Originally Posted By: Coach Alley

Ouch! Now I know why you told me it was time to get out of coaching. I've moved kids around to fill lineups, win duals, have great matchups for all of my 36 years of coaching. I have always emphasised TEAM to my kids in the dual setting and it carries over to the tournaments. My wrestlers knew that they may be moved up to fill a void, or for a specific matchup that might save team points in order to win the dual. Have I had kids upset or even dad's upset, you bet and I'd do it again because of what it teaches kids.

One of the things I admire most about this sport is that it teaches life lessons better than any other sport. In life you learn that sacrifice is necessary to achieve something worthwhile. We lose weight to achieve a goal of maybe making the team, getting to a weight where we can be successful or because that is where the team needs you and you are the best candidate to handle it. In a dual, I taught kids that they may have to sacrifice their weight and move up if the team could benefit from the move and win the dual. Sometimes that meant giving up an individual win and wrestling a match where you try not to give the opponent bonus points in a loss. Every team member understood the sacrifice their team member made for THEM. Some of the most exciting matches I've coached over the years was when an individual was willing to sacrifice in those very circumstances and battle his heart out in a losing cause only to preserve a victory for his Team (NOT THE COACH). What you learn and what you gain from these situations is all relative to what the individual has been taught. I still think its a Team Sport based on Individual performances.



I have never heard a HS wrestler say, when asked about his wrestling performance, say I lost my match but it is okay because I saved some points and my team won the dual because of it. MOTIVATION is direction and intensity. You are going to have a hard time with human nature convincing young men to lose when they could have won just so a team could win a dual. You are better off having all of your wrestlers focused on winning their matches at the weight they earned the right to wrestle.

What are you teaching a kid? "I am the coach. I am the authority and you have no right to challenge my decision. I decide what is most important and your opinion does not matter! I am the almighty coach, bow to me!" I am certainly happy that I have never dealt with a coach like that. It wouldn't have been pretty.

I am going to have to say it is more logically an individual sport where individual performances determine a team score.


Will Cokeley
(708)267-6615
willcokeley@gmail.com