Although these days it’s getting harder to admit, I am a Penn State fan. Not only of their football team, but of their wrestling team as well, I just about hit the roof two years ago when they hired Cael Sanderson, the greatest wrestler of this generation, away from his alma mater Iowa State to be their head coach and was ecstatic to see them finally get over the hump last year and win the national championship that had eluded them . However, as blasphemous as it may sound, there may not be a sports program in the country that I admire more than the University of Iowa wrestling program.
It has been said that in Iowa, wrestling is more religion than sport, and if that’s true then the University of Iowa is the holy land. Every year, thousands make the pilgrimage to Carver Hawkeye arena to see the current group of black and yellow clad grapplers look to take their place in the annals of history next to giants of the sport like the Brands brothers, Mark Ironside, and of course, the legendary head coach of the Hawkeyes Dan Gable and they want to see them do it in “the Iowa style”
“The Iowa style” of wrestling can technically be described as a style that emphasizes superior conditioning, fundamental positioning, and to rely on constant pressure from physical moves such as collar ties but it is more than that, The Iowa style is a belief, a mentality, that every time you step on the mat, you are going to dominate, that you are physically stronger and mentally tougher than your opponent.
Personally, I love this mindset and need to adopt this every time I’m on the mat. I think you need to ask yourself, what makes my opponent better than me? Sure, he might have titles and accolades to his name but that was all in the past, you have today. You have today to go out there and to do something special and in those 3-5 minutes that’s all that matters
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