Tyler Kasak's Epic NCAA Wrestleback Run (2024)

Tyler Kasak had one of the most impressive storylines to come out of the NCAA’s in 2024. Seeded at number 7, he was upset in the first round by number 26, Jaden Abas from Stanford. This can be enough to dampen anyone’s spirits, but he didn’t let it deter him from reaching greatness afterwards. He went on an absolute tear, winning 7 matches in a row, beating the #1, #3, #5, and #9 seeded wrestlers, among others, on his path to 3rd place. Normally if you have wins over all of those seeds you’re an NCAA champ, there are many champs that never have to go through the same gauntlet because NCAA’s is also known as “upset city”. Tyler is only the 8th wrestler in history to accomplish this feat, and the first true freshman to do it. They call it the ultimate road warrior, and a warrior he is.

Division 1 nationals is not easy, though some wrestlers are so good they can make it look like it is. I used to say it’s difficult to make it out of that weekend without getting hurt, let alone place. I qualified 4 times and the best I ever did was get to the round of 12. I beat the #5, lost to the #3 in the quarters, lost to the #4 in the blood rounds. I know exactly how unforgiving that weekend can be.

This story hits super close to home for me, I worked with Tyler for like 6 or 7 years, one-on-one private lessons at least once a week. I know him and his family super well. They are really good people, very down to earth. Tyler is the kind of kid, even in 6th or 7th grade, where he would walk through our waiting room to get to the locker room saying hi to the parents, shaking hands, smiling, good eye contact, he was just always super respectful and mature beyond his years. A lot of kids will ignore everything in their path to get where they want to go, they don’t want to talk to parents if they don’t have to, but Tyler wasn’t like that.

When I started working with him he was in 4th grade, I think it was the tail end of that year. He got 3rd at states, getting pinned by Mac Church in the semis, which is a name you may be familiar with. After that however, I had the pleasure to coach him through 4 pennsylvania state titles before I unfortunately had to let go and see him go off to high school.

I’m going to go into more detail about my wrestler-coach relationship with him, why I think he got so good, why he grew into an incredible wrestler throughout the years, and how he made me a better coach along the way, especially for him, at the end of this video. I got some tears in my eyes writing this script, it brins up a lot of really great memories. But by his actions, that you can have kids replicate by the way, he forced me to pay attention more and to be a better coach for him. But first, let’s go through his path on his way to 3rd place.

I was able to get my hands on all 8 matches so we can follow along through the whole journey. I probably won’t do a video this long in the future, unless it’s on another one of my wrestlers, but I believe, regardless of how the video performs, it was worth it. Tyler is my first personal All-American that I coached as a youngster. Most of my other wrestlers that I spent a lot of time with are still in high school, Nathan Desmond, Kollin Rath, Collin Gaj, Keanu Dillard to name a few, so he won’t be the last, but I’m super proud of him.

(26) Loss to Jadan Abas

First match, as I mentioned, was against the 26 seed Jadan Abas. Not long into it, Tyler gets a collar tie, pulls pressure down then attacks the left ankle. This is a really good way of getting to a low leg shot, pulling the head down plants that right foot in position and gives you enough time to get to the ankle. A lot of times wrestlers would try to push the head away and do an ankle pick, where the opponent is tripped backwards, but Tyler elects to let go of the head and come up with the shot. This is becoming more common lately, David Taylor, Kyle Snyder, Cael Sanderson, it seems their goal is to get to the ankle and then let go of the head and finish the shot, instead of trying to push the upper body away. If you hold onto the head you are vulnerable to your opponent using that arm against you, like a slide by, where they hook over the arm, pull it to the right, and land on top. I think this is the reason why it’s becoming more popular to let go of the tie-up and finish normally.

