Little Rogue's Final Record - An argument for sport training?

[rogue]

His first season is over and here's the final tally.

7 Wins, 3 loses. 6 of the 7 wins were by pin, 1 of the 3 loses was by pin.

Not bad considering he started with zero experience and training.

I have to say, the sport training method seems to bring out talent faster than the traditional method. The competition aspect between the boys for who is a starter and then the regular competitions makes each kid's level of skill obvious. Oddly enough the respect they have for each other, even for the kids who aren't starters, is amazing. I've never seen this even in the better karate schools I've been to, or the ones that list respect as one of the attributes they develop.

I think I've been converted.

[sanjuro_ronin]

Sports training is not only hands on, but it puts people up against equal or higher skill levels that tend to bring out the best in a person.
People tend to be naturally competitive in one way or another.
Innovation and adaptability tend to come faster in sport training to, you also tend to find what works best for you quicker with sports training.

Fact is, modern sports combat training is more traditonal than the typical traditional training many systems train in.

[rogue]

All the same things that I noticed as his training went on.

I know the argument will be made that he's not learning "the deadly", but after watching a lot of wrestling I clearly saw the same principles used and a subset of the same techniques that I've learned doing RBMA (yeah, I'm one of those guys) the main difference IMO being the goal they were trying to achieve.

Ideas I heard during practices; you need a good base, you need to break the others guy's base, use his momentum against him, you need sensitivity to feel what he's doing, flow from one move to the other. For some reason these all sound like I've heard them before.

[sanjuro_ronin]

All the same things that I noticed as his training went on.

I know the argument will be made that he's not learning "the deadly", but after watching a lot of wrestling I clearly saw the same principles used and a subset of the same techniques that I've learned doing RBMA (yeah, I'm one of those guys) the main difference IMO being the goal they were trying to achieve.

Ideas I heard during practices; you need a good base, you need to break the others guy's base, use his momentum against him, you need sensitivity to feel what he's doing, flow from one move to the other. For some reason these all sound like I've heard them before.

I don't see much stuff that is "deadlier" than neck cranks and chokes...
The argument that he is not learning the deadly hold very little water considering that the difference from non-lethal to lethal is one of intent.
Intent is something that can be taught at anytime.
Add that to the technical ability to perform under pressure and you have "the deadly".

[rogue]

It takes a little more than just intent, but just a few adjustments in how something is done and a shift in your goal helps get you the rest of the way. So far injuries to wrestlers in this area alone were one dislocated kneecap and a broken neck.

[Oso]

congrats to the boy.

my first season was something like 12-19-2 (we did 3 tournaments and a quad meet pre-season every year)

if you care for my opinion: keep him wrestling throughout high school if he continues to like it. I personally still value those 4 years quite possibly more than another other phase of my 'martial' training. if he is good enough to play at the college level then he will not go wrong with 4 years of that either. at that point he'll be 22 or so and still way young enough to get into striking arts early enough to be a bad ass by the time he's 25.

[rogue]

Thanks Oso. He's enjoyed the sport and his coach says he's good, so he's joining a local club that many of the HS wrestlers belong to.

Don't know about being a badass, his little brother is almost his size and even stronger.

[Oso]

well, you are talking sport so weight class is relevent and age (thank god)

i don't think I was as good a wrestler as I could have been because I was training kung fu at the same time and often on the same day...mixed messages.

i've had two students over the years (both kids) who got in to wrestling and couldn't train...i told them to do the wrestling and if they liked it, do the off season stuff and focus on it. the other stuff will still be around later.

coincidentally, I just bought Dan Gable's "Coaching Wrestling Successfully"
not, that I'm coaching wrestling but I've wanted it for a while and had a gift cert. it's pretty good and the lessons run parallel to any competitive sport but specifically to other martially oriented ones.

good luck to him and keep us posted.

[rogue]

Is that a book or a video? I'll have to check it out as I find myself starting to teach a little more. Coaching is interesting to me as it seems less about making everyone great and more about helping people reach whatever their potential is.

I can see where a person would have to specialize in doing this. With most non-sport martial arts (like I do) you never know if you'll ever use it at all, where my son knew he had to use it 2-3 times a week in competitions. I think that focus seems to help things along.