The Women’s Camp Experience
By Katie Downing
In an earlier article, I encouraged all of you lady wrestlers to get out to camps. This past week at the Olympic Training Center (OTC), we had a camp with Canada, and I’m going to share with you what it was like. The residents of the OTC program were there, of course. About 25 wrestlers from the Canadian senior and junior national teams were there from all over Canada. Coach Gillespie from the Northern Michigan University program brought some of his wrestlers, and so did Coach Flanik from Cumberland College. Over 40 women wrestlers and about 7 different coaches came together to train and to raise the level of women’s wrestling in North America. It was a great feeling to see a long line of athletes all walking down to the gym, and to know they were all women wrestlers.
The OTC here in Colorado Springs is about a mile up from sea level. At this altitude, there is not much oxygen in the air. This means that everyone had to get acclimated the first few days of camp. Even the residents felt the altitude because most of us had been traveling to visit family and friends over the holidays. We had one technique practice last Monday night, another one Tuesday morning, and then a live wrestling practice that afternoon. Although every wrestler there struggled with burning lungs, weak and sore legs, dry throats, and slow reflexes because of the altitude, I think it was the first time any of us had been to a wrestling practice where we had as many as ten female wrestling partners to pick from within one weight class above or below our own.
This time of year is a slow time at the OTC, so most of the wrestlers got to stay in the same dorms as the women who live here. There was construction going on in the bathrooms all week long, so it was tough to get naps in during the day, but there were plenty of ladies to hang out with and new people to get to know. At night, a lot of the wrestlers hung out and watched movies or just sat around talking and joking with each other.
By Wednesday, we had all gotten used to the altitude for the most part. That evening we wrestled a grind match. That means that we had three 20 minute periods with three different partners, with no breaks. For an entire hour, there was nothing but wall to wall, nonstop wrestling. We had learned all kinds of new things from the technique sessions we’d had to that point, so we had a whole hour to work on everything. It was also a test of our mental toughness. No one can make it through an hour of wrestling with no breaks without hurting a bit. In fact, I had a few moments where it was hard enough just to pick myself up off of the mat, much less gather enough strength to begin to attack again. In one hour, I got to work on all of the things I had learned, I got into some good scrambles, I worked on all of my favorite moves when I got more tired, I struggled to hold my ground when I tried to catch my breath again, and I had to dig down deep to keep my mind sharp as my body got more and more worn down. By the end, I didn’t want to move for about another hour, but I felt great.
Thursday was a day off. Our bodies and minds needed a break from our two intense practices a day schedule. We all got into vans, and the coaches drove us about two hours west of the OTC to some hot springs. This was a new experience for almost all of us. That day was freezing, and the changing rooms were not heated. Needless to say, everyone changed into their swimsuits as quickly as possible and hopped on their tip-toes to get into the warm water. We spent the next hour or so relaxing and talking. Everyone had gotten to know one another a bit by that time, so it was a comfortable environment on all accounts. I myself relaxed the rest of the day, but some of the ladies went shopping when they got back to Colorado Springs. We all got a day to heal up, refocus, and have some fun.
Friday, Saturday, and Sunday were all back to business, get everything you can out of this camp while so many women wrestlers and coaches are all together in one place, push through the soreness and the bangs and bruises. We all learned some new skills from the coaches, and worked on a lot of familiar moves from new perspectives we’d never experienced before. We all had the chance to soak up so much from everyone around us all week long. We had the chance to try out our favorite moves and the moves we had just learned on several partners who all had their own style, strengths, experience level, and conditioning level. We had to keep our minds sharp during the long technique sessions so that we stayed focused and learned as much as possible from new coaches. We had to keep our minds tough to wrestle hard all week during the live sessions so that we got the most out of the camp while we had so many partners to pick from. My brain is full almost to the limit of new things to work on in my wrestling, my muscles are all tired and sore, my joints are all stiff and creaky, my forehead is raw and scratched up, my hair is torn up and broken off, my arms and legs are covered with nasty bruises and scratches, and even my ear is bruised, and I feel great. This camp was a once in a lifetime opportunity for the top women wrestlers and coaches from Canada and the US. I’m excited to think about the next experience like this, and to think of how intense and incredible this kind of camp will be when all of the young lady wrestlers make their way to the top of the ranks.