Recent...
July 25, 2016 Update:
Hello everyone! I want to start out by apologizing for the large gap between my updates. Since the last time I posted in here a lot has changed in my life. A few weeks after the 2016 Olympic Trials, I was contacted by 2000 Olympic Champion and one of the Team USA wrestling coaches, Brandon Slay. Coach Slay has helped to coach me in the past at the 2014 Wrestling World Cup and last year's Cerro Pelado International tournament in Cuba. I have always had a huge amount of respect for him as a coach and more importantly as a fellow believer in Jesus Christ. Our conversation started very simple with him asking me what my plans were going to be moving forward in my competetive career. I explained to him that I feel as though I have a lot of untapped potential and that I have been selling myself short competetively due to the fact that my coaching responsibilities at Hofstra come first (and rightfully so). Coach Slay agreed that I have a lot of potential, and in the right training environment I could become a very successful freestyle wrestler. He then proceeded to tell me about a new training opportunity that would be opening up in Philadelphia, and expressed his interest in having me join this team. The Pennsylvania Regional Training Center (PRTC) is a regional training center based out of Philadelphia that encompasses both Drexel University and The University of Pennsylvania. Athletes competing for the PRTC will be coached by Brandon Slay, Roger Reina, Matt Azevedo, Alex Tirapelle, Matt Valenti, and many others. PRTC athletes will also have access to training facilities at both Drexel and UPENN. The great thing about this is that as an athlete at the PRTC I would have two full collegiate teams of training partners ( college athletes from both schools), 2 full sets of coaches (coaches at both schools), not to mention my fellow PRTC teammates. I was really excited to hear a bit more about this opportunity so my girlfriend Tric and I decided to take a weekend trip down to Philadelphia to meet with some of the coaches, athletes, and board members. I took the trip with an open mind and was very curious to see how exactly this regional training center was set up. The weekend did not dissapoint. From the moment we got to Philadelphia we had a jammed packed itinerary which involved meeting the strength coach, viewing the facilities, meeting with Beat the Streets Philadelphia (an organization that the PRTC works closely with to help inner city youth), touring the city, meeting with different board members, viewing apartment options, and having a few great meals at some nice Philadelphia restaurants. When Sunday morning came and it was time to leave I was completely exhausted but excited about all of the information I had just taken in. Everything came back to reality on Monday morning when I realized that I had a very tough decision on my plate. My options were to either:
1.) Stay at Hofstra and continue to work as an assistant coach helping to bring the program back to the national stage that it deserves to be at, while continuing to train part time on my own when time is available.
Pros:
-Continuing to coach and develop college athletes while helping them accomplish their dreams.
-Being able to live in a place that I love, close to NYC and the beach.
-Benefits of being a full time coach such as retirement plan and ability to take classes at Hofstra.
Cons:
-Not being able to fully commit myself to being the best wrestler I can be.
-Having future regret wondering "what if" about my international wrestling career
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2.) Accept a position at the Pennsylvania Regional Training Center as a full time, resident athlete, training through the 2020 Olympic Games and being fully focused on training for the next four years.
Pros:
-Being able to focus 100% on training while not having to worry about coaching, recruiting, etc.
-Having a board that will financially support my training and competition
-Having access to more training partners, coaches, and a strength/conditioning program
-Christian fellowship with Brandon Slay, BJ Futrell, Chase Pami, Rich Perry, and Canaan Bethea
-Having the opportunity to expand my network and make some amazing new relationships
Cons:
-Having to give up coaching for the next four years
-Having to leave a program and people that I have grown to love
-Having to move away from the beach and city
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The list above only touches the surface on the dilemma I was experiencing in my head through much of the spring time. Ultimately after a lot of time thinking, praying, and talking to my family, close friends, coaches, mentors etc I came to the decision to join the Pennsylvania Regional Training Center. This decision was one of the hardest in my life to make, but I believe it to be the best one. In doing this I am forcing myself out of my comfort zone, which in my opinion is the only way to really experience true growth. It is hard to grow when you are sitting back being comfortable and I believe a couple quotes that I have heard in the past are absolutely true...
