RUDIS Wrestling Podcast

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#25: A Controversial 133 lbs Finish Jan 17, 2019

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Did Anyone Really Win in Daton Fix vs Nick Suriano?
This weekend was filled with exciting collegiate match ups. With streaming and broadcasting services the availability of watching these duals are at your fingertips. This wasn't a reality a short time ago when it was hard to find live college wrestling. One of the highly anticipated wrestling matches this weekend was between Oklahoma State's Daton Fix and Rutgers' Nick Suriano. These two have a deep history growing up in New Jerse. They also hold claim to one of the most talked about high school matches of all time. This weekends matchup followed theme with the match lasting 34 minutes. The match actually lasted even longer than that if you include all of the time spent reviewing by the officials. Ben Askren isn't surprised that every time these two meet it goes this way due to their similar high-pressure styles. The bout finally came to a controversial close with Fix serving Suriano his first loss of the season 3-2 due to a hands-to-the-face call. Askren is excited to see Fix and Suriano wrestle other top-ranked opponents but not each other due to the way their styles match up.
Kaden Gfeller vs Anthony Ashnault
Askren feels Kaden Gfeller vs Anthony Ashnault was the most exciting match of the Oklahoma State vs Rutgers dual. Gfeller fell to Ashnault 9-6. Askren thinks Gfeller is losing to these top guys because he struggles to generate enough of his own offense. After the win, Ashnault celebrated by doing the pistol fingers at Gfeller. Gfeller then pushes Ashnault at the handshake and both sides got a one-point deduction as a result.
Patrick Glory vs Nick Piccininni
Glory vs Piccininni was another exciting match this weekend. Glory lost to Piccininni with a final score of 9-4. Askren begs Glory to stop choosing bottom until he gets better. Glory has the potential to place 3rd at the NCAA Finals which would be a remarkable achievement considering the competition and Glory's age.
Nick Lee vs Tristan Moran
Wisconsin's Tristan Moran went to Rec Hall and gave Penn State's Nick Lee his first loss of the season in second sudden victory 12-10. This was a huge upset not only in the rankings but also Moran has been struggling with his weight at the 141 lbs weight class.
Jason Nolf vs Ryan Deakin
Nolf was able to stop all the chatter surrounding his bout with Deakin with a 17-7 major decision victory. Askren talks about how many people believed No. 3 ranked Deakin was the guy to finally beat Nolf. It will be exciting to watch the rest of Nolf's season.
Austin Desanto vs Ethan Lizak
The final score of 6-1 doesn't tell the story of how dominant No. 10 Desanto was against No. 8 Lizak. Desanto, at the end of the match, shoved Lizak’s head into the mat and then started taunting the crowd. Askren is always in favor of celebrations and showmanship and didn't really have a problem with what happened after the match.

#24: Myles Martin & Ohio State Remain Undefeated Jan 11, 2019

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Ohio State vs North Carolina State
Ohio State begins 2019 with a 26-10 win over NC State. Ben Askren starts the podcast with a mention of the business as usual Joeseph McKenna 10-2 major decision over Jamal Morris. This win moved McKenna to 11-0 on the season. Moving on to more memorable match from this dual Micah Jordan versed off against No. 4 ranked Justin Oliver. Jordan was able to put pressure on Oliver and hit the go-ahead takedown with only six seconds remaining. Matt Dernlan notes on McKenna's ability to make split-second adjustments and not get caught fully committed to a move.
Hayden Hilday vs Ke-Shawn Hayes
Moving onto 157 lbs and Hayden Hilday's 7-2 win over Ke-Shawn Hayes, Askren was surprised Hayes got called for stalling. He was surprised because it was blatant and Ohio State was at home but he believes it was the right call. Hayes was able to shut down Hilday's under hook for the first 2.5 periods. Dernlan doesn't think Hayes was intentionally backing out of bounds rather he was in a position that didn't allow him to be grounded and dig in. Hayes is also small for his weight class. Simply relying on a few stalling call points is not a reliable mechanism for offense. Askren and Dernlan suspect Hilday will have a harder time implementing this technique on bigger opponents.
Bullard Twins Split
At 165 lbs NC State's Thomas Bullard won out in a scramble for the 4-2 win over Ohio State's Kaleb Romero. Then at 174 lbs, Te’Shan Campbell was able to get his fifth win in a row as he came through a 4-1 winner over Daniel Bullard. Both brothers have found it tough to compete against the top 10 ranked wrestlers.
Myles Martin vs Nick Reenan
The 185 lbs matchup was a battle of two undefeated wrestlers. No. 1 Myles Martin facing off against No. 3 Nick Reenan. Martin secured the win 12-5 over Reenan. Askren is suspicious of the health of Reenan. Reenan was grimacing after the first takedown and Martin may have sensed that. Askren thinks Martin was aggressive and was wrestling to finish the whole match but Dernlan believes he had another gear to give. Martin very rarely hits the same attack twice. This makes it extremely difficult to defend against his unpredictable attacks.
Malik Heinselman
The discussion briefly shifts to Freshman Malik Heinselman and Ohio State's 125 lbs weight class. Dernlan believes pulling Heinselman's redshirt is a good idea. At very least it will give a morale boost to the team that they have a chance of starting off duals with a win. Askren thinks back on his own college wrestling career. He notes about how important his redshirt year was and how much it helped him improve. Since it is unlikely Heinselman wins a national title this year at 125 lbs Askren says he should sit back, learn and grow this year. Dernlan's rebuttal to this is if Heinselman can potentially get a win or two at the NCAA tournament can be the difference between Ohio State placing 2nd or 5th.

