September 23, 2009
Practice sucked. It wasn’t the coaches’ fault. It wasn’t my partners’ fault. It was my fault. I’m one of those guys who actually buys into what the coaches say. To do well in this sport you have to push yourself further than anyone believed possible. People have to tell you “that’s crazy” and keep saying it until they take for granted that you will constantly exceed their expectations.
I worked out hard in weightlifting. Today was a plyo day; we did stadiums, ran a little over a mile, jumped boxes, and so on. From there I went home, ate a bagel, took a shower, and headed straight to GNWA practice.
Even being at practice with Fretwell and Roper is taking it to the next level. Most people won’t do it. We have maybe a little over thirty or forty kids there? Out of the whole state of GA, thirty or forty show up. Granted the guys who do show up are some of the best in the state. Training with the best in the state gets you better…but only if you dedicate yourself.
Today, I didn’t dedicate myself. That was the problem. When I drilled, I didn’t search for the nuances that make for perfect drilling. When I wrestled live, I went through the motions. It was enough to score consistently on my partners, but anybody can go through the motions. To reach an unattainable goal, you have to strive for that goal every second of your life. Want it so bad you can taste it. Want it so bad that failure is unthinkable. Failure isn’t a word you recognize.
So I took a step backwards today. In a way, I failed, because I didn’t strive to reach that unattainable goal. I didn’t search for the level above what many people consider to be the next level. My fault. I let myself choose a partner I could beat; I didn’t hit every move like my life depended on it; I took my eyes off the goal. Thursday, I’ll try to hit every move perfectly. I’ll wrestle with guys who will force me to adapt. To beat the best, you have to get beat by the best. Over. And over. And over again.
September 30, 2009
Got up at 6 to workout and run. Dad set up a bungee cord in the basement so I was hitting shots to the far wall with a harness and bungee wrapped around my back. Also I did pull ups, jump rope, drills—got a good sweat and got the blood flowing. After that I ran a mile. Something I read said that an early morning workout spikes your metabolism. If I want to hit 119 for the certification, I’ll have to cut excess off my body I possibly can.
Had half a shake and a graham cracker for breakfast.
I actually ate lunch today but in my defense it wasn’t much.
In weight lifting it’s hard not to cheat. The coach has to watch around fifty kids; he won’t notice if I put a 35 on the bar instead of a plate. I didn’t cheat. But it’s hard.
After weight lifting, we picked up Lujan and went to the Bonner building to drill. It was an okay practice; we got some good drilling in—but afterwards Richard showed up. Richard is a certified badass. He won state a couple times, won a national title, and so on. He and I went live after practice, and he showed me yet again that I know nothing about the sport of wrestling.
Decent day today. Also, I weighed in at 133 when I woke up. I was pumped.
Tomorrow is GNWA. Make it a good one.
October 1, 2009
Good practice today. I got to wrestle with some quality guys—some state champ or another kicked my ass—and the coaches changed it up with hard drilling and live wrestling at the beginning of practice.
It’s true that you wrestle better when you wrestle better guys.
Drilling is going okay. Still searching for perfection on my shots. Got to explode through and get the hell off my knees. Although I did hit a pretty good high crotch today, going live. I wasn’t as tired as I should have been. Could have been my diet; could have been that I wasn’t leaving everything on the mat. Probably the latter. I’m cutting weight, which means I’m going to be a lot of fun to be around these next four months. Do better next time.
Weightlifting was mediocre. I blew the mile out, but sucked up the agility drills. I will never be an athlete. All I need to do is pretend for the next four months or so.
In the meantime, I’ll condition and drill, drill, drill. Wrestling for seven days a week takes it out of you, but I’m still not perfect. Therefore, I will continue to work to get better. I didn’t give up my summer and put in hundreds of hours of wrestling and cut weight to accept loss.
If I cut right, I should be around 32 or 31 tomorrow. The tournament Saturday is going to be fun.
October 2, 2009
I made weight with a pound to spare after practice. Now I just have to keep it off for 8 hours. Have to get up at 4:30 in the morning to wrestle.
October 3, 2009
Good day today. I beat a state champion, and a guy who beat the same state champion that I beat, and an average guy. Still have lots of room for improvement; need to be more aggressive on my feet, need to turn guys on top. Need to be able to hold down Danny Bell; when that kid wants an escape, he gets an escape. I have a habit of reaching that I really really need to correct.
October 4, 2009
Off day because Donovan’s sick. I need to heal up too. I should feel bad about this but I don’t. Screwing up your body is not a good way to have an undefeated season.
October 5, 2009
The usual routine. Weightlifting, practice. I’m beginning to hate weightlifting. You don’t bench press someone off of you while you’re wrestling. You don’t curl someone’s arms off of you. No one brings a dip rack onto the mat. No one seems to understand this. They’re so obsessed with their maxes that they don’t understand the difference between mat strength and weight room strength. About the only useful lift we do is the power clean. I only put up with it because it burns calories, and I need to burn calories. My weight went back up again.
The running days are a little more productive.
