The Ten Commandments of Practice Planning
Creating rules for writing a practice plan is difficult. There are many different things to consider when writing a wrestling practice on a given day. No workout is the same. A summer clinic for middle schoolers is very different than a peaking season workout for a college team. The timing of the workout, the age of your athletes, and the situation dictate a lot of details.
I want every program from Iowa University to Anytown, USA Youth club to be able to apply these rules. They are purposefully vague about particulars like intensity and specific technique. Decisions on these topics are yours to make as they are situationally dependent.
Without further ado, here are the Ten Commandments of Practice Planning.
1. Tell a story with a moral
Stories are how people communicate effectively. Stories excite people by engaging their emotions. And make no mistake, engaging your audience is the name of the game when trying to teach, inform, or lead. All the facts in the world, no matter their relevance or truth, fall flat if there is no story. This applies to creating a practice plan as well. Make sure your wrestling practice has a story.
All good stories include a moral- so should this one. The options are limitless. You can emphasize developing chain wrestling, having options in positions, being mean, being stingy, and on and on. Be creative.
Make sure not to jump straight into the details when teaching a technique. Take a tilt for instance. Take the time to frame a technique like this to its use against different body types. You could say, "There are some guys you just can't power half, for example, Brock Lesnar. Even if you're the best in the world at power halves he's too strong to get his elbow over his head, you need an alternative. Tilts are great for wrestling strong bricks." This story helps engage the kid who has never tilted before and pins everyone with their boots and a power half. It makes them feel like they need to learn the technique.
I learned the value of stories when developing how I teach my bread and butter arm drag series. I say that my goal is to put my opponent in a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation. My story when teaching this is about making wrestling like a tic-tac-toe game. To win in tic-tac-toe, you must create a situation where they can't make a move without losing the game. In my series, depending on their reaction, I can attack either of their legs. They can't defend both.
When teaching my series, I know not everyone will use it. In turn, the technique becomes less important than the story itself. I encourage the athletes to find their version of this tic-tac-toe scenario. I tell them that if they can find 3-4 tic-tac-toe series on their feet, they will be unstoppable. It has worked well as athletes tell me that the story and moral resonate with them.
2. Ensure technical progression
When showing technique you must think about how it fits in with all the other techniques that you show. Techniques shouldn't be too separate- especially in the short term. Show techniques that lead to each other. This makes you more memorable and encourages chain wrestling throughout the positions taught. Techniques taught in isolation are easily forgotten.
This means in one week show a snatch single one day, single-leg finishes the next, then single defense. Avoid bouncing around too much. Teaching this way allows them to remember the whole series well and use them in conjunction. This is much better than teaching a headlock, a power half, a low level, and a sit out in one week. If you try to cram in random techniques together athletes are likely to forget one or all of those moves.
Teach technique within the framework of the knowledge they already have. You can't jump levels too far. If a high school kid doesn't know how to finish a single leg, teaching funk rolls isn't a great idea. It doesn't make sense with what he knows, he doesn't understand the "why". It makes him more confused as opposed to teaching him. Teach a funk roll as an "option c" when he understands all the offensive and defensive options in a single leg. This way he's primed to recognize the technique's value.
3. Help explain the technique "web"
As a coach, you know that feeling of becoming older and seeing technique clearer. Being able to take a step back and watch the options wrestlers have before they happen. You know that with a deep understanding of wrestling, you become much more effective. You are 3 steps ahead of your opponent allowing you to be most efficient with your energy.
Wrestling technique is intricate and interesting. There is a massive "web" wherein any given position you have 5 options. Each of those options has different defenses that would give you another set of choices. As coaches, we understand this but our non-elite athletes generally do not. It is key to explain this framework and how the technique we are teaching fits into what they already know. It helps your athletes understand the technique "web."
The example in number two with the athlete learning the funk roll is a good example of how to instill the idea of the "web." Teaching the funk roll as "option c" in the "web" helps your athlete even if they never use the technique. The knowledge of its existence allows them to understand why someone would use it. It helps them see it and defend against it if it's ever hit on them. Explaining how a technique fits into the "web" equips them to make strong decisions when in a tense moment.
4. Create a 'Final Product'
You want your athlete to feel like they learned a whole something when they leave the practice room. This applies especially to younger athletes. The younger an athlete is, the more you want them to be able to go home and show mom and dad what they learned. They are going to be more interested if they can do that and they are more apt to practice what they've learned on their own time.
This principle applies to older athletes as well. An elite athlete who only learned a fragment of something feels less accomplished. The more accomplished an athlete feels day to day, the more excited they will be to learn and push the next day. They may even stay after practice to work on what they've learned.
