Nice interview of Zain Train by Basch

Tom McAndrew said:

0:00 - Zain Train Back on the Podcast!
0:46 - Competing at the World Team Trials
03:50 - LA 2028
04:40 - The Head/Concussion Issues from the Olympics
06:00 - The Role of the Leagues in His Return
07:30 - Zain’s Business In State College, PA
08:30 - Returning at the World Team Trials
10:30 - Levi Haines is the Best Hand FIghter in the World
11:00 - Toughest Part of Wrestling Ridge Lovett
13:00 - Making a 6th World Team & Expectations
16:30 - Competing with RAF
21:30 - 2028 Weight Plans - 65kg or 74kg?
23:15 - NLWC Depth & Penn State Depth
29:00 - Balancing Building a Business & Training/Coaching
31:25 - Fan Questions

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BASCHAMANIA 412: Zain Retherford Transcript

Why Zain Retherford Came Back: The Story Behind His World Team Return BASCHAMANIA Episode 412 Transcript https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gful702ySw Justin Basch: And we are back, Episode 412, and that is not Willie [Saylor] next to me. It is the "Z-Train," fresh off a Final X victory. How are y...

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Zain Retherford: After the U.S. Open, I stayed in great shape wrestling the guys at Penn State. I was talking to my wife after the U.S. Open and realized I was getting the itch again. It was cool to watch our guys do well, and I wondered if I should do it. After the Olympics, I wasn’t sure. I didn’t like how I ended things, not being able to compete and finish wrestling back for bronze. I knew there was a chance I'd want to get back in; I just wanted to get healthy first. It took a year to get healthy.

This May, I was feeling good and talking with my wife, Juliana. She was super encouraging. I was actually teaching a wrestling camp on the Wednesday before the World Team Trials, which were on Friday and Saturday. I told my wife I might reach out to coach Cody [Sanderson] just to see what he thought, and she told me to do it. I called coach Cody and told him what I was thinking. He was super supportive. He told me I was in great shape and that if I had the itch again, they would support it.

That's a personal decision. After that, I told a few people. I don’t know how FloWrestling got ahold of it that quickly. It was Thursday, and I still hadn't fully decided when they released that. They must have a mind reader or something. Maybe Juliana told FloWrestling to leak it out. She might have. But that was kind of it—just feeling good and enjoying coaching. Helping the guys during the folkstyle season is a lot of fun, but I am excited to be competing again.

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Zain Retherford: The guys I’m wrestling in the room at Penn State are really tough dudes: Tyler Kasak, PJ Duke, Mitchell Mesenbrink, Marcus Blaze—who has asked me to wrestle a bunch this year—and Shayne Van Ness. I’ve essentially been in "coach mode" for the past year, doing a lot of throat blocking, giving them a feel, backing up and stalling.

I think during the first two matches at the World Team Trials, I was still in coach mode. It helped my defense a ton, and I feel comfortable defensively, but I wanted to get to more offense. Shaking the rust off has just been a matter of snapping out of coach mode and wanting to pull heads, fake, snap and wrestle like Levi Haines—putting pressure on guys and shooting.

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