10 Tips to Help You Be Successful at Nationals

1. Respect and listen to the coaches. They are volunteering to help you prepare for nationals and they are here to help you the best that they can.
2. Be in shape… Don’t come into the camp more than 5 lbs. from your qualifying weight.
3. Start cutting weight early. Starting your cut 2 days before weigh-ins is a sure fire way to have a bad tournament.
4. Be ready to wrestle the weight you qualified at. Only the coaches can allow you to move up or down a weight.
5. Get your paperwork, payments, flights, and or travel plans taken care of early. Flights get considerably more expensive the closer you get to Nationals.
6. Keep an eye out for any skin infections at all times. It would be terrible to travel to Fargo and not be able to wrestle because of a skin infection.
7. This will be the toughest tournament of your life, train and prepare for that.
8. Make it a goal to get better each and every training session. Learn something new, improve your technique, improve your conditioning, or try new moves in live sessions to improve your wrestling.
9. Have at least one turn for both Greco and Freestyle that work for you.
10. Your Par Tare defense needs improvement. As a state, Washington kids are severly lacking in their defensive positions. This needs to be a priority if you want to be successful in Fargo.

*If you qualify at 138lbs. then that is your spot, movement to different weight classes will be decided on only by Coaches/Directors!

*You must attend 2 out of 3 national training camps in the 3 Phase Series this year!

Here is basic technique that you should be proficient at, including the understanding of the terminology.  Always having a bigger “tool –box” is better, but these technique areas are critical to your success at camp and Fargo. We don’t have time to teach during training camp, as it should be a time to refine and enhance your skill, not develop entirely new things to “try” at the national level.