|
The Team Book is a book given to each wrestler that contains
records, rules, regulations, schedules, diets, technique, newspaper
articles and, in general, anything that might be of interest
to a wrestler. Not only does it contain lots of information,
but it can also provide your wrestlers with a record of their
accomplishments for the season as in Participation
Cards, Tournament Cards (cwk,
doc and pdf)
or Season Results. This book
also encourages wrestlers to READ - something all coaches (educators)
should encourage. Many of the pages below are from the 1970's
and 80's team books of Madison Township High School (now Old
Bridge HS) and East Brunswick High School located in New Jersey.
Here are two examples of team books: Bellingham
High School (WA) and Rancho Bernado
High School (CA).
A few tips regarding the book:
- The book should be a .5" or 1", 3-ring, loose-leaf
binder. This would permit you to give your wrestlers a packet
of additional information every couple of weeks or so. If the
binder has the clear plastic pockets on the front and back, you
can give them a team or individual picture to place there.
- All the above pages print on 8.5 x 11 paper and are pdf format
unless stated otherwise. Some are cwk format which requires AppleWorks.
Another tip: get an electric, 3-hole, paper punch even if you
have to buy it. It will be well worth the cost!
- The wrestlers can receive their team book as they exit a
preseason, team meeting held just prior to the day they take
their physical. We place great importance on this meeting and
anyone wishing to join the squad must attend. More on team meeting
here. Give them the book AFTER
the meeting so they are not distracted by looking through it.
- Don't give them 50 pages all at once - it's too overwhelming!
10 to 15 pages every couple weeks or so would be better.
- It's more effective if the wrestlers know the people you
use as examples in the book. For instance, the article The
Edge can be used as is, but would be far more effective if
the examples used were of current or former team members.
- You don't need to use ALL the pages above. Use only those
appropriate to your program.
- You know that you need to introduce and practice new technique
weeks before the actual competition if you want to have any chance
of success. Well, the same goes for the mental aspects of wrestling
as well. Don't wait until a few minutes before one of your kids
walks on the mat to do battle with a State Champ to teach him
about upsets! They need to be prepared starting weeks, even months
before and in a variety of ways. They need to see, hear, and
read about the mental attitude they should have when falling
behind in a bout, wrestling a superior opponent, etc. Pages like
Upset and Winners
Never Quit can be the start of this process.
- PRINTING PROBLEMS - Some people
may have trouble printing out the pages above, mainly the PDF
files. To overcome this problem, we can try two things. First,
try clicking on the Print icon, rather than selecting Print from
the pull-down menu. If that doesn't work then you need to select
the entire document by pressing ctrl-a and then ctrl-c
to copy it to the clipboard. If those ctrl commands don't
work, try getting them from the pull-down menu! Then open up
a blank word-processed document and press ctrl-v to paste
it in. It is now ready to be edited and /or printed out.
|