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" If nothing changes, nothing changes." - Not sure where I heard this one but I like it.
" Continuing to do the same thing while expecting different results is the definition of insanity." - I remember my college strength coach, Eric Childs, yelling this at us many times at Penn State lol.
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Both of these quotes mean essentially the same thing and I can relate them perfectly to my career right now. If I continue to half heartedly train (while coaching full time) for the next four years, I can expect to have half hearted results. And while I have had reasonable success while training virtually 6-7 weeks out of the year, never lifting, competing 3-4 times a year, making up my own workout schedule, I can not expect to get to the next level and achieve my goals of being a world and olympic champion. So, I have decided that I want to give myself the best opportunity to reach the highest level in freestyle wrestling and I believe that the PRTC provides me with all of the necessary tools to do just that. I know that no matter what happens over the next four years that I will be able to hold my head high, knowing that I gave everything I had to be the best wrestler I could be.
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Now, if making the decision to accept the PRTC position was hard, breaking that news to my Hofstra team was even harder. I was literally dreading having to tell them that I would be leaving them in the fall. I decided on waiting until after we finished all of our freestyle competitions and broke the news to them before one of our Blue & Gold Wrestling Club practices in early June. It was very hard for me to tell these kids, many of which I had promised to be here for them for the next 4-5 years, that I would be leaving in the fall. After I got the speech out, I felt such an amazing weight lifted off of my shoulders. They took it very well, and on top of that I got multiple text messages and phone calls after from the wrestlers and some parents, thanking me for everything I had done and wishing me the best of luck in Philly. The wrestlers as a whole really surprised me with their understanding of the situation. Many explained to me that they were sad that I was leaving but that they knew that it was something I had to do. It made me feel very good to know that I have their support. I also reassured them that although I will not be coaching them from the corner anymore, that I will still be cheering them on from afar and that I will always be here for them if they need advice or just need someone to talk to. I am extremely thankful for the opportunity that Rob Anspach gave me initially in 2011 and that Dennis Papadatos gave me more recently to be a part of the Hofstra Pride coaching staff. It being my first full time job of my life, I know that Hofstra will always have a special place in my heart. I will definitely miss a lot of people who I have developed relationships with here at Hofstra since 2011 (except Andy Wetstein who comes into my office every day asking why I'm still here. haha JK Andy). I've had a lot of great experiences and met a lot of great people who I hope to be able to stay in contact with. And who knows, maybe in four years I'll find myself back out here on the island!
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So, as you can imagine, I am extremely busy trying to finish up my work here at Hofstra. My last official day will be July 31. It is depressing how quickly it has come! After that I may have the most poorly timed vacation ever planned to Brazil for the 2016 Olympics from August 9 - 25. I'm really looking forward to watching Team USA rack up the medals down in Rio! I am really excited to be heading to my first Olympic Games. I would much rather be competing, but I know I will have a great time with Tric, as well as my friends Justin, Ben, and Zack as we spend a few weeks in South America cheering on our country. As much fun as the vacation will be, when we return, things will become crazy again as Tric and I will be moving to Philadelphia less than a week after we get back from Brazil. It is going to be a very busy and very fun month of August, but I am looking forward to getting settled in down in Philly and starting to get to work on becoming the 2020 Olympic Champion.
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I hope this update finds everyone well and I apologize again for the delay. Hopefully once I get moved in and back to a little bit more of a routine I will be able to post updates a little more regulary. I have an exciting journey ahead over the next four years, and I am more than ready to approach it head on.
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Thanks for reading and enjoy the rest of your summer! God Bless!