Tyler comes up with it, runs the pike, as he does that Abas dives at his leg, presumably going for some funk or a leg pass. This position is eventually called a stalemate, which is super strange to me. If Tyler stepped over top of that near leg and had a cross-face, it should be a takedown, at least it is in the high school rule books, but a lot of refs like to hold this for i don’t know what reason. The bottom guy has zero control. They need to establish a solid rule for this, because it’s nothing less than infuriating for kids and coaches to deal with this position when it’s up to the ref’s (usually subpar) judgment on who is in control of this situation, which is easily the top guy. The bottom wrestler has nothing. This should be ruled a takedown.

First period runs out without score, so it’s 0-0.

Tyler gets choice, chooses bottom. Again, this is to get that first point in case the match goes into double overtime where first guy who scores gets choice. Tyler starts working up to his feet, goes for a switch on the left, which Abas didn’t have much control of the situation, so he decides to just bail away and give up the escape. This is smart on Abas’ side, if he tried to hold on any longer he would give up an easy reversal because of this bad position. Score is 1-0 Tyler.

Couple seconds left in the third, Abas has an underhook, though he really just has his arm across the back, while also holding onto Tyler’s left wrist, and Ty has a deep overhook. Tyler could be looking for a bundle, we called it an ice pick, where you pull that free arm in and grab above the elbow with your hand, pulling his arm together, but he isn’t going for it. You can do it even if your opponent has your wrist, you just move that wrist to the right and if he doesn’t let go of it his arm will gravitate close enough for the bundle to happen. He may just be waiting for the period to run out, I’m not too sure, it looks like he’s relaxing too much.

Abas fires off an ankle pick on the far side and gets a piece of it. Tyler stabilizes, but Abas pops his head out and comes up to a double. Tyler dives underneath, I assume he’s going for a tootsie roll, which jason nolf used to do a bunch, but to do that effectively he would need to throw your left arm under as you roll. He doesn’t though, he keeps the chest with his left arm and looks like he’s going to attack the leg for some funk, but isn’t able to get a piece of it. I’ve seen Braeden Davis do the same motion to not much success, so I’m not sure if this is something specific they’re working on in the room that just isn’t translating, or if it’s a coincidence and he wasn’t able to get a piece of the leg for funk. Regardless, a quick cross-face will stop this, which Abas does, and so he gets the takedown. It’s now 3-1 Abas.

Abas takes down in the third, Tyler has to decide if it’s worth it to try to turn Abas, or let him go and get a takedown. The usual advice is to cut them and try to get the takedown. If that happened, it would be 4-4 and you could use riding time to win the match or go into overtime if you don’t have enough of it. It’s pretty easy for a good wrestler to stall on bottom and not get turned in the third, I’ve seen neutral work so much more often in the third, so I’d lean on just settling it there.

Tyler does eventually push him away, though he waits for 30 seconds before that. I would say to do it at the start of the period so you have more time to work with. Score is 4-1 Abas.

The period runs out without score, except for the 2 stalling calls that Abas gets, making the final score 4-2. Tyler did have a chance at the edge here. He did a really cool setup out of a collar tie. Holds onto the head and does a simple elbow pop on the left to get to a shot, but Abas plays the edge and Tyler isn’t able to get much. Tyler should be trying to pull him to the middle of the mat, but Abas is ready to pick at an ankle like Hidlay did to Brooks in the final, so he didn’t tempt fate too much on it. I want behavior like this to at least be a stall call, if not a fleeing the mat as well. Backing away and running for a solid minute and 20 seconds should not be rewarded. It’s bad for the sport and at the very least it’s dishonorable. Regardless, Tyler loses the match, knocking him into the wrestle-backs at the very start of the consolation bracket. So he has a long way to go.

(23) Drew Roberts from Minnesota

Match number 2 is against Drew Roberts of Minnesota, the 23 seed. Some time passes in the first, Roberts goes for a weird single from across the body, which I don’t recommend, because all Tyler has to do is catch that arm and kind of just push Roberts to his back with an over-under. Roberts kind of just put himself in this position, there’s not much else to talk about here. Tyler puts Roberts on his back for the takedown, 3-0, and is able to get some backs for his effort, 6-0 Tyler.

