We finished up our national team training camp last week. There was good effort from the athletes that attended, and it looked like our guys are getting better in those crucial parterre positions. We will continue to focus on them until we can consistently defend from the bottom position.
The Pan Am camp kicks off later this week, and we will have 10 days of focused training with the athletes that will be competing in the Pan American Championships and Pan American Olympic Qualifier that will be held in Acapulco, Mexico. There is a lot riding on these competitions, as the first competition will help with seeding for the second competition. Athletes that make it to the finals of the Pan Am Olympic Qualifier will secure a spot for the United States to send a representative in the respective weight classes that are qualified. We have great athletes, and we are excited to see what they are able to do down in Mexico.
There are a handful of values that USA Wrestling has included as part of the organization’s overall mission. These values are responsibility, integrity, dedication, honesty, accountability, respect, and diversity. Focusing on the first value of responsibility, it is a corner stone of having a successful wrestling career and a successful life in general.
The best athletes in the world take responsibility for everything in their locus of control so that they can achieve their goals. They take responsibility for their training, their nutrition, their sleep habits, their recovery, their film review, and whatever may be required to be a champion. Regardless of what happens, the individuals that take responsibility for how they respond to life’s challenges will be the ones that succeed.
I’m sure you’ve seen examples of athletes that lose their focus in the middle of a match and start to blame the officials for a bad call, or if a match doesn’t end up like they’d like they start to talk about how they didn’t feel good after the weight cut, or the coach didn’t focus enough on a certain position in practice. Anytime we start to point the finger and blame others, we are essentially saying that they have the power to control us, and we have no control.
By taking responsibility for what’s going on in our training, our matches, and our lives, we are empowering ourselves to make the necessary changes to better achieve the outcomes that we are working for.
Thank you for your continued support of USA Greco-Roman wrestling. Our three key results that we are working towards are: winning Olympic and world medals, raising money to further support the Greco-Roman movement, and build infrastructure to provide more opportunities for our Greco-Roman athletes. If you would like to donate to help the cause, please visit themat.com.