#2: Switch: Finding The Bright Spots Jan 11, 2019

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Bright Spots
Building off the last episode Matt Dernlan and Cary Kolat continue the discussion of the book Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard By Chip and Dan Heath. Recapping the last episode Kolat describes the basis of the book. Chip and Dan Heath use the analogy of a rider and elephant to describe the two systems in your brain. The rational side is the rider and the emotional side is the elephant. Switch discusses how to create a leadership plan that gets both sides in sync. This episode will focus on Chapter 2: Find The Bright Spots. Bright spots or successes worth emulating is a philosophy that can be described in a question, "What is working and how can we do more of it?".
Don't Have to Reinvent the Wheel
In the book, they use the example of a gentleman whom in 1990 was tasked with fighting malnutrition in Vietnam. The foreign minister told him he only had 6 months to make a difference. Instead of having to much pride, he found an impoverished woman with healthy children and spread her knowledge to the rest of the country. Dernlan can relate this short term situation to coaching. Coaches are assigned to making huge changes in a 4-year span for an athlete and a program. When Kolat first took over at Campbell the program was not doing good and did not have much funding. He had to put a short term plan together in order to build for the future. Similar to the gentleman in the story, he found bright spots. In Kolat's case, it was looking at other programs and analyzing what they are doing that makes them successful. From that Kolat learned how to implement techniques into his own program. Kolat also used this in his athletic career. He had no problem copying a move another wrestler did or going to where they train.
Lay the Right Foundation
When Dernlan went from Penn State To Clarion he made the mistake of not scaling the goals to the program size. He figured out quickly he couldn't just implement a blanket philosophy and culture into another program. You have to take one step at a time. You can't make unrealistic promises. Success is defined differently by different programs. It's important to highlight the smaller victories. It's easy to get caught up in the big picture. As your program grows and changes your goals and standards should too.
Finding Bright Spots
Kolat coaches this technique to his wrestlers. He has had a few examples of freshman wrestlers with bad records that went on to be extremely successful later on. Those are the type of guys he makes captains. Kolat tells incoming freshman to replicate what they did and grow from it. Dernlan mentions pulling appropriate examples for young wrestlers. In order to apply to a wrestler's rational mind, you should appropriately choose who you use as a model. This makes it tangible for them to believe that success is possible. Going along with this, Kolat chooses to focus on his wrestler's successful matches over their failures. It's harder to say this is what you're not doing and how to fix it than to duplicate your success.

#23: Amine vs Facundo 2, Michigan Fighting to Win a Team Trophy Jan 08, 2019

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Homer or Game Changer?
Getting right into the episode, Ben Askren begins to break down the Detroit Catholic Central vs Davison rivalry match between Cameron Amine and Alex Facundo. This was an exciting yet controversial match from the finals of the DCC Invite. It was between two of Michigan's best high school wrestlers. The match ended up going to an ultimate tiebreaker round tied 1-1. Facundo hits a stand up immediately into the UTB. Amine is behind him for about 15 seconds and the ref calls a stalemate. Askren believes Amine was trying to return Facundo to the mat. Therefore, Amine was progressing towards the score and not just stopping action. Going off this, Askren suggests a change in the rules. He thinks the referee may have made the right call. If the bottom wrestler knows he can just wait 5 seconds and the wrestler on top will most likely get a stalling call, he doesn't actually have to try and escape. Instead, Askren suggested not calling the stalling call so quickly. Referees like to have a rule in place that they can defer to. This takes the scrutiny off the referee for the final call.
6th Year Senior
Continuing with Michigan wrestling the conversation shifts to the collegiate level. Specifically, Mason Parris and his dominant upset of the No. 1 ranked Amar Dhesi of Oregon State, 11-4. This will surely bring Parris into the top 10 rankings at heavyweight. Dhesi is a 6-year senior. This was granted to him from suffering an ACL injury and not being able to compete. Dernlan acknowledges how many wrestlers struggle during this 6th year. He believes this could be due to the accumulation of wear and tear from competing every week on top of having suffered an injury. You need to realize your capabilities and train smarter not harder. This is also a responsibility of coaches. After some thought, the two had a hard time naming multiple athletes with an extremely successful 6th year of collegiate wrestling.
Michigan vs Oregon St.
Overall, Michigan ran away with their 2019 debut with a 32-8 win over Oregon State Wrestling. Breaking down the majority of the lineup and weight classes includes the Steven Micic's tech-fall of Kegan Calkins 18-2. Michigan's current lineup could find themselves on the podium at the end of the year in the NCAA Finals. That being said for those teams that are in similar positions as Michigan, they have to rely on every single one of their guys if the team wants to place.
Nebraska vs Northwestern
Moving on, discussion shifts to Tyler Berger and Nebraska's 26-14 dual victory over Northwestern Sunday at the Devaney Center. Berger faced off against Ryan Deakin giving Deakin his first loss of the season. It looked like Deakin was not being aggressive. Deakin had good hand fighting in the first period but went away from hand fighting and collar ties in the second and third. Moving away from his left-handed collar tie, Ryan Deakin switched to just diving in later in the match. Berger was more strategic overall. The 157 lbs weight class is extremely exciting this year with no one stepping away from the pack beyond Jason Nolf. Next Podcast will feature the exciting Ohio State vs NC State dual.