Practice today was decent. I took lil Lujan aside and we drilled the whole time. You have to have perfect technique to drill with that kid. Big Lujan stepped in and offered some pointers. He likes single legs; I don’t. I like to score my points quickly and there’s too much that can go wrong when you’re in and trying to finish a single.
ALSO I keep going over the videos of the tournament Saturday. I look better than I did last year, but I can’t stop picking at the little details. I have to wrestle perfect. I have to. I don’t have the luxury of 10 years wrestling experience behind me.
Friday Night Lights is a great sports movie. I hate football but I love the movie, because it does a great job of portraying the all-or-nothing sprint for a state championship. I feel like I’m on the last lap of a two-year sprint. I neglected the first three years of my wrestling career because I hated the sport, and I regret that because now I have to hurl myself headlong into training for the six-minute culmination of the past 2 years of my life.
October 6, 2009
Ran in weightlifting. It’s getting repetitive and I’m tired of it. Our school coaches have very little imagination.
At GNWA I drilled with Roper today. WOW. I’d like to see him and Richard go at it. Roper moved me wherever he wanted me. It was humiliating. I don’t know if I even made him sweat. He made me look like a first-time wrestler. I swear at one point he was using his fingertips to move me and there was still nothing I could do about it.
I also drilled with coach Lujan, who is big and strong and knows a lot of tricks, but he just wasn’t as mobile as Roper. We hand-fought and I got a couple of good picks and drags in.
I went live with some kids from somewhere.
I wrestled with Acton during the last go. I wish I could spell that kid’s last name right. I still couldn’t hold him down, or escape, but it was less embarrassing than wrestling Roper.
So…decent practice.
October 7, 2009
My back was killing me today. I blame it on bad shots; I’m probably using the muscles in my back instead of my legs. Or maybe it’s the fact that lil Lujan wraps himself around me when I take a shot, so I have to lift him bodily to score. Drilling with that kid improves your technique.
Anyway, I neglected my morning workout and felt bad about it.
School sucks. I think you should either have school or wrestle, but not both. With most sports, it doesn’t really matter. But I’m not talented at wrestling, so I have to dedicate myself wholeheartedly to the sport in order to keep up with everybody. This means that my grades plummet. So does my social life, but no one needs a social life anyway.
I had to do lighter weights today to make sure I didn’t destroy my back. It’s probably nothing, but there’s no use taking chances. At least I’m lifting. Sometimes it seems like half the Carrollton wrestling team sits in a corner and watches the rest of us work out. This is why as a team we don’t make it to state; but we got 8th in the individual tournament with just three wrestlers.
Practice was much the same. I drilled with Lujan. The GNWA stuff is becoming easier. I actually know how to do a pass and a pick and a club now. I hate everyone who can do this effortlessly.
October 8, 2009
Practice was fun today. We warmed up hard, with our normal drills—which I did mostly right! They gave us time to work on singles, doubles, and short offense. We just drilled, and drilled, and drilled. After that we more or less went straight into situational wrestling. After situations, we did a lot of scrambling, and lil Lujan kind of kicked my ass. The kid can scramble. I thought I was a good scrambler? I was mistaken.
He’s a seventh grader, by the way.
Afterwards we conditioned.
I hate squat jumps. Five is about my comfortable limit. Ten hurts. Fifteen is bad. Twenty? Twenty-five? Thirty? I was gasping. All in all we did a hundred and five. It wasn’t fun.
Monkey rolls were fun though. Thanks, coach Fretwell, for calling me out. Apparently I wasn’t jumping right. It’s okay; hardly anybody in that room is coordinated anyway. You don’t really realize you’re conditioning when you’re doing monkey rolls.
Afterwards Roper and Fretwell told us we had a good practice. I know lil Lujan and I did. I like how the coaches keep changing things up.
I didn’t eat much after practice. Have to get my weight down. It jumped back up after the tournament Saturday.
October 9, 2009
Weightlifting and practice today. I’m getting better. My shots seem crisper.
We had a wrestling meeting for our school today. Nearly forty kids showed up. Maybe we are going to turn the Carrollton program around and get it on its feet.
133 after practice. Could be worse.
October 10
SAT today.
October 11
I worked with Donovan. We went over the videos of my matches from last week and worked what we needed to work: head control. Basically I got to spend an hour pummeling Donovan’s head. I brought a notebook to write down the little corrections he told me.
He had been sick for the past week, so going live with him was fun for me. We had some good scrambles and I got to incorporate the things we had just drilled. Both of us were just in pain by the time we were done.
October 12, 2009
There’s a new rule at my school that states that if an athlete is failing two or more classes at the time of the competition, the athlete will not be allowed to compete. We have less than three weeks until the season starts. I have to get my grades up, so I called off practice today.
God, I hate school.
I’m still going to GNWA because GNWA practice gets you better, and I really have got to start worrying about my weight. I’m scared to step on a scale now. 125 at super 32 is not even that hard of a cut—it’s about what I cut weekly last season—but I’ve got to get disciplined about it.
And cutting weight does nothing to help your grades.
) Sunday.