Tyler digs the left ankle up with his feet, you can use your legs to dig your own legs in when your opponent is flat like this and your arms are doing other things, but Ty reaches back for that ankle because Roberts is kind of being lax with it. This is actually funny, we started teaching this back in the day when we saw Retherford use it at NCAAs, and a referee promptly told us it was illegal any earlier than college. We didn’t know, we just saw it as a move that paired well with our leg riding and looked super effective because Retherford got it a lot. Tyler was the first one to try it in a match, he did it like the following weekend at States if I remember correctly, and a ref kind of laughed, gave the penalty point, and then explained it to me, and said how they’ve been seeing it a lot recently. It didn’t affect his match, he won anyways, but we learned we can’t do that before college. I bet Ty is happy he’s in college and can finally use it, cause it works extremely well. You get a good wrap around the foot, grab the heel with your palm, lift the leg up and forward, cross-face with your free arm, and then tilt them to their back. Tyler’s able to get 4 points out of this bringing the score to 10-0 to close out the period.

2nd period, Roberts takes bottom, nothing too exciting happens until the 20 second mark where Roberts posts the hand down and does a weak changeover to get his escape. Honestly, not much Ty could have done to stop that from happening, Roberts had some good hand control on his way up and then the change-over clears the hips. Change-overs like this work so well. Score is 10-1 Tyler to close out the period.

Tyler takes bottom, Roberts throws legs in, but doesn’t look like he’s able to get much control at all. Ty is no stranger to leg riding, the right leg goes in super far so he takes the left leg out and elevates it, keeps it lifted and controlled which forces Roberts to fall off the front and bail. Tyler immediately reattacks, not looking to allow separation to happen, attacks the hip, gets his takedown. In most matches I’m in favor of letting go of the leg, getting your escape, which stops riding time and ensures you get a point, but the score is out of hand, so it doesn’t really matter. Scrambling while you’re still on bottom is bad for a number of reasons, riding time, stalemates, going out of bounds, running out of time, all of that can be alleviated if you prioritize the escape. Score is 12-1.

Ty cuts him, 12-2. 30 seconds left Roberts does a lefty high crotch which turns into a single, Tyler kind of just bails and gives up the takedown. I don’t recommend you do this kind of thing, but I can understand why he did it. He’s up by so many points that a takedown doesn’t matter, gets an escape, wins 13-5, but still, try not to make a habit of giving up points unnecessarily.

(9) Ethan Fernandez from Cornell

Match number 3 is against Ethan Fernandez of Cornell, the 9th seed, though this match ends up being fairly quick.

Beginning of the match, Ethan steps hard with his left foot and so Tyler drops on it for an easy righty single. Fernandez goes shin whizzer and tries to Jonesie immediately, even starts kicking his leg over the body like you should, but his ankle is on the outside of Tyler’s hips, so he doesn’t have any leverage against the shoulder. We used to teach the jonesie and the easiest counter for it is to push the ankle on the outside of the hip so they can’t get any leverage, and that’s what Tyler does here. As Fernandez kicks over Ty lets the ankle slip, which negates that leverage and makes it go nowhere. Fernandez keeps the leg, this is the same situation that Tyler was stuck in with Abas. Fernandez could look for a peterson if he grabbed Tyler’s right wrist with his free arm, but he doesn’t go for it. He doubles down on the leg, puts pressure in, and then finds himself trying to funk. We also went over funk extensively, as well as counters to funk, which you’ll see Tyler do here. He holds onto that left leg of Fernandez, which controls the hips and keeps him on his back. Tyler then grabs the navy ride, which is what you really want, because it stops them from rolling away from you which makes the funk possible, and forces them to roll back into you. Tyler’s body is between the legs, which makes this situation even more awkward and dangerous for Fernandez. Tyler just kind of holds position, finds his way to an arm bar, circles to the head, pulls the head down, and that’s all she wrote.