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Here is a link to the PRTC's announcement of my commitment for any who are interested --> http://pennsylvaniartc.org/prtc-announces-addition-three-wrestlers/
April 19, 2016 Update:
Good afternoon everyone! I hope everyone had a very enjoyable Easter holiday and that you are all enjoying the changing of the seasons. I for one know that I am not complaining about being able to substitute my sweatshirts, coats, and pants for shorts and short sleeves! The last time I spoke with you I had just started a week of training at my alma mater out in State College, PA. The timing of the training camp was perfect, as it fell 2 weeks before the 2016 Olympic Trials and during Hofstra's spring break. Being able to take advantage of this training opportunity was amazing. The following week consisted of a combination of technique, live wrestling, and some conditioning. Some workouts involved a lot of structure, while others allowed for freedom to be "on your own". On a side note, this is something that I really enjoy about training. Being able to diversify workouts does a couple of beneficial things. First of all it helps to break up the monotany that can sometimes be created by doing basically the same thing every single day. Second of all, it allows you (along with guidance from your coaches) to "listen" to your body. Every wrestler, especially when nearing a competition needs different things. Some need to train super hard, while others may need a lighter day or even possibly a day off completely off. For me, my next 5 days of training went roughly as follows....
Monday 3/28 AM - cardio circuit with Frank Molinaro (explosive :45 second bursts)
Monday 3/28 PM - 15 min warmup, 20 min drill, (3) 4 min live goes, 10 min sauna
Tuesday 3/29 AM - 4 mile run, 15 min elliptical
Tuesday 3/29 PM - 15 min warmup, 30 min "play wrestling" in common positions
Wednesday 3/30 AM - 4 mile run, 15 min elliptical, 15 min airdyne
Wednesday 3/30 PM - OFF (3) 10 min sauna goes
Thursday 3/31 AM - 4 mile run, 15 min airdyne, 10 min sauna
Thursday 3/31 PM - 15 min warmup, 20 min drill, 15 min of live par terre situations
Friday 4/1 AM - (50) 6 min live matches (APRIL FOOLS!). But seriously, warmup and 2 live matches
Friday 4/1 PM - OFF (Head home to NY)
I've said it before, but having the opportunity to train with the NLWC is something I am very thankful for. I can't thank Coach Cael, Cody, Casey, Adam, and Frank enough for constantly opening the wrestling room doors for me to train.
Outside of the wrestling at Penn State I also had the chance to focus on some spiritual training. On Easter Sunday I attended church with Brad Pataky and Frank Molinaro, where I was super impressed with Frank as he stood in front of hundreds of people to give his testimony and speak about how God has been working in his life. Later in the week I was able to attend a morning Bible study with Pataky, Coaches Lynch, and Cunningham, and a few other believers who work in the Penn State athletic department. On another occasion, I attended a night Bible study, with Brad at his church. It was really cool to see how many opportunities the coaches/athletes at Penn State have to grow in their Christian faith. I am sure many of them existed when I was in college there, but the truth is, at that point in my life I was not seeking to maximize my relationship with God in the same way that I aim to now. Unfortunately at Hofstra, we do not have organizations such as FCA or Athletes in Action on campus yet, but I hope that in the near future we are able to get something like that going. I think we as a wrestling team took a big step this year in starting up a weekly Bible study. With a little encouragement from Mike Fessler and a lot of God pulling on my heart I was able to confidently get the study rolling with some great early results. I hope and pray that it can grow into something bigger and ultimately move into positively impacting the lives of athletes of all teams, and beyond that students in general here at Hofstra.
So, now we get to the 2016 Olympic Trials in Iowa City. After the training at Penn State, the focus turned to feeling good and working on getting my weight down for my upcoming weighin. The week of the trials went by quicker than I can remember any competition week going before. The preseeds were released late in the week and I recieved a #4 ranking. Now the way that the Olympic trials work is that if there is a returning world medalist in the weight class, they get a bye all the way to the finals of the tournament. Everyone else in the weight wrestles a regular, line bracket, double elimination tournament, the winner of which will face the aforementioned wrestler who received a bye in a best of 3 matchup to determine who will represent the United States in the Olympic Games. In the case of my weight class, the #1 ranked wrestler happened to be the 2015 World Champion, Jordan Burroughs. Because of this, Jordan would get a bye to the finals automatically and everyone else would basically move up one spot in the seeds (making me the #3 in the preeseed behind Andrew Howe and Chris Perry). Saturday afternoon after making weight, a brief seeding meeting was held which turned the preseeds upside down. I would now end up being the #6 seed and instead of getting a first round bye, I would instead wrestle the #11 seed Vlad Dombrovski. The winner of this match would then face the #3 seeded Nick Marable. Although I was not thrilled with the changes, I felt as though I was still in a great position in the bracket.
