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| Bart Horton is in his ninth season as Brian Smith's top assistant. |
MatChat: Bart Horton Transcript
On Monday, Jan. 8, Bart Horton stopped by to answer your questions. The Q-and-A session with the Mizzou assistant coach lasted approximately 20 minutes.
The chat session was the seventh in a season-long campaign (Monday Mat Chat) -- and the first of the winter semester -- in which fans will have the opportunity to communicate with various members of the Missouri coaching staff and team. Each chat session is held Monday at 2:30 p.m. (CT).
Horton was the first coach hired by Brian Smith in 1998. As a collegian, Horton was an All-American at 167 pounds in 1997 for Iowa State and was named the Big Eight Wrestler-of-the-Week during his senior season (1997). He was a four-time letterwinner and a two-time freestyle All-American for the Cyclones under Head Coach Bobby Douglas. While at Iowa State, Horton earned recognition in the classroom, receiving the Academic Improvement Award in 1995. Horton graduated from Iowa State with a bachelor's degree in community and regional planning in 1997 and retired from active competition in 1999 to concentrate on coaching the Tiger wrestling team. Horton and his wife Lorna have a one-year-old son, Max.
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| Clay (Liberty, MO): First, congratulations on a great season so far and thanks for your contributions in building this championship-caliber team! Although I was delighted to see we won the Southern Scuffle, I was also concerned about the absence of Tyler McCormick and Matt Pell. In addition, I noticed Raymond Jordan and Mark Ellis(?) (HWT)suffered injuries. Can you tell me why T. Mc. and Matt were absent, and explain the extent of the injuries for Raymond and Mark? Also, are there any other injuries to note? Thanks! |
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Bart Horton: We were making sure that we would have Tyler and Matt ready for National Duals. We were just resting them. As for Raymond and Mark they're both fine. It was borderline if they could wrestle but we wanted to make sure they could compete 100% at National Duals which is somewhat of a higher priority. We felt that sitting those guys was more important than having everyone wrestle to get first at Southern Scuffle. |
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| Fowlerville Michigan: Hi Bart, I'm Chris Tyle the announcer at Michigan State and the head coach at Fowleville High School in Michgan. I have a tough young. We wrestle a tough schedule and our goals are to do compete at the conference and State level, my question are about coaching to peak? This is my fourth year as a head coach and last season I had 5 conference champs and 6 State qualifiers with 4 placers. I want to get my kids over the top.Any good mental prep tips you have, or end of season work outs?I have 7-9 kids that could qualify for State. Also I love what you are doing at Missouri and would like info about any summer camps, your move of the week segment is awesome!!! I know Pat McNamara from school. |
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Bart Horton: Getting kids to peak at the end of the year should be every coaches goal. It's achieved through shorter more intense workouts and more mental preparation. When I say mental preparation I mean making sure that the kids see themselves winning at large tournaments and making sure that they're fresh and eager to compete when the time comes.
Right now our workouts are almost half as long and twice as intense. We're focusing on the guys putting in great performances.
All of our summer camp info can be found at www.tigerstylewrestling.com. We have streamlined the online process so hopefully it's easy for you to find what you need.
Good luck in your upcoming season. Hopefully you get 10 kids to state! |
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| Las Vegas: Are you at all concerned about the early number one ranking of the team? |
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Bart Horton: No, I'm not concerned about it. I feel that the No. 1 ranking motivates our guys and helps them deal with the stress of being the No. 1 team in the country and the expectations that it puts on you. |
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| Las Vegas: I am a high school coach in Vegas, can you explain any good drills for my guys to work on their explosion from the bottom position? |
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Bart Horton: Fly me to Vegas and put me up in the Bellagio...I'll show you what you need to know.
