- big picture first - then details. You will never teach a kid how to become a better speller if they don’t think you value their ideas. And even if you could, what would you be teaching them? I suppose I should be afraid here that someone will read this and think that I never break down technique, or address the finer points of the sport. I'm not. I think the product I have put on the mat speaks to that, and anyone who has spent time in the room knows I mix in plenty of correction and details. But none of that happens effectively without conceptual understanding. Anyway - long winded again, but if you are still reading a) thank you and b) you should probably get a life! So much of learning is innate and instinctive and sometimes coaches need to stay out of the way and allow it to happen. Be a facilitator/ cheerleader/ guide/ presenter more often than you are a corrector. You might like the results you get!