Hi, this is Gigi Preston and you listen to sportfolio. I guess this afternoon is University of Minnesota wrestling coach Jay Robinson. And before you say hey, wait a minute wrestling wear me out in less than 2 years. Jay's taking a gopher program that has a moderate success and turn it into one of the top 10 teams in the nation back to the first recruiting class at Minnesota was judge the best in the country before coming to Minnesota. Jay had been an assistant coach at perennial National Champion, Iowa start work building a national Powerhouse both Robinson and His wrestlers, but we'll talk about how it's happening and give you a chance to call in your questions as well at 227-6207. 6004 J Robinson coming up on sportfolio.You know, I set this up with Jay Robinson today and it didn't even occur to me that man has to actually work today. You got to meet coming up this afternoon. OJ have a double deal with North Dakota and the Northwestern where they actually wrestle over in the pyramid building in the building. And since we are the NCAA limits are dates and that you can only have so many dates. What you try to do is he need a lot of competition. So what we do is just usually schedule double doubles or triple dual so you can wrestle two or three opponents in a day so you don't have a limit on the number of matches per se but on the number of days that you actually had it's just a day she have the NCAA limits you to 21 days that you can compete but it doesn't really get you to the amount of competition on those days. So you could you can technically rest. Well we wrestle in one tournament in Omaha and some of the kids Russell nine times in one day. So competitions with make you better in in 21 days is really not enough. You probably need about 30 35 matches in a year or something around.She got to you got to double do on Triple dual sometimes. Well, it's it's not that difficult. It's like, you know wrestling is a little bit different than a lot of sports big part of it is the conditioning and you just you got to work your kids and you got to prepare that way we can you prepare what you're trying to do is you're trying to prepare for the national tournament. And then in anytime you're wrestling National Tournament you wrestle to at least twice a day sometimes three times today. So the more times that you can do that and simulated the more it's going to help you towards the end, you know, people can get up you don't like football football teams will get up for one big game, but you know, they don't stop staying that you don't own play back-to-back and they'll say the old part of it because of injuries and that might be part of it because they're so much hitting but but in wrestling you don't you in fact it injured more if you're not in shape then if you do,You're in shape. So you work those guys pretty hard to get them at the level where they can compete two and three times a day. I would have made it really hard. We kind of an idea to give you an idea. We went out to the last week about to the Virginia duals which had 13 of the top 16 + 16 teams were there in 13 of them were ranked in top 20 and when you go to a multiple do all the NCAA allows you to take 15 people. I got 10 weight classes and get 10 10 weight classes. You take 15 people and ideas that you can substitute, you know, so you don't have to wrestle everybody every time and we had so many injuries lately. We were just barely be able to take our 10 cats with me to attend. Will you rounded up wrestling?6 times in two days and most of teams ended up having all kinds of injuries and we had one minor injury and and I think it's because our kids just in better shape than most people are so what do you do to get him in that kind of shape? I mean how hard must you working during the regular course of practice, you got to work him hard, you know practice every every but every coach has his own philosophy on on how he does practicing and what he tries to get out of practice at 2 me your practice time in the afternoon. Your three to five is is time that you spent a lot of time you just actual wrestling real hard because what you're trying to do is you're trying to teach kids to be mentally tough and and you can talk about being tough and and you can talk about sacrifice and all those kind of things but but they're hard to learn what they are unless you have something in which the judging by so the harder you make practice and if you make them really struggle during practice, the harder practice is the more they can relate to what it is. You know how tough you have to be.To most of our practices are rabbits practice is from where we say from 3 to 5, but it probably goes from 3 to 4:45 and they probably Russell at least hard but probably an hour and 20 minutes. I mean Agera, you know that you got to learn to pound and you got to learn to push and you got to learn to be tough and you got to learn to force your body to function when you're when you're tired and you and you can talk about doing that all you want but until you really learn how to do it. It just doesn't work. Do you also do additional conditioning time during the course the days are just the one practice during the season or what are you do? Well, usually it depends upon what time are the season it is what we use what we say. It's kind of a rule of thumb is if you want to be a national champion, you got to work out at least twice a day. I mean you have toSo what we we usually say is that you have to lift weights at least three times a week. He have to run everyday if you want to win the national tournament as an individual, so most of the kids will come in sometime in the morning and they will do their running their weight lifting and then they do another thing probably two or three times a week. Should you call drilling where we've got such a good assistant coaching staff is is our learning is mostly done in the morning instead of the evening practice is reserved for hard wrestling. I mean to make you a tough. I mean that's where you learn to be tough and in Russell hard and being conditioned your learning then comes in the morning when you don't you don't you don't confuse the two cuz a lot of times you get In The Heat Of You Get In the Heat of battle kind of an in the afternoon hard competition and you're really not in the mood for learning, you know coach I'll show you something you really don't have time to go over it and learn it and you just kind of passed off and go on the next thing we really gave a lot of our learning to an extra practice in the morning and it's pretty much all through the week.Well, usually what we try to do is this is some of the guys and now that we've kind of Define the starters, you know, we try to get the starters in like at least two drill with a coach two or three times some starters, you know, some of the younger kids that we've taken at a red shirt that need more work will get them in like 4 times a week to drill with a coach in that you're trying to perfect, you know, their body function you're trying to perfect the way your body moves and it's a lot of it is just repetition, you know, it's no different than