SIP’s guide to getting off on the right foot as wrestling coach

Housekeeping

Right off the bat, dot your I’s and cross your T’s: check the wrestling equipment and make sure everything is in order (no broken or hazardous headgear; singlets are clean and new; shoes). Read the new rule book and look for any changes made within the last school year while also becoming familiar with your state’s weight certification rules (they seem to change every year). Remember: you’re dealing with teenagers; sometimes you have to do a lot of the work yourself.

Your team’s schedule is a big thing to get taken care of right away. Make sure your schedule is balanced and make sure you don’t have too many meets scheduled.

The final housekeeping issue is to make sure you and your team is media assessable. This simply means you need your finalized roster with wrestler’s name, weight(s) and year in school along with any other pertinent information you think a local sportswriter or TV/radio media outlet would find useful.

Assemble your team

A wrestling team is not just about the coach and the wrestlers. You need dependable help all season long when it comes to trainers, statisticians and scorekeepers. Find students who are passionate about and have knowledge of the sport of wrestling.

Hiring good assistant coaches can be the difference a pretty good season and a great one. If you’ve already got knowledgeable people in place, good; but if not, a one or two-day clinic on the ins and outs of the sport would be beneficial. Again, wrestling is not like football so you can’t just find an assistant anywhere you look. The key is finding the assistants that love the sport, love the kids and have respect for both.

Hit the mats

Now that the administrative part is complete, it’s time to start thinking about what’s going to be happening on the mat. First, you’ll need to establish and begin implementing a weight training program and apply body fat analysis programs to each of your wrestlers. Checking your wrestlers weight, height and body fat right after school begins in the fall and then again as the start of the season gets closer is your best bet.

Begin implementing daily warm-up routines and drills to work on in the practice room. These conditioning and drill exercises will come in handy come state tournament time.

Finally, check your roster: are there any weights where a wrestle-off (two wrestlers at the same weight vying for one varsity position) is a possibility? Check your junior varsity roster, too: are there any wrestlers that could help the varsity? If so, monitor these kids in the early going and make sure one of your assistants is in good shape to run the junior varsity team. If there’s one common denominator in perennially-great varsity wrestling teams it’s a perennially-great junior varsity wrestling team.