a. General Coaching Philosophy
We, the wrestling coaches at Naperville Central High School feel that our job as coaches is twofold: First, we want to help each athlete in our program gain a complete knowledge of the sport of wrestling, their fundamental skills, rules, and the strategy involved in each. Second, and more importantly, to develop in each athlete the capacity to successfully compete in the world outside of athletics. To be modest in victory and reflective in defeat and to make sacrifices that this sport and life requires.
b. General Wrestling Philosophy
We have two goals for the wrestling team. These are to be a strong tournament team and to be a strong dual meet team. We regard regular season dual meets as extra practice; as a time to experiment with new holds and new maneuvers; as a time for our wrestlers to learn; a time for our underlevels to gain experience and confidence, building for the varsity; a time for our varsity wrestlers to find out what works for them and what doesn't so that when the post season time comes around they will know what they should use.
As far as individual matches are concerned, we will expect our wrestlers to be offensive minded. We want to take the match to our opponent, not in a blind rage but in a cool, calculated manner. We'll counter when need be, but turn our counters into offensive maneuvers. Shoot, shoot, and shoot again, until we have our opponent under control.
c. Wrestling Philosophy - Takedowns
Since we feel that the wrestler who is better on his feet will win more matches, we will stress takedowns in practice and meets. In dual meets we will often let our opponent go in order to take him down again. This judgment will be left up to the discretion of the individual coach and should be dependent on the circumstance involved (match score; meet score, and individual wrestler). This should be especially practiced by the underlevel coaches in order that our wrestlers become proficient in takedowns by the time they reach the varsity level of competition.
d. Wrestling Philosophy - Mat
i. Top Position - We will expect out wrestlers to work for a pin. We don't believe we can pin everyone in good competition, but we should be proficient enough to expose his back to the mat and gain extra points. We want to ride tough and rarely hang back. But we'll also be smart, if a reversal is imminent, we'll expect our wrestlers to let his opponent go and give up the one point escape rather than the two point reversal.
ii. Bottom Position - We feel that a good wrestler never gets ridden. We will stress quickness, getting out on the whistle, and serious wrestling going from one move to another, to still another until we gain escape. We will take a reversal when it presents itself, but we must be able to gain an escape so that we can again work for a takedown.