WELCOME TO TEAM IMPACT WRESTLING

Christmas Camp

Hi Everyone,

Hope you all had a great christmas! For those who are interested in practicing over the holidays, the following camps are available.

Toronto Development Centre Winter Break Camp
City Adult Learning Centre
December 28th and 29th / January 3rd, 4th and 5th**
10am to 4pm
$20 per day which will include lunch and a t-shirt

Please arrive prior to 10am for registration.

** PLEASE NOTE YOUR OAWA MEMBERSHIP EXPIRES AS OF DECEMBER 31ST, IF YOU HAVE NOT PROCESSED YOUR REGISTRATION PRIOR TO THAT YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO ATTEND THE CAMP IN JANUARY. PLEASE PROCESS YOUR REGISTRATION VIA THE teamimpact.ca website. Payment is by credit card only.

If you are new to the club and oawa, please forward a copy of your birth certificate or health card (new version only) to me at teamimpactkidz@gmail.com.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to let me know.
Thank you and I wish you a Prosperous 2012!!

Andrea Troja

Habits of an Elite Wrestler

By Coach Tzogas (Revised Ladder of Success- August 28, 2011)

The process determines the quality of the product. Good habits leading to a tournament are vital to succeeding. Tournaments are won before they are begun, during the preparation…Proper Preparation Prevents Poor Performance. Building a strong foundation for success in high performance sports requires some basic habits.  Missing one or more of these habits could result in a poor construction that will collapse under adversity.

The Habits of an Elite Wrestler:

1. Practice, Practice, Practice…                                                                              Practices are designed to provide a challenging learning experience geared towards winning wrestling matches. It has been said that “wrestling bouts are won before the tournaments, in the practice room.” Proper preparation is an integral part of an optimal performance. Regularly attending club practices is required to reach high performance. Wrestling practice should be the highlight of an elite wrestlers day and what they have been looking forward to; where they enjoy being the most; if a wrestler would rather be doing something else, they are lacking the motivation, passion and drive that the athletes who are beating them have. Regular punctual attendance is the fundamental prerequisite for success in any endeavor.  The athletes that get the most return out of practice are the ones at are the most coachable, disciplined and hardest workers. These are the athletes that strive to outwork everyone in the practice. Eating a balanced healthy diet and getting at least eight hours of sleep is required to achieve maximum practice benefits. The consumption of alcohol and/ or nicotine is detrimental to any gains in training.
2. Practice year round.                                                                                                   Today’s top athletes specialize in a sport early and participate in that sport year round. By looking at elite level hockey in Canada, we can see that this is what hockey players are doing and this is why they are the best in the world. If wrestling follows hockey, we would see better international results.  Athletes from ages 12 and older should be attending practices year round. Time for recovery is individual specific because not every one works at the same volume and intensity. The coaches should be the ones monitoring and providing advising on how long breaks should be.
3.  Go to camps and clinics.                                                                                             The importance of attending camps and clinics is undervalued. A new perspective on techniques, new training partners, new friends, new ideas, over-night team bonding and extra physical training sessions can only help to improve. A camp in the States, the Canada Cup National Team Camp, training in a different country, and/or a trip on a provincial or national team are great opportunities that are under-utilized.
4. Train on your own.    
   Individualized training needs to be given serious attention. Not enough athletes are disciplined enough to go out and run to improve their cardio, lift weights to improve their strength and study the best in the world on the internet. The bare minimal requirement is to participate in strength training three times a week and cardio three times a week. This will make a huge difference in performance outcomes. How many wrestlers know who won this year’s senior world wrestling championship? More will know who won the Stanley Cup; it is bizarre that we would follow other sports more than our own, considering that almost everything is now on www.youtube.com. Play fewer computer games and watch more world class matches.
5. Get plenty of matches.                                                                                               Prior to wrestling at the nationals, “most” junior and senior athletes should have wrestled at least 25 matches and at least 40 matches for high school athletes. The best way to prepare for winning wrestling matches is to wrestle a lot of matches. At least 30% of those matches should be tough, close-scoring matches. These close scoring matches are of key importance because they provide the experience to develop confidence in one’s ability to weather the storm and stand tall in the face of adversity.
6. Be Coachable.
   Be a good learner and apply coaching advice. When a coach gives an athlete advice, the athlete had better seriously consider the fact that if they do not take it, usually failure will follow. Learn from mistakes, as well as, the mistakes of others. Always review and rehearse what is learned. It also helps to write it down and visualize it often. The use of a journal is strongly recommended; know strengths and weakness. Perfect strengths and work to eliminate weaknesses. Be a student of the sport, a constant learner.
7. Get your life organized and prioritize wrestling.
   Better organizational skills are required to keep up to the demands of elite level sports, family and work or school. Use a day planner agenda or calendar. For example: missing practices because of an appointment or school home work is a result of not managing time effectively. Part of being organized is prioritizing and keeping tasks in check. The path to a national medal does not come without sacrifices. Quite often we must give up those opportunities we enjoy. We often have to choose between going to a party with friends or going to a tournament; going on vacation or going to the nationals etc. Get your priorities straight and decide whether you want to pay the price to be a champion or be the “Average Joe”.
8. An optimistic positive attitude and being a problem solver vs. an excuse maker is paramount to success in any endeavor.
   Switch your focus from making excuses to making solutions. Problem solving is what winners do. One person’s problem is another’s opportunity to succeed. “I do not have a ride to get to practice” should be changed to “who can I call to get a ride to practice”. I do not have enough money to go to camps; I will work as an official to make money or I will seek out a sponsor or I will spend less money on clothes and more on wrestling. It will not matter what you are wearing after you do well at the nationals; you will look and feel priceless after a great performance. Recruit a friend from your neighborhood to join the club and share rides, get your driver’s license once you are 16. Whatever you are looking for; you usually will find it. Look for solutions not excuses. Get focused on setting and reaching higher standards. If you lose know that the path to success includes losing. A loss is an opportunity to expose what you need to work on to improve. If you get better through a loss, it is actually a win.
9. Be a Ferocious Competitor: Success is a choice.
   Love to perform well and dislike a poor performance more. A good performance objective is to score points and not get scored upon. Avoid the temptation to be satisfied in failure and/or getting scored upon. Learn from mistakes, and work harder to make sure that you improve from them. Do not be content with losing. You will never win the big one if you are satisfied with winning the little ones and getting scored upon. Demand more from yourself and strive to improve with each effort. If you want more you have to ask for more and then you have to give more.  Never quit in a match! Nothing worthy in life is ever achieved by quitting.
10. Leadership and Teamwork
    If you help your team and your teammates to improve, you also improve. The more athletes that step up to be leaders or good team players, the better the environment for success. Coaches need help to recruit new members, to lead the practice warm-ups, to encourage teammates to make a commitment to practices, to call teammates and motivate them to attend practices, to promote the club, to help athletes that are struggling, to lead by good example and by doing what is asked from the coach, to help with fundraisers, to volunteer to clean the mat, to help with tournaments, to help with setting and cleaning up after practice, etc. Everyone is responsible for developing and maintaining this culture of success. Wrestling may be an individual sport; but, it takes more than an individual to develop a champion. If one athlete wins we all win.

