Coaches must be effective when it comes to communicating with their athletes and the parents of their athletes. With more and more people having access to the Internet, now is the time for coaches to incorporate e-mail as one of their lines of communication. It's fast, easy and much cheaper than the using the post office.

E-mail's greatest advantage is that it allows you to create groups of users so that if you send an e-mail to the group, everyone in that group receives the same message. For example, a group entitled SENIORS would contain the e-mail addresses of all the seniors. Simply inserting SENIORS in the "Mail to:" portion of an e-mail, ensures that all the seniors get the notice. Furthermore, a group such as TEAM can be composed of other groups such as FRESHMEN, SOPHOMORES, JUNIORS, etc. By sending an e-mail to TEAM, everyone on the squad would get the message. Note that it would be more efficient if you name the group by their graduating year. For example, instead of a group called SENIORS, name it WRESTLERS 2004. This way after the season you can add that group to ALUMNI and you won't have to change FRESHMEN to SOPHOMORES, SOPHOMORES to JUNIORS, etc. We also create a group called PARENTS 2004, since we send the parents the same e-mail the wrestlers receive.

E-mail is especially good for notifying your team of emergency cancellations or closings, as well as last minute schedule changes. However, sending an e-mail every few days can be very beneficial. Consider this hypothetical example:

To: TEAM, PARENTS, COACHES
From: Guil Lotine - Head wrestling coach
Subject: 12/4/04 Wrestling notice

Notable Quote - "It's not the will to win that matters - everyone has that. It's the will to prepare to win that matters." - Paul "Bear" Bryant

Today's Practice - We had a great practice today, but we still have a long way to go in order to be ready for Saturday's scrimmage! Our ability to focus and pay attention was good and in the long run will pay big dividends toward accomplishing our goals. Working especially hard were Chu Rella and Chick Enwing who pushed each other and corrected each other's mistakes the entire practice. The most important coach in the room is your workout partner and they provided a good example of this for the rest of the team.

Tradition Test - It takes lots of dedication and hard work to win a state title. Can you name all the wrestlers from our school who achieved the Ultimate Goal? (Answers at the bottom)

Imagine - Read the section below three times before you go to bed, each time adding more of your own details. Make it as vivid as possible:

As your opponent drives you out of bounds, you hear the referee's whistle and you stop wrestling. As you get up, you automatically look over at the scoreboard. It shows there's only 12 seconds left in the match and you're losing 3-9. You look to your coach and he gives you the signal to stand-up. You notice that your opponent looks tired, but you could go for several more minutes. As you get into referee's position you picture your "stand-up, escape, double leg, pin" combination. You have to be fast and strong. Your opponent gets set and you hear the ref's whistle. You stand-up easily - with such a big lead and little time left, your opponent figures he can relax. However, you're thinking, "It ain't over till it's over". As you cut to face him, you keep close and instantly shoot a double leg. When you lift him and bring him to the mat, you automatically hunt for his head and throw in a half nelson. You have to pin him! The ref is looking for the fall... his hand slaps the mat as the buzzer sounds... the crowd goes wild ...

Know the Rules - Rule 5 Article 2:
When the defensive wrestler is on his back while the supporting parts of EITHER wrestler are inbounds, wrestling shall continue as long as there is a possibility of the offensive wrestler bringing his opponent back into the inbounds area.

Home Drill - Do 8 stand-ups each side. Slow at first - last couple full speed.

Looking Ahead - Saturday 8 am bus leaves for our scrimmage at Pummel H.S.

Tradition Test Answers - Stan Dup (1996), Matt Burn (1999) and Hal F. Nelson (2001)

Since coaches rarely have much time during the season, it should be noted that a major portion of these e-mails can be prepared during the off-season. Everything in the example above, except Today's Practice, can be written prior to your first session. E-mails can keep your team informed, focused and motivated. Try it - they'll like it!

Greg DeMarco recently retired from coaching and teaching in Old Bridge, NJ and now lives in Chocowinity, NC. If you have any questions, he can be contacted at egorduh@aol.com