Chris Mance II - Mental Skills Coach

Wrestlers invest countless numbers of hours into building their conditioning. There is no way they should let it fizzle out being stuck at home. If you are a parent of a wrestler, now is the time to implement a daily home training routine. Don’t wait and let bad habits set in. To get started, I suggest trying this four step process to help your wrestler create a daily routine.

STEP 1:

First, find two to four activities that will help your wrestler develop and master an aspect of their training they are already really good at and enjoy doing. Any activity that falls into this category is an innate gift or talent. Innate gifts and talents are always the best place to start as you won’t have to pull too many teeth to get them started.

It could be a calisthenic exercise, mastering the muscle memory of a technique, or something genuinely unique to a special talent they have. I can’t tell you exactly what to do, as the innate gifts and talents of every wrestler are different. Therefore, there are two main things that matter about the activities you choose:

1. Your child understands how the activities utilize and strengthen their innate gifts and talents, and
2. Your child is confident that the activities will drive improvements to help them reach their goals

STEP 2:

Next, carve out 20 to 30 minutes either first thing in the morning or before bed to establish a daily routine around executing these activities. Since home resources are limited, this narrows down your options in step 1. You must be able to execute each activity with what you have in your house, without needing much setup time to get started each day.

STEP 3:

Come up with a process to rotate between activities in such a way that either rest a muscle group or provides mental rest. For example:

• Day 1: Activity 1 and 2
• Day 2: Activity 3 and 4
• Then on Day 3 take a rest day or mental training day
• Day 4: Back to activity 1 and 2
• Day 5: Back to activity 3 and 4

STEP 4:

Now comes the final and most important step. You must get 100% buy-in from your child. They must own this process and want it more than you want it for them. None of the above matters if you have to force your child or constantly nag them.

I’ve done this with my own kids and I know first hand that if they don’t want to do it, it’s not worth pushing them. So trust me when I say buy-in is the most important ingredient to all of this. With that said, if they fall in love with doing this daily routine, and you can be there to serve as their cheerleader, magic will start to happen.