Freestyle braintrust comes together to help improve U.S. international performance

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - On a cold and snowy day in Colorado, many of the top freestyle wrestling coaches and leaders came together for an intense day of meetings and practices with a goal of improving the U.S. performance internationally.

Across the board, those who came to the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo., for the National Freestyle Team Coaches and Wrestlers Summit and Evaluation Camp were pleased with the results from the day.

National Freestyle Coach Zeke Jones scheduled the first meeting of the coaches for 6:30 a.m. and the group of more than 30 met non-stop for the day, not finishing the agenda until 7:00 p.m.

"Those that set the schedule did a great job," said Joe Seay, a past Olympic head coach who also coached the 1993 and 1995 U.S. World Championship teams. "We addressed the areas that I think will help us to improve. We want different results than we are now getting. We have to make the changes to do them."

Seay is confident that the U.S. can do what it necessary to challenge for world supremacy again.

"The athletes have to buy into the national staff and all the coaches involved in the program. I was so happy to see the number of coaches who came in. We have had some great ideas so far. I think we can change things. We can get the medal counts we want to get and challenge for World Team titles. The coaches here will do whatever we have to do to assist Zeke Jones and the national staff," said Seay.

Topics of the meetings included the Four Year Plan, the Regional Training Center Program, Resident Program Recruitment, World Team Selection Procedures, MMA, NCAA Rules, and Fundraising Development. A special video tape showing clips from the 2008 Olympic Games was shown, with a focus on the successful techniques and tactics used by Olympic medalists.

"I think the coaches here are together in a special way to share their knowledge and wisdom," said USA Wrestling Second Vice President Van Stokes, who served as the facilitator for the meetings. "They are energized, passionate and motivated to see this program succeed. This is a very unique opportunity to have these collective minds working together."

Many felt that the group worked well together and progress was made during the day.

"They have some new ideas that maybe an individual may not have thought of," said former USA Wrestling President Stan Dziedzic, who was a national freestyle coach in the early 1980s. "Whenever you get a group like this together, you get better decisions. You have widespread support when you end up with the wisdom of institutional memory that they have. Rather than re-invent the wheel, you perfect the wheel."

The common goal for American freestyle success gave all of the coaches a chance to get involved.

"It is always productive when you get people together that love the sport, are knowledgeable and want to beat the Russians," said Bruce Burnett, head coach for the Naval Academy and a past national freestyle coach. "When you put those three things together, you get the wisdom and experience from many generations. Only good can come from it. Ideas must turn to action. Action must turn to results. That is the way it has to be."

The coaches also attended two National Team workouts in order to help Jones assess the athletes who are currently pursing their Olympic dream.

Many of the coaches were out on the mats, working with individual athletes. Two-time Olympic medalist Kenny Monday ran the afternoon practice. Olympic champions and elite coaches Kevin Jackson and Brandon Slay were working out with athletes. Coaches including Joe Seay, Joel Sharratt, Jim Humphrey, Stan Dziedzic, Bill Zadick and Mark Manning also laced up their wrestling shoes and gave coaching advice to the athletes during the afternoon workout.

"It is all about the athletes," said Burnett. "They want to win gold medals. We have to show them that we are willing to help them to win those gold medals. When you show them that you are committed, they will be on board with the program. Knowledge is a good thing. You have to put it into work."

Minnesota coach J Robinson expressed the feelings of the coaches in attendance who were pleased with the meetings, but believe "it is important that you do something with it."

Making strategic changes in the program will be the next step for those in the American freestyle wrestling community.

"It is important to get some of our country's leaders together and discuss issues," said Kerry McCoy, a two-time Olympian and 2008 Olympic coach. "The most important thing is that we move forward. We can talk until we are fully exhausted. It doesn't matter if we don't do anything. We have to get some of these put into action. The next step is very important moving from here."

The rest of the week will focus on a training camp for the National Team members, including a number of meetings off of the mat as well as continued evaluation on the mat.

Coach Jones was pleased with how things are going so far. Tuesday was a busy day with the coaches working hard and much was achieved in a short time.

"It is going well. I think we have gotten good ideas. It is now implementing them. That is our responsibility. We have to put this vision into a plan. Great ideas without implementation isn't anything. We have bright people. We have had great input," said Jones.