Here's a recommendation that I would like to see...

Problem: As a club coach, if you don't get a chance to go to Fargo, Junior/Cadet/Schoolboy duals you don't get a chance to see the latest technique. How other states are wrestling etc. Therefore at the club level (which is the basis from which our state teams are built) we potentially aren't teaching the most current technique. If you are fortunate enough to live near Kansas City or Witchita this get mitigated a little because we can attend the different training sessions with the state coaches. We get on this board every year and talk about it but frankly it doesn't help the club coaches that are trying to coach the younger kids in this stuff. It would be nice if we did a clinic or something after Fargo so the rest of the coaches could learn.

Recommendation: Develop coaches clinics where folks can come and learn from the coaches that coach at the national events. This could do a couple of things....

1. Allow the state coaching staff to impart a baseline of technique that gets taught throughout the state.
2. Get more clubs supporting and competing in freestyle/greco.

We could align them somewhat with the regional training center concept. I would also recommend that we do a set of DVDs that shows the technique and how to teach it. This would also include some drills. Anyone who attends the coaches clinic would get a free set of these DVDs. That way coaches who have not wrestled freestyle/greco could review them at their leisure and use them in their practice rooms.

In my opinion, if we get club coaches teaching, encouraging, and promoting freestyley/greco then we will get the younger kids starting to wrestle those styles more. If we get the younger kids working in those styles then they should be more proficient when they get to the older levels and the national level tournaments.

Shawn Budke