okay so it's Sunday and the day starts out with a mandatory tour of Pittsburgh with lunch included all of Team USA in team Virginia are there only about half of teen Pennsylvania is there.
after the tour was over they return to the hotel with an hour or maybe a little more to get ready. Then we all boarded the buses to go to the Fitzgerald field house at the University of Pittsburgh. there was a lot of publicity there as well. Teen pictures were taken a large picture of all the wrestlers with Jake Herbert was also taken with a sign that said save Olympic wrestling. Then they finally had an opportunity to warm up. By that point the sold out crowd of 3000 was already in ring the arena to take their seats. Things were getting exciting as we prepared for the match to start there were a lot of people sitting at tables all 3 on 3 of the 4 sides of the mat. Flo was all set up and started filming in commentating.
from the get go the officiating was interesting as we lost our first match order to had a takedown that we scored with mood from the scoreboard and seem to chase the opponent around the entire second. The format for our tool was a little strange and at first we thought with favor us. But I'm not so sure about that now looking back at it. They had each match as a as a too. Match with those. Starting in neutral so many of the matches most of them actually ended up being very Lowes scoring matches that came right down to the end. I think it was a tool that we could have 1 but things just didn't turn out that way. Technically we did fine they are very good at doing nothing until the end in scoring to win. We could have been in a little better shape but that wasn't a surprise.
Personally it was a great experience for me and it always is a good experience to be around high quality wrestlers from various different schools. It really gives you an opportunity to see different dominant styles and common themes. It also reminds you that really good wrestlers are normal kids to. They like the ice cream bar. And some are goofy some are quiet and some talk too much.
the Team USA vs team Pennsylvania tool was exciting and the team score came down to the last match. Most of the individual matches were pretty boring. The 1 thing that was different from these kids and most other wrestlers we're how hard they fought out of awkward positions and where some of the scrambles ended up. Eat 1 of these guys were very tough and had a lot of composure.
I think this weekend was a great experience for me personally as a coach. I was also happy to see that we put together a quality team that represented Virginia well. I really think that the Virginia Wrestling Association is headed in the right direction. We are putting better teams together for the sort of events. The Virginia elementary and middle school state championship is a quality event. I really hope to see all of the best teams and best wrestlers in the state continue to take time out of their schedule to represent Virginia in these sort of events in the future.
Monday, March 18, 2013
Dapper Dan part 2
my DA pper Dan experience
I'm going to use s voice on my new as Street to post office since I'm doing it while I'm driving.
so I found out that I'm going to be a coach for the Dapper Dan um at the elementary school state Florida I have to say that was pretty cool.
so I'll start off with my experience leaving Saturday morning although Friday I had to go get the van I'm going to try and talk a little bit about how to be a wana and the Dapper Dan committee handled everything as well as the time .
So I got off an early Saturday morning for a gloomy it started 4 o'clock on Sunday afternoon 1 of my guys skyline was selected to be on the team Justin Williams won the state championship SC 2 20 weight class this year .
We met at about 715 in the morning and then we drove an hour back into Stafford to meet everyone at Colonial Forge high school. And we drove to Pittsburgh into a nice rented passenger vans. The other coaches that went with us we're Phil Cronin and will Strozzi know . It seems that s voice doesn't like coach will last name. Meeting us down in Pittsburgh we're coach Cameron from Forest Park and coach weber from Christiansburg .
so we got on the road and it took about 5 hours to get to Pittsburgh the drive was nice. I 68 has some great scenery. I would have enjoyed it a little bit more had I not had to continue to try and find coach Cronin in my rearview mirror. so when we all about an hour away the 2 vans kinda split from each other but we both ended up making it there any. And for the record coach Cronin did make it to the hotel before I did. Before we split up we did stop at Sheetz where the wrestlers were trying to hit on the girls working the cash register.
upon arriving at the Doubletree Hotel in Pittsburgh it was immediately president how professional the Dapper Dan committee took this event. When we're old and everything was very organized . The way ins happen right when we got there and despite popular belief everyone does have to make way for the Dapper Dan. Right next door to the way in room was a huge spread of food for the wrestlers to eat right when we got there. We also had another room full of gear for the wrestlers and the coaches. The wrestlers got a bag warm up top warm up bottoms singlet shorts and a shirt. The singlets are pretty sick.
everything moves pretty quickly here. After getting settled in all 4 teams dot on buses to have a workout in the Pittsburgh University wrestling room. The practice was a little weird because 1 of the Dapper Dan guys ran the workout. When you have a team full of state chance and state placers who are all 18 years old and they bring coaches with them they probably can work out on their own just fine. But it still in it up being a decent workout. When we returned to the hotel any of the wrestlers that didn't make weight when we arrive waitin after a workout.
that evening we went to a banquet that featured Olympian Jake Herbert as the main speaker. You could tell he was relatively new to public speaking but he still did an outstanding job talking to the kids. You really encourage them to continue to excel in the sport. Up to this point in for the rest of the weekend everything was taken care of by the Dapper Dan Crew we didn't have to pay for anything. The Virginia Association when is the vans and pay for the gas . After the banquet there was a coaches social upstairs in the hotel. At 1. I was talking to Olympian national champs and the guy that runs flo.
Okay that's it for now I'll post again in a little bit
Monday, March 11, 2013
Inventions from other sports that increased scoring
The down-and-distance rules in football (The idea of so many tries to get so many yards)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_American_football
Basketball shot clock increased scoring by almost 15 points per game
http://www.nba.com/history/season/19541955.html
Basketball 3-point line
Football 2-point conversion
Rally scoring in volleyball
Do you think there are ways for these rules (or others) to be applied to wrestling in a way that stalling won't need to be called and scoring is constant?