Over the years, I’ve read a lot of silly rumors and never know what’s true. I’m just curious for the people that have been around the Iowa program to know what Brands preparation is for each opponent. Do they watch film etc.? One of the rumors I’ve heard is the brands doesn’t watch film. I find that really hard to believe but thought I would ask. (Spencer had even said at one time he doesn’t worry about his opponent and just goes out there and wrestles and lets it fly)
Iowa opponent prep
- Thread starter HawkeyeInOlathe
- Start date
Probably a little of both, but it has turned into another narrative to point out how archaic our staff is.
I definitely believe we scout opponents to a point, especially with the NCAA performances from Drake, Mikey and Buchanan. They won some matches where they were very tactical and seemed to know every move their opponent was going to make. However, there are other times where we do inexplicable things (Spencer Lee should have never chosen down) but we can never be sure if that's a coaching decision or a wrestler's decision.
In a recent video posted on youtube Tom was teaching a wrestler (maybe Angelo?) about what to do differently after Tom said he went back and studied the match. It sounded like he does that often. So not scouting but correcting and watching film after anyway.
When I was there, it seemed as though Tom prepared for big dual meets by watching a dual or two of the team we were wrestling next (for big dual meets only is the way it seemed). He would then relay to the team through technique time, at a couple practices during the week leading up to the dual, some of the main opposing team tendencies. This was done in a broad-strokes, team-specific but not individualized, manner.
Example: Upcoming opposing team tends to ride by hanging over to one side while utilizing a tight-waist so let’s work on these couple of techniques to counter that ride and get off bottom as a team.
Tom and the coaches did not get together with individual wrestlers to break down film of individual opponents during the time I was there. The philosophy communicated by Tom was essentially that we impose our will on our opponents so we don’t need to worry too much about what they do.
Did you wrestle with vhs?