you know, I can teaching wrestling to no different than teaching how to play the piano in a most the time most thing you do. When you run out of play Panos you he's not playing concerts you which would be waiting out the wrestling hard. What you doing you doing finger exercises, you're learning your fingers, you know, you're learning to send nerve impulses to certain muscles. Will you do that? Same thing in in in wrestling or in any athletic event? So the more repetition you do it the more smooth that transition is an easier body moves. So it's a lot of repetition involved. Just make everything worse.I think therefore whatever activities and then the more you make it in in snake live the more the more it's going to the function in cell. So what you try to do what I try to do it or My Philosophy is you bring them in the morning you show him something they work on it. Are you bringing back a couple days you hold them accountable for it. They work on it for a week. You bring them back the following week. Hopefully they've learned it and they and they been able to do it a little bit so they had success with it. And then what you do is you add on to it and then you your belt you put something on top of it so many times I find him in coaching at the coaches just you know, one day they're working on single bags next day to work on deviled eggs are working and it bounced around so much. There's no continuity with the trying to teach a kid and you never see that in any teaching environment and you don't collagen classroom, you know, there's always a logical step how you go up and that's I think the way that you got to teach wrestling the same way U of M wrestling Coach Jay Robinsons my guest on portfolio MJG Preston 30 minutes after 12 here on ksjn 13.Happy to answer your questions this afternoon at 2 to 7. 6044 Olio 227 6000g average. It's a couple of times already national champions National Tournament sets. That's the focus here now is not just Big Ten not just best you can be but number one Jay-Z. I think that the thing that you have to do is a coaches that I think that the kind of society has got into the park to where you know Sports has to be fun and it's supposed to be recreational in at certain levels it is you know for young kids when they're learning. It's it's supposed to be fun when you get to a certain level of competition is what it what it is you your competition. You have to focus on something and I think so many times coaches focus on a lot of things part of my job as a coach is I talked about winning the National Tournament Aladdin as an individual or as a team is that is you have a kind of a responsibility to teach young men to strive to be the best they can beAnd if that's that's not to be a Big Ten champion because there's something there's something greater than a Big Ten champion this a national champion. So if you don't really teach him that then to me as a coach you really not doing your job in a little bit of you know mediocrity there in that you're saying yeah, we want to be good but we don't want to do what's required to be good. So so I speak a lot about winning winning is important if you're going to compete if you're not going to compete because we're not at a level where it's intramurals. I mean, this is an intramural contest, you know, I wanted some of the old sayings that people have said, you know is that, you know, people say when he's not important, do you know on the old saying as well if it's not important? Why do they keep score? You know, they keep score because because they you know, the old thing American like some winter, but unless I say that Winning is Everything But I mean, that's the thing that you have to strive for and you have to them equate that out to what do I have to do to get there and when you learn you learn those kind of things that those things transfer on later on in life, you know, whether you had a business or whatever you going toYour environment right now at the University where all the coaches want to win. But but there is very there seems to be very little upper administrative pressure to win special in the wake of what have won the basketball team a couple years ago. It's that's a good citizens. Let's compete at this level. We don't expect miracles. We don't expect Big Ten championships. We don't expect national championships and yet, you know, I know Clem Haskins wants to to win national championships. I know John gutekunst wants to win national championships, but you're the guy who's who steps out and says, hey we want to have a great wrestling thing. You could draw some parallels between you know, dr. Keller, you know, he wants to be in the top five in the country as far as an academic University. You know, that that should say that every every Department should say the same thing with a wrestling department or or whether the chemistry department or any department is that is that dr. Keller aspires to be in the top five in the country is as far as academics and then it stands to reason that everybody should with the university should should stand to be in the same place, you know, and soSo to me, it's you know, I think that most people want to be good. No matter what it is, you know, whether you talk about the University of Minnesota or anybody's most people want to be good. They want to be rich they want to be famous. They want to be the one have money they want to be successful. But but there's not really a lot of people that are really to pay the price to be successful and I think that's the thing you're trying to teach me. I think that's the thing. You got to teach young kids to say Hey, you may not make it you might not end up a national champion might end up fourth or fifth or sixth but but the formula you have to go to even get that far. OK is going to separate you from so so many other things until I think that's the thing that you're trying to teach you trying to teach that, you know, it's not enough just to want to do it. I mean everybody wants to do it, you know, everybody wants to be successful but there's very few people that are really willing to come back and spend that extra timer.Come back and spend that extra practice Shido to make sure that they get to that level. So what does it say? What separates those guys push him over the edge? Well, I think it's you know, there's that there's there's a lot of intangibles that that that that you have to look at him and I don't think there's just one thing is that you know different keep people come with different commitments, you know, everybody has different makeup. I think the biggest thing or one of the biggest things is is environment. It's like I said, everybody wants to be good but very few people know what they have to do to be good and there's very few people out there telling them what they have to do, you know, it's it's like the old saying that most people don't plan to the fail they fail to plan. Nobody has a plan. He's like, yeah, I want to get one of the national champion. But okay, so we say why you got to run everyday got to lift weights every day. You got to drill three times a week. So now you have actually a plan