I woke up the morning of Sunday, April 10 feeling that very common combination of nervous-excitement that most wrestlers can relate to. After heading over to Carver Hawkeye Arena and getting a solid warmup in I was ready to wrestle. My first match came up within the first 30 minutes of the tournament. Walking out into a packed arena (11-12,000 fans) and stepping up onto the mat was a great feeling. I had not been able to compete in front of such a crowd since my senior year in college. Although the atmosphere was amazing, I had only a few seconds to take it in, before refocusing in on the task at hand, which was winning a wrestling match. The whistle blew and my Olympic Trials experience began. Dombrovski and I had wrestled twice before, with me coming back to beat him both times in very close matches, so I knew I was in for a battle. As fate would have it, I would come out victorious with a 5-0 win. It was great to get the first match out of the way. I felt great and was ready to take on Marable. 30 minutes later I was walking out again for match #2. Nick Marable is short, powerful, and very hard to score on. I had wrestled him at the November, Bill Farrell International, and won that match 8-2, so I knew that I could beat him. I also knew that he was going to be prepared for me this time. Just 15 seconds in to the match, Marable lowered his level and exploded through a double for 2 points. For the rest of the match I felt as though I was on the offensive and looking to score, but was just unable to get through his tough defense. I would end up losing this match 3-0. Obviously this was disappointing, but the quick turnaround time in freestyle tournaments does not allow you to sit back and sulk. Instead I had to get ready to wrestle Logan Massa in the consolation round. I stepped out on the mat for my 3rd match at the trials and took an early 2-0 lead in a very awkward scramble position. In a weird situation where myself and Massa both thought the ref blew the whistle, I ended up giving up an easy two points that can only really be explained by rewatching the match. So, the score was then 2-2. As the match would continue, we would get into several more great scramble positions and the difference in the match ended up being that he won those positions. I ended up losing 6-2 and my tournament came to an end. The way the bracket worked out, I technically finished in the top 8 in the country. This is something I know that I will be able to look back proudly on, but as my goal was to make the Olympic Team, it obviously stings a bit. I have no regrets with how I wrestled and I truly did enjoy the experience. I still have a lot to learn in freestyle and I feel that in my short international career I have improved in leaps and bounds. I hope to continue to do that moving forward.
Finally, I would be remised if I did not thank everyone who supported me throughout this 2016 Olympic journey. I have been extremely blessed to have such a strong support system. Everyone who donated money, bought/wore shirts, sent social media and text encouragement, made phone calls, and even came out to Iowa City to watch me compete, you dont know how much it means to have you all in my corner. I want to specifically thank those who came out to watch me compete. My parents, my sister Christen and her husband Luke, my sister Gina and her fiance Rich, my girlfriend Tric and her sister Kristina along with their friend Dani, and my friends Matt, Mason, and Brett all made the trip to Iowa, all from different locations along the east coast (and Brett from Missouri). The amount of love and support I received directly after my competition had ended was amazing and super uplifting. Thank you and I love you all!
I am not quite sure what the next step in my freestyle career is, but I can tell you this: I am healthy, hungry, and still very eager to learn. We will see where this takes me, but I think I still have some time left on this competetive clock. Thanks again everyone and I will talk to you all again soon as I look to start planning out summer camps, clinics, and events!
March 26, 2016 Update:
Hey guys! As I sit here in Centre County, PA at my grandparents house, taking in a beautiful spring day, I am just 2 weeks away from departing for the 2016 Olympic Trials in Iowa City. Quite a bit has happened since I last updated you on my progress; most of which is related to the end of the collegiate season, so that is where I will begin.
