Emphasis on winning

I want to be upfront right away. I love winning. I try to win in everything I do. Whether I'm playing Scattegories at home or coaching at the World Championships, I want to win. In fact, the only thing I don't try to win at is my marriage (sidenote: my wrestlers joke with me and say that's because I've never won in that arena, and that might be true, but I assert that marriage is about collaboration, not about being right or winning). I want to win. In high school, I won four state titles and didn't lose a single match in my career. So, you might ask how and the heck can I say we place too much emphasis on winning? What credibility do I have to make this claim?

As much as I love winning, it has NEVER been my purpose in athletics. Clearly, it's been extremely important and many of my goals include winning. However, my goals and my purpose are not the same thing. Our purpose is bigger than wins and losses, it's about a cause bigger than ourselves, and our goals are small by-products of our purpose. When one's goals and purpose become the same thing, problems occur. Emphasizing winning as our purpose is flirting with disaster because then anything will be done to win.

We live in a society that possesses a "race to the bottom" mentality. We try pushing everything down to younger ages. We have national championships for 8 year old kids when they don't even know what "national" means. I hear parents explain to me that their son/daughter's dream is to win the kid's state tournament when, in actuality, they just want their name on the back of a t-shirt and the opportunity to swim in the hotel pool. We push everything down because the parents want to win the national title or the state championship, not the kids.

What does an emphasis on winning do to young kids? It gives them a false perception of reality and encourages performance-based acceptance. This leads to individuals who question their value and significance. Scary, huh? I cringe when I see the fold-out poster in USA Wrestling Magazine with the 8-year old, 55 pound wrestler showcased as "All-Americans" or "Future Olympian" or when I read youth rankings in The Crossface. Future Olympian? Seriously? We're putting far too much pressure on little children and too much pressure on winning.

We have a system that rewards the early bloomer. Kids gain national recognition because they physically or mentally develop more quickly than others. This short changes the kid's development and it's not his fault. What happens when that 8-year old isn't the strongest kid in his weight class any longer? He gets beat and loses hope. When we lose hope in the future, we lose power in the presence.

Bobby Bowden says we have a "peak by Friday mentality." We look for instant success, measured by victories, and don't put in the time necessary to develop the total athlete - body, mind and soul. At young ages, we skip the skills and go right into strategy because the adult wants to win the game/championship this weekend.

Emphasis on winning at a young age creates an avenue to take shortcuts to success. Winning at the youth level has many different facets than winning at elite levels. I choose to sacrifice winning at the youth level for the sake of development to see more success at older ages, but it's still not about winning. After examining programs all over the world, I've organized my program the following way:

1. Fundamentals - this is the first stage of development and the emphasis is on FUN. Fun is important at every level, but is primarily focused on athletes in grades K-3. If an athlete does compete in tournaments/events at this age, those competitions need to focus on having fun and spending quality time with the family. These competitions should be local, but going to practice and having fun is key. You want to make sure every athlete loves practice and wants to come to the next practice. The kids should leave with more energy than they came with.

2. Basic movements - the second stage is understanding and exercising basic movements of athletics, not technique. This would include, but isn't limited to, agility, tumbling, falling and running. A lot of the focus is still on having fun. In wrestling, skills can be introduced in a fun, games approach way. I believe competition still should not be encouraged, however, the idea of competing needs to remain local and continue focusing on quality family time and fun.

3. Skill development - when athletes begin to understand how their body works and have the mental capacity to learn skills and strategies, technique can be introduced. At my club, this happens between grades 5-8. The focus is now 75% training/25% competition and the competition is only to see if skills are developing. It's an evaluation tool so the emphasis is still not on winning. I tell my athletes and parents that I'm afraid to see these athletes win state titles at this age. Again, I love winning and expect everyone to try their best, but if they win a state title, why did they win? In addition, what impact will that have them in the future. This is important to think of to maximize their future potential.

4. Train to train - as athletes mature physically and mentally and the maturation of each athlete becomes more even, we teach the principles of training. Everyone needs to learn how to train properly. There's a lot involved in training and we continue focusing on fundamentals and skill development. I believe this happens when an athlete enters high school. They inherit a lot of new responsibilities in high school, so the training goes hand-in-hand with their emotional development. Still, we're not emphasizing winning, although winning becomes more important.

5. Train to compete - this stage is very tricky and sometimes goes alongside training to train. An athlete needs to understand how to drill well and train properly before they train to compete. This stage can start as early as ninth grade, but sometimes is not realistic until one is in college. Training to compete is not training to win. It's about understanding a new level of training.

6. Train to win - obviously, this is the highest level of competition. In wrestling, this is at the collegiate level or the international level. There are still a lot of great learning opportunities in sport for adult athletes, however if winning isn't a priority at the highest levels, it's time to move into another season of your life. This attitude can be fostered in the first five stages and allows the athletes that to train to win and not to place their significance in winning.

This is the formula we follow at Victory School of Wrestling and I hope every other program uses something similar. Parents want their children to do their best and be their best. So do I. This is the best way to help student-athletes grow so they can be all they were created for and designed to be.

The pressure to win at all costs needs to be overcome by the conviction to help athletes be the best that they can be.