Regional Training Centers

[Wrassler17]

First, I apologize for the length of this post. I know that this topic has been mentioned in previous threads, but thought it deserved it's own thread if others want to share info and opinions.

The Regional Training Centers are obviously crucial to program development and recruiting in the current state of college wrestling. The top programs are devoting major resources to these centers and it is paying off big time with recruiting and NCAA results.

I'm not sure of all the rules, but it allows current wrestlers to practice (outside the normal practice time) with wrestlers that are trying to win World/Olympic gold. OSU has Dieringer and someone mentioned that possibly Perry/Caldwell/Byers are still competing. I believe Perrelli and Morrison left recently. And of course, JO left for ASU a few years back.

For comparison purposes (far from complete and doesn't include many like Nebraska and Michigan):

PSU has former wrestlers Varner, Molinari, Taylor and Megaludis. Plus they have Tatsuhiro Yonemitsu, the 2012 gold medalist at 66 KG from Japan. And they just added Rey Higuchi, the 2016 silver medalist at 57 KG from Japan.

OSU has Snyder (World/Olympic gold) and Stieber (World gold). Plus they have Tervel Dlagnev (world medalist I believe) who can still roll around. And they recently added Vic Avery and Mike DePalma.

Iowa has Dan Dennis, Matt McDonough, Bobby Telford and Nathan Burak. Plus they recently added the Dardanes twins.

Further UNC hired Kenny Monday to run their RTC. Someone mentioned that Rosselli added the younger Stieber as volunteer coach and was trying to build up the RTC with other athletes. And now ISU has just added Metcalf as volunteer coach, presumably to build up their RTC.

I heard John mention on a broadcast that OSU will be expanding the wrestling room soon and that donations to the Cowboy Wrestling Club will help to pay for that. I guess I'm wondering if OSU has the financial resources to compete with the other major programs to bring in/retain top athletes and pay the coaches competitive salaries. They don't seem to have that big booster or large alumni base that others do.

Thoughts?

 

[osu2082]

ial resources to compete with the other major programs to bring in/retain top athletes and pay the coaches competitive salaries.

This to me is the key issue facing OSU and our ability to continue to push for NC's.

Our programs standing and history will keep us very much in the hunt but the differences in quality and funding of the RTC's of some of our competitors will widen the gap if we are not careful.

 

[djb914]

(It allows current wrestlers to practice outside the normal practice time)?

A Wrestler is expected to run 6 days a week, lift 2-3 times a week and drill 3 days a week for 45 minutes to an hour, in addition to the 6 day a week regular practice, that for example a wrestler coming into practice at say 155 pounds leaves the workout 2 hours later at 143-147 pounds (water weight drops quickly) now what the wrestler wants to do is replenish, relax, take a nap and as students they have homework to do. The last thing a wrestler wants to do is practice some more knowing he has to recover to do the same thing (With some changes, but still very hard training the next day) There is a point of DIMINISHING RETURNS/OVERTRAINING. If the program is solid (As Oklahoma State Wrestling surely is} and you are doing what your supposed to running, lifting and drilling in addition to the main workout not only would you not want to do more it would be counterproductive, the immune system would surely be weakened and the wrestler would almost certainly get sick Mononucleosis, Pneumonia or other things that would force the athlete to rest for weeks or longer, some of the illnesses caused by extreme over training can only be overcome with long periods of rest.

 

[Poel_Jeer]

djb914, I agree with what your saying about overtraining. With better talent in the room, the wrestler will get infinitely better. This extra drilling and the regular practice sessions will now happen with a senior wrestler who has been around the block, had 4-5 years in college and wrestled on the international scene. The wisdom of the seniors wrestlers will be a great thing to the young team. The more talent you have in the room benefits everyone. Iron sharpens iron. I know we have a lot of talent and a great coaching staff, heck I don't even know who is in the room but adding more has got to be better. I am not bashing the current CWC members, or the guys stepping in and helping, but from what I understand, The OP was going for extra practice with current and former World and/or Olympic champions, or the very near. The guys that are in the room are great and they are big part of the reason why we are so successful. They just don't have the names of other clubs/RTC's. I think the OP was just stating that it would be even better for us if we got more "names" in the room. It couldn't hurt.

 

[Wrassler17]

djb914, I agree with what your saying about overtraining. With better talent in the room, the wrestler will get infinitely better. This extra drilling and the regular practice sessions will now happen with a senior wrestler who has been around the block, had 4-5 years in college and wrestled on the international scene. The wisdom of the seniors wrestlers will be a great thing to the young team. The more talent you have in the room benefits everyone. Iron sharpens iron. I know we have a lot of talent and a great coaching staff, heck I don't even know who is in the room but adding more has got to be better. I am not bashing the current CWC members, or the guys stepping in and helping, but from what I understand, The OP was going for extra practice with current and former World and/or Olympic champions, or the very near. The guys that are in the room are great and they are big part of the reason why we are so successful. They just don't have the names of other clubs/RTC's. I think the OP was just stating that it would be even better for us if we got more "names" in the room. It couldn't hurt.