We (Hofstra) entered the EIWA championships in Princeton, NJ earlier this month with a lot of positive thoughts. We had 2 solid weeks of training leading up to the tournament and I was feeling great about our chances of advancing several guys to nationals. As fate would have it, we would only end up advancing two. Jamel Hudson had a strong performance, bouncing back after a first round loss, to end up placing 4th at 141 pounds and qualifying for the NCAA Championships for the 2nd time in his career. At heavyweight, Mike Hughes continued his great junior season by capturing 3rd place, and his first NCAA bid, with his only loss coming to the #2 seed Max Wessell of Lehigh. I was very proud of the effort both of these guys put in to qualify. Our other 8 athletes, although not qualifying for the championships, put up great fight. This is something that had been missing at some points during the season. Now, it still hurts, knowing that the season was over for these individuals, but it definitely gives us something to build off of, especially for our under classmen. For them it is important that they stay "hungry" and make big strides this off-season, so that they can be in the mix next year and be in a position to get to the NCAA tournament. Overall I was proud of our team's effort as a whole. To say that I am satisfied would be untrue though and if you asked any of those 8 guys who did not advance, I believe that they would say the same thing.
Two weeks after the EIWA championships we began the NCAA tournament as the host school at Madison Square Garden in NYC. It was an amazing experience for me as a coach to be able to be a part of that event in "the worlds most famous arena". I must say I am a little jealous I never got the opportunity to compete there! haha. The event itself got a lot of positive feedback and I think everyone who attended the event enjoyed it. As for our Hofstra athletes, Jamel and Mike, they both had pretty tough draws from the start. The thing about the NCAA tournament though (and you see it every single year) is that anyone can beat anyone. A lot of it really comes down to who wants it more. Thats one of the things I love about our sport. that being said, we definitely had our hands full in the first round with Jamel facing #4 seed Anthony Ashnault (Rutgers) and Mike having a conference rematch with #8 Max Wessell (Lehigh). Althought the odds were stacked against us, we had a gameplan for each opponent and felt very confindent that we could move into Thursday nights session with two guys in the championship side of the bracket. unfortunately that is not how it worked out. Thursday night, both Jamel and Mike were alive in the consolation bracket where Jamel would face the #13 seed from NIU (who got upset) and Mike would have an unseeded opponent from Rider (who he didnt face during the season). Jamel started off the night with a bang by majoring his opponent and Mike followed it up with a dominant decision of his own. This ensured that we would have both wrestlers alive on Friday. Friday morning, Jamel would end up facing the #3 seed, Kevin Jack of NC State (another upset). Again we felt confident in this bout, but Jack ended out coming out on top and ending the season for Jamel with a top 24 finish. Later in the same round Mike faced a tough unseeded opponent from Nebraska and wrestled one of the best matches I have seen him wrestle in his career to get a dominant win. In the next round however, Mike would fall to the #15 seed from Wyoming to end his Junior season campaign as top 16 in the country. The results, although not what we had hoped and planned for, were "on paper" better than expected (by the rankings) for both guys. That does not ease the sting of not having an All-American, but again I am proud of the effort given by both young men. If anything, this shows the importance of earning a top 16 seed by your performance throughout the entire season. Although earning a seed does not guarantee anything, it is supposed to ease the road on your path to being an All-American or NCAA Champion. That is why it is so important to approach every match, all year, with the same intensity and mindset, to go out, score points, and dominate. Unfortunately for some, it is a lesson hard learned.
So, now that the collegiate season has ended, our guys will set their focus on freestyle training and preparing for the NE Regionals and University Nationals coming up later this spring. I just want to thank all of the Hofstra fans, friends, alumni, and athletes that showed up to support our 2 wrestlers at the sessions as well as at Saturday afternoon's social. Your support means a ton to me and I am sure even more to the athletes themselves. Thanks to our volunteer coach, Joe DeAngelo, as well for organizing the social. I think it was a great event. It was fun being able to chat with everyone for a few hours before the finals.