that you can look at and you can revise it and implemented as you go along towards this goal. Reston kind of becomes a full-time job for four guys are trying to do it at that level than you know, but it's like anything else. It's no different in a full-time job or a guy that's in business or or a guy that's in you know, that's that just at the Diversity be a full-time student and that's all he has he wants to be a doctor. Is that it? You're so kind of consumed with it. You want it? I mean, it's your choice your thing in life. I mean if people want to be I believe it's people want to be doctors in why are some people want to be football players in basketball player sin, and anything that we that I look at us coaches hives. We have a responsibility just like the university does to make them the best doctors or lawyers or vet veterinarian people. They can we have responsibilities coaches to make them the best football basketball wrestlers that we can I mean that's are that's kind of our charge and if we don't do that then we're really not doing our job. Are you comfortable with that in a university setting? I mean, are you surprised that it's the academic institution that kind of all falls back on. I mean, we would this work better in a in a club setting or some other kind of thing just hypothetical her know. I don't think I don't think that Our society says you have to move on educational wise in the people that move on or are going to have the greatest reward. So so there is there is something there, you know, a lot of kids go to school. Why do you know a lot of times when you're 18? It doesn't seem like a lot of kids really understand the value of their education now five years later when they graduate and they have that degree then they really understand it. So anything that can get a kid can make a kid continue on into college to me is a plus. Okay, if wrestling is a hook so big so big and so it's up to me. The beauty of Athletics is no different than the beauty of art or the beauty of medicine is that I look at is it as athletic as a discipline within the university is it draws people to the university just as you eliminate the art department or the medical Department here, you'll lose a thousand fifteen hundred students. You you eliminate the athletic department, you lose five or six or seven hundred students that won't come so so, you know to me that you are very compatible. Because an Essence what you're doing is you're trying to better the individual you're trying to help him out and make him a better Citizen and both of them can go in that direction. So so I see the two, you know, very closely in a related to yeah, I think in the in the past Athletics is kind of got a bad rap because you know, you have some we have some programs that push kids through and maybe shouldn't be in college and but then again on the other hand I got to say is well, he'll at least I mean, you know that at least they had a chance yet. They had an opportunity without athletic. Maybe they were only went to school for three or four years and they got out and they didn't get their degree. But the beauty of it is I mean on the bad side you say while they didn't graduate. Well, there's tons of people to go to college and never graduate to but the beauty of this is it at least they got there for four years and 4 years of education in the University environment is going to make them better people better citizens and make for a better country. So, you know, I think there's got to be a balance between the two attempt to measure your work as a coach Jay by I mean by academic standards by graduation by grade point that mean it how's that enter into how you're perceived internally as a coach of the basketball thing for years ago. This University is very sensitive to what's going on, you know as far as you know the seal. Cliche, you know, you don't have a meat market you just bringing kids in using them for their eligibility. You're getting rid of them. And you know what? I think it is some places. You don't I can't I have no idea what happened here before and I wouldn't want to comment on that but I think that generally, you know, you you're dealing with the NCAA in the people are dealing with a couple real visible Sports football and basketball and sports are a lot different than the other than the what you called non-revenue or other sports. You know, I'm a lot of times that your athletes in the type of athlete your recruiting our little bit different and so, you know those make big differences so, you know, you just got to kind of you got to kind of look at the whole thing and and and not really worried about you know, specifically this individual academic problem. You know, how is it going to affect everything overall? Because the kid might have a bad semester as an example. And I mean, I think the thing that most people fail to look at it is a fail to look at War what you were like when you're in college. I mean, you know, I mean it is very I think it easy for us. Judge where we were in college. So if a kid has a bad semester, you know where bad year. I mean that's not the end of the world. I mean, you know like we were talking before as it had a kid made a mistake. We got a just we got to we got to compensate we got to bring that kid back in however we can but so you're judged on your academic performance like last year. We had you know my first year here. We had a real bad winter quarter in which I told that the academic committee that part of it was as it kids before didn't learn how to prioritize their time is basically three things a college kid wants to do he he wants to study wants to wrestle only wants to play around you want to have a good time. The problem is is is most of time there priority is playing around and then school and then and then R Us are wrestling and then studying comes. So what you need to do is sometimes you don't you have to let people fail So that you can talk to him and say Hey, you do have a problem. You're not balancing and budgeting your time. And as the program comes up in the commitment that we required of him wrestling wise, you know. They weren't they were they were spending their time wrestling. They're spending their fun time, but they weren't balancing their academic thing and a half to learn as the as the program rise is that these are important things and you got to learn to balance. So, you know, we had a bad semester and and we got a lot of a lot of heat about it and but I mean we corrected in Spring and let you know when I think our grades came out this this quarter and we were like the third sport we had like a 245 / also where the third their High sporting to say that we're not going to have some bad quarters because this next quarter for rice is you know, I talk to to DePaul about Gail the athletic directors. It just doesn't fall very good for us. Is that the finals for this quarter fall during our national championship? Okay. So so that's what that hurts finals but then if you go you got to back it up because you got a qualified the Big Ten which is two weeks before so now the big Ten's become part of And then now if you're