It was an exciting summer for women’s wrestling. As I mentioned in previous posts, more females are assuming leadership roles, college programs are adding women’s wrestling as a varsity sport and females participating in wrestling in the US is higher than ever. I’m excited about these changes and I believe women’s wrestling is “on the right path” to growth and international success.
Recently, the US men’s freestyle and Greco-Roman teams were unsuccessful in earning a medal at the World Championships for the first time since 1974. Many athletes, coaches and fans are discouraged by the outcome and are beginning to question the “path” that our international athletes and/or USA Wrestling are on. In the wake of all of the accusations and attacks, I think it’s important to point out what the women’s side of wrestling is doing and why I think the women are on a path to much more international success in the very near future.
This group of athletes loves to wrestle! I have a renewed sense of joy and love for the sport of wrestling after a weekend with our female athletes. They love to train and compete. The sport is still very new to them. I believe joy and love are the two most important motivating factors on earth. It seems as if there is a shift in motivating factors with many of the male athletes that is closely associated with winning medals and earning money. The top women are competing (and having success) because they enjoy what they’re doing.
The national team system is focused on development. Terry Steiner and Coach Izzy do a wonderful job at developing the Cadet and Junior level athletes to compete at the international level. They already have a lot of things on their side, such as more focus on freestyle (less on Folkstyle) for young athletes, females are physically able to compete with senior level athletes much sooner than men, etc. Nonetheless, they place a keen focus on developing these athletes for future international success.
The national team staff is tangible to youth athletes. The pool of athletes is much smaller than the men’s side, no doubt, however, most of the female athletes at the various girl’s national tournaments know Terry Steiner and Coach Izzy personally. Not only do they know them, they see them at their events. It’s invaluable for those young female athletes to know the individuals they aspire to be and have opportunities to work with them. On several occasions, the junior development camps are held alongside national team camps.
We’re one team – Team USA. Obviously, the domestic competitions are fierce and personalities are not always eager to work together. However, in the end, it is one team. I see USAW and the national team staff turn to grassroots members, college coaches and club coaches for input. It’s almost as if people are uniquely positioned to challenge the leadership to help the program grow. As a result, when it’s time to represent the country, everyone is on the same page because they have fought for common goals.
Depth. The women’s national team training model, including the things mentioned above, is proven to be successful with the current depth in the US. The athletes train together regularly (iron sharpens iron) and our 2nd and 3rd athletes are as good as our number one on any given day. This year, all seven world team members had potential to earn a medal at the world championships. Not all of them did. What’s unique about the women is that there were 2-3 athletes at each weight class that would have had the same realistic chance at a medal and in some cases, a better chance.
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