#22: Southern Scuffle and Midlands Watered Down Jan 04, 2019

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RUDIS Wrestling Podcast #22: Southern Scuffle and Midlands Watered Down by RUDIS Wrestling

The Way #1 | A RUDIS Wrestling Podcast: Switch: The Rational and Emotional Mind Jan 04, 2019

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The Search for Excellence
Introducing something unprecedented to the wrestling community, Cary Kolat and Matt Dernlan kick off their new venture "The Way | A RUDIS Wrestling Podcast". The way is something everyone is searching for. Whether that is an athletic, personal, or professional achievement. Coming from Coaching backgrounds, Cary and Matt are always looking for better ways to lead athletes and elevate them. "The Way" will be breaking down different forms of literature to generate discussion and different perspectives. Then taking these lessons and knowledge and applying it to all aspects of life.
Rational vs Emotional Mind
Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard By Chip and Dan Heath is the first piece of literature that will be featured. Cary begins breaking down the different parts of the book. The book begins explaining the two different "systems" in the brain. It has a rational system and an emotional system. The rational system is a thoughtful, logical planner. The emotional system is emotional, impulsive and instinctual. Connecting this to wrestling Cary relates to how when a wrestler is cutting weight and makes the emotional decision to break their diet. Athletes do this while the rational part of their brain knows they shouldn't. Once you understand everyone has these two systems working in their brains you can put together a plan catered to both logic and emotion. A lot of wrestlers tend to rely on one or the other. If you appeal to both systems you can achieve great things and help others achieve their goals.
A Clear Direction
Establishing a clear direction and organization is something the rational part of your brain can understand. Cary relates to this by how he organizes his practices as the Head Coach at Campbell University. A few months ago he implemented writing down on a whiteboard what the practice will consist of. This gives a clear direction, a starting point and a finish-line for his athletes. Matt builds off this idea and explains how explaining the plan gives ownership to the athlete. including them in the process takes away the fear of the unknown. Sometimes what appears on the surface as resistance is just a lack of clarity. The far majority of athletes are involved in a program because they want to be there and they want to win. Some guys need clarity and comprehension of the message to get behind the goal and unlock their full potential.
Wrap-up
Kolat and Dernlan go over the main points discussed in this episode. To change someone's behavior you have to change their situation or path. What often looks like laziness is exhaustion and how to distinguish the difference between the two. As well as what looks like resistance is actually a lack of clarity. Next episode will talk about "the bright spots". Bright spots are not best practices. One way Dan Heath explained it is: “The question is not 'How can my organization be like my best peer?' The question is 'How can my organization be like itself at its best moments?' ”

#21: Midlands Breakdown Jan 02, 2019

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RUDIS Wrestling Podcast #21: Midlands Breakdown by RUDIS Wrestling

#20: UWW Rule Changes,The Reno Tournament of Champions & Beast of the East Dec 27, 2018

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RUDIS Wrestling Podcast Ep 20: UWW Rule Changes,The Reno Tournament of Champions & Beast of the East by RUDIS Wrestling

#19: UNI vs Cornell, Nebraska vs NCST and UNC Dec 20, 2018

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RUDIS Wrestling Podcast Episode #19: UNI vs Cornell, Nebraska vs NCST and UNC by RUDIS Wrestling

#18: Proficiency In All Three Positions, PSU Vs ASU & How Good Is RBY? Dec 18, 2018

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RUDIS Wrestling Podcast #18: Proficiency In All Three Positions, PSU Vs ASU & How Good Is RBY? by RUDIS Wrestling

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