(17) Graham Rooks from Indiana

Match number 4 against Graham Rooks of Indiana seeded #17. 5 seconds in, Tyler has the right wrist controlled with his left, and so Rooks goes for a righty single, which usually is a good idea. You can use the wrist they have control of to pull their arm and slingshot you into a shot, Tyler however reacts well, lets go of the wrist (which people don’t tend to do when it gets pulled), uses that arm to downblock, then feeds that right arm into an arm drag. Rooks reacts well, gets back to his feet, so Ty uses what is now like a russian tie up, goes inside trip on the right side, notice how he drops to his knee, that ensures you can hook the leg with your leg, he tries to catch a double but settles for a single, Rooks goes for a shin whizzer, but Tyler wisely keeps his shoulder low which makes it tough to get that, converts to an underhook on the right and tries to start pulling Rooks back in bounds. This underhook with a single is a little sketchy, almost makes you want to pull the underhook backwards, but it’s not so easy to do that. Rooks notices the ankles get close so he goes ankle pick which is a great idea, we’ve seen this before, it almost gets him out of that situation, but Tyler re-attacks that single, comes up with it, immediately does a back trip (which is really good, you want to try to back trip before they get a solid footing, the earlier the better, makes it easier to get), gets a piece of the far hip, slips his head under, gets the takedown. 3-0 Ty.

Tyler rides him out for the rest of the period, mostly with a one-on-one wrist ride. This one-on-one was taught to us by Santoro from Lehigh. I had him teach that series one time at a summer camp of ours and the kids used it ever since, they got really good with it, Tyler would crush kids with a one-on-one paired with a far side claw ride, worked really well.

2nd period, Tyler chooses neutral. Not sure what the problem is with him going down here, must just not want to play around in that position if he doesn’t have to based on previous experience with Rooks.

Tyler does that same ankle pick shot we saw before, pulls the head down which plants the foot, attacks the left ankle, converts it to a single. Rooks dives under for some funk. When someone dives under like this for funk it is best to drop your knee and catch a cross face, but it’s not always easy to do this when you’re in the process of lifting the leg, so it really is the perfect time for Rooks to dive for it. Notice Tyler keep control of that top leg, pull th e top shoulder with his left hand, and feed his right arm between the legs for a navy ride. Ths again is how we defend funk, look for a navy or low leg cradle grip of that leg, which allows you to control the leg and keep your opponent on his back. Tyler gets the 3 danger swipes and is awarded the takedown, score is 6-0 Tyler, period runs out.

3rd period, Rooks chooses neutral. Minute 13 left in the match, Rooks goes for a low leg single, Tyler sprawls, catches the arm drag on the right, circles to a single. This is a really nice re-attack that a lot of college wrestlers are doing now, probably because it is so very effective. Tyler gets the single, gets a piece of the far hip and pulls it backwards which forces Rooks to his hip and gives him another takedown. Usually reaching across for the far hip is not a great idea, gives your opponent an easy whizzer and a way to slam your head on the mat and make the finish super difficult, but my guess is Rooks is about out of juice for that. 9-0 Tyler.

Rooks does get an escape, 9-1, 13 seconds left, goes for a double from space, which Tyler downblocks, circles, almost throws Rooks to his back, then casually circles around for a takedown, bringing the score to 12-1, 13-1 with riding time.

(3) Jackson Arrington from NC State

Match number 5, number 3 seed Jackson Arrington from NC State, the Blood Round. This is the make or break round. If Tyler wins, he’s an All-American and will place. If not, he gets nothing.

