Towards the end of last month, the 2025 United States World Team took part in a prolonged training camp in Azerbaijan, a country in which wrestling is recognized as the national pastime, and which features a Greco-Roman program that is consistently one of the most successful in the world. Therefore, it was seen as an enormous opportunity for those from Team USA to gain significant time on target working with (and alongside) the Azers as a means to fully break the ice on the current World Team training cycle.
Just prior to departing for Azerbaijan, the US had run roughshod over the field at the Pan-Am Championships with near-record-breaking results. But that level of competition, while in some weight categories certainly formidable, still does not provide an accurate baseline litmus test for what a national program like Azerbaijan’s brings to bear.
Such is why the camp in Azerbaijan was seen as an important step in this multi-month World Championships training process. US National Team head coach Herb House desired for his contingent to reacquire an up-close and personal look at how the Azerbaijanis approach everything from preparing for practices and formational dynamics, to physical conditioning and live wrestling. Most overseas camps include a blend of technique and plenty of live go’s and matches.
In Azerbaijan, the protocol was a little different. While the US indeed received ample mat time to wrestle live with their Eastern European counterparts, a big part of the gathering centered around strength-and-conditioning, and learning the Azers’ methods and systems. Although the US is routinely associated with top-flight conditioning, they wanted to glean additional insights into how to tune their own methods to become more functional and sports-specific.
And, on the heels of a brief respite after returning home from Azerbaijan, the US now finds themselves amid another important phase of their preparation cycle. This past Monday at the Olympic and Paralympic Training Center in Colorado Springs began a camp featuring the likes of three other big-time Greco-Roman wrestling teams: Croatia, Georgia, and Ukraine. It is a training opportunity to which many of the Americans had been looking forward since World Team selection concluded in late-April, and now it is in-session.
Coach House discusses some of the highlights from the camp in Azerbaijan and how it has thus far impacted the US Team before touching on the beginning of this latest camp in Springs and how he hopes it will intensify the roster’s competitiveness leading into next month’s “Ranking Series” tournament in Hungary.
USNT Head Coach Herb House
Post-AZE Camp 2025
5PM: What was it like as far when you first arrived in Azerbaijan and getting into a rhythm?
Coach Herb House: When we arrived, I think it was around midnight. The first thing everyone did, because we were so hungry, is went to McDonald’s (laughs). Everyone rushed to McDonald’s. We grabbed some food and then jumped on a bus to go about two-and-a-half hours to the training site. We had off that day and fell asleep. We got in on a Friday and had that weekend off. The next morning, we played soccer; on Saturday, we played a game of basketball, just to keep our bodies ready; and then we rested on Sunday.
When we went into train on Monday, what Azerbaijan likes to do is formations. Every morning at around 8:00am, they have formation either in the wrestling room or at the track. When it is at the track, they will do two laps, do roll call, line everyone up, and then go inside to do pummeling drills and stretch before eating breakfast. From 10:00am to 11:00am, we’d either be on the mat or weightlifting. Most of the time, we’d be weightlifting or circuit-training. Then around 4:00pm or 5:00pm, we would be on the mat. Sometimes we would split it up in the mornings with 55 kilograms to 72, or 77 to 130 for our strength-training.
The biggest thing that we did learn? Azerbaijan lifts. They lift a lot of weights. They focus on lifting and strength-training. And they’re strong. So, I think that is something we have picked up. We can get better at being stronger and more fit. We have adapted that from the time that we left Azerbaijan and headed home. We have been lifting almost everyday now, just trying to get stronger and better.
5PM: How much of an adjustment was it for the US guys upon getting into the country?
HH: It is always hard when you go through multiple time zones to get into another country. I think it was okay. I think because we had arrived on a weekend and were able to sleep that it didn’t hurt us as bad. I think it was okay. The time zone wasn’t a problem for us. Maybe some of the food wasn’t the best. That was a bigger issue than anything. But the training? No, the training was great. Everything about it was very productive for us.
5PM: Given how technically-refined Azerbaijan is, what were you looking for during those occasions when there was live wrestling?
HH: I think that the biggest thing is that our World Team was picked in May, we had the Pan-Ams and it was a great showing, but I wanted our guys to see what we had ahead of us. What we needed to do to actually become World medalists. Azerbaijan has multiple World and Olympic medalists on their team. It is a known fact that they are really good at what they do. So what I was looking for were the areas we needed to fix going forward. I wanted to see how we were doing in par terre, what mistakes we were making on-the-feet, and how to correct them. Because, I’ll tell you this: if we can go in, have our guys wrestle some of the best in the world — whether they beat them up or get beat up — then I can go back and study with the athletes and coaches to make necessary adjustments. That is a plus for us. Especially since we have our new procedures, we have plenty of opportunities to learn and make adjustments. This was the benefit of changing to our new (selection) procedures. We can go to multiple camps now. We have two powerful camps, and none of this would have been able to happen without us being able to make that change off of the new process.
