Camp Week: Eleven Winchester Wrestlers at Springfield
Eleven Winchester High School wrestlers spent August 5 to 7 at the Springfield Wrestling School at Springfield College. Four wrestling sessions, strength and conditioning, two sport psychology sessions, and an individual tournament Friday morning. Two nights in the dorms. They worked hard, and they had a good time doing it.
What three days actually looked like
They checked in Wednesday afternoon, gear bags over their shoulders and a lanyard each. Wrestling ran in blocks through Thursday, with team building challenges between sessions, sport psychology, and strength and conditioning worked in. Meals were in the dining hall with the rest of the camp.
Friday morning was an individual tournament against wrestlers from programs across the region, then checkout at noon and the drive home. Head Coach Ryan Errico has a long history with the program at Springfield, and camp has become one of the ways our wrestlers keep building through the offseason.
Why three days in August pay off during the season
The season starts in November. The opportunity to get better runs all summer, and it shows up when the season does.
Three days of college level instruction moves a wrestler's technique. Three days of living in a dorm with ten teammates builds teamwork. They came home knowing each other better than they did on Wednesday, and a wrestling room runs on exactly that.
What changes at camp is hard to see from the stands. Most of it is fundamentals. Stance, position, hand fighting, finishing a shot the same way every time. The rest is situational, what to do when you are down two with a minute left, or stuck on the edge of the mat. Wrestling people you have never seen puts you in those spots over and over, and you learn more there than in a month with the same partners at home. Friday's tournament ran on handheld clocks with camp coaches refereeing. It was still hard wrestling. Two of these wrestlers also competed at the Bay State Games this summer.
If your son or daughter is thinking about wrestling
Camp is one thing some of our wrestlers did this summer. What we have is a room where kids work hard, have fun with it, and look out for each other, and a lot of ways to be part of that year round. Everyone wrestles their own matches at their own weight, so nobody sits and nobody is out there against someone twice their size. Newer wrestlers get their matches at the JV level while they learn.
Our website has what is running now and what is coming next. Start at winchesterwrestling.com, and send us a message there if you have questions or want to stay connected.
Open mats are the easiest place to start. They run at the Winchester Recreation Center, grades 3 to 12, all levels, no experience needed. Come once or come every week. Registration goes through Winchester Recreation.
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