8 Ways to Build Character in Any Wrestling Program

The sport of wrestling helps develop, build, and reveal character in young men and women. But character isn’t just performance based, and learned through success or failure, winning or losing.

It’s built over time, on and off the mat. And by incorporating character-building drills, games, and strategies. Adding games to practice and training plans is one way to do that. Games not only invigorate a team or club, they can also help build and reveal character.

Here are eight character-building drills, games, and strategies that any wrestling program can incorporate:

1. The Spotlight game: Put one wrestler in a chair in the middle of the entire team. Teammates then take turns telling the athlete something good about them that is NOT a wrestling specific skill, such as: 

• “I love how you're always on time.”
• “I love how you push me in practice.”
• “I love that I saw you helping the cafeteria workers clean up.”
  
  

“What you will find is that this is not just for the person in the middle, but it tests the character of the teammate on the outside,” says Danny Struck, head wrestling coach, assistant football coach, and strength and conditioning coordinator at Jeffersonville High School in Jeffersonville, Indiana. “It is tough for some people to show appreciation or learn to recognize others, but this tests their ability to do that, and makes them work towards being better at that.”

During the course of the season, coaches should make sure each wrestler gets their turn in the middle at least once.

2. Long team trail runs: Running can be excruciating. But it builds and reveals character because it puts different kids in different scenarios than in the wrestling room.

“Kids start talking to new kids on the team because they all run at different paces,” says Struck. “It tests their character because they have to talk to new people and are put in a different atmosphere that most of them are not comfortable with. It helps them bond with others.”

3. Fight song play list: The wrestling team at Jeffersonville plays Fight Song by Rachel Platten frequently. The song talks about how someone has a lot of fight, and isn't giving up. It's inspirational and motivating. Struck will ask each individual to put their fight song down on a card. It’s typically a song that motivates the wrestler, or perhaps defines them, their goals, values, and/or motivates. They then make a fight song playlist. Then intermittently throughout the season as the play list plays, Stuck will yell out “who picked this song?” The team will pause at practice, ask the person about the song and what it means to them, and their favorite line/phrase.

“It develops a discussion/talk about character, and asks them to look at themselves in front of others,” says Struck.

4. Give them a score: This game involves pairing two wrestlers together, often one with less experience or skill, against a veteran/more experienced wrestler. The match starts with a specific score—4-0, 9-3, 12-9—anything, and the more inexperienced wrestler is always ahead, forcing the veteran wrestler to come from behind within a set timeframe—one minute, one period, two minutes, etc. The veteran wrestler has to catch up to that score in a certain amount of time or do some sort of conditioning drill.

“Often times the veteran wrestler loses, and has to learn to deal with loss, or find ways to overcome being behind to win,” Struck says. “This also helps the younger wrestlers develop a relationship with a veteran/older wrestler. It also teaches the more experienced wrestler how to be a mentor.”

5. King of the hill: Incorporating games doesn’t just build character, it reveals character, says Chris Mance, a family coach helping sports families pursue difficult goals while maximizing happiness on the journey. Mance is the son of a wrestler, a former wrestler himself, a volunteer wrestling coach, and the dad of two young wrestlers.

There is one game in particular that Mance uses as his go-to that reveals character in the wrestling room: King of the hill. This is a game where all the wrestlers regardless of skill line up from lightest to heaviest from right to left with the lightest being to the far right. Then the two lightest wrestlers come to the center of the mat and wrestle for a takedown. Whoever gets the takedown stays in and continues to wrestle the next heaviest guy in line, and the loser is out.

This process of elimination continues until there is one wrestler left, typically one of the heavier wrestlers. However, occasionally one of the lighter wrestlers is capable of taking down all of the heavier wrestlers and wins.

“This game reveals character because character is not only revealed when no one is looking, it’s also revealed when someone is either at a significant advantage or disadvantage,” says Mance, who wrestled through high school in New Jersey and played football at Army West Point. “The game king of the hill potentially puts wrestlers in both situations. They are at an advantage when wrestling a lighter wrestler and at a disadvantage wrestling someone who is heavier.”

