COACHES CORNER Why continuing education?
USA Wrestling’s Assistant Women’s National Coach Emma Randall became the first woman to earn the Gold Level Certification in USA Wrestling’s National Coaches Education Program. A wrestler as an undergrad at Lock Haven University, Randall achieved a Masters Degree while working at USA Wrestling. She also fulfilled all of the requirements to become NCEP Gold Certified, even though she is just 25 years old.
Q: Explain the importance of continuing education for wrestling coaches of all levels. Randall: It is extremely important. We are always asking our athletes to grow and get better, and find that extra 1% to get better today, but have you gotten better as a coach? Whether you are a youth coach and trying to find a way to keep your kids engaged and retain the most kids in your program year after year, or if you are at the highest level, trying to get your athlete to put their hand just an inch lower and pinch their elbow to fin- ish that double on the biggest stage, we are all looking for that extra bit of technical advice or nutrition or sports psych or strength and conditioning. There are so many facets to our sport. We have room to improve. If you are not improving, the rest of the sport is going to pass you by.
Q: How did getting a masters degree help you as an indi- vidual and as a coach? Randall: During my undergraduate degree, I was more focused on finding myself as a coach, with my philosophy, my ethics, my moral code. I really hadn’t put a lot of thought into that, because at that age, it is hard to grasp those ideas. When I got to my graduate degree, it was not so much about myself, but how can you learn more about the sport, how to be excel- lent, what leadership traits should you strive for to lead your program from good to great. With all those research articles you are forced to read, you realize that there are a lot of great ideas out there. There are so many things we can apply to things we do every day so we can get better.
Q; What are your thoughts on sports psychology, which was a focus of your graduate work? Randall: It is huge. We have all had issues on the mental side, whether it’s confidence, handling those small doubts and fears, handling the pressure, making sure you can execute the moves in the final seconds without any hesitation. Are you set- ting the right goals? Are you telling yourself the right things? There are so many things in sports psych that you can apply. You can use those things to help your athletes get a little better, make them feel more confident and more comfortable. You can use communication skills to make them relax, and make sure they trust you and buy into your system. The mental game is just as important as the physical game.
Q: What did you learn about yourself in going through the process of getting the NCEP Gold certification? Randall: It put me in front of more information and more edu- cation and a lot of people with great coaching experience and knowledge. I picked their brains and it helped me understand what kind of coach I want to be. Going through the process of writing papers and understanding my coaching philosophy, it
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was interesting to see how much that has changed since I was in college to now when I am working with the National Teams. I worked on the long-term athlete develop- ment plan from birth to death, and what will truly make the gold medal and what will retain more athletes in the sport. It was really interest- ing to create that system. There is not a lot of wrestling specific research. It was combining the minds of our National Team coach- es and staff and figure out how we can make the sport better. Recently, I created the Confidence Inventory, and it helped us understand our athletes just a little bit better. You can start to see trends in their confidence. How can we use variables to manipulate our athletes to be the most confident and to have the most success?
Emma Randall
Q: You have taught at three Silver Coaches Colleges. What was it like to help coach the coaches? Randall: As a young female within wrestling, I had a percep- tion that people perceive me as unintelligent, with little experi- ence or background in the sport. It was hard for me to speak up in public and say, hey, I am a National Coach and hey, I spent years in education and put the time in help move the sport for- ward. Coach Terry (Steiner) threw me into a Silver College. I presented on different forms of confidence. I was confident in the information, in how I could present it. I knew I could teach them something. The difference between the first time I taught and the last time I taught was my confidence in that I do know what I am talking about and I do know that coaches can learn from me. A lot of women in our sport are young. We have a lot to prove to the older generation that we have a place on the mat. We have information and knowledge that we would love to share with the next generation of coaches and athletes, but also with the former generation. We can all get better together.
Q: Can you stop learning and stop growing as a coach? Randall: Learning is ongoing. We are constantly evolving as human beings. We are not starting over from scratch. We evolve in how we can be the next bit better, the next bit better. It is a big thing in my life. When I did the National Teams Leadership and Coaches Education Program with the USOC, they had a reading list of 50 books. If that is what the best coaches in the world are doing, don’t you think we should have our best youth coaches doing that too? We can’t just get better at the top. We have to get better at the bottom and at all levels and build wrestling. It takes the whole country to make a gold medal. The sport is constantly evolving. Since I have been at USA Wrestling, there have been about five rule changes. We are constantly changing environments. We constantly evolve our development system, our Senior program, our periodization plans to get the most out of our athletes. It is constant that it is always changing. Everything in our sport is evolving and so are we.
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