if you're trying to prepare for the big Ten's you got about a three-week preparation part for that. She got 5 weeks of a 10-week order that are pretty intense. So this is going to be historic is going to be hardcore defrost every year. So it's like don't judge us, you know, I would say to people don't judge me or don't judge. Our coaches are program on just a semester B adjust on an overall thing. Woohoo, we graduate and and something like that because I was at, Iowa. We won the National Tournament 9 out of 9 out of 10 years and of every kid that we wrestled that wrestled on the national championship team. And some of them were duplicates, but every kid graduated everyone everyone graduate and someone took five your son took 5 and 1/2 one took seven and a half of the gate, but everyone got everyone of them got a degree so that the point is is it and then it goes back to you know, where we're kind of going off on a tangent are whole program is the whole thing that you see programs because you don't like the environment. Okay, they don't have a real environment that they feel part of SO2 part of your job is a coach's to create such a I need environment. They don't want to leave so that the point in that wrestling room and being a part of something that's special. Everybody wants to be a part of something. It's fashion. So when they're done with for 5 years of school, you know, and they can look back and they say with cheese and a half a semester or quarter to quarters to go. I might as well get my degree, you know, and then they stay around they stick around but that's that's what to me is a is it goes back to what we were talking? That's what's most important is your environment most important. You know, you said if you don't have a real good environment is hard, even for the most motivated person to stay motivated s j Robinson the University of Minnesota wrestling coach MJG Preston passing the time of day. He runs portfolio on ksjn. You're welcome to call if you have a question or comment about what we're doing to 276 thousand Mark is dead making his debut at the telephone answer here on portfolio his longing for human companionship as long as somebody to reach out to him. He's he's he's not what he really sounds like on the year so you can get involved in the conversation with improved any way to 276 thousand or more than prepared to carry on without you. Thank you. I would think Jay that your college wrestler is fairly significantly different from the special your football player in your basketball player, cuz those are kids and maybe grew up. I mean for the timer 8 and 9 thinking NFL NBA big box. That's how they're going to take care of themselves a rest of your life. I mean, obviously there's careers and wrestling and you make a living at it as a coach, but for the Lion's Share Kids at imagine it's not the kind of thing to think wrestling is going to be their ticket to success in life. It's not it's nothing about wrestling probably more than anything else isn't you know, and I'm sure every sport feels the same way as that is at NIU wrestlers are unique, you know, they're it's a kind of unique breed of person that that is a wrestler. It's hard when people haven't wrestled to really explain what it's like because I'm like a football player basketball player, you know, even hockey player that you track people. They can look at careers later on tennis golf, you know, a lot of them wrestling. There's really nowhere to go professionally. But it's very it's a very unique and satisfying sport in that. It's it's it's it's it's man's oldest sport. It's the oldest sport known to man. I mean you could do a little kids 3 years old. And first thing to do is Russell, it's one of them. It's one of the five original Olympic sports that have to be in every Olympic Games wrestling. Is it in in You know, it's a kind of a real, you know, you talked about competition with competition is really is a competition can it be quiet. The dominant you're trying to dominate someone else. So can you try to run faster? You're trying to throw far? It's kind of a Dominus beating. The other person wrestling is so much different in that. I'm like almost any other sport you actually are in contact with a person the whole time. Okay. I mean if you if you like a tiny boxing you're hitting someone but you're not in contact with your body. So there's a completely different feeling you know, when you wrestle and when you dominate someone as opposed to when you run faster, I mean you run Siamese cat of a claim in a wrestling you can't win a wrestling unless you get a hold of the other guy in okay until you actually feel his body. I mean, you you feel the his strength you feel you know, you see, you know, you're perspiring. I mean all that is part of it. At the same time it's you know, it's really mentally gratifying because you know, it is such an individual thing you either you either make it or you don't, you know, you either fail or you're successful. There's no what you know, it's not that there's no equipment to try to jerry-rig with and get out of technological superiority. It's just you it's you and another guy mean it's kind of in some ways. It's the simplest form of competition in one man in a back to the old Galactic Gladiators know it's two guys out there and which one's going to end up minnow stand for thousand but it's and it's and it takes a different kind of breed of cat because probably the biggest thing about wrestling it separates it from most the other sports is that weight loss becomes involved in an ant are very hard for people that really understand what weight loss is until until you really understand what it's like to try and lose weight like a football player it going to maybe two a days but he'll come back you eat and you don't have a training table and he's all kinds of food in his object is to put on way to rustlers has to take it off. So the problem that you have is not only do you have all the pressures it's a football or basketball in competition and school and everything else in addition to that. You got to lose weight in a lot of times the amount of weight you got to lose its concern is a considerable amount of weight how much lighter will most at least say it at your level to high competition Collegiate level how much lighter willig I wrestled in his probably normal body weight. Will Jimmy Hammes wrestling? He's our 26-pound he weighs about a hundred fifty out of out of out of season and he's Wrestled a hundred twenty-six. Wow, so he's ranting about 28 and it affects, you know, it affects their performance to some degree, but but but the but the point I was trying to make is the hardest thing is is that is it is very hard for people to understand what it's like, I mean most people can go to practice and leave practice and go home and eat. Are comfortable when you got to go to practice and you eat and you go home and you can't eat and then you still have to function then it really makes it a very very strong discipline. But why is it evolve that way? I mean, why can't a Jimmy Hamill Russell at 1 at whatever classes close to 150 white. Why does it work with