Wrestling Greatness

Wrestling Greatness

Wrestling Greatness

Copyright (c) 2011 anthonyflatt.comI think everyone knows that its in the best interest of the athlete to prepare them for greatness and I think everybody has heard that and I think everybody knows that but the truth is I think the majority of the parents and many of the coaches out there do not prepare their athletes for greatness.Let me try to explain by using some examples. I have had parents come up to me you know two-thirds of the way through the season and say what have we got to do to win state in two weeks? Are you kidding me, you are waiting until now to think about winning state. Well that's is, at least what I want to tell them anyway. What I usually do is give my best advice on what they can do over the next couple of weeks to increase their chances to win but the truth of the matter is you know they probably really have no shot. If they have not been preparing all year and they are just now starting to think about winning state, you know that's just really not it. The truth is that many of the parents think that they are giving their kid some kindness, some extras but they are really hurting their kids, their athletes in the long run and let me give you some examples. Like letting your kid watch TV instead of going to practice. I have heard parents say, well if he doesn't want to go to practice, I don't want to make him. That is exactly why they will never be a state champion until that behavior from both the parents and the athlete changes. If your athlete is committed to a sport then they are committed and they are committed until it's over, to the last day of practice and until that sport is no more. If you are committed to being a state champion, you are committed to being a national champion then practice is likely never over. At that level it is likely year round dedication. I guess that most parents just don't realize the harsh realities of becoming a champion and its tough. You have to do things every single day. It's not about just taking and dropping them off at practice, its not about just making sure that they are going to the right club or going to the right training center or that you paid the right amount of money. Some of the biggest improvements an athlete can make are at home, with you the parent and also with the coaches but not in just the athlete. Let's quit waiting for the athlete to do all these things on their own because they don't know how. If we don't teach them these things they are never going to figure it out. when my athlete exceeds I like to say that's their effort, they did a great job. And when they fail, I as a coach I need to think about what didn't I do to prepare that athlete to win? What is that athlete missing? Why did they fail to win? Not getting that takedown in double overtime isn't about what they did that second, that double overtime as much as it's about how did they prepare for that situation? How did they prepare for the competition? Why were they in double overtime in the first place? We need to look upon ourselves as coaches and ask what didn't we do to prepare those athletes for greatness? Now there are a lot of things the parents do that don't promote that athlete to excel. Not taking them into practice, letting them stay up late, letting them eat the wrong foods, letting them misbehave, allowing their grades to suffer. These are all things that can impact an athlete overall and I hate to say it but I would be willing to bet you the vast majority of the parents out there are failing in one or more of those areas. Your the only one that needs to know if this is you; let me give you a couple of examples, a couple of strategies to maybe help you in fixing some of those and I will confess that I am one of those parents. I myself do not always do those things as a coach. So I am not here to say that I have got all this figured out, that I make all the right decisions, I make all the right choices because that is just not true. The reality is that we need to make strides and go the right direction. We need to make improvement. We need to make constant effort and constant improvement. So if you sit back and you just heard what I said in the last few minutes and you think oh man I am none of those things, we are in trouble, you are not really in trouble. Let me give you a couple ideas and strategies that will help you prepare you athletes for greatness. First let's talk about the eating habits and healthy eating habits of the American household. It's awful. Our entire country is obese living in this McDonald's generation. We are the most obese country in the world and being a good athlete, preparing for greatness has to start at home. You need to go and throw out all that junk food, get rid of the chips, the soda, the ice cream, the sugared cereals, the box Mac and cheese, the frozen pizza bites, the frozen snack bites, all of those preprocessed foods and you need to chuck them and yes you are absolutely throwing away money but it will be a lot cheaper than the medical bills will be later. A lot of people will not throw them out. Well the problem is you will leave them sitting there, you eat some this week, you eat some next week, you eat some the week after, then you run out of some of them and then you go buy some more and you are not going to change. So take the trash can, take the box and throw them out. And the reality is you don't have to start eating salads. You know people think of eating healthy as eating salads. A salad by itself will not get you all the nutritional value you need but there are things that you can do. You know one of the big tips that we do in my household is we very rarely buy ground beef anymore. Ground beef is not good for you especially the 60/40 and the 70/30 blends. When it says 60/40, that means its 60% meat and 40% fat. If you are trying not to be fat, why are buying fat? It doesn't make sense. Fat add flavor and helps the meat cook. We are fat because it is the fat that makes it taste good. So change out your ground beef for turkey. Now the nutritionists will tell you all white meat turkey is the only way to go, it's the healthiest, it's the da-da-da-da, yeah and it's also the blandest. I like turkey but I am not a raving fan of turkey. So to replace turkey in my diet we buy the 50/50 blend that's 50% white meat and 50% dark meat. It's not as healthy as all white but it gives it a lot more flavor and it's a thousand times more healthy than ground beef. And I will guarantee you if you prepare it and put it in things like tacos and spaghetti and chili that people cannot tell the difference. People have been to my house and had our spaghetti and chili and they have no idea that it was turkey they were eating and not ground beef because it looks, the 50/50 blend when its mixed in, it looks like ground beef, the all white meat turkey always stays white, when you cook it so it looks like turkey. So 50/50 blend.

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