By: Mike Fry - Grapplers Gym

There should not be a day that goes by where you do not try to improve on something. For many of you it may be your grades in school and for others simply making it through the day without being punished. Whatever it is, try to improve on it every day.

Turn In Your Homework

In part one you were given a home work assignment to fill out, for those of you who took the time to really do it lets start with a quick review. In part one you were asked to divide your paper into 4 sections and label them Want & Need with the last 2 left blank.

You were then asked to place in your WANT box everything that you wanted to accomplish in the upcoming season. Then you were to review in your mind the previous season and list all the things that you needed to do improve on. From this list of needs is where we are going to start.

In talking with my wrestlers and the readers of our newsletter the topic that comes up the most is how do I get stronger and improve on my conditioning. For many of you this will be on your list and that is why I mentioned it.

What I am going to do is give you an example of what I have on my list right now for myself as I still compete.

My Example

WANT:
Win the 2005 Congress state games
Win the 2005 Connecticut Nutmeg games
Compete with the USA Veterans after Oct 1st
Compete and win in submission wrestling and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

NEED:
More mat time with better training partners
Improve foot speed
Decrease joint pain (6 knee surgeries = nagging pain)
Improve on pre-match rituals to reduce excitement
Attend BJJ classes and drill
Turn 35

Wants

As you can see from my WANTS... I try to keep them clear and simple. I do this so I can focus on them clearly and not have to worry about all kinds of details. I can close my eyes and see each and every one of these goals coming true.

If I am a freshman getting ready for college life and I had listed 'attend OSU and make the varsity team and win national championship,' all in one goal you would spend too much energy on the useless facts instead of just saying 'Winning the National Championship.'

I really don't think if OSU turned you down that your goal of winning the NCAA's would change if you attended Michigan or Minnesota. So just stick to the basics when you're writing your goals.

Needs

Now let's look at the NEEDS. As you can see again, I keep them simple and to the point. It's not important at this time to worry about the details because we will be filling that out in our next box. Just make a good list of the things you want to improve on.

Now Back To Your Paper

How

On the bottom right box write the word "HOW". This is the magic question you need to ask yourself "how am I going to improve my needs". Let's start by using my list as an example.

Need 1

I have listed 'More mat time with better training partners,' how do I improve this? For me I made contact with Brazilian Wrestler Rodrigo Artilheiro who also trains with Pedro Rizzo of the UFC so when I am in Brazil I can go in and train with them.

In the states I have my new friends from Best-way Jiu-Jitsu who do tons of mat work and after each practice I get to train takedowns with a fighter who trains with Chuck Liddell. Very high intensity work with top athletes. So I have indeed taken care of that need.

Need 2

To improve my foot speed I needed to visit a personal trainer who specializes in speed training. He has me working on "basic" exercises to help me reduce my ground time for my feet. We also do lots of high speed jump roping and foot drills with the 5 dots.

Related Articles

Cat Like Reflex Training Methods!
The Development Of Speed!
Gator Agility And Foot Quickness Training.

Need 3

Decrease joint pain: not much I can do for this one until I learned some new joint mobility drills. These are drills that many of us did before practice drills like rolling your knees and ankles around to loosen them up. Has helped a little but still long ways to go.

Need 4

Improve on pre-match rituals to reduce excitement: I went online and started reading about pre-match rituals and sports psychology. I made some phone calls and talked to a professor in sport psychology who was on the National team for Judo in Poland. He taught me about the 7 major skills that every combat athlete should possess. I took that information and put it to use.

	10 Factors To Help You Stay Motivated And Succeed. Everyone will have their own methods for what keeps them focused and determined to keep working towards their goals, but there are a few factors that are common to most people. [ Click here to learn more. ]

Attend BJJ classes, drill, and turning 35 are kind of easy to figure out. So I won't go into what we need to do with them.

Until Next Time

We are going to continue this in a part 3 because this would turn into a mini manual by the time I finished talking about needs and how to fix them.

I would like to ask all of you who did read this to email me your list so we can use them as examples (minus your name of course) and also we will be having a drawing for some lucky person to help reach there goals by sending them a complete Grapplers Gym training package and manuals.

About The Author

Michael Fry is the owner of Grapplers Gym and www.grapplersgym.com. Grapplers Gym is the home for advanced fitness and conditioning for today's wrestlers. Subscribe to our FREE weekly Newsletter! Each issue is crammed with free training tips, articles, programs, exclusive discounts, strength/conditioning news and many more surprises. Mike can be reached by email at mike@grapplersgym.com.

mike@grapplersgym.com

Recommend this article to a friend by e-mail here!

Visitor Reviews Of This Article!
Read Visitor Reviews - Write Your Own Review

Back To Mike Fry - Grapplers Gym's Main Page

Back To The Articles Main Page.

Related Articles
Getting Prepared For The Wrestling Off-season Training: Part 1.
Wrestling And Bodybuilding
Wrestling Training 101 - Introduction!

Supplement Direct Whey Protein Hydrolysate Delivers Superior Nutrition and Muscle Building Protein! Learn More!