Wrestling Begins Preseason Training

By Head Coach Jim Andrassy

We always have our first day of conditioning on the first day of classes.  Our goal is to get these guys in here and see what they’ve done over the last month to stay in shape.  We’ll use this next month-and-a-half to really get our guys in shape so when practice starts they’re ready to go.  So we push them as hard as we can. 

We also have a big roster now of about 36 guys so it gives us a chance to see who can handle the work load we give them.  We work out four days a week.  We lift weights with strength & conditioning coach Bob Lemieux for 45 minutes then we have an hour and 15 minute conditioning period.  One day we may run four miles around campus, another day we’ll be in the wrestling room, one day we’re in the Field House, one day we ran up and down the hill on campus.  We try to burn as much fat off the guys as we can to get them down to the lean weight that they’ll be wrestling.  Some days are more running based and others are strength based.  In the Field House we have them carrying 35-pound plates and bags around.  And that really helps with their strength.

When we recruit kids, we explain to them the first five to six weeks is probably the hardest part of our season.  The majority of our freshmen were pretty well prepared, knowing what we were going to do and came in pretty good shape.  Once we get into the season it’s more about learning and repetition.  I can already tell that some of these freshmen are really going to push our older guys in the room.  It’s a group that’s ultimately going to make this program better.

Within the first week you can tell what kind of shape guys are in. A guy like Ian Miller…he’s probably in the best shape he’s ever been in.  He’s strong and conditioning wise, he’s winning a lot of the races which he’d never done before.  We’re really happy where he’s at.  A guy like Cole Baxter who was injured most of last season is a little bit behind because he had a knee injury and wasn’t able to do things for almost three months.

Our first official practice is Oct. 17.  From Oct. 5-12, we really test them mentally and physically and push them almost to the point of breaking.  Then they’ll have a light five days to recover before practice.  Once we start coaching and teaching, we want them to be able to stay in a good stance an hour-and-a-half into practice.  If you get tired in a practice, your legs start to straighten up and you start to bend your back, which creates horrible habits.  But if you’re in great shape, you should be able to stay in a good stance, keep your knees bent and do the little things right throughout the entire practice.  In the middle of a run right now, we’ll stop and get into a stance and start a wrestling motion just so their bodies start to get used to it.