What I would like to write about today is an often misunderstood concept: the difference between arrogance and inner-arrogance. There is absolutely nothing worse as either a coach or a fan than an athlete who comes off as arrogant; yet arrogance – or at least inner-arrogance – is a key element in the mentality of an elite athlete. Much more than simply believing in your abilities, inner-arrogance allows athletes the ability to truly believe they are the absolute best at what they do. The tricky part comes with earning inner-arrogance. It’s one thing to believe you are the best in the world, but it is a completely separate animal to boast that you are the best in the world. Recent Olympic Gold Medalist Jordan Burroughs is the perfect example of inner-arrogance.  His twitter handle, @alliseeisgold, can certainly be looked at as an arrogant gesture. Burroughs, however, does not conduct himself in an arrogant manner. From everything I have seen and heard of him, he is humble, respectful, and classy. So why create a twitter account with the title alliseeasgold? Simple. He believes in himself. But more than that, Burroughs challenged himself, knowing full well how silly he would look if he walked away from London without Olympic Gold. In order to push hard enough to earn something as coveted as Olympic Gold athletes must tell themselves 100 times a day how good they are – not to boost their egos, but to remind themselves why they are working so hard. What Burroughs did was brilliant. He saw twitter as an opportunity to let his followers motivate him on a daily basis. Fans of his constantly sent tweets with well wishes or words of encouragement, and someone who works as hard as Olympic wrestlers do needs every ounce of encouragement available.

After winning his Olympic gold, Burroughs was asked by several media outlets about his bold statement that he would win. In just about every interview, his response was the same: "It's easy to be confident when you put the hard work in that I do," Burroughs said (click here for a video of his post-gold press conferene: http://www.flowrestling.org/video/652882-Jordan-Burroughs-Gold-Medal-Press-Conference). And that’s the difference between someone who is arrogant and an athlete who uses inner-arrogance to fuel their dreams. Arrogant people go around telling others that they are capable of winning a gold medal. Athletes with inner arrogance spend their time training for Olympic gold. The only person who knows how hard Burroughs worked, the amount of hours he put in, and the adversity he had to overcome to get to where he is now, is Jordan Burroughs himself. And that’s where inner-arrogance comes from – the knowledge of and the memory of all the hard work, commitment, and dedication that you have put in. That’s what builds the confidence, and that is the only way to truly believe in yourself – by putting in the work. The best aspect of the sport of wrestling is that there are absolutely zero shortcuts. There is no way around putting in the hard work that it takes to become the best. If you don’t do it, someone else will outwork you and they will beat you, plain and simple.

As I said earlier, there is nothing worse as a coach than seeing undeserved arrogance from athletes, and arrogant wrestlers are easy to spot. They are the ones who begrudgingly put in the same amount of work the rest of the team does, who question why practices are so hard, and who believe that they can get away with putting in the bare minimum effort. When it comes to competition, these are the very same wrestlers who come up with every excuse in the book before, during, and after their matches to explain their lack of success. Notice that I mention before the match, because confidence cannot come from undeserved arrogance. In fact, that is what arrogance is: confidence without commitment. Wrestlers who have cut corners are the ones who experience fear or anxiety before matches. Confident wrestles, on the other hand, have inner-arrogance, and inner-arrogance can only come from total commitment.  

So what should young wrestlers take from this rant? It’s simple. The season is quickly approaching, and all of you should be sitting down to write out or think about your goals for 2013. Do not be afraid to sound arrogant or cocky through your goals. Just ensure that you do everything you can to boost that confidence. Remember that every single day and every single workout is an opportunity to work so hard that your mind will never question what you are capable of accomplishing.  Push yourself to the point that you believe you can beat anyone, and remember that whether you work that hard or not, someone else out there in your weight class is working that hard. Which one would you bet on when a match comes down the final seconds?

Hello everybody. One quick reminder before this week’s article begins. Greco-Roman wrestling kicks-off tomorrow, Sunday, August 5. Be sure to follow and support USA wrestling!

Let’s talk a little about fear and regret, two emotions that coaches want athletes to avoid. In reality though, both can be used to produce great results. Fear of failure can be a great motivator, however most young athletes allow fear of failure to motivate them in a different way. Because there are no guarantees that all the hard work, sacrifice, and commitment will eventually pay off, there will always be the fear that if goals are not achieved, others will mock you for all the hard work that you put in for naught. And it is this fear, - the fear of being made fun of, laughed at, or even ostracized that dooms most young athletes who end up using excuses like “Well I never really worked that hard at it anyway,” or “It was never really that important to me in the first place,” when they come up short of their goals. But all too soon regret sets in, and those lines quickly turn into “Well, I could have if I just worked as hard as so-and-so, or if I really cared about it, I would have done this.” Instead of being afraid of what people will think of them if they fail, athletes should focus on the fear of living the rest of their lives with the question “What if?” lingering in the back of their mind. Take it from me, that is a scary, scary future.

You see, the thing about regret in athletics is that you regret what DIDN’T do, not what you did. Never in my life have I heard an all-state or all-American wrestler utter the phrase “I really wish I hadn’t put it in all that time, work, and effort.” I have however, heard (and even said myself) the line: “I wish I had been more disciplined and dedicated. I think I could’ve … (insert goal here).”  And this is what most young athletes fail to realize. Ten, 15, 20 years from now, you’re not going to regret skipping that party, being disciplined with your diet, waking up early for workouts, and committing yourself to a long-term goal. You have your entire life to eat as much junk food as you want, enjoy time with your friends, and relax, but your time to become a state champion, all-American, honor-roll student, and get into the college of your dreams is finite – it is disappearing as you read this.

Watching Olympic swimming this past week, I saw an interview on NBC with Australian swimmer James Magnussen, who had had been telling Australian media for months that he was going to win Olympic Gold and set a World Record at the London Games. A reporter asked Magnussen if he regretted making those statements because of the pressure that was being placed on him.

His response?

 “Not at all. If I don’t do it, the only thing I’ll regret is not swimming my best.” 

Magnussen won’t regret all the time and work he put it in if he doesn’t reach his goal. He may be disappointed with the result, but at least he’ll be able to walk away with the satisfaction of knowing that he gave it his best shot.

So when you are preparing your goals, deciding whether or not to get that extra workout in, or attempting to push yourself during a difficult practice, ask yourself this question: which are you going to end up regretting, the work you put in, or the work you didn’t put in?  

Coach Heff