that constant pressure down stronger than the other guy who's got the body of a hundred and fifty pounds are in a weight of 126 and it's just I was just tell us that you should you should compete at approximately 6% of your lean body fat. OK most wrestlers. Most people, you know, they're not anywhere close to 6% So you have to lose some of that fat, you know, and that's just part of the process. And so what you want to do is you want to you want to get that body fat off, you know, a lot of it is like just like for me, I mean I made of in fact I got a bet with Hamill camel. I have a bat And we made a deal on and I told him if he did have some that I I was worried about 97. I said, I'll always 75 by the National Tournament. So I'm on my way down to so if they can endure I can either I'm half. How do you judge the the breaking point there Jay where it's it's too much for a guy to take off where he's really below what he has to be anything is some kids can cut a lot of weight and some kids can't the one thing that you have to do to be able to cut weight that most people don't realize it and I've been in this business for a long time is that is that you have to be in great shape. We had to get it. I always name is Bruce cancer. He could cut 10. I mean this is after he was down he could cut 10 pounds in an hour how it is just weight loss if there's a right way to do weight loss in the wrong with you know of any and you always read a you always hear about the kid that's locked himself in the sign and then passes out. Her know has a penis Heat exhaustion and most of those kids number one or not in shape and number two. They're doing it completely wrong. Just don't know what the difference between a labor sweat when you sweat with with exercise and when you just sit in a sauna You don't want to sit in a sauna, but they're so there's you can get weight off water. What you can draw water weight out of a person fairly easy and then I got I could tell you tons of stories about how about getting kids getting kids down and and getting that water weight in it and it's in as long as it's not a a long-term process all the studies. They've done is that there's no ill effects to the kidneys or anyting short-term a good friend of mine from Iowa orthopedic surgeon long-term effect on on kidney function and and weight loss running wrestlers that are 30 + 40 + 50 years old. Now that that have been out of wrestling and what kind of affected they found a long-term effects, but you know, it's like anything, you know things get to abuse, you know until it's important that it's important to teach kids how to cut weight the right way. We have a kid coming into the University. Even though a lot of these kids are successful in high school and it's amazing how some kids cut weight. The first thing we do is is we give them to a coach. I'll give him the Jimmy's Alaska. Who is it, Iowa and iOS renowned for being able to cut a lot of weight. I mean if the right way and wrong way and I'd get will give them to see the last year. So the first two or three times to make weight so that she's going to teach him how to make wait and then it becomes up and I'm going pro ongoing process and then you get once you find out how to do it. Then the seniors teach teach the freshman and then the freshman then become seniors and teach them so it's an ongoing process, but it's done the right way cuz clearly the wrong way it's going to be dangerous real danger. So you can be real dangerous standing by for Jay Robinson will get ready to talk to you to 276 thousands are phone number. If you like to give us a jingle talking about wrestling today with University of Minnesota wrestling Coach Jay Robinson to 276 thousand. I'm the Preston you listen to the news and information service of Minnesota Public Radio. Ksjn. 1330, Minneapolis-Saint Paul. I'm Jai Mangal this Saturday the Republican presidential candidates will debate the issues of campaign 88 in New Hampshire as that State's first-in-the-nation primary approach has joined me this Saturday for a live broadcast of the Republican candidates debate at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire as NPR's live coverage of the 1988 presidential campaign continues. Be listening for the Republican presidential candidates debate at 2 this afternoon here on ksjn 1330. 24 minutes before 1 on this balmy Saturday afternoon. I'm JG Preston and your listing this portfolio here on ksjn University of Minnesota wrestling coach. Jay Robinson is my guess. We're going to go to the phone down and take some of your questions to 276 thousand is a phone number to South Minneapolis first high-end interest to this program, but I tune it a little bit late. I'm wondering if he could discover. We have an 11 year old who is very interested in wrestling and has done some but I've had the feeling that perhaps a wrestling is something for boys with more mature bodies. Could he discuss at a reasonable program to move up to a college-level? I know he's really only discussing college-level now, but I I think that would be helpful and I'd like to hang up and listen if I could. In wrestling all the way down to the youth chain interject. One thing here before I let you go is a thing that I kind of like about wrestling is wrestling a gymnastics team to me the two sports and in particular a smaller guy can gravitate to because he can compete on an equal basis and it's not like football or basketball where your mismatched know the nicest thing about wrestling and you know, it's it's something at the at the sport is with private are cell phone for years is that there's a place for everybody there's a place for for light kids, you know in high school. They have a 98 pound weight class and they have a heavy weights and everything in between and they have tall kids skinny kids, you know, they have heavy kids There's real. No, I mean there's some there's some things I can anything that you know, if you if you look at a thoroughbred, you know, there's certain things that have to be in order to have a great race or spit for kids in involved. If if he's an eleven-year-old. There's a lot of clubs is called USA Wrestling in Minnesota. There's a lot of clubs local Club. Where kids can go in and they can go a couple times a week and just and Russell around and learn moves and and you don't really need a lot of real physical strength. When you're young most of the body strength really doesn't develop until a kid gets into High School in East 14 15 even say that you shouldn't start with lifting weights until you're 16 years old because your your skeletal system isn't developed but the but the but the thing that would be really beneficial for your son would be to to find one of these local wrestling groups and enrollment and usually it's in the evening and nae nae and it's a real low key low profile think the nicest thing about wrestling that I liked it and just being up here in and I don't want to get on other sports is that but is that to me a kid should be in a Minor's words to enjoy the sport and learn the technical skills of the sport not to compete in games and in my son is 7 years old and then