tournament time - Monday, March 1st, 2010

It’s tournament time! We are really exited about this week. Our team is wrestling great. We are healthy, excited and ready to go. Confidence comes from two things 1) knowing you are prepared and 2) knowing that the goal is to focus on fighting and best effort. Focusing on effort means you focus on the simplest form of the process.

To know you are prepared, it is very important to realize everything doesn’t have to be perfect. Work as hard as you can and prepare as well as you can. You can always look back and think “I should have done 52 push ups, not just 50.” You can always try and find a “could a, would a, or should a” type of thing. That is part of understanding that everything doesn’t always have to be perfect. You might have an injury; you might forget your lucky rock or something like that. It doesn’t matter. Attack regardless! My last blog was just a couple lines that said “Don’t question yourself, Question your doubts!” That is a brilliant thought. Human nature is to try to find reasons to doubt ourselves and to question everything. If you flip that around and say forget this I’m not going to question myself, I am going to question every negative, doubtful thought that comes into my head. If you attack your doubts head on you will see that they are not legit. Figure out why you can and deserve to win. Most people figure out why they can’t win. The cup of doubts will not hold water. It is full of too many holes.

Be different. Stand up for yourself and all the hard work you have put into it. Speak positively to yourself. Remember from the words of Larina Kase “Don’t listen to yourself, talk to yourself.”

Allow yourself to have fun and go the play the game….and play hard!

As long as you have worked hard and have been committed, you are ready. I once heard the idea in spiritual terms speaking about God saying “You don’t know everything, but you know enough!” That term applies to athletics and wrestling. You will never know everything, or at least, not be perfect at everything. But you know enough, and you are ready now. Everything doesn’t have to be perfect. You don’t have to know everything. Hustle will neutralize areas of weakness. Each athlete has his areas that he is better at and those are the areas that he should spend the most time in. If there are positions that you are weak in then avoid those positions.

I remember Lincoln McLlravy telling me that at the Olympic Training Center once. He said “If it’s not your position, don’t hang out there. It might be your opponent’s best position.” He was talking about wrestling internationally when you are not very familiar with your opponent. That’s great advice. It takes hard work to wrestle in the positions that you want all the time. It’s not easy. Especially if your opponent knows where your strengths are. You have to be relentless. Most of the time an opponent will fight you for position for a minute or two. However, if they see that you aren’t going to stop fighting to be where you want, the majority of people will just accept it and surrender the position to you. Work hard to make winning easy.

Don’t just take what you are given. Fight for the angles, tie ups and positioning that is going to give you the best chance for success.

You don’t have to be better then everyone at the same time. You don’t have to be better at every technique then everyone else. All you have to do is be better then your one opponent now. If you aren’t more talented, out hustle him. Out fight him.

All right, once I start typing I start I have a hard time stopping. It is time for practice.

Hey if you haven’t tried my Undefeated Cookies, you should. They are amazing. There is nothing on the market even close. My partner bakes them himself. They taste awesome and they make you feel great. We designed them for a perfect after weigh in snack and for tournament days when you don’t have the time to get a meal in you and you need quality calories. They are perfect for all endurance sports. Check them out!

Thanks all,
Cael

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