Coaching Wrestling

[SmoothJazz2018]

I probably already have the answer to this, but I would still like some feedback from you. I'm in my 4th season as a high school head wrestling coach...that never wrestled in high school or college. I took over our program because we did not have a head coach and we have a state of the art wrestling room that was getting ready to be used for dancing!

I told our AD that I would be our head coach for a year, but after 3 years, I'm still growing to love this sport. I excelled as a football and baseball player in high school and played football in college. My high school has a wrestling program, but I just wasn't interested in participating in the sport at that time...and I did not like the singlets

Since I took over our program, we have sent wrestlers to our state championships for the past three years. I believe when we get a full lineup, we will go as a team. I've been blessed with an excellent coaching staff, both that were high school wrestlers. The process that we have works in our program, but I want to be more "hands on" with my wrestlers as their head coach. Once again, I never wrestled and I'm at the age that I would be challenged to "spar" with my staff But make no mistake about it, even at pushing 60 years old, I'm an active runner and I'm blessed with my health at this time. 

While on active duty and since I've been an educator, I've been coaching over 20-plus years (football, baseball, track). Just would like to have some feedback from wrestling coaches that never wrestled. Thank you.

[coachpeck]

Coach Paul Hambrick (Franklin Coach) was very successful and never was a wrestler.  He took over after Jeff Jordan retired for the first time.  He learned from Coach Jordan and bought books and VHS tapes.  I think these days it'd be easier to learn from all the resources on Youtube and Kolat.com.  When I first started I used the unofficial coaches survival guide (it's really dated but very good).  I also used Coaching wrestling successfully.  Of course all these books predate the internet, so there might be better more useful stuff now.   

[cbg]

11 hours ago, coachpeck said:

Coach Paul Hambrick (Franklin Coach) was very successful and never was a wrestler.  He took over after Jeff Jordan retired for the first time.  He learned from Coach Jordan and bought books and VHS tapes.  I think these days it'd be easier to learn from all the resources on Youtube and Kolat.com.  When I first started I used the unofficial coaches survival guide (it's really dated but very good).  I also used Coaching wrestling successfully.  Of course all these books predate the internet, so there might be better more useful stuff now.   

Paul also had Tony Rowland working with some of his best kids most of the time.

[coachpeck]

That helps too !

[cbg]

23 minutes ago, coachpeck said:

That helps too !

If you truly don't know what you are doing it's imperative that you surround yourself with people that are experts in the chosen field and that is what Paul did at Franklin.   Tony Rowland was the man that got it done for Franklin, Hunters Lane & Whites Creek back in the day.

[Nainten]

The other thing that ANY coach should invest time and energy into is establishing and building a feeder program.  For long term success it is paramount.  For this also you need to have the right people.  Preferably a person who is technically competent, good with kids and parents,  in it for the long haul, and communicates well with you.  If you are lucky you will find all these qualities in one person but more likely it will be a group effort.