Drilling - An Essential Building Block Of Champions

by Ken Chertow

If you wish to perfect your techniques so that they work at the highest levels of competition, you must stay focused when you are drilling. Too many wrestlers go through the motions when they drill just putting in time. If you do this, you will not reach your fullest potential. Intense drilling is essential if you are going to develop your skills to their fullest.

It is essential that you understand the importance of drilling and use all the drill time your coach gives you efficiently. Never stand around. Make the most of every second. Find a reliable drill partner who is willing to work with you intensely throughout the course of practice. If your coach tells you to drill a move five times each and you do it twice as fast as your teammates, make sure you keep drilling until your coach tells you to drill a different move. Never do a certain number and then stop and wait for everyone else to finish. Then you will only be as good as them. Execute as many quality repetitions as you can in the allotted time.

There was a huge bulletin board in my high school wrestling room that said "Through repetition you can learn a move so well that no one can stop it. If you want it bad enough, it is only a matter of time." Read this quotation again and think about it. It truly sums up what it takes to learn and perfect a technique, so that you have the confidence to hit it instinctively in the heat of battle. I took this quote to heart throughout my competitive career and make the youngsters I coach today drill endlessly. If you are going to truly believe that no one can stop you, you must have drilled your techniques quickly and crisply thousands of times. Repetition Drilling is essential if you wish to make your techniques instinctive. I will now share some stories with you to illustrate how much value I place on drilling and how essential drilling was to the development of my skills.

When I was in high school, many of my teammates did not drill with the intensity necessary to excel. I did not waste my time with the kids who were just going through the motions. I had a few favorite drill partners that I spent most of my time working with. One teammate in particular, Bobby Taylor, was able to drill with the same intensity that I did. We spent at least 80% of our drill time working together during high school practices. We became very comfortable drilling together and were able to help each other excel. Not only would we drill intensely during practice but also prior to matches. Our drills prior to big matches were short(10 minutes) and crisp, but our drills before dual meets and between rounds of tournaments were quite extensive. We figured that if we sat around between sessions we would be wasting valuable training time. During tournaments we would drill for 20-30 minutes between every session and then warm up together again immediately before our matches. By our senior year there would often be crowds of kids just sitting around the mats between sessions of tournaments watching us drill. Our peers thought we were crazy but we were simply focused on achieving our highest goals. We did not do it for show. We figured that in the long run the more repetitions we did the better we would get. We were right. Bobby and I both won State Championships our Junior and Senior year. Bobby earned a scholarship to and graduated from Clemson. He is now coaching in Chapin, South Carolina where his team has won three State Championships. Coach Taylor has undoubtedly taught his students the importance of intense drilling.

My Olympian Summer Camp students and parents often complain to me about their lack of good coaching or off season workout partners and facilities. My feeling is that if there is a will (to create a good training situation), there is a way. When I was a kid growing up in West Virginia, there were no spring freestyle clubs. Once the regular season ended, it was hard to get mat time and a workout partner let alone find a club. Few wrestlers or coaches even thought about wrestling once the season ended. Even my best friend and training partner, Bobby Taylor, had other interests in the spring. Fortunately, I was able to get Tony Dickens, a wrestler from a school 30 miles away, to workout with me regularly. He proved to an intense and reliable drill partner. I learned freestyle and Greco-Roman by watching videotapes and attending camps, and we did all the drilling on our own with no coaching. Our school principals would not let us on the mats without supervision and the State Athletic Association would not let our coaches work with us in the off season. We had to beg the custodians to let us into our high schools at night or meet at my house where I had a 12x12 in my basement. My home mat was great for drilling but the furniture, pillars and concrete floor made intense live wrestling a dangerous war. Thus, 80% of our workout in my basement consisted of hard drilling. Despite our far from ideal training situation, I was able to win Junior Nationals in both Greco and freestyle. Tony was All-State three times and wrestled for the Naval Academy. Upon graduation he joined the Navy and became an All American in Greco Roman. We both credit much of our success to the many, many hours we spent drilling together.

While in college at Penn State, my training situation obviously improved. I had many partners for live wrestling, but there were three special people who I spent most my time drilling with, Jim Martin, Tim Flynn and Coach John Fritz. They understood the importance of intense drilling and these were the men who I drilled with most frequently. Jim Martin became a 4x All American while Tim Flynn and I earned All American Honors 3 times. Our many years of hard work and intense drilling paid off.

Coach Fritz gave me endless hours of his time and energy training me and drilling with me throughout my collegiate career. He was the most influential coach on my wrestling career. I lost 14 matches during my freshman year of college, more than I had lost throughout my high school career. It was a huge step from West Virginia high school wrestling to big time collegiate wrestling. Fortunately, John Fritz was there every step of the way. He taught me a lot of great techniques and pushed me through many hard times. I was very fortunate that he took me under his wing and helped me reach my fullest potential. He would meet me regularly between classes to watch me drill, polish my technique and more often than not, drill intensely right along with me. I know that the extra time we spent in the wrestling room drilling is what allowed me to excel during college and make the Olympic Team.

I owe much of my success as an athlete to my training partners who I have mentioned throughout this article. Thank You! You do not need many workout partners to be successful, but you must have at least one who understands the importance of intense repetition drilling. If you do not have one, find one or develop one today. There are few exceptions to the phrase "Champions come in pairs"

Remember, drilling is only effective if you are focused and concentrating on the task at hand. Do not be guilty of "going through the motions" if you wish to excel and reach you highest goals.

From:  http://sfuk.tripod.com/articles/chertowdrilling.html