How FAR Will You GO?

That phrase, "How FAR Will You GO?" was on the back of the Team Kansas shirts in 2007, the second year that I competed at the Junior National Championships in Fargo, ND.  The Cadet and Junior National Championships in Freestyle and Greco-Roman, often referred to as just "Fargo," is the largest wrestling tournament in the world, and the most prestigious tournament at the high school level.  All the best wrestlers want to win one of those "stop signs," the octagon shaped plaques that the All-Americans receive.  When I first learned about Fargo I wanted to start wrestling the international styles so that I could qualify to compete there as part of Team Illinois.  I missed out on a chance my freshman year because the state tournaments had already passed by the time I considered it seriously (see my last post on scheduling!), but I had my sights set on it far in advance my sophomore year.

Whether your goal is to be a National Champion, to qualify for Fargo, or just to improve this off-season, this post will benefit you, but I strongly encourage you to try freestyle and Greco this off-season.  Many wrestlers shrug it off and continue to do folkstyle in the spring because they don't think the other styles will benefit them in the winter, but this is far from the truth.  As lots of coaches will tell you, wrestling is wrestling, regardless of the style or rules, and any opportunity for more mat time will make you better.  Although there are some major differences between the Olympic styles and folkstyle, many skills learned in the other styles are applicable to scholastic wrestling, as I'll get into later this week.

In addition to that, many college coaches do a lot of their scouting at Fargo, despite the different style, because wrestling at Fargo shows that you have experience competing at a national level, as well as a dedication to train year round.  I was far from being the best wrestler at Fargo any year, but I was contacted by a number of college coaches, some simply because they saw me wrestle there.  I firmly believe that if I hadn't had the opportunity to wrestle at Fargo, I wouldn't have been noticed by many college coaches.

Okay, now on to the meat and potatoes of this post.  What should you do if you want to qualify for Fargo?  For starters you need to train in the international styles, but that's a given.  As far as how to structure your training, you need to decide what workouts to do and what amount of training is appropriate.  For myself and other highly motivated individuals, one problem that we sometimes run into is overtraining if we become so zealous about working out that we run ourselves into the ground.  The first spring that I trained in freestyle and Greco I had gymnastics practice after school each day, wrestling practice four nights a week, I ran every morning, and I usually had a tournament or a gymnastics meet or both on the weekends.  Add to that an honors courseload and trying to squeeze in a good night's rest.  I got into tremendous shape that spring but it's no wonder that I was exhausted.

The next spring I took a more balanced approach.  I happened to come across the book Greco-Roman Wrestling by former Assistant Olympic Coach Bill Martell.  I checked it out from my library mostly to learn more moves, but I gained even more knowledge from the training tips it contained.  The last section of the book gave sample routines to follow that outlined what to do each day in the months leading up to a major competition.  It gave a five month plan (perfect for a spring/summer freestyle/Greco cycle), a one year plan, and even a four year plan (if your ultimate goal is the Olympics!).  There is not one single right way to do it, but this is one way, so here are the scanned excerpts of Martell's book.  Click to enlarge the pictures.

GO FAR,
Jeff