Now, back to why I am in the middle of Pennsylvania. Most that of you that know me would probably assume I am here to celebrate Easter with my family. That would normally be a great reason to be out here, but unfortunately with a lot of busy schedules, much of the family will be doing their own things for the holiday. Instead, I am out here to train at Penn State for the quick approaching Olympic Trials. In a perfect scheduling event, Hofstra's Spring Break began this past Thursday and will continue all of next week. This created an awesome opportunity for me to get out to State College to train with some of my old coaches and teammates along with a bunch of the stud young bucks and some other various athletes from around the country/world. I arrived late Thursday night in State College and got to work right away yesterday morning with a simulated Olympic Trials day. For this, we would come in at 10am and 2pm and get 1-2 matches (with referee, score, singlets, etc) with a 15-20 min break in between. The idea is to treat it just like you would a tournament. So, we came in and warmed up on our own and got into the matches. After each match it is important to get a quick "cool-down" and get ready for the next one. It is amazing how adding singlets and a referee makes you more nervous/excited, making you feel like you are about to really compete at an event. So, my scheduled matches for the day started out with David Taylor (2x NCAA Champion, 4x finalist) followed by Jason Nolf (2016 NCAA finalist as a freshman) and closing out the day with Bekzod Abdurakhmonov (NCAA all-american, bronze at 2014 world championships for UZB). All of this stayed the same with the only exception being my 3rd match being changed from Bekzod to Bo Nickal (2016 NCAA finalist as a freshman). It was a great day of training and the perfect way to start out my training camp. Today was more of an "on your own" day in which I got some cardio and a sauna workout. Tomorrow will be off from workouts before we get back to work on Monday. I am excited about what this next week will hold, and I know it it putting me in the best position to be successful in two weeks!
On a side note, I am super excited for and proud of my friend Frank Molinaro. Tomorrow he will be sharing his testimony, on Easter Sunday, at Christ Community Church, in State College. I am extra pumped because I will get to be there to see it in person! Wrestling talk aside, tomorrow is the cornerstone of our faith as Christians, as we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 3 days after he was bruised, battered, ridiculed and eventually crucified for my (and the entire world's) sin.
Isaiah 53:5 - But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by His wounds we are healed.
Finally, I just want to thank everyone who has continued to support me in my journey. I am gracious to God for every day that I have to compete, and I am so blessed to have so many people in my corner with me. Thanks also to everyone who has purchased #TeamVallimont shirts from TrueWrestler. The deadline to order one is tomorrow night. I was told that they will be printed and shipped on Monday, so you should have your orders next week at some point. The link to order is http://shop.truewrestler.com/product.php?id_product=226 . I look forward to seeing pictures of people repping the shirts!
Everyone have a happy and blessed Easter weekend. Enjoy the time with friends/family and take a minute to remember why we are celebrating!
February 15, 2016 Update:
Hello everyone! I have definitely been slow at getting this site set up, but I finally got around to getting some up to date information uploaded. I intend to do periodic updates on this page to keep everyone in the loop with what is going on in my wrestling career as a coach and athlete.
This being my first "update" I want to back track a little bit to this fall where I was able to qualify for the 2016 Olympic Trials by placing 2nd at the Bill Farrell International in NYC. I felt that I wrestled a great tournament but that I may have gotten a little complacent in my finals bout against 2014 world bronze medalist Bekzod Abdurakhmonov of Uzbekistan. I finished the day with a 3-1 record with 2 tech falls and nice wins over a couple of very tough Americans in Nate Carr Jr. and Nick Marable. My 8-2 win over Marable in the semi finals guaranteed me a spot in the 2016 Olympic Trials which will be held April 8-10 in Iowa City.
Qualifying for the trials at the first available opportunity was great for me and vastly changed my competition/training schedule for the next few months. In early December I had a great opportunity to travel to Arizona State to train with Zeke Jones and the Sunkist Kids Wrestling Club. It was a nice change of pace for my training. Being able to spend an entire week focuse soley on freestyle wrestling with training partners such as Ed Ruth, Jordan Oliver, Anthony Valencia, Zahid Valencia, and Mario Mason was much needed. I want to thank coach Jones and the entire ASU staff for having me out. It was a great training camp. I also want to thank my boss and our head coach at Hofstra University for allowing me to get away for a few days to train. His support is a must and it is much appreciated!
