Ray Brinzer – Wrestling Will Tell You the Truth About Yourself

There are three big questions.

Clinch Gear Camp Head Coach Ray Brinzer addresses what he thinks are questions each wrestler should be asking himself. These are just some of the issues he plans on covering at his upcoming camp. Coach Brinzer is known for his in-depth knowledge of our sport. He also wanted to point out that all of his campers will have year around access to him to assist them whenever they need it. If there are wrestlers you think would benefit from this please contact us.

Also, if you are an athlete or coach and you would like to ask Coach Brinzer something feel free to contact us. coachbrinzer@theopenmat.com.

Are you asking?

Let’s say you think of yourself as a great wrestler. You go to a tournament, and suddenly you find out something very different.

There’s a gap between perception and reality.

There are two ways to have a great self-image:

* By refusing to test yourself, and believing what you want to believe.
* By testing yourself, and fixing the problems you find.

When it’s a matter that hits home, most people would rather not face the truth. Becoming great at what they do isn’t important enough. If you head that way, no one can help you.

Are you listening?

So, you wrestled a match; maybe you won. But you got scored on. Or one of your moves didn’t go the way you expected.

Why?

Wrestling is telling you something… but most wrestlers don’t listen.

If you walk away from the match and never try to figure out what went wrong, an opportunity is lost. Your wrestling isn’t going to fix itself.

If the answers aren’t obvious, work on it. Studying video is one of the best ways to get ahead in wrestling. Watching your own matches can tell you why what you tried didn’t work; watching great wrestlers can tell you how they do what they do.

Of course, your coach may be breaking things down for you. He probably shows technique, at least. And when you walk off the mat, he may point out a few of the most important mistakes you made, and what you need to do about them.

That’s great. But he probably has a lot of athletes to worry about. And he won’t always be there. And your wrestling is your responsibility anyway.

Listen to your coach, but don’t depend on him. Depend on yourself.

Are you doing something about it?

Say you notice each time you go to a tough tournament, your lats are sore the next day. If you think about it, you should realize that you’re using them when you wrestle, and that they’re not up to the demands you’re placing on them. If you make your lats stronger, they’ll serve you better in whatever situation you were using them in.

By and large, though, people work on what they want to work on. The things they enjoy become their strengths. And even when they know about them, they allow their weaknesses to remain weak. It’s amazing how often a person will lose on technique, and respond by conditioning harder (or vice-versa).

All of this fits with our vision of a wrestling camp.

We’re not going to make you a great wrestler in a week. But we will teach you to break down video. The matches will challenge you as a wrestler, and the physical tests will challenge you as an athlete.

You’ll get to see yourself from the outside, and we’ll help you make a plan to move forward.

It’s the work you do *after* this camp which will make you a champion

Our goal is to change the way you do that work. If you find you have a weaknesses, remember: it’s only a problem until you fix it.

Tags: Clinch Gear 5 Star Camp, Clinch Gear Camp, Ray Brinzer