Yes, thanks. My post was too long and not very clear.

I was really trying to make three points:
(1) the RTCs are used to recruit the elite high school wrestlers
(2) then as you stated "iron sharpens iron", which leads to NCAA individual and team success (and eventually USA international success)
(3) the Cowboy RTC seems to be lagging behind, which is hurting recruiting

 

[djb914]

I agree as long as the Post Collegians are part of the main workout and not in addition to it.

Lets say the main workout was 3-5 P.M. and the post Collegians are working out in the room with them at 3-5 that is good.

Now if a wrestler already did his morning running, lifting, drilling whatever and then did the 3-5 main workout and then wanted to go to a training center to work out some more, he would certainly get sick if not also injured and the season would be ruined, seen it happen to extremely motivated individuals.

I believe in solid, consistent workouts on a regular basis is the way to improve. If a wrestler has enough energy to even consider working out after it other than stretching or a light jog to speed recovery, then the workout was not done right or hard enough.

 

[CowboyUp61]

Maybe we need to do something like this to get the CWC/RTC back up and going?

https://iowa.forums.rivals.com/threads/hwc-69-425-raised-goal-100k.186609/

 

[Wrassler17]

Flo is saying that Mark Perry may be leaving Illinois to possibly run the Iowa RTC. That's kind of a surprise to me. I figured he was waiting to take over as head coach at Illinois.

Link:
http://www.flowrestling.org/article/55935-mark-perry-considering-move-to-coach-at-iowa#.WRUIAmjyvIU

 

[MiccoMacey]

In discussions about Perry possibly going to OU last year, the thought was that Perry wants to be the next head coach at Illinois. And that he thought/was maybe told that was going to happen by now. Even though Heffernan has only been the head coach for eight years, he was an assistant there for seventeen. So I think Perry has been waiting for his chance. Maybe he's tired of waiting.

 

[Wrassler17]

In discussions about Perry possibly going to OU last year, the thought was that Perry wants to be the next head coach at Illinois. And that he thought/was maybe told that was going to happen by now. Even though Heffernan has only been the head coach for eight years, he was an assistant there for seventeen. So I think Perry has been waiting for his chance. Maybe he's tired of waiting.

Mark Perry takes the Iowa RTC job. There's an article on Flo, but it was first reported on Trackwrestling.

Link:
http://www.trackwrestling.com/tw/Po...&twSessionId=zetudmtewefjwqh&postId=568835009

 

[Wrassler17]

Jesse Delgado to the Iowa RTC. He also considered OSU.

Link:
http://www.flowrestling.org/article/57050-jesse-delgado-opens-up-about-move-to-iowa#.WTIGvGjyvIU

 

[Wrassler17]

FYI, a very knowledgeable poster on the Rutgers board shared some information about the importance of the RTCs to the success of the college programs. He also wrote about how competitive the RTCs are becoming financially and that Tyler Graff left the Rutgers RTC for the VT RTC because they more than doubled his salary. He listed these number of athletes/coaches at some of the RTCs:
Iowa 11
Cornell 10
PSU 9
Ohio State 7
Lehigh 6
Michigan 6
Rutgers is trying to raise funds to pay for 4

 

[DayHawk18]

I agree as long as the Post Collegians are part of the main workout and not in addition to it.

Lets say the main workout was 3-5 P.M. and the post Collegians are working out in the room with them at 3-5 that is good.

Now if a wrestler already did his morning running, lifting, drilling whatever and then did the 3-5 main workout and then wanted to go to a training center to work out some more, he would certainly get sick if not also injured and the season would be ruined, seen it happen to extremely motivated individuals.

I believe in solid, consistent workouts on a regular basis is the way to improve. If a wrestler has enough energy to even consider working out after it other than stretching or a light jog to speed recovery, then the workout was not done right or hard enough.

So what a lot of coaches are doing with the RTC's is having kids go to either the RTC practice or the regular practice that day. I think that is extremely beneficial. It allows the coaches to work more with those 2 athletes.

 

[Wrassler17]

So what a lot of coaches are doing with the RTC's is having kids go to either the RTC practice or the regular practice that day. I think that is extremely beneficial. It allows the coaches to work more with those 2 athletes.

DayHawk, I'm curious about something if you happen to know. When the college wrestlers practice against the RTC athletes (say Gilman vs Dennis in the past), do they wrestle freestyle only or is there some folkstyle work as well, like top & bottom?

 

[DayHawk18]

DayHawk, I'm curious about something if you happen to know. When the college wrestlers practice against the RTC athletes (say Gilman vs Dennis in the past), do they wrestle freestyle only or is there some folkstyle work as well, like top & bottom?

They wrestle freestyle only. They know that one to two freestyle practices a week won't hurt them and will only help in the long run.

 

[MiccoMacey]

It's one of the 16 mandates to be an RTC. Only Olympic wrestling.

 

[oberebo]

It's one of the 16 mandates to be an RTC. Only Olympic wrestling.