10 seconds in, Arrington has an underhook on the right, elevates it for a pretty nice lefty high crotch. He starts to go out the back door so Ty goes crotch lock, but then lets go of it. I recommend you lock hands around the body and look to trap an arm. This gives you a lot of control over the situation and allows you to look for a winn dixie or just an easy go behind on the trapped arm side. Not having anything controlled here is not a great idea. At the very least, grabbing both ankles will allow you to funk if the situation falls on its side. Arrington isolates a leg, pulls it down to go turk. He would hook that bottom leg, get his hip down and head up, push the top leg forward, swim his arm out for a cross-face, but isn’t able to get a good turk. He lifts Tyler back into an out the back door position, which again Ty isn’t able to trap the arms, so he’s stuck on an ankle and the body lock. He lets go of both, I assume he’s trying to bear crawl forward and escape the situation, which can work, but you run the risk of your opponent getting a piece of a leg or two and giving up a takedown. Arrington notices the lack of control from Tyler, grabs both legs, turns, and has his takedown. Score is 3-0 Arrington.

Tyler is able to get an escape, makes his way to his feet, Arrington starts to pull him back down, Tyler hits a switch on the way down and so Arrington is forced to let go and give up the 1. 3-1 Arrington.

Period runs out without Score. Arrington gets choice, chooses bottom. Makes his way up to his feet, Ty tries to lift with a claw and a leg, which is really a great way to lift someone up and bring them back down, but Arrington does a good job of finding his footing so he’s able to pop back up, looks for a peterson from his feet, which is difficult to get for sure, but enough to make Ty push him away, 4-1 Arrington.

30 seconds left in the period, Arrington goes for a righty high crotch from space, not much of a setup, so Ty is able to sprawl away easily enough, arm drag, and circle around for an easy takedown. Same reattack we’ve seen him do many, many times. And no, when you put yourself in that kind of a position offensively, there’s not much you can do about it aside from trying to circle quick back to your feet and/or face and re-drag or something. Score is 4-4.

3rd period, Tyler takes bottom. At about the 1:42 mark Arrington elects to cut Tyler and give him an escape. He was riding him before this and gave up a stall call, so might as well settle this on their feet. 5-4 Tyler.

Arrington isn’t able to get anything going for the rest of the period, so Ty wins 5-4, making him an All-American.

(11) Quinn Kinner from Ryder

Match number 6, Quinn Kinner from Ryder. If Tyler wins, he’ll go to consi-semis, if not, he’ll be going for 7th or 8th place. Still an All-American, so still a huge accomplishment, but we know Tyler wants more than that.

1st period, 40 seconds in, Kinner goes for a double off the whistle, Tyler reacts well, circles for that arm drag re-attack again, but Kinner reaches up and is low, prompting Tyler to do a.. headlock. Now, this works, so I can’t knock him for it too much. I’m more proud of him for not overcommitting to the headlock, posting his left arm pretty much as soon as it lands to stabilize his position, because we all know how to defend a headlock, by rolling through. Tyler gets a low leg controlled with a cross face and starts looking for backs. This eventually turns into a turk, but you’re only able to get the maximum of 4 points here. So 3 for the takedown, 4 for backs, 7-0 Tyler, and the score will stay that way for the rest of the period.

Second period, Tyler chooses down, Kinner is actually doing a decent job riding with legs, though this right here is for sure a figure 4, which is illegal. Tyler picks at the ankles like he did before, keeps one elevated, Kinner gets too high, and so gives up the reversal. Kinner just didn’t do a good enough job breaking Tyler down. Not enough hip pressure, kicking his feet back, breaking the arms down. As long as Tyler is able to stay on his base here and attack legs he’ll be fine. Score is 9-0 Tyler.

At the 50 second mark Tyler decides to cut him. 9-1 Ty. Period runs out without anything crazy happening.

3rd period, Kinner takes bottom, Tyler rides him out for almost a minute, then lets him go. 9-2 Tyler. Nothing crazy happens for the rest of the match, Tyler wins 10-2 with the riding time point.

