Tour Across America Blog #4

We had two mat practices yesterday with the women’s national team.  A senior national team camp is currently winding down.  Several residents, national team members and world team members are in attendance and we’re fortunate to jump in as additional practice partners.  These camps are structured through USA Wrestling in order to accommodate the needs of the world team in anticipation for the world championships.  This year, the championships are 67 days away in Paris.  Practices are run by Terry Steiner (head coach).

Terry was one of my college coaches at Wisconsin before taking the head women’s position at USAW.  His influence led me into the world of women’s wrestling.  I took my first group of female wrestlers on a trip in 2005 to Beijing, China and I’ve been entrenched in the women’s program at both the development and senior levels ever since.  Terry has been an important mentor of mine over the past 20 years.

The morning workout was technique-focused.  They covered some “opportunity areas” or areas of need as a group (double leg attack defense, snap and score, trap arm gut wrenches, etc.).  The afternoon practice was live combat with 8 x 3 minutes live.  It was great to see some of our developing females mixing in with the senior level athletes.  It took a few goes to understand how to wrestle at that level, though.  It’s similar to getting on the freeway with other cars already going 70 mph.  It takes a little time on the ramp to get up to speed.  Sometimes it takes a few years to catch up, however, yesterday a few of our top Cadets took advantage of the opportunity to wrestle world team members and Olympians.  As practice moved along, they became surprised with their own ability level.  They took a beating for a bit before catching up to speed, but once they felt what was going on, it was just another wrestling practice.  I was proud of those who stepped up to that challenge.

Between practices, the kids spent most of their remaining food money on souvenirs in the Spirit Store.  They’ll be coming back decked out in Team USA gear.  We also took some pictures on campus and soaked up the atmosphere.  Of course, I went with a few other coffee junkies to the newly added Starbucks across the street.

In the evening, we gave everyone a couple hours to explore downtown Colorado Springs and try some modern, hip restaurants.  Between 8:00 and 10:00 PM, I received several pictures of elaborate meals from restaurants like Fujiyama, Bingo Burgers, Rasta Pasta and urban pizza joints.  I think most of them have their map planned out for today’s eating options.  Personally, I’m excited to go to one my favorite restaurants in Colorado Springs: Skirted Heifer.