The World Class Wrestling Institute

Wrestling at the next level

By Carl Adams, 08 Apr, 10 @ 08:45am

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Wrestling at the next level

There are many young wrestlers that have aspirations of wrestling in college but do not have much information about what it takes to compete at the college level. I have coached at the college level for 37 years at three different institutions. In my next few blogs, I am going to share information about all aspects of preparing to compete and competing at the college level.

I want to start off by telling you that most high school wrestlers have not even scratched the surface as far as their wrestling potential is concern. Of course, there are the truly elite high school wrestlers that can compete immediately upon entering college. I would put that percentage at about 5%. For example, Kyle Dake, of Cornell University won the 2010 NCAA tournament as a true freshman. This accomplishment is truly remarkable. This may happen about once every 5-6 years.

I have found that incoming freshman improve more in the first two months of being in a good college room than they have over their entire high school wrestling career. The main reason they improve so rapidly is because the skill level, speed, strength, mental approach and intensity level is so much higher than what they experienced in high school. They are forced to improve or they probably will not make it at the college level. No one likes to get beat on day after day.

I believe this is the beauty of wrestling in college. You can literally feel the gains you make on a daily basis. What this means is that you can erase most of what happened in high school. If you don’t continue to work hard, you will see a steep decline in your wrestling. If you outwork your competition, you will pass people up who were better than you in high school. That is a fact.

There is a lot of very interesting information regarding this topic. I am looking forward to blogging on this topic as often as possible. I am also looking forward to working with many of you at our wrestling camp. Have a great day.