The Transition from High School to College Wrestling (Tommy Zeigler)

Everyone talks about the huge jump from high school to college wrestling. Over the past couple months I’ve learned the reason for that.  I’ve had to improve my personal organization, and develop a strong mental attitude.  I constantly find myself telling people who ask me about my transition two things… One being, “I never knew how much I was capable of.” The second being, “I used to think I worked really hard. Now I know what that means.”  Something that has helped me a lot has been a desire to be seen as a mentally strong individual.  However, you don’t become mentally strong when everything is going great. You become mentally strong when times are hard which is why I am able to pride myself on the fact that the whole experience is making me mentally stronger than I ever could have been without it. 

Hard Work is the Most Important Component of Success (T.J. Keklak)

           

“The harder you work, the harder it is to surrender.” This famous quote from Vince Lombardi has become the motto for my fifth and final season here at Kent State. I have learned over my first four years at Kent State that hard work is the most important component of success.

Our coaching staff does an incredible job at making each and every one of us believe and buy into that mindset, that the harder you work the harder it is to lose. Day in and day out they encourage us and motivate us to push our bodies and mentally challenge ourselves to prepare for the long season ahead. A combination of concentrated technique and intense live wrestling help us stay sharp in our wrestling skills, while allowing us to try different moves against our teammates in a match situation. We work extremely hard each and every day, which will pay dividends as we prepare for MAC duals, the MAC tournament and ultimately the NCAA Championships.

            Over the summer I rededicated myself to the sport that I love and made a promise to myself that I would do whatever it takes to make my last wrestling season the best one yet. That started with the commitment to drop a weight class from last year and compete at the 149 pound weight class. I have made great changes in my lifestyle and diet that have already made a drastic difference in how I feel in my conditioning and my training. I realized that in order to reach my goals as an individual I needed to make sacrifices and become more disciplined not only as a wrestler but as a person. In order to be successful I have been training harder than ever before, because like Vince Lombardi said many years ago, “The harder you work, the harder it is to surrender.”