A greater committed and determined effort to reach higher standards is required. Showing up to club practices infrequently is not enough. Greater importance is required in the process and in return we can expect a better product. If we want better results, we need to kick it up a notch. It will require a serious effort to implement the habits above. It is through these habits that athletes will not only be more successful but will develop outstanding character traits on and off the wrestling mat. It is through this journey that we can say that the destination is the journey.

Greater Toronto Open Saturday November 12th, 2011

Sanctioned by the Ontario Amateur Wrestling Association, the Provincial Sport Organization for Wrestling as recognized by the Ontario Ministry of Health Promotion

Pickering High School

Wrestling Begins:        9:30 a.m. sharp!

Location:     Pickering High School
180 Church Street North
Ajax, Ontario, L1T 2W7

View Larger Map

Eligibility:    Wrestlers must be 17 years of age or older.  All participants must be members of     the Ontario Amateur Wrestling Association.  Participants from outside             Ontario must be members of the CAWA recognized governing body for that         Province/Territory/Country. Athletes under the age of 18 MUST be accompanied by a coach.

Rules:        CAWA Rules.

Entry Fee:         $30 per wrestler
Make cheques payable to: Team Impact Wrestling Club

Weight Classes:    Male Division – in kilograms – 54 57 61 65 68 72 76 82 90 130 +2Kg
Female Division – OUA (University) – 48 51 55 59 63 67 72 82 +2Kg

Awards:        Medals for 1st, 2nd & 3rd in each weight class.
Outstanding male & female Wrestler
Results (Team & Individual) will be forwarded via Email.

Weigh-Ins:        Weights must be e-mailed Friday between 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.
e-mail: durhamclassic@hotmail.com   Call 416-993-4257 if you are          having trouble.

If you have any further questions, please contact Kimin Kim:

Cell: 416-993-4257
e-mail: durhamclassic@hotmail.com

NOTE:
-    There will be a Red-Dot weigh-in at 8:30am the morning of competition. The athlete must be within the 2kg allowance of their respective weight class.
-    There will be a skin Check for all competitors prior to the start of competition

Team Impact Wrestler Shujon Mazumder Named One of CIS Top Eight Academic All-Canadians for the 2010-2011 Season

Every year, a growing number of CIS student-athletes are recognized as Academic All-Canadians, having maintained an average of 80 per cent or better over the academic year while competing for one – or more – of their university’s varsity teams. Making the Top 8 for the 2010-2011 season is wrestler Shujon Mazumder.

Hometown: Toronto, Ont.
University: Toronto
Faculty: OISE
Program: Education
Sport: Wrestling

Shujon Mazumder only started wrestling at the varsity level after his graduation from the University of Waterloo in 2007. He joined the Varsity Blues’ program the following year and went on to enjoy tremendous success including three individual medals at the OUA championships and one at the CIS meet. His most successful season came in 2009-10 when he was named OUA and CIS male wrestler of the year after claiming the conference and national titles in the 54-kilogram weight class. He was once again named the Blues’ most valuable wrestler in 2010-11.
In 2010-11, in his first year of a Bachelor of Education, Mazumder maintained a sessional grade point average of 3.91 out of 4.3. He merited the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation Faculty of Education Award, one year after receiving the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre Shinki-Kai scholarship.

