Ask Cael: how did you stay motivated to go undefeated your college career……..p.s. your my favorite wrestler of all time i try to do everything like you from wearing your shoes to trying to perfecting the ankle pick

Story Published Thursday, April 8th, 2010

Question from Nathaniel Harper III: how did you stay motivated to go undefeated your college career……..p.s. your my favorite wrestler of all time i try to do everything like you from wearing your shoes to trying to perfecting the ankle pick….your my idol!

Hi Nathaniel,

Thanks for the note.

I stayed motivated because I had goals that I wanted to accomplish. I knew what I planned on doing and I did everything I could to ensure that I would. My advice to you would to be easily motivated. Set goals and then work diligently towards them. Think about your goals every day. Remember your goals. Write them down so you can see them every day. Your goals should be all the motivation you need.

On the competition side..my goal going into freshman year of college wasn’t to go undefeated. My goal was to get better every match so I could win the NCAA tournament in March. I competed as hard as I could so my opponents wouldn’t want to wrestle me again. I remember Coach Douglas and my coach and mentor Barry Weldon telling me that the more scramble positions I could force my opponent into the better. They told me if I gave up a takedown or two that was fine as long as made my opponent scramble and wrestle hard the whole time. I had no fear of making mistakes out there. If I made a mistake and gave up a takedown, no big deal, I would keep wrestling and use the action to wear down my opponents.

There is nothing wrong with making a mistake or giving up a takedown in a match. You have seven minutes to make up for it. But the important thing is to be commited to your offense. You are “all in” with your tie ups, sets ups, shots and finishes. That’s what we coach at Penn State. That will get you your best results in the long term.

So back to your question, I wasn’t trying to go undefeated. I was trying to do the best that I could. I was trying to score as many points as possible. I was having fun and competing hard. I was trying to score as many team points as possible for my team. I was trying to beat my opponents worse every time we wrestled. I was not focused on not losing and not making mistakes. I wouldn’t have made the necessary progress and most assuredly wouldn’t have gone undefeated if I had been.

Thanks for wearing my shoes. Asics make a great product and care about the sport of wrestling.

Attack!

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