Miller seeks success at Greco-Roman World Team Trials in Las Vegas

Action photo of Daniel Miller at Paris International in January. Photo by Richard Immel.

It was just over 18 months ago that 2011 Junior Freestyle World Team member Daniel Miller stepped back onto the mat in a different style.

As Miller’s high school years were ending, he had a choice whether to continue his athletic career as a football player or a wrestler. Choosing the later, Miller decided to continue his education and athletic career at the United States Naval Academy in his native Maryland.

An NCAA qualifier at heavyweight for Navy, Miller was also able to make a Junior World Freestyle Team.

After graduating from the Naval Academy, Miller made the decision to join the Marine Corps. His cousin played the greatest influence in his decision. Growing up, he witnessed the Marine Corps transform his cousin into someone he admired and looked up to. Miller felt encouraged to follow in his footsteps.

“Being a part of an institution that could have such a positive impact on someone was something I couldn’t turn down. It really pushed me to join the Marine Corps coming out of the Naval Academy,” he said.

Miller looks at his unique lifestyle of being both a Senior- level athlete and a Marine officer as the most rewarding challenge.

“I’m fortunate in the fact that I am able to lead Marines as well as go out there and chase my dreams. Balancing that is a challenge but it’s a very rewarding challenge. At the end of the day I get to go home and call myself a United States Marine but I also know that my job is to compete at a sport that I am passionate about,” he said.

Throughout college, Miller competed exclusively in folkstyle and freestyle. It wasn’t until he joined the Marines that he started to train Greco-Roman.  

“Coming in, I thought I was a pretty solid freestyle wrestler and initially I was a bit frustrated at the fact that I had to wrestle Greco. If you asked Coach Loukides, he would probably say I was the most stubborn wrestler going in,” he said. “When I started to learn how to wrestle Greco-Roman, things started to click and I’ve really fallen in love with it. It’s hard to appreciate Greco when you don’t wrestle it.”

Miller looks at the transition to Greco-Roman as changing his skill set. He moves forward with knowing that that although he might be wrestling a different style, it’s still just wrestling. Scoring might be different, but the situations are the same.

“Good wrestling is good wrestling and wrestling is wrestling at the end of the day. You are put in similar situations in all styles. You have the training mentality necessary to take on a new skill set. That is essentially what you’re doing with Greco, you’re building a new skill set and applying it to the same sport. That’s why I say wrestling is wrestling, at the end of the day it’s all still wrestling,” he said.

Pummeling in Greco-Roman is a key factor in success. In folkstyle and freestyle, it is more limited, but common in the heavyweight weight class. With a past as a heavyweight wrestler, Miller had his upper hand at the pummel heading into Greco-Roman.

But even with a good background heading into Greco, he still had adjustments to make in order to start winning at 98 kg; his new weight class. In fact, losing helped him.

“You get better sometimes by getting beat, and I was getting beat. Coming from a high level of success and coming into relatively low level of success was frustrating for me very humbling. It caused me to have a lot of focus moving forward. I think the difficulties helped me to refocus and maximize my ability,” he said.

Miller is coming off of three big competitions with a greater level of success than in the past year. His time on the mat is paying off and showing.

“It’s been a good experience overall but this year especially starting the year differently. It’s all starting to pay off; all the time effort and money this program has put into me and the time and effort that I have put into the program. It’s been a phenomenal experience,” he said.

In 2017, Miller has been given the opportunity to travel overseas on two occasions for the Paris International and Hungarian Grand Prix, bringing home a bronze medal from both competitions.

“The results are exciting and important. I”m really happy that I’m at that level and I’m able to go out there and show that I can compete with some of the best guys in the world. It’s very rewarding, but it is also very humbling to compete at that level,” he said.

The international success that Miller has begun to adapt is only the beginning of what is to come. These successes are helping to build his foundation of confidence.

“When you start getting those big wins, you start to have high hopes and more confidence. One of the hardest things in wrestling is getting that confidence and building on it,”

In addition to winning medals, he’s also adding to his confidence and experience through international camps. On both tours, Miller and the rest of the U.S. delegation participate in training camps. The training camps have helped add variation to his training. Having the opportunity to train with different coaches and training partners.

“It’s been a great experience to go overseas and train with new partners. It’s always a great opportunity to be able to train with other U.S. guys and guys we don't see at competitions here in the USA. That makes the biggest difference, being able to go out there and train with new people and learn new things,” he said.

In addition to competing overseas Miller represented the Marine Corps at the Armed Forces Championships in February. He was able to claim his second freestyle Armed Forces title and fell short of the Greco-Roman title in the finals bout, losing to Endyr Meza of the U.S. Army.

“It was one of the more frustrating losses in my wrestling, ever. I felt really good going into the match and felt I was getting into positions where I was dominate. It was small mistakes that lead me to losing the match,” he said. “You have to take every match with a grain of salt. At the end of the day you’re gonna have another match, whether the same day or the next day or weeks down the road. You have to be able to learn from every win and every loss.”

Throughout Miller’s time competing for the Marines, he has been training under Coach Jason Loukides. Miller values what Loukides has brought to the program. He appreciates the way that Loukides has helped Miller capitalize on his strengths and improve on his weaknesses.    

“He’s one of the best coaches I’ve ever wrestled for,” he said. “He understands how the body works and he’s able to capitalize on that by working with wrestlers on the individual level instead of working on general things as a group. Jason will take the time to work on individual things.”

Coach Loukides’ work with Miller will be on display at the U.S. Greco-Roman World Team Trials in Las Vegas, April 28-29. It will be the ultimate test on just how much progress miller has made this year.

“I am tightening up and improving on positions that might be a little bit weaker than others. Our main focus these next couple weeks is capitalizing and improving on our weaker areas and turning them into stronger areas,” he said.