But I like what I see. I know that we have to work on several things on-the-feet, with our positioning, bending our knees, and we have to work on par terre. We can’t wait for our opponents to get the perfect lock and then try to react. Instead, we have to be one step ahead of our opponent. The moment he tries to stick that hand in, we’re one step ahead and we’re moving. When he tries to stick the second hand, we’re moving. We have to be one step ahead of that guy every time he gets on top. You can’t let him get set; because if you do, once he gets set and locks his hands and is about to load up, it won’t work. It is not reasonable to expect to defend when your opponent has already achieved what for him is the right lock.
We learned some things. We picked it up and discussed it as a Team. It gave us things to work on as we prepare for the World Championships.
5PM: Did you notice a progression from the Americans as the camp continued?
HH: Oh, yeah. For sure. I mean, we had Jayden (Rainey), Max Black, Payton Jacobson, Kamal (Bey), Ellis (Coleman)… A lot of these guys were going against World champs from their weight classes and, yes, they figured it out and started making adjustments. You could see it. At the end, they would be coming up to me, I picked it up, I’m doing a lot better. And you could see that. They were doing a lot better. And it was frustrating a lot of Azerbaijan wrestlers. They were getting frustrated by the end. They are still a really tough team. A really tough team, but the US athletes had them frustrated by the end of camp. I don’t even know if I would call it “frustrated”, I think it was respect. They respected us a lot more by the end of the camp.
5PM: How did the Azerbaijani coaches interact with the Americans?
HH: Oh, they loved us. They took us out to eat, which was great. They joked around with us. One thing is that they held our guys accountable just as they do with their own guys. Another thing I was so impressed with from the Azerbaijan coaches is that they told us, If any of your guys want any help with technique, come and get us. Just grab us. That’s big for a country to say, Hey, we’re here to help you get better. Just come and ask us, or ask our wrestlers, what you want to work on, and we’ll help you get better at it. From that point on, I had even more respect for Azerbaijan because they are true champions. That is one thing I love about wrestling, no matter what country you’re from or what political view you have, we all respect each other as people and as wrestlers. But I have to tip my hat to Azerbaijan, they did a great job helping us.
5PM: How have you and the athletes themselves strategized taking the lessons learned from Azerbaijan and taking them with you going forward throughout this current camp?
HH: I take it to the personal coaches and relay what we saw. We kind of take a different approach. We talk beyond us and what we think, and what we saw. It is mostly Spenser (Mango) and I because Spenser is on a lot of trips with me. Spenser and I are together often, plus we have Andy (Bisek) involved with it. We relay what we need to work on.
The biggest thing with this coaching staff, including the personal coaches, is that we all want the same thing. So, we all talk, and then they handle it. I think it is easier for the athletes to receive feedback from the personal coaches because they are with them everyday. We came up with a plan and figured out what we need to continue doing. One of the things we will continue to do is weightlifting, to keep getting stronger. We also want to continue working on our positioning on our feet. Attacking more, being more offensive, and going at our pace instead of the pace of our opponents. Go at our pace. We don’t want to wait for them to try and score so that we might counter-score, we want to be the scorers.
5PM: The camp that just began this week at the Olympic Training Center with Georgia, Ukraine, and Croatia has been a big headline for the World Team training cycle and many have looked forward to it. How has it been going so far and what have you liked the most?
Coach Herb House: I love the camp. This camp, like you said, it has been one of my babies and I had been working on it for almost a year. We have I think around 60 international wrestlers here and another 25 domestically. There are a lot of wrestlers. There is also a lot of competitiveness in the room. Each coach yelling as they coach their guys, weightlifting together every morning… I think we are building something big and I love what we’re seeing. This room is a grind. They are grinding and fighting it out everyday. Our schedule is pretty unique. We go in the morning and lift; and then in the afternoons at 5:00pm we get on the mat. We do that Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, with Wednesdays and Saturdays as incline days.
As far it as it goes right now, I’m loving it. Like I said, there are still things that we need to fix. But I love that we have this opportunity, and to be at home where we can look at what we need to fix and get that done before the last “Ranking Series” tournament and the World Championships. That is one thing I am excited about. We can work on what we need to work on and fix our mistakes while getting great looks. We would have never had these looks before, so this is big for us. We can fix our mistakes early on in our training rather than later.
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