Dealing with the Pressure of Being Ranked

Rankings have always been a fun way to create a buzz, promote sports, and recognize teams and individuals for success.

But wrestlers, coaches, and parents have a love/hate relationship with rankings.

It's nice to be ranked. It can reward someone for their hard work, and a job well done. Rankings can create a buzz when rival wrestlers meet, or top teams collide. But they can also add pressure if not managed correctly. And in today's world of social media and online wrestling chatter, kids and parents can get caught up reading about themselves in the rankings, lose focus, and suddenly, get away from doing the things that helped them get ranked in the first place.

“From a fan perspective, wrestling rankings are a guide or roadmap of interesting matches, a map that is continually changing and being updated,” says Jeff Beshey, owner/publisher of The Guillotine, Minnesota’s amateur wrestling newspaper. Beshey has a team of three individuals that compile Class A, Class AA, and Class AAA high school team and individual rankings for The Guillotine.

“You can enjoy watching wrestling without rankings, but it’s harder to navigate the terrain,” says Beshey. “From a wrestler perspective, wrestling rankings should be used for motivation or ignored altogether.”

Rankings can put pressure on young wrestlers, but pressure is a privilege, says Steve Costanzo, head coach at Division II power St. Cloud State University, currently ranked No. 1 in the nation in DII, with several wrestlers ranked in the top 10 in national individual rankings. 

“Over the years, the Huskies have been ranked high in the national rankings and those rankings have elevated our consistency individually, and as a team," says Costanzo. "Every time we step on the mat, we have a target on our backs – our guys accept that. Therefore, having the ability to compete with a target gives us an advantage.

While one can look at being ranked as adding pressure to succeed, learning how to handle and deal with pressure is a skill that needs to be developed like anything else, says Costanzo.

“You don’t think there will be pressure at your state or national championships?” says Costanzo. “Pressure is everywhere. We all wake up each day of our lives dealing with pressures to perform, whether it is on an exam, asking someone out on a date, or a job interview. Pressure is a way of life and ultimately, it is about our perception to handle and accept it.” 

Dan Lefebvre, head coach at Minnesota’s St. Michael Albertville (STMA) High School, agrees. His team is consistently ranked among the top five in the Minnesota Class AAA team rankings, and several wrestlers are ranked in the top 10, year after year.

“Part of being a competitor is learning how to deal with outside pressures,” Lefebvre says. “We don’t ignore ranking and accolades. We accept them for what they are.”

Lefebvre says dealing with being ranked is part of the process, and at STMA, they discuss the process every day of the season.

But he consistently reminds his wrestlers of one important thing:

Rankings are based on past results.

“You have earned those,” Lefebvre tells his wrestlers. “However, they do not predict future results. Focusing on past results and rankings will not earn you one point in your next match.”

He then reminds wrestlers to continue to focus on the things they did right in their training to achieve the success to be ranked.

“You have to earn it over and over again,” Lefebvre says. “Keep focusing on the process of improvement. If you don’t, someone else has been and it may cost you down the road. By focusing on the things you can control in your training like proper rest, proper nutrition, improved technique, and improved conditioning, then you increase the likelihood of continued success. And during competition, focus on things you can control like scoring points and winning positions.”

Lefebvre continued: “By stressing process in your preparation and during competition you increase your chances of success. At STMA we talk about the process every day of the season.”

Mike Moor, who wrestled at the University of Maryland and is now a Mindset Coach with Wrestling Mindset, an organization that provides mental training to individuals and teams, discussed the mental juggernaut that rankings create. Rankings can put a target on a kid’s back, and even though coaches will work with kids on reminding them that being ranked doesn't guarantee success, different kids handle rankings differently.

“Kyle Dake says pressure/expectations don’t exist; they are only something you put on yourself,” Moor says. Therefore, Keep the focus on your performance and away from others/external factors. We wrestle to impress ourselves and no one else, so pressure shouldn’t exist and we should only be living up to our own expectations, not anyone else’s.

Wrestlers need to blatantly ignore records, rankings and seed if they want to be successful, Moor says. During one recent mindset training session, a Wisconsin high school wrestler told Moor he had no idea he was ranked second in the state until it was brought up to him during an interview.

“Whether you are ranked higher or lower than your opponent, your objectives must remain the same, which is focus on what you can control and has an effect in your match—effort, attitude, aggressiveness, and breaking your opponent,” Moor says. “Being ranked doesn’t give you any tactical or point advantage, it’s just a number on a piece of paper. That being said, we cannot over or under estimate an opponent as a result of their ranking.”

If you are ranked, focus on the right aspects of being ranked.

“If you can’t avoid it, then you must interpret it in your favor,” Moor says. “Instead of trying to ‘defend’ or ‘protect’ your ranking, focus on domination to remind everyone why you earned it. That shifts from a protective, prey mindset to an offensive, predator Mindset. JJ Watt says, ‘success is leased and rent is due every day.’ If that’s the case, you have to earn the right to be given and keep any ranking—if so, show them."

Ultimately, wrestlers, coaches, and parents should focus on controlling what they can control, says Jeff Buxton, who was the head coach at Blair Academy in Blairstown, New Jersey, from 1982 to 2012. During that time, Buxton’s teams were consistently ranked No.1 in the nation, and several wrestlers were ranked among the best in state and national rankings.

“As a coach and athlete you try to only worry about the areas you can control and someone’s personal opinion is not one you can,” Buxton says. “What you can control is working on improving in all aspects of your wrestling. Wrestling is a process in working on getting better each day, each week and each year. You don’t need to add any added pressure in worrying about what your individual or team ranking, just do your job and wrestle hard and get the results.”