Wantagh Wrestling

1. How would you define confidence?

A deep down positive inner attitude that exudes belief that you will succeed regardless of the scenario at hand.

1. How did your confidence and mindset evolve over your Olympic career?

When I was in HS and college, my confidence came solely from myself and my mental as well as physical abilities, but after I become a Christian while training at the Olympic Training Center, my confidence skyrocketed when I believed God was ultimately in control.  And, I began to draw my strength and courage from God and not just myself.

1. Along your path to excellence, would you say that you have ever succumbed to the trap of perfectionism?

Honestly, no.  Since I was in HS, I had the view that you had to lose small in practice and smaller tournaments to ultimately win big tournaments like the NCAA, US Open, and Olympics.  I would describe my competitive philosophy as   “Failing Forward to The Top.”  Because I am not a big believer in perfect.  Even in winning many National Tournaments and the Olympic Games, I still don’t believe I ever had a perfect match or perfect tournament.  If I was seeking perfection then I would be a constant failure.  I rather seek to do my absolute best, which is rarely perfection, because my absolute best can be good enough to win.

1. Would you say that you attached how you measured your success to the outcome or the process?

No, success for me wasn’t just 1st place or gold medal.  Success for me was competing to my best and wrestling my full potential. Regardless of what I placed in any given tournament, if did the best I could, I saw that as success.  People often give 100%, and they feel like a loser if they didn’t win.  But, logically, all you can give is 100%. Some people exaggerate and call it 110%, but your best can only be 100%.  And, if I did that, I was pleased with my effort, and not depressed about 2nd, 3rd, or not placing because every practice and/or competition prepared me for the next battle.  Not placing int the NCAA my first two years, getting 2nd in the NCAA twice, 3rd in the 1999 Pan Pacific Games, 1st in the 1999 Schultz, 1st in the 1999 Dan Kolav, 6th in the 1999 World Team Trials, 2nd in the 2000 Schultz International, and not placing in the 2000 Dan Kolav all led me to the 2000 Olympic Gold.  Fail Forward to The Top!

Imagery

1. Did you ever use imagery as a tool for success? How did you use it?

For sure!  Often times during the day, when I was relaxed, I would imagine myself being in a  great stance, threatening my opponent, creating motion, setting up a solid attack, having a hard set, exploding to my shot, and scoring the takedown.  I also imagined, turning my opponent over and over and over.  I also imagined my opponent not being able to turn me.  I saw myself as UNturnable, and in 2000, I never got turned.  I imagined myself getting my hand raised over and over and over.  I imagined myself beating my toughest competition.  And, I imagined myself singing the Star Spangled Banner and receiving the Olympic Gold Medal.  I would frequently imagine myself as an Olympic Gold Medalist and add positive self talk to that vision.

1. What senses did you employ when imagining performance situations?

I would see the match, arena, and opponent.  And, I would also imagine would the gym would sound like and what it would sound like after I won.  I never really imagined smell except maybe would food would smell like while I was cutting weight.

1. At what times did you find it most useful to create mental images of your performances?

The most important times where before the biggest events.  EIWA, NCAA, University Nationals, US Nationals, World Team Trials, and Olympic Games.  Looking back, I should have done this before the Drexel, Lehigh, and Harvard duals as well, but I didn’t and wrestled poorly.

1. What phases of preparation and competition were the most common for you to envision and imagine?

I would imagine the beginning of the match…shaking hands…the initial flow…certain situations during the match (finishing a double, defending a single, scoring off a front head lock, and the end of the match with me getting my hand raised.)

Motivation

1. When you decided to make a run at the Olympics, what would you say your personal motivation was for that?  What about any situational motivating factors?

