#caelsanderson

Cael Sanderson's response to the question "Do you think starting wrestling at a young age is helpful/important?" (posted on his website: http://www.CaelSanderson.com) 

I think it is helpful but not necessary.  I do think it’s important that kids are involved in sports developing strength, agility and coordination at an early age.  It’s important that kids develop a love of exercise and develop a healthy love of competition.  That depends on the parents bringing the correct perspective.  I believe wrestling should be recreational in nature to young beginners.  As they advance, slowly put them into more competition.  I wouldn’t be afraid that your kid is falling behind or anything like that if they are going to as many tournaments as other young wrestlers. It is much better to error in the way of waiting too long to put your kid in tough competition than to put them in too early.  All kids are different.  Some can handle heavy competition at an early age, most can’t. Think long term.  Many great wrestlers have started late in their careers (late Jr High and high school.)  The important thing is the wrestler’s attitude.  Not many of the youth that dominate the national kid’s tournaments end up dominating at the college level.  A few have, but most have been pushed too hard and without a foundation of love for sport they fizzle or rebel.  Make it fun.

Let me first introduce myself; my name is Bryan Heller.  As a former starter on the Penn State Wrestling Team, I have dedicated the majority of my life to fitness based activities.  Although the primary focus for me was training for wrestling from the age of 4 until graduating from Penn State at the age of 22, my focus shifted gears to surfing, skateboarding, and the like for the past 5 years.  As things come full circle, I am now coaching wrestling and training young athletes at a personal level.

During my hiatus from the sport of wrestling, I explored various philosophies, as well as other means of gaining fitness aside from the norm of lifting, cardio, and wrestling.  A not-so-steady, but absolutely explored yoga/meditation practice, as well as the freedom of surfing/skateboarding allowed me to open new doors for mixing mental and physical aspects of fitness.  I now believe in a new, rejuvenated, fun outlook with an intense foundation to physical activity.

Looking back on my competitive career, and having had these post-career explorations, I realize I lacked the mental fun aspect of training and competing.  In other words, I enjoyed competing and trained extremely hard, but I wasn't necessarily having fun; it was more for the thrill of victory; the victory itself was the motivation and not bettering myself in that particular activity or for life itself.

With that being said, the philosophy of Occultic Visions is for the focus to be on the enjoyment of training, competing, and every other aspect of the activity you chose to partake in as a means to maximize ones performance and overall life.  In order to perform (either competitively, or for your own personal needs) at your best, all the pieces of the puzzle need to fit together, and I strongly believe if you focus on the competition itself, or the outcome of the competition (which often leads to stress, anxiety, or feelings of self worthlessness when you lose), you are removing the enjoyment piece of the puzzle, which, then becomes another road block from getting better.

In addition to focusing on the enjoyment of every aspect of training, there are other factors: you must eat properly, train hard, and push yourself beyond your previous realm both mentally and physically.   You must enjoy each of those factors to fully excel to your maximum capicity.  And by working with the proper trainers/mentors and training partners, as well as chosing the training techniques that are both effective and fun, it will be very easy to enjoy each of those factors.  I strongly believe every athlete is different, and each deserves a highly specialized training regiment to maximize ones performance and self.  The regiment of the particular athlete must be dictated by the athlete and only nurtured and guided by the trainer through their knowledge.  

As a caveat, the above described outlook is only a time stamp of my current views, and as I continue to listen, watch, discuss, reflect, and learn, those views are likely to change.  The "research" I conduct will help shape my future perspective. 

I believe the major turning point, for me, when I realized what I lacked as a competitor, which really started making me question my previous attitude towards wrestling and competition, as well as why I have pursued these other activities in the manner in which I have, is when I started listening to Cael Sanderson speak at a Penn State Wrestling breakfast.  Since first hearing him speak, through the multiple times I have heard him, I continue to see more and more the importance of having fun.  He is the greatest single point of inspiration for the changing of my attitude, relaying that same positive attitude to the athletes I coach, and sharing the content on this blog.