September 3, 2024
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Coaching
Wrestlers bring unique skills and mental toughness to the football field, making them highly coveted by football coaches. From mastering leverage and positioning to building unshakeable focus and discipline, wrestlers excel in ways that translate directly to football success. This article explores why so many top football programs actively recruit wrestlers and the invaluable traits they bring to the game.
If it's a Friday night or Saturday morning in the fall, there is one place Jeff Wichern loves to be -- other than inside a wrestling room.
And that's at a football field, watching wrestlers he currently coaches or has coached in the past.
Wichern owned and operated the JJ Trained Wrestling School in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, from 2015 to 2021, and currently serves as head coach of the Eden Prairie Youth Wrestling Club. Eden Prairie High School is a traditional Minnesota football powerhouse. The Eagles, coached by Mike Grant, son of legendary Minnesota Vikings head coach Bud Grant, has won 11 Minnesota large school state titles, with many Eden Prairie wrestlers making an impact on those teams over the years.
"We want all of our wrestlers to play football," says Wichern, who was hired as the head wrestling coach at Orono High School in July. "I love going to a park on a Saturday afternoon to watch my wrestlers play. Football is a great break from wrestling also and the kids have a ton of fun."
Wichern's dad was also a wrestling and football coach in Minneapolis.
"I remember as a kid my dad's best wrestling teams all had football players on it, and vice versa," said Wichern.
It's no secret football coaches love wrestlers. It's been well chronicled at all levels. Mike Zimmer, the defensive coordinator of the Dallas Cowboys and former head coach of the Minnesota Vikings, is a former wrestler, and his dad was a wrestling coach.
"I think you learn more from wrestling than any other sport," Zimmer said in the USA Wrestling article Going The Extra Mile. "You find out so much more about yourself and about competition. When it gets down to it, it's you and the guy across from you. When I was wrestling, for the six minutes that you're out there, it is one of the toughest, most demanding sports that I've ever been around. I think guys that can go through that and compete with all the different things going on, it really defines who you are."
Legendary college football coach Nick Saban has commented on how he loved recruiting wrestlers. So has Urban Meyer, a three-time NCAA Division I FBS national championship coach. In fact, former Ohio State center Pat Elflein, winner of the 2016 Rimington Trophy given to the nation's best center, was drafted by the Vikings (then coached by Zimmer) in the third round of the 2017 NFL Draft. Elflein (Pickerington, Ohio/Pickerington North) was also a multiple time state tournament qualifier and 2012 Ohio State High School wrestling champion. Elflein once said this about how wrestling helps his football:
"If you've ever watched a wrestler practice, it's all the drills we do that just makes you athletic, about (using) your hips and leverage," he said. "That's where it's all at on the offensive line and defensive line, just getting under people and (using) your hands too. And just using your hips and driving your hips into somebody."
USA Football is the national governing body for amateur American football in the United States. Coaches and leaders with the organization see the impact wrestling has on the development of football players.
"Balance and control against an external resistance, leverage and positioning and the ability to move a non-willing opponent are skills needed for all football positions," said Andy Ryland, Senior Manager of Education and Training for USA Football said. "Wrestling does a great job teaching this."
Dr. Bill Welker, author of The Wrestling Drill Book -- 2nd Edition (Human Kinetics Publishing Company) points out how even though football is a team sport, it requires each individual doing their job to succeed. Wrestlers learn at a young that it's up to them, and only them, to do their best on the mat, and in the case of football, on the field. A wrestler knows "he must perform his duties at all times, and not lean on his teammates for support when fatigued," says Welker.
Joe Stabilito, President of Pennsylvania USA Wrestling and longtime high school wrestling coach in the Keystone State, points out a laundry list of skills learned in wrestling, that apply to football, including:
Agility, balance, quickness, flexibility, discipline.
"Wrestling teaches a lot of skills used to become a better football player," says Stabilito. "Wrestling also helps develop muscular and cardio stamina and helps with coordination and power by teaching how to combine strength and speed together to succeed."
Wrestling also demands focus and attention to detail, and requires mental, as well as physical, strength. And that transfers to the football field.
"Wrestling helps you develop a good attitude and makes you a better sport win or lose," said Stabilito.
Wrestling helps develop footwork, positioning, technique, and hand fighting -- all important to offensive and defensive lineman. Many wrestlers excel on defense, because they have good form and technique, learned from practicing takedowns, in wrestling. It's not uncommon for a smaller/lighter defensive back with a wrestling background to be one of the best tacklers on the team and show no fear against even the biggest and most bruising of running backs because they are technically sound, and skilled at wrapping up. At the same time, football helps wrestlers, because football players are taught to run through tackles and finish strong.
"I always tell my wrestlers to run their feet on a double like a linebacker making a tackle or a running back running through arm tackles," says Wichern. "And any wrestler good at shooting on the legs will make a great defensive player with their tackling ability, especially in the era of guys not wrapping the legs on tackles like they should."
Stabilito encourages coaches of both sports -- wrestling and football -- to work together, to keep numbers strong and kids interested in both sports.
"If more football and wrestling coaches could knock down the barriers and agree to work together to share these athletes I believe both sports would grow, especially wrestling," said Stabilito.
One thing is certain, with football starting this fall, many wrestlers will be making an impact on the gridiron. These are among the many reasons why.
