Iowa Style Wrestling Practice Blog

"What you are shouts so loudly in my ears that I cannot hear what you say."

Dear Coaches,


As you know each year Bill Swertfager and Dennis DiSanto put on two great camps right here in section 1. 
If you feel that it would help your team you should promote both to your athletes and you  
should attend and speak with the clinicians yourself if at all possible.

Walk-ins welcome:

9:00 AM John Jay Cross River HS
_____________________________________________________


In years past these camps have had Olympic Champion Tom Brands, World Champion Terry  
Brands, Lincoln McIlravy, and an abundance of National Champion caliber 
instructors come right to your backyard. The message is always consistent.  Seeing these type of individuals in 
person up close is invaluable. 

Q.    Will you learn any really new skills or techniques?  

A.    Maybe but, probably not, yet they might have a unique way of delivering 
the skill that makes it work for you, or it might just help to see a go-behind  
one more time and to know you are doing it the same way an Olympic or National 
champion is doing the skill.

Q.    Why should you pay to see the same skills?

A.    Because wrestling is about excellence, and excellence requires discipline  
and repetition.  We could show you a bunch of flashy clinic moves that are low 
percentage stuff, or we can deliver a message and skill set that has been proven 
time and time again to win titles at every level. 

Q.     Why should I go to a 5 day camp when I am already receiving excellent 
coaching from my High School coach or another camp or clinic?

A.     For several reason, not the least being that any time you can spent  
quality time around greatness you should take the opportunity and seize it.
Although your coach provides you with everything you need, sometimes it only 
takes one very little thing to make a huge difference in a career, and the more  
exposure you have to great wrestlers, coaches and their teachings the greater 
the likelihood you will find that one thing or the few things that will make 
all the difference.

Furthermore, Troy Nickerson has done something that no other human being on  
Earth has done, won 5 NY State Championships.  Talking and watching him is a 
treasure you should avail yourself of.

Also, 5 days of structured workouts and technique can only help you.

I think bringing in the elite wrestlers who are current and still competing in addition to bringing in legends  
can only help you, our young leaders of tomorrow. Please join us at John Jay 
Cross River on Monday June 25th at 9:00 AM

Our greatest fear is not that we are inadequate,
but that we are powerful beyond measure.

It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us.
We ask ourselves,
Who am I to be brilliant,gorgeous, handsome, talented and fabulous?

Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.

Your playing small does not serve the world.

There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you.
We were born to make manifest the glory of God within us.
It is not just in some, it is in everyone.

And, as we let our own light shine,
we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.

As we are liberated from our fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

We had a great week of practice.

Goals for the next week:

Dominate the competition at the National Duals by performing above out
abilities and rising to the occasion, because domination of our
opponents is in each and every Iowa Style Wrestler.

Outwork the competition, not only in hours (time) but effort (quality)
in every situation and on every attempt to score or defend an attack
in the practice and in the competition.

Realizations:

We realized it is not our overall efforts that are lacking, but our
responses to small instances. We now know that a more immediate and
intense response to adverse conditions, as small as head position or
as dangerous as someone with our leg in the air, requires quicker and
more decisive action.

Competitiveness is the quality that separates the victors from those
who suffer defeat. The ability to compete for every point, every
position, every edge, every second of the match (and in practice) will
separate you from even more skilled and/ or more experienced
wrestlers.

Chain wrestling, is a skill we need to improve on.

Better drilling, harder, with higher attention to detail must take place.

Thanks,
JD

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Diana <dfrost2@optonline.net>
Date: May 16, 2006 1:20 PM
Subject: Fairness in Competition Bills -- Assembly and Senate
To: john degl <johndegl@gmail.com>

John,

Feel free to forward this to anyone you wish to. I did a little
research and came up with the following proposed form letters:

Here's a letter that you can cut and paste into an email to
Assemblyman Stephens (if you're in his district):

Dear Assemblyman Stephens,

I was disturbed to learn that, despite approval last week of Assembly
Bill A2161a -- the Fairness in Competition bill -- by the Assembly
Committee on Education, you have asked that the bill be set aside. I
write to urge you, as my representative, not to derail the hard fought
efforts of those who genuinely care about providing our student
athletes with a full and fair opportunity to compete in individual
sporting competition at New York State Championship events.