OK, seriously though...work on guys exploding to their feet quickly off the whistle. Also, doing things like short goes where the bottom man must get off bottom forces a guy to escape quickly and not waste time on the bottom. |
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Bart Horton: Really focus on doing things right underneath. Explosion can account for points but against a good rider even if you're explosive you have to do tings right. Example, hand control, head position, hip position, freeing hips, etc. |
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| Josh (Las Vegas): Where can a fan pick up Missouri wrestling shirts? |
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Bart Horton: You can either look on the Tiger team store at www.mutigers.com or we sell apparel at all of our home duals. Sorry that being so far away you're limited on what you can purchase. |
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| Jeff (Lincoln): Bart-Congrats on your season! What's been the biggest factor in the changes the program has made between your first year at Missouri and now? |
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Bart Horton: The biggest factor has been the attitude, expectations and the talent of the wrestlers. A lot of the guys on the team now can directly see the results of hard work and commitment to a program. When we first got here it was hard for them to see the fruits of their labors. |
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| Luke (Orlins): Hey...nice job this season! Way to show up Minnesota. Is there any one team this season that you're looking forward to competing against? Who's Missouri's biggest rival? |
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Bart Horton: Iowa. I'd really like to beat Iowa after they beat us last year at National Duals...and growing up in Iowa. As for rivals, our biggest rivals are probably the four other Big 12 teams. They're almost all ranked among the top-10. We wrestle them every single year and we're all fighting for qualifying spots to the National Tournament. It's a really highly competitive environment that we love. |
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| Rob (Poway): So, how does an Iowa State graduate make the move to coach at Missouri? Had to have been a hard transition...right? |
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Bart Horton: I didn't have a lot of choices in where I could coach. That's nothing bad about Missouri. It's just where their program was a that time. Brian showed a lot of faith in me and I still feel obligated to do my best and bring this program into national contention. I wasn't a real big name coming out of college. |
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Bart Horton: It was a very hard transition at first. We had to earn everything that we've gained. But, it makes you a better coach and person when you have to fight for everything you get. |
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| Josh (Manchester): What weight classes do you primarily work with? |
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Bart Horton: I mainly work with the 165 pounders through heavyweight. |
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Bart Horton: I taught him everything he knows. Haha!
When Ben was younger he a lot more things that he needed help with. As he's evolved over the past five years he's found his style to do a lot of things. He still makes a few mistakes but he's always ready to correct them and make adjustments. He is very fun to coach in the sense that he can do very basic things and then things that are off the charts. You never know what he's able to do on the mat. |
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| The Scientist (Colorado): Who do you think would win in a wrestling match: The Hulk or The Wolverine? |
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Bart Horton: Actually, they did fight once. It just involved the Hulk constantly smashing Wolverine up. His mutant healing powers would then repair him and Hulk would throw him through trees again. It got boring after a while. Very monotonous. I believe the fight occurred over a woman...imagine that. |
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| Jason (Langley): Do you have to do a lot of coaching for Ben? He seems like the kind of guy who goes out there on his own. Is he really coachable? His style is so unique! |
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Bart Horton: Whoops. See above. |
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| Mark (Jefferson): Hey man, congrats on the No. 1 ranking. The Tigers have come a long way. My question is this...is there any one wrestler that you've either competed with in college or worked with as a coach that you think is just head and sholders above everyone else? We all know Ben is great, but are there any other guys you've worked with that have been off the charts? |
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Bart Horton: I got the chance in college to wrestle with Dave Schultz which was amazing and a very humbling experience. I also remember wrestling with Cale in his younger years. I remember how tough he was. Of the guys I've coached since I came to Missouri, I've seen Matt Pell do some very amazing things to his opponents and also in the room. |
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| Ryan (st. Louis): ben askren was expected to have a huge year, but his brother, max, didnt exactly have the same expectations from the media. did you see him doing this well? |
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Bart Horton: I saw Max having a great year this year, however I thought it would take him a little bit later in the season to adjust to wrestling some of the bigger and stronger guys in his weight class. He's done a great job and has had one of the toughest schedules of any guy in the country. I definitely think the Askren brothers should be taking home brackets after the National Tournament. |
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Bart Horton: Thanks for taking time to send in questions. I hope you get to see us wrestle at home or out on the road sometime this season. |
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Moderator: Next week Michael Chandler will stop by and take your questions so be sure to get them in early! |
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