(1) Ridge Lovett from Nebraska

Match number 7, against #1 seed Ridge Lovett. This is consi-semis, so if Tyler loses this he goes for 5th or 6th, if he wins he goes for 3rd or 4th. He has lost to Lovett twice this year, but Lovett doesn’t have too much of an offense, so it’s just a matter of figuring out his defense and you’ll be good to go.

15 seconds in, Ty goes for that low ankle on the left, gets a nice piece of it, pulls it in. Notice how this time he pulls the ankle to his chest and puts pressure on the knee which throws Lovett backwards and down to the mat. This is similar to when you have a low leg on the mat and you put your head in the knee, tripod, and circle to the double. This bending of your leg is so difficult to deal with. Easy takedown, 3-0 Tyler. Lovett would have needed to turn more, commit to the shin whizzer, or try to dive over the head and out the back door, though I’m not sure if he would have been able to due to how Ty was controlling that ankle and leg.

Lovett does a forward roll, comes up with the leg, stays in bounds, almost gets a reversal, but Ty does a good enough job defending and playing the edge, not giving up anything, so the action goes out of bounds and is ruled an escape for general loss of control.

A minute to go, Lovett has an underhook on the right, Tyler gets that bundle I was talking about, feeds the left arm into his right hand, pulls them together. This allows him to easily attack that left leg, lift it up, backtrip, and get his takedown. 6-1 Tyler. That bundle is so strong, it opens up so much if you’re able to pull things together like this.

Tyler rides Lovett out for the rest of the period, giving him a massive amount of riding time.

Lovett gets choice, defers, Tyler picks neutral, clearly feeling neutral against him this time. Minute left in the period, Tyler has a russian tie on the left side. Goes to shuck a little, that’s where you push the wrist down and forward, trying to get your opponent’s hands to hit the mat, then you circle around behind, but he quickly switches to a near side single. Tyler again pulls that ankle up and into his chest while pushing the knee down, puts his head into the leg, slightly above the knee, and then circles to the double. This finish is damn near impossible to defend, and gives Tyler another easy takedown. Score is now 9-1 Ty. Tyler rides him out for the rest of the period.

Lovett gets choice, chooses neutral. But isn’t able to get anything going, so Tyler wins 10-1 with riding time.

(5) Ty Watters from West Virginia

Match number 8, Tyler’s final match. This is for 3rd or 4th against a familiar opponent, Ty Watters. I know Watters and his dad, they’re really good people. I coached Kasak against Watters back when Tyler was in 8th grade, I’m pretty sure it was state semi-finals. These two are very well aware of each other, and Watters had a really good freshman year as well, so there was no telling how the match would play out. I imagine it’s been a long time since the two wrestled, because I believe Watters was at a higher weight class in high school. They’re both PA boys.

15 seconds in, Watters takes a random shot from space, Tyler stops the shot, gets that arm drag again to a near single, goes for the back trip, then pulls the knee out and putting pressure with his chest again to pop Watters to his butt, gets a piece of the hip, pulls the legs together, and gets his takedown. You would think it wouldn’t be a good thing to highlight that a lot of Tyler’s takedowns are coming from this one type of reshot, but it’s not something you can directly counter outside of setting up your shots better, which happens before the fact. A lot of wrestlers fall prey to the idea that they can shoot whenever and everything will be fine. But if you don’t set up your shots this can always happen, especially against top tier opponents. Tyler just so happens to be getting super good at this, as is the rest of the Penn State room at the very least. So, I don’t have much advice against it, even if I wasn’t biased and wanted to give you some, other than, make sure you handfight well and set up your shots. Score is 3-0 Tyler.

45 seconds in, Watters makes his way to his feet, gets a whizzer, separates his hips and gets the escape, 3-1 Kasak.

Period closes without too much happening. Watters gets choice, chooses bottom. 15 seconds in, peels hands, gets his escape. 3-2 Kasak. Period closes out without any score.