Our state system of qualifying student athletes for State Championship
competition involving certain individual sports does not ensure that
the best individual athletes compete at States. This is fundamentally
unfair to our children. The Fairness in Competition bill would begin
to address this serious, long standing inequity. I understand that
New York State is the only state with such an unfair system. This is
ironic, given the leading role New York plays in so many aspects of
our national life, including professional sports and entertainment.
Why should our children be so seriously disadvantaged in their efforts
to compete with student athletes from other states for college
opportunities? I urge you to act on behalf of our student athletes
and to support this important legislation.

Sincerely,

Here's a letter that you can cut and paste into an email to your
Assemblyman (if you are in a district other than the 99th):

Dear Assemblyman ______________,

I was disturbed to learn that, despite approval last week of Assembly
Bill A2161a -- the Fairness in Competition bill -- by the Assembly
Committee on Education, Assemblyman Will Stephens has asked that the
bill be set aside. I write to urge you, as my representative, to
resist this attempt to derail the hard fought efforts of those who
genuinely care about providing our student athletes with a full and
fair opportunity to compete in individual sporting competition at New
York State Championship events.

Our state system of qualifying student athletes for State Championship
competition involving certain individual sports does not ensure that
the best individual athletes compete at States. This is fundamentally
unfair to our children. The Fairness in Competition bill would begin
to address this serious, long standing inequity. I understand that
New York State is the only state with such an unfair system. This is
ironic, given the leading role New York plays in so many aspects of
our national life, including professional sports and entertainment.
Why should our children be so seriously disadvantaged in their efforts
to compete with student athletes from other states for college
opportunities? I urge you to act on behalf of our student athletes,
to oppose Assemblyman Stephens obstructive efforts and to support this
important legislation.

Sincerely,

The letter could also be modified slightly to be sent to your State
Senators in support of Senator Tom Libous similar bill, Senate Bill
S2064a.

I have already sent my own emails to my assemblyman (Bradley), to
Stephens, and to my State Senator (Leibell). I also called Stephens
office. My emails were personalized by including a middle paragraph
that refers specifically to the impact this has on Kyle and his
prospects for competition and college recruiting. I think the above
form letters could be used by anyone as is, but it is sometimes more
effective to include a personal appeal as well, as it brings the
message home more clearly.

Anyone who wants to use my drafts, or personalize them, is welcome to do so.

Let me know what else I can do to help.

Diana

--
Thank You,
John Degl
914.494.6723
www.iowastylewrestling.com
P.O. Box 378
Mahopac Falls, NY 10542

ISW Academy Located at 16 Schuman Rd. Millwood NY

Dear ISW family,
Competitiveness is the the difference between everything in life. What are you willing to fight for, how hard, and what sacrifices are you willing to make?

ISW athletes need to ask themselves these questions. I think fighting for every takedown, every score, every second is what makes you get better. More than the room, or partners or lifting or drilling or anything else, without this quality ( the sheer hatred of losing) you will not reach the top.

Each of us must make this decision for ourselves and work to make a commitment to excellence if we hope to reach our goals.

--Coach Degl

Here are some helpful words to get you through on the bad days-

*A man can be as great as he wants to be. If you believe in yourself and have the courage, the determination, the dedication, the competitive drive and if you are willing to sacrifice the little things in life and pay the price for the things that are worthwhile, it can be done.
-Vince Lombardi

*Life's battles don't always go to the stronger or faster man. But sooner or later the man who wins, is the man who thinks he can.
-Vince Lombardi

*Winning is not a sometime thing; it's an all time thing. You don't win once in a while, you don't do things right once in a while, you do them right all the time. Winning is habit. Unfortunately, so is losing.
-Vince Lombardi

*Our greatest fear is not that we are inadequate, but that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us.
We ask ourselves, "Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, handsome, talented and fabulous?" so that other people won't feel insecure around you.
We were born to make manifest the glory of God within us.
It is not just in some; it is in everyone. And, as we let our own light shine, we consciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

-Marianne Williamson from her book, "A Return to Love"

We have been making progress. Yesterday was the best practice ever.
Greg Einfrank ran the workout and by all accounts it was awesome.

