Learn the mental aspect of wrestling on and off the mat. Mental Mondays offers Ben Askren's perspective on the many technical, tactical, and psychological aspects facing wrestlers, coaches, and parents.
This week on Mental Mondays Ben explores the one thing inescapable by any athlete in any sport; exhaustion. Ben outlines four simple tips to help combat exhaustion during a match.
Ben begins by pointing out that the fear of becoming tired and how that exhaustion will affect an athlete’s performance is not only common, but completely unavoidable. The human body can only maintain a sprint, meaning your muscles are generating their maximum amount of power, for about 4 seconds. If you were to translate that to a wrestling match, which lasts 6 minutes, if you are wrestling hard, pushing yourself and your opponent, you ARE going to get tired. You have to understand and expect to become tired and exhausted if you are going to overcome it.
Ben’s second point is to try to be as efficient in your energy expenditure as possible. While becoming tired is inevitable, that doesn’t mean that you cannot control how and when you expend your energy. This also doesn’t mean you should avoid doing something in a match. Instead, you should do the opposite - pushing your opponent, leading them, forcing them to react to your actions and controlling the overall pace of a match. These are all great ways to not only conserve your own energy, but force your opponent to expend their own energy in unnecessary ways.
Building off of his previous points, Ben explains why proper conditioning is key to successfully controlling the pace of a match. Ben compares exhaustion during a match to outrunning a bear, “You don’t need to outrun the bear; you just need to outrun the other person running from the bear.” This means that if you have solid conditioning and you are efficient in how you expend your energy you will grow tired far slower than your opponent, gaining a large advantage in a match.
Ben’s final point is that since exhaustion is unavoidable you will experience it in a match and you need to be prepared for it mentally. As you experience greater exhaustion throughout a match, it causes your mental focus to degrade, leading to mistakes and poor decisions that can cost a wrestler a match. The best way to prepare and learn how you personally handle exhaustion is to experience it! Once you have become accustomed to being tired, you need to routinely push yourself past your limits to understand and grow comfortable being uncomfortable. Only then can you be confident in your ability to not only maintain your own focus and avoid simple mistakes, but also capitalize on similar mistakes and distractions your opponent might make or experience themselves.
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