Freezing air, ice on roadways, and the mind’s autonomous inclination to compel longing for warmer, more tolerable temperatures. Each winter in various regions across the United States, tens of millions experience ruminations taunting them with desires for simple heat.
But no one who strolled into the wrestling room this past week at the US Olympic and Paralympic Training Center felt that way, for January Camp 2025 is officially in-progress and this lot of highly-trained athletes are getting all the heat they can handle.
Dozens of the nation’s best Greco-Roman wrestlers have converged on Colorado Springs for the annual winter gathering that typically serves as the primary starting point for the main preparation phase leading to the season’s biggest events. This year, they will not have to wait too long, as the World Team Trials have been moved up to late-April, which essentially means that all involved are working within a more compressed time-frame than is the norm.
However, it would seem that any and all resources and personnel are at their disposal, and certainly for this camp. In addition to a merry-go-round of guest coaches, there has also been the presence of two-time World Champion Zholoman Sharshenbekov (60 kg, KGZ), ’20 European Championships gold Morten Thoresen (67 kg, NOR), and former Russian Cadet World champ German Doev. Under the tutelage of US National head coach Herb House, OTC coach and Olympic champ Ismael Borrero Molina, and National Program director Justin Ruiz, the American athletes in attendance have been able to ply their trade in an intense yet focused environment that they hope will set the stage for important achievements in the spring — and beyond.
US Coach House provided an update on the goings-on from Week 1 of the camp (which wraps on Tuesday) and what the athletes have to look forward to next.
January Camp 2025 Update Part 1
US National Team Head Coach Herb House
5PM: How did Week 1 go insofar as the schedule and type of activities that went on?
Coach Herb House: Our camp started on Monday. It has been a great camp. We changed it up a little bit. We did one session on Monday and then did a strength-training session in the afternoon. We did a lot of live wrestling, but we also did a lot of technical sessions in which one of the high-profile coaches would show certain moves to the National Team guys. Like Sharshenbekov, he had a session. Ismael Borrero had a session, Joe Warren, Tiger (Mostafa Mohamed) from Egypt… We had multiple coaches who were showing a lot of technique. One of the biggest things I feel for the United States is that we have to really dial in our focus on technique. We’re strong, we’re in great condition, but I want to sharpen up our technique a lot more.
But our camp has been great. We had our coaches’ summit, as well, so that we as coaches can speak the same language. We want to be on the same page as each other so that the athletes can see that we all share the ultimate goal of earning medals at the World Championships.
5PM: As far as from our program, were there any new or young faces who stood out a little bit?
House: Oh, yeah, we have Zain Richards, the former freestyle World Team member. He came in and he is doing pretty good. I love to see a lot of freestylers transfer over because, as I’ve said before, freestyle and Greco are great for each other. Greco is a great sport to help freestylers and folkstylers improve. Our sport was one of the original sports at the Olympics, so I believe anyone can do it if they put the time and energy into it. And I think that Richards has been doing that.
We also had Aden Attao come back into the room after an injury. We’re glad to have him back, an up-and-coming person like him. Otto Black was there, Max Black has been here. All of the National Team guys are participating except for Cohlton Schultz (due to collegiate commitments for Arizona State). Joe Rau, Adam Coon, and Payton Jacobson are coming in this week.
5PM: You have had a foreign element in this camp, and as you already said, Sharshenbekov has been one of them. He has run some technique sessions. What has it been like having him there and what has he brought to the table?
House: It has been great having him here but not just for his technique. It is also his mindset. One of the biggest things that I asked him to explain was how to be a World champ. What it takes as far as mentally, as far as preparing yourself. How he trains, and how he pushes himself — that is what I wanted some of our guys to hear. I wanted them to understand that you cannot become a World champ or Olympic medalist by being a part-time Greco wrestler. You have to go all-in, and that is what he was explaining. That is how he wrestles. He is a very intense person and I have been grateful to have him at our training camp.
We have other ones, too. We have 10-15 international wrestlers here, like Morten Thoresen from Norway and German Doev, who is from Russia. We also have Mohamed Elsayed Gabr, who was a 97 kilogram Olympian for Egypt, and we have other Egyptian athletes here, as well. Every camp that we have, going forward our goal is to bring 10-15 international wrestlers.
5PM: You had the coaches’ summit. This coming week will be the athletes’ summit. What do you expect that to entail and what is the overall objective?
House: The overall objective is to find out what we as coaches can do to make them more successful. How do we make the OTC more successful? How do we make Northern Michigan more successful? We want input from the athletes regarding a lot of topics. Competition, communication, and coaching collaborations with them. Our main goal is for them to give us feedback on these concerns. We want feedback. We really do, such as what services we can provide to them so that they can become more successful. Nutrition, mental health, sports psychology — anything that we can do to help them be more successful, that’s what we want to hear about. Also, what are their grievances? What are the things that they think we’re not doing to help them and should be? If we are all on the same page, and they buy into the plan, then everything works better because everyone is speaking the same language. That’s the goal. Once we complete this summit after already having had the one for coaches, we should all be speaking the same language and on the same page — the personal coaches, the athletes, and the National staff.
5PM: What are you looking forward to in Week 2?
Coach Herb House: For the second week, we’re going to keep it simple. A lot more technique, a lot of live wrestling, and then we have to taper it down just a little bit so that we can get prepared for the ranking series tournament (Grand Prix Zagreb Open in Croatia) because after that we are going to have a camp with about 35 other countries.
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