Aug. 29, 2006
Monday, August 28, 2006
I've been here at the Springs (Colorado Springs, Colo.) since August 12 and it's been quite a long stay. A few of the Missouri wrestlers (Tyler McCormick, Josh Wagner, Michael Chandler, Matt Pell, Mark Ellis) and Director of Wrestling Ops. Chris McCormick were here at the Olympic Training Center earlier on during the camp, but because of school they could only stay a few days.
On a usual day at the OTC (Olympic Training Center) we practice about an hour-and-a-half to two hours and we practice two times a day, once at 9:30 a.m. and then again at 4:30 p.m.. The practices have been pretty tough because of the altitude, but all-in-all they are enjoyable.
Let's see...how about if I give you a few of the positives and negatives about being out here. The first positive is not actually the wrestling or coaching, even though both are great. I would have to say the food would come first in my rankings. We get all-you-can-eat buffets every meal, every day and then there are quite a few munchies just in case it's time for a snack.
The number one negative... the beds...hands down. I think I could probably have a more comfortable sleep on some mats...and I probably have before. Somehow, I've gotten used to them.
The coaching staff out here is awesome. Until not too long ago, Beleglazov's coach was working with us. Terry Brands, Kevin Jackson, Doc Bennet, Jim Humphrey, Coach Washington, and Kendall Cross were all here and I haven't even mentioned the senior workout partners and some other coaches I didn't work so close with. For most of the training camp we had been working out with the senior team. But, they don't have a competition for four weeks so they took a break and we started tapering for our tournament.
Throughout the training camp I have been rooming with Louis Caputo and Matt Coughlin. Both are great roommates and to pass the downtime we have been playing Nintendo's Smash Brothers. Honestly, I wouldn't recommend it; it is highly addictive and we may have played it a little too much. Other than that, I've gone to see two movies, the first was Beerfest which I thought was highly overrated but it definitely had its moments and the second was Accepted. I haven't had a movie pump me up that much since Patch Adams.
Oh, I'm a student now again so I have been studying up on some Russian which I think may be overrated as a difficult language. The grammar is quite simple and the gender and plural agreement is a little tricky. I'll start up on my other classes soon so I'm not too far behind.
I would like to revise this but I don't have the time and personally...I'm not getting graded on this.
I'm heading off to practice...