5. Consistently switch up your conditioning
In every workout, you must blow out your athletes' lungs at least once. Your athletes won't feel accomplished unless they break a sweat and breathe heavy. This is true even if they learned new effective techniques in a slow practice.
Conditioning development is essential to success. Do it consistently to get the results in matches as you can't get it all in one jump. Surprise your wrestlers every time they put on their wrestling shoes. An athlete will be calm during competition when faced with an odd situation if they are used to surprises when they train.
This strategy breeds trust in conditioning. This is crucial. You can be in good shape but if you don't trust that you are, you won't be able to use the advantage. Surprising and pushing an athlete to their brink in practice gives athletes confidence. In a match situation, an exhausted athlete with trust in their conditioning knows their opponent must be even closer to their breaking point and thus they are more willing to push further.
6. Make sure your workout flows
A wrestling workout's intensity must flow. You want to build up the intensity and slowly tone it down. Big jumps of intensity are hard for athletes to deal with. They hinder both their trust in what you're doing and their ability to do what you ask.
Progress your warm-ups, drills, and sparring in a way that helps your athletes push at 100% when you ask. Eliminating a warmup is going to limit how hard an athlete can go during live or conditioning. Similarly, don't run your athletes ragged minutes before teaching a brand new technique. Being out of breath and exhausted hurts their ability to focus and learn.
7. Mentally stimulate your athletes
Teaching wrestling technique needs to thread the needle of being not too easy and not too hard. You don't want to bore your athletes with something too simple. You want your athletes to have to engage cognitively during your workout. You also don't want it to be so difficult that they get frustrated when they can't figure something out. Finding this sweet spot breeds curiosity which is the gateway to learning.
It can also be a good idea to include some sort of novelty in your technique session. This is especially true in the clinic universe outside of season. If a group of wrestlers has never seen you before and you teach them a basic single-leg it will likely bore them. Instead, teach them something eye-catching and new to them first. This encourages them to pay more attention to the small details of that single-leg you wanted to teach from the beginning.
8. Personalize your workout
Every athlete is different. Teaching a whole program a rigid set of techniques is not a good idea. This is especially true when they are the techniques you hit as an athlete. Not every athlete is like you and they likely won't find the same techniques effective. Take advantage of the group you have. The string beans of your program aren't going to do the same things well as the stocky kids. The same thing goes with lightweights and heavyweights. The education world calls this differentiated instruction.
This forces you to think a bit more about the technique you want to show. Ask yourself: Who in the room will like this? Who won't? How can I make this work for those who won't feel like it doesn't fit with what they already do?
Encourage experimentation from athletes who are a different shape than you. Of course, there are times to be strict about how a technique is done. But whenever possible and appropriate, allow a technique to bend to its user.
This will turn into an advantage. Allowing variability in the technique taught encourages autonomy and engages athletes cognitively. The best part is that when they figure something out you can add it to your arsenal as a coach. How convenient, now you know how to teach a low level to a heavyweight.
9. Develop body awareness
Body awareness is so important in wrestling. This attribute is one reason gymnasts make good wrestlers. They understand where their body is in any given position and know how to adjust. What's convenient about this principle is you can emphasize it during the warm-up. Doing gymnast moves or controlled wrestling motions helps develop this very important property. An issue is, coaches tend to see warm-ups as just physical preparation. They think that it's only about the workout flow and getting their heart rate up. But remember, warm-ups develop skills and create habits. Pay attention during warm-ups and emphasize learning throughout your practices.
Then again, you may not be a gymnastics coach. Lucky you, BASE wrestling is a system created by Andy Horvat and Jake Herbert. It teaches athletes gymnastic skills step by step leading to big skills like back flips. Use this resource and find others to help your athletes develop body awareness.
10. Don't put too much in there and don't be afraid to improvise
This is something that every coach must know by now but it bears repeating. You cannot fit as much into a single practice as you think you can when planning on paper. If you think something is going to take 15 minutes it's likely going to take 25-30. Allow yourself extra time. It's better for everyone. Your athletes are never going to be able to digest 5 different techniques in one day, don't try it.
A huge skill in coaching is the ability to be variable. A plan is important to have but don't pull learning off the tracks to stick to "The Plan." With variability, this means that it may be a good idea to knowingly put more on your plan than you think you'll get done. But don't force yourself to squeeze it all in. Read the room. Be willing to add or subtract as you feel necessary.
The issue makes you realize that in a given year, you can't show everything. This means you better plan beforehand what you want to emphasize in a season, month, or training period. You have to leave things out. Know what you want to emphasize and why.
Share your emphasis with your athletes and make it a part of the year's overall story. "This year we are going to work on top and being pinners." This storytelling helps your athletes buy-in. It makes them want to focus on what you are doing. You don't want them thinking coaches are randomly and aimlessly picking techniques. Have a purpose. Be thoughtful in all that you do.