The Johnny Hendricks straight single will be drilled extensively as
well as our continuing work on the High Crotch position.

Key Points:

Keeping head up while we shoot.
Not getting over extended.
If we don't get the leg we recover immediately.
Level change and penetration (NOT DROPPING or DIVING IN).

Keep outworking the world. Or start!

We had a less than successful trip to Wildwood, NJ.

On Monday we watched video of the tournament.

We missed many go behind opportunities, our shot defense needs much
work as well as our footwork in general. We need to develop solid
attacks and maintain the pressure and wrestle with more urgency.

We lost over 15 matches by fewer than 2 points each.

John Degl

Sorry about the lack of updates.

Monday we worked on standups and penetration steps.

I keep observing a lack of wrestling knowledge. I feel we need to go
back to a really simplifies way of wrestling. We are missing the most
back scoring opportunities.

Bottom wrestling continues to be a weakness among club members. We
are going to rectify this issue.

John Degl

TRAVEL TEAM
Today was a light day of on your own drilling. I observed some real
good wrestling. I also saw why we haven't won a state title.

We will be training old school for a while since the past season did
not yield a state title.

I am on a MISSION.

COACH DEGL

Joe Mazzurco takes 6th place in the NCAA's

He looked solid and finished his career with his 2nd All-American performance.

The wrestling is awesome. The scrambles and intensity is something to
emulate. We need to work more finishes and scramble situation.

Top is also something that must stressed more. I saw several times
where riding a man for a mere 20-30 seconds would have changed the
course of a match.

More Gramby rolls for the youth class.

The Travel Team Built the weight room.
We worked on downblocking, and counter offense.

The Varsity practice:
Over-Under positioning, Inside Trip, Jantzen's slide down double off
an over-under.

Keys:

The crow-hop into the IT
Fighting half the man. (Larry left & Larry Right)
Bluffing if you are not confident and you feel your opponent is.

Coach Mike ran workouts.

We covered the (Jantzen) role through half from a crab ride.

Sunday

We worked on the Granby roll. It is a difficult drill requiring you to
"sell out" and go 100% when drilling. You can not do this drill half
speed.

Then we wrestled live.

On Saturday many club members wrestled at Valley Central.
Also Ryan Osleeb won the Ossining tournament. Congrats Ryan

Monday and Tuesday:
Coach Pat did an awesome job on Tuesday covering:

Head in the hole FHL.
He also worked on Cradles and turns

monday was more FHL counter offense.

The travel team had two intense days of Hard drills and wrestling.

Sunday:

We had a record number of students at one class. If this keeps up we
will add more classes to keep class size down to around 16 per class.

Techniques Covered:
Defense of Front Head Locks-
> Key points-
1. Keep hips under you( stay in shoulder alignment)
2. Control the elbow
3. Your ear to your shoulder, take your neck away
4. Go forwards at all times, do not back out once a FHL is applied
5. Make sure opponent does not control your arm and head, Keep both
arms in close to body or post on one knee and attack his elbow with
your other hand.

Shots from FHL:
Far ankle, pop double or high crotch, duck to bear-hug

I like to think about climbing a spiral stair case. Inside step create
an angle, repeat.

- Passing Elbows
* Terry Brands Power Elbow Pass to far leg
* Circle Elbow Pass to near leg

Critical Points:

Must use short "alligator arms"
Must pass elbow like spiking a football or arm wrestling
Must change level
Can hit knee or not
Can shoot Hi-Crotch or Single or to Far Ankle

Remember we will relentlessly pursue or opponents and run them into the ground

Tuesday, February 28, 2006

Techniques Covered:

- Lowering level
- Proper double-leg penetration step
- Driving opponent backward with shot
- Basic finish (driving opponent at 45 degrees)

Tonight was an excellent workout. Corey Carter was able to make it
again. He is an excellent coach and wrestler, and a great resource
for the club members. We are very lucky to have him in the room.

Techniques covered:

- The purpose of downblocking
- Why downblocking is better than the sprawl
- What hand should downblock
- What hand is the attack hand vs. the tie hand, and their purposes

Shooting the man off the mat (Brands vs. Truby)
Shot reshot (counter offense)