Less than 48 hours from the time of this publication, Greco-Roman wrestling will begin at the 2025 World Championships with an American squad that has been preparing for battle over the course of a lengthy five-month training cycle.
Such is how US National Team head coach Herb House wanted it. Rather than engage in what has become the typical three-tier process for World Team selection (US Open, World Team Trials Challenge Tournament, and participation in Final X, respectively), House instituted a procedural change for this season which saw Greco-Roman athletes compete for their World roster bids in April. This was all geared towards allowing more time for those who made the Team to focus on receiving top-level training as well as for all involved to gain a high degree of unit cohesion prior to the summer.
The preparation, aside from last-minute weight-management concerns, has now come to an end. The opening round of the tournament can at this stage easily be measured in hours, not days, and sometime tomorrow the draws will be released.
In the first of this two-part miniseries featuring House, the discussion centered around the US squad having arrived in Croatia, their training with a bevy of foreigners, and the concept of making adjustments so close to the event. This time around (recorded on Sunday, September 14), the finishing touches are all being put in place. House describes what the World Team will be doing leading right up to the tournament in addition to expounding upon other related issues, as well.
USNT Head Coach Herb House
Pre-2025 World Championships Part II
5PM: Throughout the first week in Croatia, the guys were basically in a normal camp type of format it seemed like. When did they start peeling back from getting so much time on target with foreigners?
Coach Herb House: We stopped on Tuesday. It was micro matches, control matches, that we finished off with and then we began tapering down and figuring out things we can improve on. The next day we went in the room and started drilling on these positions. It has pretty much been one-one since then. You get with your personal coaches everyday and then we figure out the strategy going into the World Championships. This is what we have been doing everyday. We’re watching a lot of videos, making sure weights are okay, and rested a bit to make sure that we’re ready to go. To make sure that we are physically and mentally prepared.
5PM: What does life look over the next few days leading up to the tournament as far as logistics and things like that?
HH: We’re leaving for Zagreb tomorrow at about 9:00am and arrive in Zagreb probably around 1:00pm. We’ll check-in, get situated, and then take the Team over to the practice area to get a mat drill in. We want to shake off the rust from the traveling and maintain. On Tuesday, we’ll get on the mat again for drilling and to prepare the first four guys who are competing on Thursday. Wednesday afternoon is when the draws will be released. Once we get those, we will do extensive research and study every one of the brackets. We will keep preparing our guys to make sure that we’re all on the same page as to who they have in their first matches and what they need to do. We’re going to go over video and discuss with each athletes what we see before their matches.
5PM: This is more of an opinion question. We have Ellis (Coleman), who is seeded 6th and the only American with a legitimate seed. Since United World Wrestling has gone to this system with the Ranking Series points to influence seeding, how much do you think it impacts the brackets?
HH: Honestly, the way that it is set up puts an awful lot of emphasis on the previous year’s World Championships. Anyone who finished in the top-5 earned a lot more points and they don’t really have to compete so much the next season to maintain their rankings. But, you do get guys who go to all of the “Ranking Series” tournaments, the continental championships. So, are you really getting the true #5’s, #4’s, #3’s, and so on? That is the question that I think we need to ask ourselves. Are we really putting in the true #4’s and #5’s in the correct seeds? As of right now, I don’t know if there is another solution for it, but there are flaws. How do we correct them? I think that is something UWW needs to address. We need to find a different system to make sure that we have the correct seeds for each person who is eligible.
5PM: Last week, I asked about the younger guys on the Team and how this process has been for them. As a follow-up to that, what have you seen from then now that the tournament is right at the doorstep? And have you noticed any particular leadership qualities emerging?
HH: To be honest with you, I’ve seen it in all of them, actually. Payton Jacobson, I have seen this great quality in him. Cohlton (Schultz) has also been stepping it up. One thing that I love about this Team is that they hold each other accountable. They understand the leadership roles that can make this program great. Every one of them has stepped up as a World Team member to hold one another accountable. They demand it from each other because they know what this is. Yeah, it is an individual sport and you compete as an individual, but we have a “ride or die” attitude. We’re going to do this together, and it starts this week. We’re going into this together, and we’re going to support each other. They all want each other to be successful and to go and earn medals this week.
5PM: You have a lot of conversations with the athletes, there is a lot of dialogue between you and the roster. You do it both as a group and with one-on-one’s. Does the tone of those conversations change as the tournament comes closer?
HH: Oh, yeah. For sure. My biggest thing is that I don’t want them to be stressed out or feel a lot of pressure. That is not something that I want them to feel when I’m talking with them. I want them to feel comfortable, and to believe in the process that has trained and prepared them. I don’t want them to second-guess themselves. Just believe in the process. If you believe in it, you’re going to get the results you need to get next week. That has been my philosophy this whole week and trying to get them to understand it. Like, Hey, we’ve done it. We’ve trained with all of these top foreigners and have been around them a lot. This tournament is no different than that.
5PM: This is your 4th Senior World event as the National coach. From a coach’s perspective, what is it like going through this journey and what have you learned so far?
Coach Herb House: I’ve learned a lot. I can’t beat myself up. As an athlete, as a competitor, you want results. But like I said about our guys, one thing you have to learn is to trust the process. That’s me as a coach, too. I have to trust the process. I can’t stress out. I can’t let my athletes see me stressed because if they do, they might become stressed. So, I just believe in them and give them 100% of the credit because I know that they are going to give 100% on the mat, and that is how I want them to feel about me.
They rely on the resources that I can give them as a coach, and they need to know that I have their backs. They need to know that their coach is going to do everything he can, whatever it takes, to help them be successful. That is what I feel I have to do, and I’ve been listening to them a lot more. Listening is one of the most important things a coach can do. You have to listen to your athletes, you have to read your athletes. I have to be a leader who guides them in the direction that I think is best for them.
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