we've had him up here and we've had him and he's in a hockey now and he's He was in soccer. And and in one of my biggest concerns is it they're playing like two games for every practice and there's another seven years old and these little kids are going out there and they're scoring a goal or giving a guy high-fiving and I mean a lot to me that it should be the other way around there should be two practices and and and in one game spend some time learning skills, you know, and then you can divide up because like for most of us we didn't have wouldn't have Pop Warner football, but we had got the competition we needed without the pressure of competing of going to a formal game to me. That's a different kind of pressure by having Sandlot football we go back and split up inside sand and we have fun, but there wasn't that pressure, you know, Mom and Dad coming to watching and so a lot of these clubs and wrestling are just real low-key and they have the meats on Saturday if you want to go around if you don't want to go around that's fine and there's plenty of those and and ice. Is for an 11 year old is that you can find his own way. You can let him go his own way and in and there's real no one kid as an 11 year old is going to win. Sometimes you'll have a little kid that's 11 years old is a real Stan Lee cameo in another time. You'll have a bean pole and he's got leverage and he learns how to use as leverage. So he wins. So the beauty of it is that they can kind of find their own way. If you let them be kids not in real good shape you can get into yeah and most of time an 11 year old going to have to worry about shape. I mean, they wrestle wrestle 1 minute 1 and 1/2 minute. You know when they get up and I I mean, it's fun watching little kids, you know their get up and we'll slap each other on the back when I'm going to say the other one needs cheese. I can't believe your PIN me know you're so tough and let you know when they'll just you know their walk off and they don't know any different and so I mean that's kind of what you want and probably the local high school wrestling coach has a good source person get connected with this if you're not familiar with anyone or if they if they if they can't find it by then call me at the University and we'll find somebody there. Are you a club that's located close to ever turn. Wrestler 2276 thousands are phone number to Ron's portfolio with gopher wrestling coach J Robinson from Steve Kerr got a lot of questions. First of all, let me say that I'm I'm very impressed by you coach Robinson and I like the idea of a University coach that's committed to being the best and that's the plan for going out at A couple of questions at least one. What do you look for in recruiting and then what it seems to me wrestlers when I look at at college or high school wrestlers? I look I see this lineup of all the way from itty bitty guys to great big guys and everything in between are are there differences by weight and wrestlers and personalities are in wrestling Styles. And what do you do to promote team camaraderie and in a sense of being a team on and when does essentially as an individual sport? I have this vision of after you win the national championship, you'll all Mark Alex according to weight classification down to a beer and line up at the Long Bar and order a beer still sort of being a dozen different individuals rather than a big team recruiting recruiting what we look for different coaches recruit different things and I am getting all kinds of discussion. What's right and wrong for me when I was at Iowa we had this thing and you don't people talk about Iowa wrestlers and they were very aggressive for the most part. They were very, you know, they would really driven people the thing that I try to find. This is not credential so many people recruit credentials, you know, the kids at Allstate tackle the kids, you know it in wrestling, you know, the kids at 3 time state champion. What I try to recruit is an attitude more than anything else because I work for this company one time and in a guy Attitude is everything and everything begins with a good attitude and that you can't put an attitude in people. You can't you can't buy it. If not for sale. There's only one way you can have a good attitude. That's if the individual has good attitude if he does he'll do good for you and if he doesn't you can spend hours with him and he won't do what you trying to teach him. So I asked you when we recruited we tried to recruit and don't get this aggressive person aggressive Style on the mat not often that but an aggressive Style on the map because we think we have some great great kids. I mean individuals nice Porsche st. You know any interesting read say he shoots I found it when I was at Iowa and people we recruited recruited that down there and in here again what I'm trying to do being at Minnesota state having Iowa for 13 years and I'm trying to take what what would I learned and being part of building that whole system and I was one of only two people there was there the whole time And duplicating at system here. Okay, and so as I look at what we recruited we recruited a lot of kids that were good, but they didn't have the right attitude and we spent I spent hours trying to teach him the technical knowledge and they had the technical knowledge. But but because of their mental makeup, they wouldn't they still wouldn't shoot. So what we want is aggressive people because when you have aggressive wrestlers, then it with wrestling is exciting. If you have two guys wrestling going hard at each other the whole time wrestling Dan is a very interesting spectator sport, but there's nothing worse than having two guys to just stand around for 7 minutes and do nothing. So we try to recruit an attitude, you know, if I was saying the kids in the state of Minnesota in the future, you know, what is the University we want aggressive people. We want people to shoot we want people to go out and make things happen because if we can find someone that that's a hard worker and has a right attitude. We feel that his coaches we can teach him the technical information that they need to be good. But to find those kids you can't just read letters and Things Are Have you got another kid you got another kid and it goes back to what I believe is the most important thing in life is not you know, it goes back to what goes back to college and always said there's a guy that has a three-point then there's a guy that has the two three but the guy that has two three wants to be a teacher in the guy that has three point doesn't want and so it all comes down to motivation. How motivated are you to do the job that you have? So to me motivation is the most important thing, you know, what guy is it really important to be a national champion. Yeah. There's a lot of people it's like I said before noon in the program that people want to be successful they want to be successful but they don't want to come in in the morning and work out. Well, those people aren't going to be successful chances are I mean someone will be lucky and beat but day in and day out the old adage is that you