John Goodyear will be featured tomorrow, Friday 18 January, 2008 on Channel 22 at 6:30 High School Sports Zone - Rogers have done an episode on his high school wrestling career and have filmed him at various tournaments including at our recent festival.

Here are most 2008 notes - as you can see, turnouts have been explosive on both sides of the NCWF - especially because of good appearances by Saint Patrick's HS and All Saints.
Thursday, January 3, 2008

We had our first practice of the year, getting 10 attending (including two new wrestlers):

Clint Kingsbury
Dean Sherratt

Amy Laidlaw
Nigel Sayah
Ben Sayah
Stephane Comte
Michio Clark
Alex Basset
Malcolm Cundell!
Miles Cundell!

Saturday, January 5, 2008

We had another good practice with 14 coaches and wrestlers attending…

Clint Kingsbury
Dean Stinson O’Gorman
Dean Sherratt
Chris Schrauwen

Paul Hadwen
Thomas Hadwen
Xavier Ouellet
Sarah Stringer
Celeste Antoft-Finch
Conor Stinson O’Gorman
Matthew Tattersall
Mike Tremblay
Chris Pike
Brian Cohen

From our standing drill, Clint reviewed and reminded wrestlers of the importance of good body position in single/high crotch and double leg attacks. In particular, he stressed the fact that head and body position shouldn’t change during execution as the head sticks to the opponent’s body like glue while the legs do all the movement. If the head is in really deep, your opponent’s ability to cross-face is very limited – when shooting you must seize and hold the caught leg tightly (“own” the leg). You are also looking in the direction of the intended movement. Finishing the single or high crotch led to a discussion of tripping. It is essential that you remain balanced and strong (and not over-extended) when attempting a trip – an inside trip is OK, but not a trip to the far side or one that is over-extended. Clint demonstrated how a bad trip can result in your opponent countering with a cradle created by your own move.

Then we went onto set-ups – only about 20% of shots can be successful if not preceded by a set-up. You will need to be very fast and very strong (especially fast). Therefore, set-ups are essential and keeping in contact with your opponent’s wrists, arms and head (but not the neck which can set up a countering shoulder throw). To be avoided are attempts to control a head and arm while moving behind your opponent – this essentially leads your hips on his and sets up a disagreeable head and arm throw by your opponent!

Monday, January 7, 2008

Monday, we had 6 from the Spartans (Conor SO, Conor M, Eamonn, Tate, Keil, and Brae) plus 6 NCWC regulars (Ben, Matt, John, Pike, Emily, and Ilya). Clint and Big Dean coached.

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

We had a small gathering of about 6 coaches and wrestlers.

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Chris Schrauwen and Dean Sherratt coached a large gathering of 19 wrestlers…

Paul, Thomas and Samuel Hadwen
Tunkay Sipahi, new, about 200 lbs
Mike Carrier (St. Pat’s)
Ali Houmani (St. Pat’s)
Mariano Santo (St. Pat’s)
Dustin Biggs (St. Pat’s)
Marie Jabuso (St. Pat’s)
Mathieu DesChatelets
Scott Doucette (helped coach)
Joshua Clarke
Connor Rockwell
John Goodyear
Ilya Abelev
Javad Ghorbani
Nils Rohde
Mike Tremblay
Sarah Stringer

We worked on primarily ground technique, including Chris’ variations of his leg ride and tilts, ending with extensive scrimmaging. Practice was light because of the proximity of the NCWF.

Thursday, January 10, 2008

We had a very small group of about 6 wrestlers and coaches practicing and then rolling up the mats for the Saturday tournament.

Saturday January 12, 2008

We held our 4th Annual Tournament, this one called the National Capital Wrestling Festival (NCWF)…

Here is the basic summary of turnouts from 2005…

Year 2008 2007 2006 2005

Venue St. Pats St. Pats Sensplex Sensplex

Open Boys 117 108 135 118
Novice Boys 106 90 117 106
Girls 78 71 74 60

Kids (Boys) 46 33 26 25
Kids (Girls) 21 13 20 20

Ottawa-Based Wrestlers 134 116 72 74
Ottawa % 37.2% 36.8% 19.4% 22.5%

Totals 358 315 372 329

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Well practice last night was very good.

First we came in and set all the mats up.... if you have mat tape we need some urgently...as well as that we need more medium and large knee pads.

…as for numbers:

Clint Kingsbury
Courtnay Lafond
Ben Sayah
Ilya Abelev
Mathieu Deschatelets
Javad Ghorbani
Mohammed Assadi
Mariano Santo
Phil Staniewski
Scott Doucette observed
Connor Rockwell
Nicole (from Chelsea Club) - grade nine
Mike Carrier

We worked technique after an intense warm up.

Then I went over the elbow control/pop to high crotch entrance that is turned into a single. This is done on your single side and is very high in the crotch versus the normal controlling of the calf that we do for traditional single legs

Then we went onto parterre. We worked on snap to head lock and then cross ankle pick and near ankle pick.

We followed it up with 3 matches on the feet - 6min each.

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

We had a huge turnout of 25 wrestlers and coaches, with good participation from Saint Pats, All Saints and Brookfield:

Clint Kingsbury
Dean Sherratt

Ben Sayah
Mathieu Deschatelets
Ilya Abelev
Javad Ghorbani
Celeste Antoft-Finch (cameo)
Ian Ballentine (cameo)
Scott Doucette (observed/assisted)
Miles Cundell (observed)
Malcolm Cundell
Mike Carrier (Saint Pats)
Sheldon Lecombe (Saint Pats)
Dustin Biggs (Saint Pats)
Ali Houmani (Saint Pats)
Lindy Spirak (Saint Pats)
Sum Yavari (Brookfield)
Nick Bradley (All Saints)
Fraz Abdulghafara (All Saints)
Kyle Wylie (All Saints)
Samuel Hadwen
Thomas Hadwen
Paul Hadwen
Josh Clarke
Josh Wilson

In preparation for the Guelph Open this weekend, it was a “singlet” practice devoted to warm-ups, technique and then extended four or six minute matches.