COACHES CORNER Consistency for future success USA Wrestling Assistant National Freestyle Coach Bill Zadick
has recently been named the next National Freestyle Coach, taking over for Bruce Burnett when he retires after the 2016 Rio Olympic Games. Zadick will have to hit the ground running, as there will be a Non-Olympic Weight World Championships com- ing up in December. We visited with Coach Zadick after return- ing from an Olympic Team tour to Germany.
Q: How does the U.S. freestyle program stack up against
the top freestyle nations in the world right now? Zadick: We stack up very well. Our current Olympic team is a
mix of some young, inexperienced guys with some young, very- experienced guys and some older guys with quite a bit of expe- rience and some older guys who don’t. It is a really interesting make-up. All of these guys have been successful competitors throughout their careers and have seen some international suc- cess, which is most critical to what we want to do. We still have room to grow and time to get better. If we are able to continue to improve at the same rate we have over the last several months, I think we are going to be very happy with the results we see in Rio.
Q: What are key things that will help close the gap with countries like Russia and Iran, and keep us in the mix, regardless of what year it is in the Olympic four-year cycle? Zadick: Throughout the interview process, I was studying
what is being done successfully around the world and how does it impact what we are doing and what that margin is. Where are we in relation to the best performers in the world and what can we imple- ment to get us up there? Russia and Iran, every year, are among the strongest nations in the world. They have a very focused and organized system and structure. We have different cultures. Predominantly, they have central- ized training models and we have a more de-centralized training model with our NCAA pipeline and our Regional Training Center programs. The hinge pin that makes those countries work is consistency. That is something we can inject more into our sys- tem. It takes a lot of communication, a lot of work, and partner- ing with the key stakeholders in our sport. These are the college coaches, the RTCs, the National Team athletes, but even fur- ther down through our elite-track developmental pipeline and grassroots development. Once you have a great plan, great ath- letes and great coaches involved, it is consistency over time that is going to win. We need to implement elements of consis- tency from top to bottom in our program, when it comes to train- ing methodology on a broader perspective, when it comes to technical and tactical information on a more specific level.
Bill Zadick Q: How do progress with improvement in technical and
tactical areas? Zadick: It goes back to consistency of training. We have to
The Missouri Wrestling Foundation congratulates
J’den Cox for making the 2016 U.S. Olympic
Freestyle Team and looks forward to his success at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games. We are very proud of you. Turning Dreams Into Gold!!
be familiar with those positions, which most of our top athletes and our top coaches are. It is actually putting the minutes and the hours and the workouts together where we really develop not just an understanding or a knowledge but an expert level of comfort, which is developed over years. It doesn’t happen in a short time. Whether it’s basic body position, or more specifically control ties, underhooks, 2-on-1s, we have to be good on those from both the offense and the defense. No matter what kind of style an athlete wrestles, when you face international competi- tion, you are going to be in those positions, whether you are using them offensively or your opponent is using them. We have to deal with them from a defensive perspective, so we are wrestling from our best positions. Finishing takedowns is a huge area. Head-to-the-inside single
is the most common takedown and has been the most success- ful for 40-50 years. We have to spend time analyzing the specifics of single-leg finishes. Everybody is familiar with the nuts and bolts. It is the daily work, analyzing what the problem areas are for a given individual with a given coach and putting in the minutes every day so we have ultimate proficiency in those areas. It is consistency over time. We are going to see steady improvement and a steady closing of the gap from where our current performance is and the type of performance we want in the United States. Q: How do we develop more guys like Snyder, Pico, Cejudo who are already Senior-level ready as teenagers?
Continued on page 34 33 USA Wrestler
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