know, I have I have what I call my 90/10 theory is that you can outwork 90% of all Americans think you can beat 90% of all Americans by just out working because most Americans just won't do what's required to be successful. It was like Have a job you want to $10 an hour job and he's got a $5 an hour job. Well America got great, but not sitting around waiting for $10 an hour job. They got great by going out and getting to eight out to $5 an hour jobs and working a 16-hour day. That's what my dad did. Okay. Now we just kind of sit around and we want more but we don't want to work for so you cannot work most Americans and so if you can find a kid that wrestling is really important to his going to put in the time and has the right attitude. That's the kind of recruit. We want to talk about the sum of the personality differences between your say your hundred 18-pounder in your hundred 90 powder did is it basically the same type of person to drift Senate each weight class or are there differences between the bigger guys in a little guys see? No, I mean one guy's going to be happy when you guys going to be quiet. But basically, you know, the thing that you're trying to get is that you were trying to find the common denominator. The Common Thread is Newport News wrestling to you. Okay, and if it's important to him then they'll do what's required to be good. Okay, which means it may be out of the math. You'll be aggressive wrestlers personality-wise. They're all about the pretty saying, you know, we kind of like I like the idea of working hard and playing hard is that when I was at the University of Iowa, we want a national tournament 7 x + 7 years in a row and people can't really understand how much pressure is involved with the kid and I mean when you step on a mat with a with that kind of Legacy you're expected to win and there's a lot of pressure so they work very hard and you want to work very hard. But you also want to teach him that they can play very hard to and to know the difference between the two when they do it when not to do it but personality-wise they're they're all you know, they all have their own little quirks like in powder right now. He's a he's a little kid from Oklahoma and he's got an easy he's quiet but he loves to tease me, you know, and our 90 pounder right now is it was for Minnesota Jeff Seibel? You know, he's completely different and they're all different, you know, and so as a coach, you know, your job is to is to be to get whatever you need out of each one of them in case that one thing I learned a long time ago into coaching is don't try and I'll make them be the way you want them to be find out what they do good and build upon what they do instead of trying to change you really wrestle for a team championship on an individual basis. Don't you mean that the National Team Championships is in a dual meet setting isn't know the accumulation of 10 different weight class individual turn on but team unity. First of all, these you got to sell a thing to kids like when I came here, I tried to sell the ideas that you know, you got to sell people a dream people want to believe in a Dream It's like America today, you know, I believe of somebody stood up and said I'm going to raise taxes and I'm going to budget I mean they believed in him Americans would follow her, you know, they want to believe in a dream and they want somebody that will that you know will say no and Adam and things like that and that's no different than kids. You know kids are just a small example of the country is a hole so they want to be a part of something special. So when I came in when I did, you know, Minnesota wrestling, you know that they'd always been a respectable in the country in the top 20 or 30. But but what I did is I went out and let you know in an order to do it. Is it the first thing I had to do if I had to have some coaches so I went out and hired six of the best coaches in the country and we didn't have the money to do it, but I went down and got out a loan to God alone cuz I had to have these guys personal loan so I can so I can get these guys could pay him to do that. But it's just one of those things about commitment. You know, how committed are you really to do? Yeah. Well you talk about the word commitment, you know, I'm kind of getting off here on a tangent again, but but you know, it's like the guy said, you know, the farm animals farm animals were talking to the Farmer and they're going to have him give him breakfast and they were all committed to have breakfast have breakfast for the for the farmer. The hand said she was pretty committed. She'd give an egg will see the pig he was going to give bacon. So there's a little different type of commitment. Yeah that's commitment until there's a difference in the word commitment. So when you can find those people that are committed and are all committed towards the same thing like we brought in these 6 coaches then now we had validity we could go out to a kid and say hey, we're not just talking about being a good wrestling program and we got six of the best coaches in the country. It's going to matter about four months. We had one of the top two coaching staffs in the country that allowed us to go out and have the number one recruiting season in the country, you know now and I don't know if I don't know if the Inn in Minnesota, if any of the schools I've ever had a number 1 recruiting system, but in in in wrestling, there's only been seven schools ever to hit be ranked number one in recruiting and we did that and one very short year. We were 36 and now we're 7th, so kids can see that there. Beginning to be a part of something special. We went to the Bison open last year and we had a we had about four guys for Five Guys in the finals this year. We went back to the same tournament. Same guys went back, but with a different attitude we had we had nine nine guys in the finals in eight guys want and it was very special to him because then they found out what it was like to be a part of something special and once you once you're part of something special, you know, a man once said that it's as wonderful as you think it is like winning the national championship, you know, I can tell you it's ten times more wonderful and watch you get that sense of something special that develops team loyalty that the team unity that pulls you all together in the hard work doesn't seem quite so hard after the hard work doesn't seem anything because now that they're going to try and tell him that hey this is what we're doing and they're seeing the difference. I mean, you know, we went out to the Virginia duals last year last weekend and we were without four of our starters for out without for over 10 guys. We went out last year. Tuesday, I was going to cancel my cancel the plane ticket I was going to go cuz I didn't think we could be respectable and we went out and we kind of got some pressure to go. So we went out and we ended up beating the bike North Carolina first round, which we'd beaten her earlier when we had a whole team pretty easy, but we got beat by them and we came back from Syracuse. It was rated beat them beat