WIN Coaches Corner feature on Jared Lawrence: Pursuing the Pinnacle

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Former NCAA champ Jared Lawrence provides world-class training for Minnesota youth

Shortly after Jared Lawrence, the four-time All-American and 2002 NCAA champion, exhausted his eligibility at the University of Minnesota, one of the Gophers’ all-time greats came to a crossroads.

Lawrence served as a graduate assistant for four seasons at his alma mater while simultaneously running Pinnacle Wrestling Club, a youth club he founded in the Twin Cities area. Once he had his first son in 2008, he began questioning whether the full-time collegiate coaching lifestyle was the right fit for him.

“The biggest question was to jump into club life or the college coaching realm,” Lawrence recalled. “Back then, you didn’t make a lot of money, and one of my friends, who was coaching collegiately at the time, told me he was gone 37 weekends in one year. It was all about the team, and I wasn’t sure I wanted that after having my first kid.”

“Pinnacle started very small, just as a high school preseason club from September to November. The club was going, but it was originally just to make extra money while we were training.

“In 2008, I got done training for the Olympics, and we already had 150 kids. I reached out to Brandon Paulson, who had retired in 2004. I loved his passion for the sport.”

Paulson also brought with him an administrative background after running a construction company and taking notice of how clubs in other sports operated, which proved pivotal for Pinnacle’s advancement.

“Brandon’s daughter was a gymnast, and since he had dealt with the club aspect on the gymnastics side, he knew and had plans on how to run a club; he knew what to do and what not to do. He masterminded the green-light start of it.”

Pinnacle has continued to explode over the past two decades, providing a premier training environment with world-class coaches for Minnesota’s K-12 population.

In addition to Lawrence and Paulson, the latter a four-time World/Olympic Team member and 1996 Olympic silver medalist in his own right, Pinnacle pupils are taught by the likes of three-time All-American and Big Ten champion Mack Reiter (Minnesota ’08), two-time All-American Kevin LeValley (Bucknell ’11) who is widely remembered for giving Kyle Dake his last collegiate loss, as well as three-time Senior Greco-Roman World Team member Pat Smith.

Other former high school and collegiate standouts such as the Gophers’ two-time All-American Patrick McKee and NCAA qualifiers Owen Webster (Minnesota ’21) and Justin LaValle (North Dakota State ’14) also play a significant role, especially as the club has expanded to a second location in southern Minnesota.

Lawrence admits the volume of highly-accomplished former wrestlers on staff certainly has contributed to his club’s success, but he also provided several suggestions for fellow coaches nationwide that have helped propel Pinnacle forward.

“We do a good job because of our track record,” Lawrence suggested. “When you have good success as a wrestler and kids who buy in and have success, kids look at the past wrestlers ahead of them.

“We try to be very honest with them. At six years old, learn to fall in love with the sport and learn the fundamentals. At age 10, that is the first age where you can actually grasp real techniques and action-reaction concepts. Before that, winning and losing does not matter. They are just diving in and wrestling, which is fine.

Prior to age 10, though, Lawrence advocates for simply hammering the fundamentals and positional basics.

“In youth wrestling, kids just need to learn the basics,” Lawrence emphasized. “They don’t need styles

yet. Inside position, pressure, control ties, how to rip a high crotch, knee pull, single, and then they can peel everything together down the road.

“They need to develop skills as an overall wrestler. We are just trying to develop them, and once they get older and mature, they might develop a style, especially as they grow up and have a different body type.”

Pinnacle has implemented its own strength-training program that couples nicely with the wrestling instruction provided, as strength coach Josh McClain runs two separate lifting sessions for youth and high school-aged clients.

“The lifts our guys do involve wrestling positions and strength training specific to wrestling,” Lawrence explained. “(McClain) tries to mimic specific positions from wrestling for functional-based strength. He uses bands, resistance training, core, dumbbell isometrics, etc.”

The last aspect of coaching advice offered by Lawrence centered on the mind. He, Paulson and the rest of the Pinnacle staff try to be deliberate and consistent with their teachings as far as their coaching approach is concerned.

It starts with helping young wrestlers fall in love with wrestling by acknowledging just how special one has to be to make it in such a grueling sport.

“We talk a lot about wrestling as a sport and what it can offer that most sports can’t,” Lawrence stated. “Cutting weight is hard; the rest of the world can’t do it. You learn how to function without much food or drink in your system and still go as hard as you can.

“That is the key … when kids start understanding they are special and they are doing stuff most of the population can’t do, they like that. “We talk about the hardships of wrestling. You have to love the fight. You got to learn to love the black eye and getting slammed down over and over. The harder you work in practice, the harder you’ll fight in a

match. If you bust your butt in practice and are exhausted every day, your body owes it to itself to perform because you’ve earned it.”

Gratitude is another major focus, as Lawrence commended club co-owner Paulson for his constant reminders for club-goers.

“When you get in the car, thank your parents for taking you to and from practice. You don’t get it as a kid because you take it for granted. Kids are on their phones, which is fine, but they are oblivious to all the things their parents are doing for them.

“We just did a talk the other day about being a competitor. If you can compete at work when you’re 40 years old, even if you are a banker, try to be the best banker. You will be good because you’re trying to be the best. Competition makes you better. Compete against yourself however you can.”