This summer I started coaching a wrestling class a couple of times a week at a local gym where I live. The gym is called University of Grappling and it is run by Ricky Lundell, a jiu jitsu ninja, but that is a whole other story in itself. I started coaching the class as a trade with Ricky so that my wife and I could use the facilities, and his wife would train my wife in their workouts. I am so lucky that it has given me a chance to coach on a more regular basis. I find that when I am coaching someone else that I am reminded about what I should be focusing on to get better as well as correct some of the finer points of technique. I really feel like the time I spend coaching will help me to improve going into this Olympic year.

I am also a volunteer assistant coach at Utah Valley University, and I go in every now and then to work with some of the college kids on technique and wrestle around with them. I also feel like some of the scrambles and the nature of college wrestling helps with my conditioning. Greco roman wrestling and folkstyle wrestling are two very different types of wrestling, but I feel by having to think through some of the different styles, my minds opens up a little more to help me out with my greco some more, which is the type I am most focused on now anyway. Every now and then I even roll around in Ricky’s jiu jitsu class, and it is amazing how different it is. The novelty of other styles also helps to keep my training fresh because it isn’t a matter of going to the gym every day and doing the exact same thing. I know that repetition is very important in wrestling, but it is always nice to change it up every now and then.

Regardless of what it is that you are doing, if you start to teach people how to do what it is that you are doing, you will start to see areas that you can do better in yourself. If you are a salesman, and you start teaching other people sales, you will see ways that you can become a better salesman. If you are a teacher, and you start to teach others to teach, you will become a better teacher. If you start teaching people wrestling, you will find ways that you can become a better wrestler. Get out and start teaching. The pay off is amazing.