Tyler gets choice, chooses neutral. Though some scrambles did take place, Tyler was able to out wrestle them and end the period scoreless, giving him the 3-2 victory, and the 3rd place.

Tyler almost got a takedown at the one minute mark, underhook to a lefty high crotch, but Watters defends it really well with the shin whizzer. Every time Watters would prep for a jonesie, you see Tyler defend it fairly easily by either pushing the ankle to the outside, though this one scared me a little. Watters correctly tries to pull this backwards, but just doesn’t have the grip necessary with his hands to keep everything together to get what I call a cut back at this point. Watters for sure knows his way around a Jonesie and shin whizzer, but so does Tyler, he’s known that situation inside and out since 4th grade.

And so Tyler Kasak completes the ultimate road warrior, losing first match, and making his way all the way back to 3rd. Such an incredible test of willpower and self discipline. Where most wrestlers in the back of their minds are looking for the season to be over, Tyler was looking for more. The wrestlebacks are interesting, sometimes you just have to give your opponent a little bit of doubt, and Tyler proceeded to do this every single match.

Congrats Tyler, proud of you. But next year, I know you understand the task.

So, back to the personal story, how do I think Tyler got so good? How can you try to replicate that? Well first, he was naturally very strong. Let’s just get that out of the way. It helps for sure, but it’s certainly not everything.

I remember the first tournament I coached him at. He did a normal chop to an arm bar on top every match, he may have pinned every kid there, he at least didn’t have any hard matches, I don’t think there was anyone at his level. Normally you would congratulate him, say good job, tell the parents they have an amazing wrestler on their hands, and that’s the end of it.

Instead, I tried to find things he needed to work on before those pins happened, which I made sure to mention to him and his dad. I understood pretty much immediately, based on the way he wrestled and how strong he was, that he had a lot of potential. I remember he also took my advice and tried it right away. He was intelligent, able to pick things up quickly and then use them soon after. He was very respectful, and a very good listener.

I’ll talk a little about my philosophy, and then I’ll get back to Tyler. I get a lot of flack for this from people who don’t try to understand where I’m coming from, but I don’t think the final outcome of a match matters all that much. Don’t get me wrong, I love wins, I want our kids to win every time they step on the mat. But I’ve been through it. I was a sensitive kid with a tough father, who was probably a lot easier on me than I remember. The losses I suffered hit my dad pretty hard and so the feeling got cast onto me as well. So the wins that happened always came with a side of, “if I lost you wouldn’t be happy, so what’s the point of being happy now?” So I feel the kid’s losses probably more than they do. In order to protect them from that, and probably myself, I started concentrating on everything that happens before the final result that everyone gets so upset about, so we can make sure failure doesn’t happen as often.

If the only thing you’re worried about is scoring more points, then it doesn’t matter if you’re winning or losing, or if there’s only 30 seconds left in the period, or if the ref is being hard on you, or if it’s NCAA finals. You’re just focused on getting more points. It’s simple. You don’t feel the stress as much, you make better decisions, and therefore you win a hell of a lot more often. Momentum never sways back in the other direction because you thought it was a good idea to change your style completely, which was working all match, and start stalling for 2 minutes hoping for a victory. If you go through that process, over the course of 10 years, you get a lot better, a lot more consistently. Also, it makes wrestling matches more fun to watch. If all you’re worried about are wins, so you use your “mat iq” to stall for the last 2 minutes of every single match, you lose 2 minutes of every single match where you could have gotten better. Extrapolate that down the line 10 years into the future. Say you have 100 matches a year, which is honestly low for serious youth wrestlers, you lose 200 minutes of mat time every single year, 2,000 minutes of mat time over the course of 10. How much better could you have gotten if you had 2,000 more minutes of legitimate mat time to work with?

I try to push this idea into my wrestlers as much as possible. They all want to win, and they all use certain tactics to avoid loss. So it never really sticks 100%, but the more it sticks the better.