A six-time national champion in judo, including three titles at the senior level, Mazumder has been a volunteer judo instructor at the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre since 2006. He is also a member of Parks & Recreation Ontario.

Mental Toughness

Mental toughness is a learned skill: of being able to withstand adversity; being able to deal with losses; to overcome fatigue, problems, pains, and doubt; and to rise to the challenge of overcoming what may appear to be an unbeatable foe remaining confident in your abilities, succeeding in the face of opposition no matter the odds. It is the relentless pursuit of winning, despite the losses. It is being competitive and hating to lose. It is the resolve to impose your will to win, when everything seems difficult and desperate. Most of all it is bringing your heart, spirit, and soul to the match each and every time.

How does one develop mental toughness?

1. Be confident in your preparation, knowing you will defy adversity.

Make a habit of attending practice and workout on your own regularly. Frequently push your limits during training. Each time you push your limits and challenge adversity, you get tougher; each time you succumb during difficult times, you are softened and are conditioned to giving up. Make adversity your best training partner; your haven. Define a personal training goal: the one who works the hardest, outworking everyone else during practices.

2. Focus on what you can control; do not on concern yourself with what you cannot.

For example, you have control over your own abilities as a wrestler but you cannot control what the official does. You do have control over how you react to what occurs during a match. Be composed. Focus on winning the match not of those aspects beyond your control. An optimistic positive attitude is paramount to success in any endeavour. Nothing positive will ever come from a negative attitude. Monitor your internal dialogue (self-talk) ensuring it is always optimistic and positive.

3. Be wrestling-savvy.

Choose tactics that are proven. Only execute techniques and skills that have worked in practice or tournaments; preferably both. In practices you learn what skills work best for you. During tournament matches, execute those skills that have worked best for you during practice. Read and react. Only execute a technique if you are 100% confident that the technique will succeed. Be explosive in the execution of your technique and do it at a high speed until you score. Commit to the move. Improvise if you must but refuse to give up. Progressively develop your abilities in practices and tournaments by working your way up with more experienced athletes until you are proficient at executing highly skilled manoeuvres.

4. Be well-rested and reloaded.

A good night’s sleep (9-10 hours and a 15-20 minute nap during the day) ensures you are well-rested. Eating a healthy, balanced diet will ensure that your gas tank is full.

I hope this helps those athletes that should be winning more and losing less. Gold medals are won in the practices well before the tournaments. “Gold medals aren’t really made of gold. They’re made of sweat, determination, and a hard-to-find alloy called guts” (Dan Gable).

A high standard of performance is the expectation at the Team Impact Wrestling Club. Our objective is to wrestle with mental toughness. Despite the score, if we wrestle mentally tough, we may lose the match but we will win the battle and, most importantly, we will win more often.

Don’t let someone else steal your dream. Keep your dream alive!

Recommended Reading:

Mind Gym: An Athlete’s Guide to Inner Excellence by Gary Mack published by McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. 2001

Wrestling Tough: Dominate mentally on the mat by Mike Chapman published by Human Kinetics August 1, 2005.

You can order these books at the local Chapters book store.

Welcome Coach Karim Souri

  joining the Team Impact Coaching Team

Welcome Myuu Yamamoto

 3-time World Champion training with Team Impact

Summer Break

Attention all coaches & athletes!  We’re on our annual summer break at present.  The regular practice schedule @ CALC will resume post Labour Day.

2011 Cadet World Wrestling Championships

Three Team Impact athletes are set to compete in Szombathely, Hungary at the 2011 Cadet World Wrestling Championships. Wrestling starts on August 23rd and will conclude on August 28th, 2011. Good Luck to Jordan Raghundan (42 kgs.), Braxton Papadopoulos (60 kgs), Connor King (85 kgs) and the entire Canadian Team, as well as to Coach Todd Idenouye and Kirk Papadopoulos who will also be accompanying our athletes.

Tournament information and results will be available at http://www.birkozoszov.hu/ or http://www.fila-wrestling.com/

Competition Schedule is as follows:
August 23 – FS 42, 50, 69, 85 kg
August 24 – FS 46, 54, 63, 76, 100 kg
August 25 – FW 38, 43, 49, 56, 65 kg
August 26 – FW 40, 46, 52, 60, 70 kg

Congratulations to our 2011 Canada Cup Champions

Senior

Tamerlan Tagziev 84kg Gold
Mike Murray 120kg Bronze
Dene Ringuette 74kg 4th

Pre Junior

Conner King 85kg Gold
Braxton Papodopolous 60kg Gold
Jordan Raghunanda 42kg Gold
Phillip Le 42kg Silver
Yiannis Nardlis 85kg Silver
Josh Kim 85kg 5th
Dylan Williams 54kg 5th
Ignatius Pitt 76kg 5th