Evaluating how a wrestler reacts, especially when the weight difference is significant, always provides great teaching moments for coaches, adds Mance. Does the lighter wrestler make excuses or not try hard, or does a heavier wrestler try to hurt the lighter guy or use all of their weight to crush them and win easily instead of using skill?

“These types of behaviors are always revealed by playing this game and that’s why I think it’s both fun and serves as a great tool for teaching character,” Mance says.

6. Poker chips: Are you willing to be all in for the team, and do what you can to represent the team’s core values on and off the mat? That’s the goal of the poker chip strategy Pete Jacobson has incorporated as head coach of the Edgemont High School (Scarsdale, NY) wrestling program. Jacobson made up custom poker chips using the team logo, and inscribed with the team core values and mantra (plain poker chips also work just fine, says Jacobson).

Then, over the first few weeks of practice, Jacobson uses pre-practice talks to define and discuss those core values, why they are important in wrestling and in life, and then gives specific ways/ideas on what they can do to model those core values.

Once team members understand those vales, what they mean and how they are expected to demonstrate those values, they’re ready for the Chip Ceremony, held at the end of practice one day. Wrestlers are called up one at a time and asked if they’re willing to be “all in” for the team and their values. When they accept the challenge, they get a single chip.

“The team claps, cheers, and screams for each kid as they receive their chip,” says Jacobson, who also created Win Smarter, a guide and system that helps coaches in all sports build cultures of excellence. 

“We tell them that chip is super exclusive and only a small group of deserving student-athletes ever get to possess one,” he says. Now that they’ve earned it, we expect them to carry it on them at all times as a reminder that they’re part of something bigger than themselves and as a reminder of the core values of our program. If they lose it, there are consequences.”

Jacobson continued: “Over the past few years, this has become a really big deal to the kids on our team and a real point of pride for them—earning their chip and being part of the program. Each day when our kids come to practice, they have to bring their chip with them. As they walk into the wrestling room they have to drop their chip in a bucket we keep by the door. We make sure they realize that dropping that chip into the bucket each day means they’re “all in” for practice that day—they’re ready to give their best effort, work hard, support their teammates and model our core values.”

Then each day they have to earn the chip back in practice. And team members can also earn additional chips by modeling those core values above and beyond. Earning or losing the chip has nothing to do with competitive outcomes.

“It’s entirely based on each kid’s demonstration of our core values—the character the coaches are trying to teach. So an inexperienced freshman has the opportunity to earn just as many chips as our star senior,” Jacobson says.

7. Legacy book: Towards the end of a season, Jacobson asks seniors to take a day and reflect on the most important things they got out of being in the Edgemont wrestling program and then write them down on paper. Jacobson asks them to take it seriously and come up with something meaningful and lasting.

“It forces your seniors to reflect on what they really got out of your program that will benefit them for life,” Jacobson says. 

Jacobson and staff take the best letters each year and add them to their “legacy book,” a physical book that is printed out each year. A copy is given to each kid on the team. Parents also receive them at the pre-season parents meeting.

“It’s been really impactful, and done a ton to emphasize the character we’re trying to develop, by having our kids and their parents read about what the program meant to many of our alumni, how it impacted their lives, and the character and values that they developed as a result of our program,” says Jacobson. “Every week or so, we’ll even read one of the letters to the team before practice. This really fires our kids up and starts that day with a focus on the character traits we think are most important."

8. Peer awards: Football players at Jeffersonville are awarded helmet stickers, but not for on-field performance. They have to be from a peer or someone else on the team and they are for doing things such as helping carry equipment off the field, assisting younger players, or doing good deeds that go beyond performance. This can also be done in wrestling and all sports.

At Edgemont, each Monday, the team doles out weekly awards. These aren't performance-based, but are based on the process of living out the character traits the coaches and programs value. Nominees have to be nominated by teammates who must give specific reasons they’re nominating that kid.

“Because it’s about our core value and the process, suddenly anyone on the team, from our star to the last guy off our bench, has an equal chance to win each week, so everyone’s equally motivated and these awards really mean something to our kids,” says Jacobson.

"In the end, anything you do to teach teamwork, or cohesion within your team, is working on character building," says Struck.