Ideas-of-the-Month

January 2008

Use parts of the High School Wrestling Rules Illustrations for filler in your dual meet and/or tournament programs.
In order to prevent staleness coaches need to vary the ways their wrestlers scrimmage. Here's nine Scrimmage Variations
Use the Scouting Forms and have your wrestlers practice using them during the 4-Man Scrimmage instead of being a scorekeeper.
Have a manager or student from a TV Production class videotape one of your practices from start to finish. Prior to the start of next season critique it to improve your practice sessions.
View the videoclip Prevention of MRSA in Athletics and print out the MRSA Prevention brochure.

February 2008

Nominate your team's most prolific fan to the Wrestling Super Fan Hall-of-Fame. Click here for details.
Banquet - Here are some tips on how to organize and conduct a banquet.
State Tournament Contest - Here's an idea to spark interest in the upcoming State Tournaments.
Academic Certificate (pdf or cwk) - One thing you can do at the banquet is to present Academic Certificates.
Theodore Roosevelt has some advice for wrestling coaches this time of year: "Do what you can with what you have, where you are."

March 2008

Many states have completed the scholastic season with the rest of the country close behind. It's important to take a break; how long depends depends on the individual. Begin formulating a plan for the preseason months. This blank Pre-season Planner might help as well as this: Creating a Great Wrestling Program.
If you are fortunate enough to coach an exceptional wrestler or two, this article, Keeping It Real, might help you out.
Form a wrestling club. You'll find lots of ideas at Resources for Wrestling Club.
Off-season Program - Create an off-season program that works without badgering your wrestlers! You don't need a wrestling club or open mats to run this program.
Coach's PIP - Coaches, like their wrestlers, need to work in the offseason to improve their game or in this case their coaching skills. You should start by thinking about a Professional Improvement Plan (PIP). Here are some things that might make your list.
One last point: Follow the off-season rules and regulations as set forth by your school, school district, conference and, of course, your respective state athletic associations. Follow the rules to the letter. If you're going to teach sportmanship to your wrestlers, there is no better way than by setting a good example.

April 2008

Coaches, like their wrestlers, need to work in the offseason to improve their game or, in this case, their coaching skills. With that in mind you need to participate in USA Wrestling's National Coaches Education Program. Contact your state's USAW's Association to register. Go for the Copper, Bronze, Silver or Gold!
This time of year many school libraries are ordering new books. At the very least each library should subscribed to Wrestling USA Magazine. Some good wrestling novels for students include No Excuses, Pinned, A Season on the Mat and Call Me Coach. Check out our Coach's Store for a dozen great selections.
Selecting and Training Team Captains - Here's a procedure for selecting team captains that uses an application and interviews as part of the process. Once selected, train them to be effective leaders! Here's how.
Team Summer Camp - Here's some tips on getting your kids to a attend a team summer camp.

May 2007

Make plans to attend a coaching clinic. There is no better way to get psyched up about next season and you're sure to learn a thing or two!
Join your state's wrestling coaches association and/or your state's all-sports coaching association.
Superman Club - Here's an idea that will build better wrestlers and future coaches, but you may have to keep it a secret!
Contribute - Add something, anything, to WrestlingAssistant.com!

June 2007

Note Taking - Attending a clinic or camp? Well, you better take good notes! Here's how.
Previous Reading Lists - Next month (July) we'll present our summer reading list for 2007 so you may want to check out the previous lists first.
Wrestling Information Person - We know it's early but you may want to start thinking about who is going to do what. This job may take two or three people. Train them early.

July 2007

2007 Summer Reading List - Here's our summer reading list! Previous reading lists.

August 2007

Preseason Checklist - This is a list of things to do before the first practice. Modify it to fit your needs.

September 2007

Preseason Coaches Meetings - Conduct an Organizational Meeting and a Coaches Clinic.
To help access this website, bookmark our Homepage, Alphabetical Index and Chronological Index. Be sure to visit us often!
Create a Promotional Booklet. This publication gives some reasons for joining wrestling and information about meetings, first practice, etc. Give out at gym classes and to members of fall sports teams. This example is two sided, 8.5x14 PDF (outside - inside) or Appleworks (outside - inside)

October 2007

In order to help coaches find information on our website we've created a print version (pdf format) of our Alphabetical Index and a Cover page. Make sure all your coaches get a copy of this 5-page index.
Plan the Team Meeting - This is the most important meeting of the year so make it a good one!
Create a Team Book - This is the most important publication of the year so make it a good one!
Plan the first four weeks of practices. This can be a difficult task and coaches could use some help so we've put together a bunch of resources for Planning and Conducting Practices. Check them out and get started today.
Two resources that can assist you in planning practices are Tape #1 of Ray Nunamaker's outstanding videotape series Inside the Nazareth Wrestling Room (buy the entire 5-tape series if you can) and 101 Wrestling Drills and Games by Keith Manos.

November 2007

Resources for Planning and Conducting Practices
How to Use Text Messaging to Communicate with Your Team
Super Fan certificate (pdf or cwk)
Check our Chronological Index daily. In fact, bookmark it!
Have each senior on your squad teach their favorite move to the team.

December 2007

Match Scrimmage - A match scrimmage gives you a different level of intensity and competitiveness than you can get out of a traditional practice based scrimmage. Here's some tips.

Upset-of-the-Week (UOW1 or UOW2) certificates.

Wrestler-of-the-Week (WOW1 or WOW2) certificates

Use poster Wrestling Crowd (doc and pdf), to advertise your wrestling events.

Use the 4-Man Scrimmage for Creating Coaches, Referees and Better Wrestlers.

During matches use a large index card (5x8) for each wrestler so you can keep track of their mistakes. Discuss it with them at the next practice and correct their mistakes. Just before their next match go over it again. If you find it difficult to write during a match, use a tape recorder and have a manager transcribe the notes onto the cards at a later time.

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