Best Use of Your Time
Last week on Mental Mondays, Ben Askren talked about getting back on the mat, win or lose, after your state tournament. This week Askren will break down what he believes will be the most efficient use of your time during the offseason. Some seniors may be gearing up for a national Folkstyle tournament and they need to keep up a high pace training regiment. For the younger wrestlers that are coming off an intense training period, Askren says to gear back a little bit. You don’t need to peak for every offseason tournament. You can train through them in order to get better and achieve your goals for next year. The best use of your time will be to work on strengthening your weaknesses.
Having Self Awareness
The first step is to sit down with coaches and figure out what you need to learn or change in order to evolve and get better. Study your season by looking at where you had successes and where you had failures. For example, if you’re bad off the bottom or you can only shoot your single from one side, you need to put yourself in those situations in practice. Be honest with yourself and open to feedback. Sometimes the feedback that coaches, parents, and teammates give is not enjoyable to hear. Part of self awareness is listening to the constructive critique of others. Use your newly learned techniques to compliment what you’re already good at.
Take your Medicine
It’s easy to feed the ego and shy away from the positions you’re not the best in. Askren suggests asking a training partner to help you with specific moves and situations. Most people enjoy what they already do well. It can be hard to lose to the person you usually beat in practice because you’re trying to learn something new. The only way to get better and evolve is to practice. One way to look at it is training is similar to taking medicine. In this case, the medicine that will get you better is practice and reps. By getting more proficient at your weaknesses you’ll build up enough confidence to take it to the pressure of real competition.
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