Since I haven’t been putting a newsletter out on a regular basis, I think I’ll try a new approach. I love this sport and I have so much to talk about that I need to share my thoughts more often. I’m not sure if there will be any pattern or just what’s on my mind while I’m thinking about the past, the future and the current. What’s next? Tune in…Promoting Wrestling, Progress Being Made!
Ever since I stepped down at the University of Iowa as its wrestling coach (8 years ago) I’ve been promoting wrestling in general at all levels with the emphasis on the collegiate level. The Olympic level is another area for me yet the avenue for promotion here is more limited.
As a coach, I could see results daily wit the teams and individuals I was coaching. As a promoter of the sport, I could see very little on a daily basis. I warned this could be the case by several people of high status, due to their dealings in their professions. Their professions are in politics and in the book and movie industries. They told me to have patience, yet keep working like you have in the past and someday down the road, the light at the end of the tunnel will start shining. I know now that they are right for just recently some good things are starting to happen, especially at the college level.
A most recent addition/clarification to prong three of on Title IX (satisfying interest) actually makes reasonable sense and another way of to clarify a solution to a particular situation. Nothing wrong in helping really know when interests are met beyond just populations. More to come I hope! Wrestling has a lot of unmet interests in colleges in many states. Long ways to o but then again 400 programs were taken away with 300 still standing. In recent times 22 programs have been added, but like I said just a fraction of what needs to be offered.
RPW (Real Pro Wrestling; http://www.realprowrestling.com/) has been going fairly well and is another way to help keep former college wrestlers in the sport longer. Thank you to Toby Willis and Matt Case. What this could really do is add to our Olympic medal count in the long run (as long as we have Olympic wrestling in the future! (SEE: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/other_sports/olympics_2012/4494111.stm).
CSTV (College Sports TV; http://www.collegesports.com/) has been another avenue helping with the broadcast of college wrestling. Thank you Chris Bevilacqua.
ESPN is another avenue for broadcasts in wrestling and ESPNU (http://espn.go.com/espnu/) is a new college sports channel. Thank you Mark Shapiro.
Of IPTV (Iowa Public TV; http://www.iptv.org/) has done a great job for 30 years. Thanks Doug Brooker (retired now). To the new director, lets keep this thing going!
The NWCA (National Wrestling Coaches Association; http://www.nwcaonline.com/) led by Mike Moyer has done a great job of helping wrestling, especially at the collegiate level). His vision is clear but the organization needs help in making this vision come true. Give him a call, especially if you can or have a way of helping in a big way with their financial needs. It’s of immediate concern to keep this rolling in the right direction. Mike can be reached by phone at 717-653-8009 or by email at mmoyernwca@aol.com.
Coming in July is a vote on the actual sports participating in the Olympics. Make sure the IOC and Jacque Rogge know how important wrestling is to you and the world and not just as a sport. To contact and get your voice heard please visit http://www.olympic.org/uk/utilities/registration_uk.asp?prm_action=req.
I said this was going to be short so I better stop. However, beware this progress didn’t happen overnight and if there is any let up, we will fall back. We are still way behind the leaders in the industry and have lots of catching up to do.
As a coach, I could see results daily wit the teams and individuals I was coaching. As a promoter of the sport, I could see very little on a daily basis. I warned this could be the case by several people of high status, due to their dealings in their professions. Their professions are in politics and in the book and movie industries. They told me to have patience, yet keep working like you have in the past and someday down the road, the light at the end of the tunnel will start shining. I know now that they are right for just recently some good things are starting to happen, especially at the college level.
A most recent addition/clarification to prong three of on Title IX (satisfying interest) actually makes reasonable sense and another way of to clarify a solution to a particular situation. Nothing wrong in helping really know when interests are met beyond just populations. More to come I hope! Wrestling has a lot of unmet interests in colleges in many states. Long ways to o but then again 400 programs were taken away with 300 still standing. In recent times 22 programs have been added, but like I said just a fraction of what needs to be offered.
