Two Blasts from the Past

Today we remember the victims of the terrible event that occurred ten years ago.  We all remember exactly where we were when we found out about the attacks.  I wasn't even a wrestler yet, so I just found out yesterday that New York City was supposed to host the World Championships during September of 2001.  Not surprisingly, the city opted not to host the tournament, moving it to Europe instead and waiting until 2003 to bring it back to NYC.  The following is a link from themat.com, USA Wrestling's official website, recalling the tragedy:  http://www.themat.com/section.php?section_id=3&page=showarticle&ArticleID=24084  Starting tomorrow, this year's World Championships get underway in Istanbul, Turkey, and will run through September 19th.  Show your support for USA Wrestling and follow the action with video and audio broadcasts of the matches here:  http://themat.com/specialevents/2011/worlds/default.php?EventID=26100

On a lighter note, I recently came across a very interesting blog written by Todd Tarpley who wrestled for the Hawkeye Wrestling Club from 1987-1991.  He had already finished college at NYU, but decided that he wasn't satisfied with his career, and so he set his sights on placing at the Freestyle National Tournament.  This blog isn't updated each week, as it is a collection of his journal entries during his four years training at Iowa.  It is both motivating and intriguing to read about his ups and downs with wrestling and life in general, and I think that any wrestler, especially one in college, can relate to it.  Read it all here: http://wrestlingforgable.blogspot.com/

I encourage each of you to keep some sort of journal documenting your wrestling training.  Before you dismiss this idea because you don't like to write, take note of the fact that many of Todd's entries have several days between them or are only a couple sentences long.  You can make it daily, weekly, monthly, or whatever you wish, and you don't have to take more than ten minutes jotting some thoughts down.  Start with just keeping track of your workouts and how you think you performed, what you need to change, etc.  Who knows, maybe you'll be sharing your journal with others twenty years later.

Don't forget the past,
Jeff