P.A.L Finals

This is for most of the wrestlers the last tournament of the year, and for some what will qualify them for CCS, county championship tournament.  Now, I was seated 1st in this tournament, and really didn't have to wrestle much because of this, which I took as an opportunity to practice my coaching.  At at this tournament you it isn't just varsity, or JV, there is a girl bracket, JV,  varsity, anyone that is on the team has a chance to wrestle.  That means there is almost always some one from your team on the mat wrestling.  This allowed me many opportunities to coach my teammates.  After finishing up with one match I was usually onto another match of my teammates, yelling out to them to get into various positions to score.  Many of my team mates did well and it was fun to coach them.  Since there were so many matches there were a few times that the coaches were on different mats and needed help coaching.  Since I had so few matches I had so much down time I did a lot of coaching.  I had about three Hours worth for the day, of just yelling to my teammates during a match, or talking to them afterwards, to tell them what they did right, wrong, and what they need to work on.

Saturday

Yet another tournament I went to this weekend.  I was able to participate in this one as well.  The tournament took place at El Camino high school, and its called the Colt Invitational.  This tournament is usually a short one, and the finals, are not under a spot light, its just put the medals on your clipboard, go to the mat, and wrestler for the better medal.  I got roughly 2 hours of coaching done, helping my teammates on the mat, and off,  giving them advice that I thought they should have done in the match, and what they should do to improve. One of the wrestlers was Rubeen Salem, he was wrestling against, a really good wrestler, that I myself have wrestled before, so I knew he was in for a tough match.  Unfortunately when I got to the mat to try an help him out, he was already wrestling, and I didn't have time to warn him of his opponents skill level.  Nonetheless I was shouting out what he should do during the match.  I don't know if he was able to hear me, but I was yelling out to him regardless to try and keep him from getting pinned, and lasting all 3 rounds against his opponent.  To my surprise actually he DID last all three rounds, and finished a full match without getting pinned by the other wrestler, which actually took me by complete surprise.  After his match I had to wrestle, so after my match I went up to him, and told him how seriously proud I was of him to stand a good chance against the person he wrestled.  I gave him some advice (like seriously get lower with your stance!) that I hope he will work on, to be able to beat his next tough opponent.  This tournament we only had one coach so I had opportunities to coach my teammates all day.

Arthur~

3 days ago I was at a tournament with my team.   This was a perfect opportunity to coach my fellow team members, along with a few friends from other teams that might be there.  One of out former team members was coming along with us also. (I'm going to butcher the last name i know it) Arthur Gorgeiyev, former CCS champion.  My mentor decided it would be a good idea to take mental notes on how Arthur coached.  He was coaching wonderfully actually, even my coach was impressed.  He was calling out moves, and various positions for out wrestler to move to that even he didn't do when he was wrestling, but it appears he knew them quite well.  I took note of this as well, to be a good coach you have to know a large amount of the sport you are trying to coach.  I got my chance to coach for a few of my teammates, and watch how my mentor, and Arthur coached throughout the day.  It totaled around 7 hours.

Dual meet Capachino

Ok so this happened last Thursday I'm slow and should have posted this sooner, but it did happen.  We had a scheduled school dual meet with Capachino High School.  This is when we put the school teams line ups against each other head to head.  I unfortunately was hurt an could not participate, but this left me plenty of time to coach.  Now the actual coach was coaching, but I was with him calling out certain positions or how to improve on there position, for the current wrestler wrestling on the mat.  Our team won this dual meet and our coach was very upset at one of the wrestlers for bad sportsmanship.  I learned that sportsmanship is a key aspect to wrestling and shouldn't be taken lightly, especially as a coach.  This took place at Capachino, and I coached for about 2 hrs

Yesterday our team went to a wrestling tournament at Washington High School so I thought that would be the perfect time to get some hours in coaching my teammates when I wasn't wrestling and they would be.  It was also super convenient because I had to injury DQ out because a kid from Sacred Heart High School rolled my ankle and sprained it pretty bad, I did still beat the kid.  It was a pretty short day I had about two and a half hours of coaching in for my teammates.  I would have had more but the tournament was really short this year..kinda disappointing.  My mentor wasn't able to attend this tournament because he was off with the girl wrestlers at a different tournament.  The assistant coach was there that day, but my mentor did say that it would be a good chance to watch the other coach and see how different there coaching styles would be.  The coaches do coach differently but are both good coaches.  My Mentor gets more excited and yells in positive and negative ways and my assistant coach is more quiet and calm when coaching and talking to us after our matches but both methods seem effective when trying to help a wrestler on the mat and our team works well with both coaches.

Finally got my Topic down! its actually a huge relief for me that I have a mentor an a set project :D
topic is going to be on couching wrestling which i think would be good because I already have close to four years of experience as a wrestler so couching would be the next step when i stop wrestling.  
sooo I'm happy that is all out of the way..now I just have to think of a new thesis statement an re-write my outline..*sigh* time to start working!