My original plan for competiton was to head to the Olympic Trials Qualifier in Las Vegas (US Open) in December, followed by the Dave Schultz International at the end of January. After I secured my spot in the trials, I set my eyes on some international competition instead to get some valuable experience. The Yasar Dogu International in Istanbul Turkey matched up very well with our schedule at Hofstra, so that is where I decided to go. I was all set to depart for Turkey on February 1 with the plan on weighing in on the 5th and wrestling the 6th. Well, it didnt quite work out that way. Upon arrival at Newark International Airport I was told that my passport would not allow me into Turkey. The reason for this is that my passport expires later this year in June. The problem, which myself and USA wrestling, didnt realize is that Turkey will not allow you to enter if your passport expires within 150 days of your planned arrival. Mine was due to expire 140 something days later (just missed it!). Fortunately the gate agent was able to rebook me for the next day ($300) and give me instructions on how to get a new passport the next morning. After sitting at the NYC passport agency for 5 hours I finally left with a brand new passport and headed back to Newark just in time to make the February 2 flight. We arrived in Istanbul around 1pm local time on February 3 and immediately ran into another roadblock. My visa displayed the passport number of my old passport and not my new one, so when trying to go through customs, the numbers did not match up. It took about an hour, but I was able to purchase a new visa and finally get out of the airport. I hopped on a shuttle to the hotel and was met immediately by the rest of team USA on their way to head to the arena for a workout. Without even checking into my room, I hopped on a bus with the team and went straight to the arena for a workout. It was the last thing I wanted to do at the time after a long day of travel, but getting a good sweat in was much needed and I was thankful after. The next few days I worked, with limited success, to adjust my body to the time change as well as my weight cut. Friday came and I successfully made weight. It felt good to get that taken care of! Jordan Burrough's and I headed out for some dinner at what ended up being my 1st of 3 visits to an american food serving restaurant called Big Momma's. After a good meal, it was back to the hotel to relax and mentally prepare for the tournament. The next morning we headed to the arena for the tournament. I could tell that something was a little off in my warmup with Burrough's as I felt tired (sleepy tired). I definitely had not caught up on my sleep from the 7 hour time change, but there was no time to worry about that. I drew a Turk first round and felt great for the first 2 minutes of the match before hitting a wall. Im not sure if it was anxiety, jet lag, subpar warmup, or something else, but it was not a good feeling lol. My coaches, Jeff Buxton and Bruce Burnett, both noticed that something was off as well. I led 6-0 after the first period and wrestled much too defensively for my own liking for the remainder of the match. I preach to always extend your lead all the time, and I did the exact opposite in the second period and shut down. Fortunately I held on to win 6-1, but I was not happy about the performance. My second match I took an early 2-1 lead over another Turk and was feeling much better. I made a costly mistake relaxing for just a second which resulted in me falling behind 8-2. I would go on to lose 10-5. It was frustrating because I know I can beat that guy. He would go on to claim the bronze medal in my weight class. Burroughs took the gold, winning 14-3 over France in the finals. Overall, although I was not happy with the result, I think I learned a lot from the trip. I definitely need to do a better job of acclimating to the time change. I think that was a major factor. Getting to Turkey a day later than originally planned did not help, but I still think I could do a better job adjusting. As far as the actual wrestling, I need to continue to work on my handfighting and getting to attacks on both legs. I also need to get more confident in my turns and work on my defense from bottom. So basically I need to improve everywhere! lol.
I want to say a special thank you to Rob Ortense for helping to make the Turkey trip possible by setting up a gofundme account in my name for the purpose of funding my training/competition leading up to the olympic trials. Without this help, I dont know if I would have been able to afford the trip. So, thank you Rob, and thank you everyone who contributed to the fund. You guys are awesome. I'm extremely blessed to have such amazing support! I also want to thank the NYAC for their continued support. Its an honor to represent them along with the Blue and Gold Wrestling Club, Hofstra, and America!
Well, I am going to end this rant here. My plan is to continue to give updates leading up to and through the Olympic Trials. Thanks for following and taking part in my journey!