You can say that I have no “mat iq” and call me naive, but this idea gets wrestlers better extremely well and extremely quickly, without all of the stress and worrying about, “oh I could have won this, and I can’t believe I lost that”. Read my youtube bio, I’ve been able to create some amazing wrestlers who are about to hop on the college scene, Tyler is the first of many.

As a coach, I’m much more worried about everything that happens before the final result. What could you have done to make that pin happen easier or earlier? How could you have gotten that takedown easier or earlier? How could you have composed yourself better throughout the match? How could you make sure you’re always looking for more points? These are details that many coaches miss because they’re not paying attention and they’re so excited about the pin they just got, that they forgot to try to find advice for the kid. Or maybe they just don’t have the experience necessary to understand every tiny little detail that could be improved. It’s just “good job”. But if you’re a good enough coach, you can find those little mistakes, and Tyler made sure that I found them and told him what they were. So you see, this idea that I formulated over years of working with these kids, started with Tyler. He wanted to know how he could improve every single time he stepped on the mat.

How did he do this? At the end of every single match Tyler wrestled, whether he won by pin in 30 seconds, or the match was close, he made sure to come up to me and ask me what he could do better, every, single, time. Because he did that so consistently, he forced me to always have an answer for him. He forced me to pay attention from the start of every single match, and I’ve coached him through hundreds of matches. He’s a great kid, I didn’t want to let him down. I always wanted to be realistic with him, and keep him on an even keel. I didn’t want him to get so excited about winning, or so down about losses, that he wouldn’t come to me for advice. You see plenty of kids run off the mat after a loss. They don’t want to talk to anyone, which I totally understand. Parents can be hard on kids, coaches can be too. It’s not easy to keep yourself composed when you think you just let everyone down. But as a wrestler if you force yourself to keep yourself composed enough to ask for advice from your coach every single match, you force them to have an answer for you. And if the coach can’t find an answer for you consistently, you need to find a coach who can. Tyler always did that, every single time. He didn’t miss a beat or have an emotional loss that he couldn’t stomach so he ran off.

The first time Tyler won states, I don’t know if he remembers, but I said in a very matter of fact way “good job, I’m proud of you, same thing next year”. Look, you’re free to celebrate wins, but I want the kids looking forward. And Tyler would look at me very seriously, nod his head, then smile and go off and be a kid. I think that attitude he had with me, the wrestler coach relationship we had, let me mold him into a better and better wrestler over time, and it also molded me into a better coach. I used to teach 250+ moves on a rotating basis like a lesson plan at Red Hawk, I have 200 of them uploaded to this youtube channel that you can view if you become a member.. but he, like many others, learned every single one of them inside and out. I always had to have an answer for his every little question, and you’re damn sure if I didn’t know the answer, I did some research to find it. This added more moves to the lesson plan and ultimately turned me into a better coach, which in turn, made him a better wrestler.

So, yeah, Tyler is a special kid. But it’s not his natural athletic ability or strength that makes him that way. It’s his ability to learn, adapt, and his general outlook on life. I don’t know if these are things that can be taught. If so, his parents deserve all of that credit for how they raised him. But it’s what’s going on inside of his brain that makes him the person he is, and the wrestler he is. This is something that’s going to follow him with whatever else he decides to do in life. We’re talking about a kid that pinned his way through eastern nationals in 6th grade and then proceeded to catch a fish out of the nearby creek with materials he found on the beach. That really happened, he ran up to me with a live fish, with the biggest smile ever. I remember that vividly. One of the many memories I have with him and the rest of that crew that they may not remember that well because it was a long time ago at this point and they were just kids, but I’ll remember for the rest of my life.

I know Tyler is going to do great things, whether he stays with wrestling forever or goes off and does something else. It doesn’t really matter, he’ll find a way to excel, because that’s just what he does, that’s his mentality, that’s just who he is.