Bloomsburg who is rated beat, Wisconsin. It was rated 7th. Then lost Oklahoma. Just eat that by Oklahoma, then came back and rest North Carolina State beat them again, but it was a heck of a team effort, you know, and basically, you know, they feel special now see and when you feel special on people want to feel special everybody wants to feel special and and Americans will do great things when they're called upon to do something special but there's nobody asked him to do something special. So we sold him this, you know, if you wouldn't use the word salt we sold him a dream that we're going to win the national tournament. It's just a matter of time. OK and our goal every year if you want it so we don't want to do this you want to win the next year and it's just a matter of time before we want it and then that's the ultimate. Motivation is successful, but it just in it doesn't it? And that's the thing is it's hard for people to realize and and they want to be along to it. You know, what is we started a fan that work? They never had a fan group here. We got about a hundred last year ended up with two hundred support fans and they never had one before and we got we got posters at 9. We got a lot of people that are excited about wrestling because the kids are excited about in the coaches are excited about it. And they're going to be something special. They know they're going to be something special and that you know is what develops that team unity, you know, so when the season's over and they win the national tournament at you know, they'll be Rowdy I guarantee they'll be Rowdy. You know, I'm just telling you ahead of time today. We win the national tournament. I'm going to be Rowdy with her but you know, and you keep things in perspective, but you know, and then you play hard a little bit and then you go back and start the whole thing over again. University of Minnesota wrestling Coach Jay Robinson here on sportfolio MJG Preston got about the 6 minutes here before we get into the Associated Press News in the week in review and we got some callers patiently standing by so let's get to him go to Minneapolis. Great. Thanks for waiting on a school level high school and college and can't what's happening in that respect others. Not you know that there's there's some instances of girls competing in in wrestling. There's there's been even when I I think wrestling in college the problem is going to be as that. I don't have it doesn't bother me at all. I want to wrestling camp in this in the summer and every so often I get calls from people that you know, will you let a girl into the end of the wrestling program and I have no problem with that the only problem that I would the problem that I would see is that is that the physical development to do wrestling I would say okay in here I am I'm kind of dancing around the thing is because I don't want to offend anybody but but just for me is that at certain weight I think girls could could prop might be competitive and that would be in the lower with weights where they're smaller and more agile and stuff. But as you would get up and weight classes, it would be would be pretty hard for for women to compete on an equal basis with men. I'm not saying it couldn't happen. But it just you know, I think that there's some limitations physiology. Why's that that we can't get around? I mean, I'm not opposed to him trying or I mean that I mean if they want to I think that's fine. But which is which is really Altima the question is he? Okay. I mean if the activity itself is enjoyable day, that's fine. I mean I have no problem about it, but Excuse me. It is the only sport that there's really not a female counterpart for I mean you have in football you have you know, you have girls basketball men's basketball gymnastic, you know, there is one of them the bastions of of a male's I guess, you know, and I have no problem with it then a lot of coaches. I don't think they really do but you know, I I don't know if if they because of their size and stuff. I think if they did they would could compete at the lower weights, but I really couldn't see him being really effective at the at the airport wait to get the one more call her on sportfolio to before we have to leave today. We'll go to South Minneapolis Jack. Hi, thanks for waiting the wrestling freestyle and Greco-Roman in relation to either high schooler Collegiate wrestling people don't really know what the distinction is. Could you just got to find him first and then About sure the legion style is it is basically American style wrestling the Freestyle Wrestling Style Style high school wrestling. It's it's it's basically it's an American sport the other sport that's very close to his what's called freestyle freestyle and you use the whole body and it's a lot like Highschool. The only difference is you don't wrestle down on the mat like you do in high school wrestling freestyle. You always start on your feet. You have 30 seconds. If you take the man to the mat to try and turn his shoulder to the mat. If you can't they stay in your back of the object being as it creates more action bouquet the proponents of freestyle say that the wrestling down the mat and writing people is boring. That's what's supposed. So more action free stuff is very close to a very easy transition Greco-Roman on the other hand. Is really was called the classical type of wrestling and it's in the Eastern Bloc countries in the Soviet Union in Bulgaria. It is fact the number one type of wrestling and it's really different because his in in college town High School SAU where you bend over to protect your legs in CLE in Greco-Roman, you stand straight up because you can't touch blocker trip the legs and so it most of it's it's kind of like you going to get it may be a little bit to Judo in that there's a lot of throws but you can't use the likes o you try and lie. Basically you're trying to lock on the body. You can either walk on the body lock on the header lock on the arm and try and throw a guy was in one of those. Those are the differences. We pretty much have to stop there too. Damn far is it cuz we're running out of his people know that you are resting this afternoon at the pyramid building you wrestling tomorrow against Nebraska. Is that right? Right? What time is it mean to 30 and Thursday night those dreaded Iowa Hawkeyes come to town Gable and and crew will be here great University of Minnesota wrestling Coach Jay Robinson. Thanks very much. It's nice having you dance portfolio. Text Reggie. But thanks to Mark heistad who said in so very well answering the telephones today to Jeff Walker technical wizard today and Associate producers to Winking who keeps the trains running on time around here next week on sportfolio John mistar professor at the Duke University law school who specializes in sports law MJG Preston. Thanks for listening. See you next week on portfolio. Best Buy, Fresno Thank you. This is the news and information service of Minnesota Public Radio. Ksjn, 1330 Minneapolis-Saint Paul world and national news is next from the Associated Press and then join Mark Heist ad for the week in review Hits 1