RPW (Real Pro Wrestling; http://www.realprowrestling.com/) has been going fairly well and is another way to help keep former college wrestlers in the sport longer. Thank you to Toby Willis and Matt Case. What this could really do is add to our Olympic medal count in the long run (as long as we have Olympic wrestling in the future! (SEE: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/other_sports/olympics_2012/4494111.stm).
CSTV (College Sports TV; http://www.collegesports.com/) has been another avenue helping with the broadcast of college wrestling. Thank you Chris Bevilacqua.
ESPN is another avenue for broadcasts in wrestling and ESPNU (http://espn.go.com/espnu/) is a new college sports channel. Thank you Mark Shapiro.
Of IPTV (Iowa Public TV; http://www.iptv.org/) has done a great job for 30 years. Thanks Doug Brooker (retired now). To the new director, lets keep this thing going!
The NWCA (National Wrestling Coaches Association; http://www.nwcaonline.com/) led by Mike Moyer has done a great job of helping wrestling, especially at the collegiate level). His vision is clear but the organization needs help in making this vision come true. Give him a call, especially if you can or have a way of helping in a big way with their financial needs. It’s of immediate concern to keep this rolling in the right direction. Mike can be reached by phone at 717-653-8009 or by email at mmoyernwca@aol.com.
Coming in July is a vote on the actual sports participating in the Olympics. Make sure the IOC and Jacque Rogge know how important wrestling is to you and the world and not just as a sport. To contact and get your voice heard please visit http://www.olympic.org/uk/utilities/registration_uk.asp?prm_action=req.
I said this was going to be short so I better stop. However, beware this progress didn’t happen overnight and if there is any let up, we will fall back. We are still way behind the leaders in the industry and have lots of catching up to do.
posted by DanGable.com at 10:37 AM
4 Comments:
Wrestling starts at the younger ages. luckily, I was privledged enough to start a wrestling team at my middle school. The major problem is that we have about 200 boys and about 150 are interested in basketball (gag) and the other 50 aren't interested in sports or are clueless. The question I would like to pose to everyone who views this is "How do I help make this program grow?" We can barely win a meet due to low numbers. I won one meet due to more wrestlers than them. Any suggestions would be appreciated. (dwaynehardin@yahoo.com)
Thank you
Coachhardin has some good points. Having been blessed with being raised in Iowa where you could go from Optomist program through high school we took wrestling for granted. Now that I am an adult, I live in Texas where wrestling does not exist at all high schools. Pioneers that have tried to engage local districts in program maturity (Coach Mike Hatcher for instance) lacked broad support.
Yeah, you need the rec kids programs before the middle school programs. In the rec programs, it's more open, the kids can participate in multiple sports and they'll enter middle school with a broader experience than just seeing the wall-to-wall coverage of basketball and football.
I started wrestling a year before I entered middle school. And I gotta say, my middle and high school coaches were idiots (except for a couple assistants). They made the whole sport some sort of macho march, too much about how great the sport was and being tough and not enough just calming down and perfecting some techniques. And a lot of guys got their asses handed to them. Good wrestlers who transfered to our school became mediocre. I ended up learning most of my wrestling at camps.
And that's something I think can turn a lot of wrestlers and parents off --a fear that they're not "tough enough," that they can't live up to some imaginary macho standard, when what it takes --especially at that early level --is just getting your technique down, and the steady success off that will lead to confidence in the sport. (Really, how macho can a 75 pound kid be?) If you think for a minute about what attracts kids, and people in general, to sports, it's in part the whole technical side --the shoes, the gear-heads, the fantastic shot or pitch or fly ball or lateral or cut and the whole image of the thing. Making the sport out to be some sort of sanctioned street fight between tough knuckleheads does no one any good. Toughness counts for something, but I pinned a lot of gorillas who couldn't counter a slick low single and a fast arm bar.
Hi,
I have been trying to search for Undertaker videos or dvd's to buy.
Can you recommend something in case you know where to order?
Thanks!
Karl
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