“The 1st period is won by the best technician. The 2nd period is won by the kid in the best shape. The 3rd period is won by the kid with the biggest heart.”  – Dan Gable

The way this quote is read, heart can often be misunderstood in this quote for caring more than your opponent about winning that particular match.  But heart is much, much more than that.  Heart is the drive you have every morning when you run when others don’t.  It is when you stay after practice for a half hour to work on your weaknesses.  Heart is doing wind sprints until you puke from exhaustion and then doing 10 more to simulate overtime.

Heart can be trained.  Heart can be earned.  Heart can be improved.

The easiest way to train your wrestlers to show heart is to put them in various situations where it is required.  At the end of your practices after live matches are done and your athletes think they are finished you put even more on the line.

Live Situations – This concept is used very heavily in the Apple Valley wrestling room and by many of the Nation’s elite teams.   Each of these can run anywhere from 15 seconds to a minute, depending on what you want it to accomplish.

1. Your opponent has a single leg in the air.  You’re up by one point with 30 seconds left.  Stop the takedown or get an escape to tie and then a takedown before time expires or you lose.
2. You have the single leg in the air.  You’re down by three points.  You must take your opponent down and get a turn or cut him (let him go) and get another takedown.
3. You’re up by four but your opponent just head locked you.  You’re on your side, about to be turned (90 degree angle, opponent has both head and arm)
4. You’re down by two and you’re in a leg turk.  Score three for the win.
5. You’re tied.  There are eight seconds remaining and you need an escape to win.

These are five examples – there are literally thousands of variations depending on which moves your team focuses on, what your weaknesses are, and how tough you want the session to be.  The key is that they are ALREADY EXHAUSTED when they start these situations.