COACHES CORNER
Commitment holds big key in building TEAM USA Greco
By Matt Lindland, U.S. National Greco-Roman Coach This past summer, I was hired as the U.S. Greco-Roman National Team Coach. That same weekend, I started working at the FILA Cadet and University Nationals even in Akron, Ohio. This is a high-level, age-group event. The event was well-attended, but what I’ve found out since is less than three percent of U.S. wrestlers compete in Greco-Roman wrestling. After the weekend, I went home and packed up and moved to Colorado the next week to get things going with my new role. People have been asking where have I been? What have I been up to? People in the wrestling community ask where did you go? People in the MMA community ask where are you now? There are a lot of people that only know me from being a MMA athlete or MMA coach. Others only know me from wrestling days. Then there are others that know me as a world- class whitewater rafter and have no idea that I fought or coach combat sports.
I am all of those and much more. Right now, I am a full-time coach on a mission to bring the U.S. back to the top of the World in Greco-Roman wrestling.
When I got to Colorado, I had to get a group of men ready to
take on the rest of the World in a World Championships. Greco- Roman is the most popular form of wrestling worldwide, with over 75 competing nations in the World. The U.S. team hadn’t won a medal in Greco-Roman since 2009, and I had three months to help these men prepare. Now, I had a World Team and needed to get a plan in place
to prepare the U.S. athletes for the World Championships in Tashkent, Uzbekistan on Sept. 11-12. The first three months on the job, my focus was on preparing the U.S. athletes to com- pete at the Worlds. I just needed to help tune these World-class athletes up, so they would be ready to compete at their best. My role was to put these men in the right environment, with the right training partners and coaches. If I did that, they all would have a shot at performing to the best of their abilities. We had some great wrestlers on the team, so we felt we had a shot at medals this first year if I could do my part. We were able to end the drought when Andy Bisek won a bronze medal, the first medal at a Worlds or Olympics for the U.S. Greco team since 2009. Spencer Mango took fifth in the World for the second year in a row. Not a bad start, but there is much work to be done. After the
World Championships, we started Winter Tours and training camps with the National Team.
The U.S. won three medals at the CISM Military World Championships, followed by the Bill Farrell formerly NYAC tour- nament, with 12 medals and four champions. We started 2015 strong with nine athletes medaling in a tough international Dave Schultz tournament, winning three titles in the process. We just recently returned from a very tough international com- petition in Croatia where the U.S. earned five medals, including
34 USA Wrestler
a champion in Joe Rau. At the tough Hungary Grand Prix, the U.S. came home with three medals and a champion in Jordan Holm. The U.S. hasn’t won three medals in the Hungary Grand Prix since 1999 or a cham- pion since 2003 when Dremiel Byers last won. We have a little momentum and something to build on. Now it’s time to reboot the Greco-Roman Program. Who is the U.S. Greco Team? We are TEAM USA. Period. We are not the OTC, Army, Marines, Storm, NYAC or any other club team. TEAM USA is made up of a diverse group of individuals that come from varied backgrounds.
Lindland
Some of us were college wrestlers who have converted to wrestling Greco after collegiate careers. Others came right into the Greco program right out of high school. Now we have some high school-age athletes that choose to forego the whole folk- style system and get on the same page as the rest of the World in wrestling by training Greco as a Junior athlete. In order to properly reboot the program, we have to learn to act like one team, training together and supporting one another. Loving and respecting one another is key to building TEAM
USA Greco.
If we want to be successful in wrestling, we have to love wrestling; it’s way too hard of a sport to not love. Not just the competition, but love the hard training and the lifestyle in and out of the gym. We know what it takes and we have to eat, sleep and breathe what we are doing. If we want to go far and build a sustainable program, we need to not only love what we do we need to love one another as a team. TEAM USA Greco is like a family. We may fight, get on each others nerves and disagree with each other at times, but at the end of the day we always look out for our teammates. If we love and care about our team, then we will be inclined to do right by them, and in turn will do right for ourselves and our wrestling careers.
If we genuinely care about our team, it will show through our actions and character. TEAM USA never looks for ways to divide, rather look for positive ways to unite. Be a positive influ- ence and figure out how the team could do things better and bring that to the leaders. Be an example, don’t be made an example. TEAM USA Greco is a family and families are there for you when you need them. Tell the story
Find the next generation of Greco-Roman wrestlers and close the Greco Gap.
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