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Training Guidelines1. Make it fun. Lack of fun is one of the major reasons that kids drop out of sports. Make your practices fun, and keep everyone active during them. One way to do this is to train your wrestlers through fun games that focus on what you want them to learn, rather than putting them through boring drills. As for the off-season, you can be all but guaranteed that your wrestlers will drop out of any training program and not remain physically active if it's not fun. So suggest some fun ways to stay active and give them incentive to do so. 2. Provide variety. Using a range of activities is one of the ways to make practice (and off-season training or activities) fun. Mix various types of activities and exercises, with differing levels of intensity, throughout your practices. Keep things moving and fresh. If your practices become stale and stagnant, kids will become likewise. 3. Emphasize safety. Putting an emphasis on safety means providing for (or recommending, in the case of off-season activities) proper warm-up and cool-down, appropriate types of activities, low to moderate intensity, and gradual, not rapid, improvement. 4. Focus your wrestlers' training. Modify equipment, games, and rules to emphasize the tactics and skills you want your wrestlers to learn. 5. Require adult supervision for weight training. Although kids as young as 8 years old can safely weight train, a knowledgeable adult should directly supervise that training. This provision is one of the most critical ways to emphasize and provide for safety. 6. Set goals. During the season, you could set various training and fitness goals with your wrestlers. At the end of the season, sit down with them and set individual training or fitness goals. Give them a focus, something to shoot for. Make goals specific, measurable, and challenging, but reachable. For instance, a goal might be "John will be physically active at least 4 days a week for at least 30 minutes on those 4 days." This goal is much better than "John will maintain his fitness level in the off-season." 7. Give rewards. To provide a little incentive for kids to stick with a program and have some fun, devise some type of reward system. The rewards need to be meaningful to wrestlers; otherwise they won't have any incentive to reach their goals. This could be done for both in-season and off-season activities. 8. Focus on gradual improvement. Rome, according to the records, wasn't built in a day. Your athletes' shape won't be either. Use low-intensity activities to build strength, endurance, and speed. Gradual improvement is linked directly to the safety element of training programs; if you're looking for rapid improvement, your athletes become an injury waiting to happen. Their long-term performance will be greater if they work on improving gradually. 9. Monitor training. You will (or should) observe training during the season. During the off-season, you could occasionally check on your wrestlers to see if they are remaining active. Doing this accomplishes several things: It provides accountability (your wrestlers might be more apt to stick with their off-season physical activity if they know you're going to check with them), and it enhances the safety element, because you can make sure that they are sticking with the program as designed and not trying to make rapid improvement. You can also make sure that they are being supervised in any weightlifting exercises. And you can remind them about the rewards that await them if they reach their goals. 10. Give equal wrestling time. For wrestlers under 12, give equal wrestling time. Your wrestlers won't stay fit by standing around idly. All wrestlers need a chance to participate and develop their skills. 11. Encourage participation in other sports. You might think that encouraging wrestlers to participate in another sport isn't really training them. It's just shunting them off to someone else. Remember that the most important thing is for your wrestlers to stay active year-round. They're most likely to stay active if they play other sports. The conditioning gained through other activities will help them come next wrestling season, and playing other sports gives kids a better balance and recharges them for wrestling once the next season rolls around. If they wrestle and nothing else, they are more likely to become burned out. Here's a list of other physical activities to keep kids fit during the wrestling off-season:
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