LINDLAND, Continued from page 25
zens in New York. It made me mature a lot and realize there are more important things in life than wrestling. When the Worlds were in Greece that year, I was a different person. I was going to give 100 percent every match. It was all about loving it. I never had more fun competing than that year.
USA Wrestler: Explain the decision to compete in Mixed
Martial Arts, and how difficult was it for you to transition to the new sport? Lindland: The decision to do MMA was because I thought I could compete and make a living to support my family. There would be a bigger stream of revenue in MMA than wrestling, and ultimately there was. I am blessed. It has made me a better coach, a better wrestler, understanding that all martial arts are connected. As wrestlers, we tend not to respect other martial arts much, because we are so proud of our martial art. The tran- sition into MMA was not difficult for me. I took all the same prin- ciples I learned in wrestling.
Hard work, dedication, discipline, seeking out quality coaches and training partners, putting myself in the best training environ- ment. I applied them to mixed martial arts and it took me to the No. 1 rank in the world.
USA Wrestler: You did a lot of MMA coaching, and even served as a promoter of MMA events. How did those experi- ences impact your development in coaching and in people man- agement? Lindland: It was critical. All the coaching I’ve done, from my time at Nebraska to my time at Team Quest. I put 14 years in at Team Quest as a promoter, a manager, a coach. First and fore- most, I always considered myself a coach, although I wore other hats. A coach at the highest levels needs to manage, promote and market his athletes. He also needs to prepare them to men- tally and physically to compete to the best of their ability. Wrestlers are very humble about their accomplishments and what they do. We have a tendency not to market and promote ourselves very well, which does not benefit us at the end of the day.
That is a great lesson I learned from MMA. There is no such thing as bad press as long as they are talking about you. Dollars will flow from that. Those are the kind of things I will bring to wrestling and Greco-Roman especially.
USA Wrestler: How do you get people to know more about Greco-Roman, follow the athletes, try the sport? Lindland: We have to build athletes that people know who they are and want to get behind them. All the athletes on this team has got a great story. You have Andy Bisek, same story as I had, with two kids and working a job while he trains and com- petes. You’ve got young guys like RaVaughn Perkins who grew up in the hood and is fighting his way out of there. We have guys who are officers in the military, who have com- pletely different stories, but can be leaders of this program. We have to get those stories told. It’s starting to happen. We have to tell individual stories, because people want to root for ath- letes.
USA Wrestler: Your kids grew up and you were able to spend more time coaching Greco-Roman, including serving as a 2013 World Team Coach. How much did you enjoy giving back at that level?
Lindland: As an athlete, competing and training, I was away from my kids when they were younger. When they were in junior
high and high school, I was blessed. I got to spend a lot of time with them and went to all their track and wrestling meets and 4H events. We are very close. When my daughter decided to go to college, I decided to get back to coaching wrestling at a higher level. We basically set ourself up for me to make this move, and ultimately get picked to lead this program. Coaching the teams the two years before taking this job confirmed that I was doing the right thing and could make an impact and serve this next generation of athletes, this organization and the United States in a coaching capacity.
USA Wrestler: The USA was World Team champ in Greco in 2007, but has not won a World-level medal since 2009. How close is our program to returning to elite status, and can we get there in short order? Lindland: We have a few individuals very close to medals.
We have wonderful Greco-Roman guys at the top. Our No. 1 guys are veterans, have been on our teams. You keep seeing the names on team after team. They have put in the time and effort and they will start seeing the results with World medals. I’m committed to helping them achieve that in any capacity I can. They are doing the right stuff. These guys won’t stick around for ever. This is probably their last quad. We have to fill that pipeline. We need guys behind them, challenging them for their spots. We need more athletes. It seems more guys are pursing freestyle than Greco. I don’t know if they don’t see the opportunities in Greco or they think it’s more foreign of a sport. It’s really not.
USA Wrestler: What can you do to attract talented wrestlers for the future? Lindland: We have to promote, market and manage the guys we have now better. We have to get their names out there. There are great kids coming out of college, the Kyle Dakes and David Taylors. These are brand name guys and they follow them in freestyle. We need to build brand name guys in Greco- Roman, people kids are inspired to emulate. I heard some kids say they wish they could grow a mustache like Andy Bisek. They know who he is and are excited to follow his progress. That’s part of my job, to facilitate those stories. The guys are doing all of these things and nobody knows about it. Andy won a lot of tournaments and medals this year. He’s right there. But the audience only knows about Jordan Burroughs and those type of guys now.
USA Wrestler: What can we expect from a Matt Lindland- coached U.S. program, and what attributes will our wrestlers need to win World and Olympic medals? Lindland: I will build a program that is a tight-knit unified
team. That is key to getting guys to be part of it. It’s a family that cares about each other and fights for each other. In the short term, we grab our best FILA Cadets and FILA Juniors and take those guys with us to the Worlds.
They will be assimilated to our program, know that we care about them and we want to help them. We should keep bringing guys to Colorado to train with us, the top college guys in our camps. It’s a longer term thing. Right away, we should let people know there are opportunities in Greco, that we are not deep and you can make our national team. On the mat you will continue to see our wrestlers will fight hard. We are focusing on their strengths. Between now and the
World Championships, you are not going to fix a lot of things. You will see our guys wrestle their best matches and wrestle to their strengths.
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