I began dreaming of becoming Olympic Champion when I was 8 years old after watching the 1984 Olympics on TV.  When I was 15, I made my first Cadet World Team, got 3rd in the World in Hungary, and the confidence for one day winning the Olympic grew.  Then, after I got 2nd in the NCAA my Senior year in college, I felt frustrated and wanted more.  I was still passionate about wrestling and desired to train for the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia.  All my wrestling teammates from UPENN retired from wrestling competition, moved to NY, Chicago, or San Francisco and started making great money in the business world.  The was tempting and alluring, but I had unfinished business on the wrestling mat so I went ALL IN to become the best wrestler in the world.

1. When you started having more success in freestyle, how would you say that affected your motivation?

In my first year out of college, I won the University Nationals in Freestyle and got 6th in the World Team Trials.  However, I lost the #1 guy (Joe Williams) in overtime, and I truly believed I would one day beat him.  I was inches away and deeply wanted to close that gap and become US National Champion.  Though my rank was low (6th or 7th), I knew I was right there, which motivated me to stay dedicated, consistent, and outwork everyone.

1. Winning a gold medal is a great triumph, one that is not possible to do alone. What sort of support system did you have before winning the 2000 games?

I had a wonderful family and great group of friends who were all behind me.  I had great coaches at the OTC (Kevin Jackson and Bruce Burnett), and great coaches from college (Roger Reina and Brian Dolph) who continued to pour into me even after graduating from college.  I also had a phenomenal roommate (Kerry Boumans) at the OTC who held me accountable and encouraged me to make the right decisions if I wanted to reach the summit. Kerry was actually an alternate to the Olympic Team in 2000.  He lost to Terry Brands 3-2 in both overtime matches.  In addition, I had a mentor named Tony Silengo who lead Bible studies at the OTC every Wed night.  Tony was a great spiritual leader who prayed with me often and actually came to Sydney to pray with me before every match.  We prayed for God’s Will to be done.

1. During your years of training, what motivational strategies did you employ to keep going?

I kept setting my goals really high, failed forward, and surrounded myself with people with similar goals and a very similar world view.  Plus, I was motivated to never give up on my Olympic dream because I wanted no regrets.

Beliefs

1. When competing, would you say that you had to believe that you were the best in order to be the best? How did you come to believe that?

Yes, you can’t believe that you are anything other than the best to become the best.  You don’t go into the US Open, World Team Trials, Olympic Trials, or Olympics thinking you are about the #5 best guy in the weight class.  If that is your attitude, you will not win and will not reach your goals.  I came to believe that by putting myself in the most difficult training situations, training harder than everyone else, and wrestling the top ranked wrestlers int he country and all over the world.  Basically, I worked extra hard and challenged myself against the best to ultimately become the best.

1. How did your beliefs about yourself affect your performance in your Olympic career?

My belief in myself and more importantly my belief in God being Sovereign and His Will being done in every one of my wrestling matches were foundational to my performance.  My mottos were and still are, “Do your best and let God take care of the rest!” “Pray like God is in control and work as if you are in control.”  “Do the natural and let God do the SUPERnatural.”  I live my these axioms as a Husband, Father, Coach, and Man.

1. Were there ever any beliefs that you held that may have hurt your potential or held you back? What were they?

No.

1. How did you challenge your negative beliefs? Were there ever any challenges to your positive beliefs?

I would visualize all my negative beliefs going into big nasty black baseball, and the negative nasty ball would come right towards me at home plate.  Then, I would take a huge brown bat and blast that negative ball out of the ballpark, into the sky, and I would see it disappear.  Then, after that structure got old, I would visualize all my negative thoughts going into a nasty black can on the ground.  Then, I would take a huge jackhammer and smash the can flat all the way to the ground and see it disappear.  In addition, I would visualize negative thoughts going into a black nasty piece of skeet.  I would see it going through the air, and then, I would take a huge 12 gauge shotgun and blast it to smithereens.  Then, after I would destroy the negativity, I would immediately replace it with positive thoughts of me scoring, turning guys, pinning guys, getting my hand raised, and getting the gold medal.