Micco is correct it is one of the criteria.There are 49 regional training centers in the U.S. including Stillwater and Norman.there is also another regional training center in OKC. The third criteria is that the center has to have a minimum of 4 established team members who recognize the club as their primary training site and there are 13 ways you are "established" including top 8 at a sr. open, top 8 at a university national championship, AA at a Jr. national championship, cadet national championship, top 4 in a state tournament and various others. You have to have a minimum of one active wrestling coach on staff who is a USAW bronze certified coach and attend the annual coaches meeting. All practices must be conducted in the international style of wrestling only. A prospective student athlete (PSA) must live within 250 miles of the training center. A PSA may belong to more than one training center. An RTC may NOT pay travel expenses or fees associated with competition for the PSA. An RTC coach who is employed at a college or University may NOT coach a psa at any competition unless they are on a coaching assignment by USA wrestling;

 

[oberebo]

Micco is correct it is one of the criteria.There are 49 regional training centers in the U.S. including Stillwater and Norman.there is also another regional training center in OKC. The third criteria is that the center has to have a minimum of 4 established team members who recognize the club as their primary training site and there are 13 ways you are "established" including top 8 at a sr. open, top 8 at a university national championship, AA at a Jr. national championship, cadet national championship, top 4 in a state tournament and various others. You have to have a minimum of one active wrestling coach on staff who is a USAW bronze certified coach and attend the annual coaches meeting. All practices must be conducted in the international style of wrestling only. A prospective student athlete (PSA) must live within 250 miles of the training center. A PSA may belong to more than one training center. An RTC may NOT pay travel expenses or fees associated with competition for the PSA. An RTC coach who is employed at a college or University may NOT coach a psa at any competition unless they are on a coaching assignment by USA wrestling;

Going to the Oklahoma State wrestling website there is still no official announcement about Eric leaving. However in going to the roster and coaches Eric Guerrero is no longer listed and Zack Esposito is listed as the ASSOCIATE HEAD COACH. Only other coach listed is Chris Perry as Volunteer assistant coach.

 

[Wrassler17]

Going to the Oklahoma State wrestling website there is still no official announcement about Eric leaving. However in going to the roster and coaches Eric Guerrero is no longer listed and Zack Esposito is listed as the ASSOCIATE HEAD COACH. Only other coach listed is Chris Perry as Volunteer assistant coach.

FWIW, Chris Perry's twitter says assistant coach now. I'm fairly certain it used to say volunteer assistant coach. The team website has not been updated though.

 

[Wrassler17]

The Pokes created a twitter account today - @CowboyRTC. A small first step hopefully toward promoting and growing the program. I hope whoever is running the account is marketing savvy and tweets something every week about our long history of placing people on World and Olympic teams. Plug the heck out of Fix, Coleman, DC, Jamill, Kenny, Kendall, coach, etc,.

 

[proud2bpokes]

The Pokes created a twitter account today - @CowboyRTC. A small first step hopefully toward promoting and growing the program. I hope whoever is running the account is marketing savvy and tweets something every week about our long history of placing people on World and Olympic teams. Plug the heck out of Fix, Coleman, DC, Jamill, Kenny, Kendall, coach, etc,.

Funny the timing. Guerrero has had no social media presence until he took the OKRTC job. He is blowing up Twitter now.

 

[CowboyUp61]

The Pokes created a twitter account today - @CowboyRTC. A small first step hopefully toward promoting and growing the program. I hope whoever is running the account is marketing savvy and tweets something every week about our long history of placing people on World and Olympic teams. Plug the heck out of Fix, Coleman, DC, Jamill, Kenny, Kendall, coach, etc,.

i saw that also, and followed. Hopefully it is like you say, and it is used to grow the program. Get some funds going to support the grads, so we don't keep losing those. Klimara, Oliver, are just a couple. Would be good to have some extra in the room.

 

[Wrassler17]

Funny the timing. Guerrero has had no social media presence until he took the OKRTC job. He is blowing up Twitter now.

I saw that. He's tweeted high school kids, current Pokes, former Pokes, Russians. The other thing is Eric always sounded somewhat subdued to me when he gave an interview. Now he seems to be trying to come across as much more excited. I listened to another interview where he spoke about the business planning meetings he's had with Lou Rosselli and Chance Leonard, so maybe the changes are by design.

 

[Wrassler17]

i saw that also, and followed. Hopefully it is like you say, and it is used to grow the program. Get some funds going to support the grads, so we don't keep losing those. Klimara, Oliver, are just a couple. Would be good to have some extra in the room.

Definitely. You mentioned Eddie. I'm not sure if this was posted before or not, but he is now at the Virginia RTC and Jon Morrison just joined the Michigan RTC.

 

[CowboyUp61]

Definitely. You mentioned Eddie. I'm not sure if this was posted before or not, but he is now at the Virginia RTC and Jon Morrison just joined the Michigan RTC.

i had not heard about Jon. Would have been great to keep those guys around!