Falcon Wrestling News: June 2025
Monthly Issue #22
Contents
2025 SMCC Summer Camps in the Books
Strength, Technique, Conditioning, and Mindset So Important in Wrestling
Unique Grip Training to Level Up Your Wrestling
2025 SMCC Summer Camps in the Books
The SMCC wrestling summer camps were a great opportunity to learn wrestling for many young wrestlers this summer! The camps spanned 3 days and focused on the fundamentals of wrestling like single legs, snapdowns, and developing athleticism. There was a youth session in the morning, middle school session in the afternoon, and an evening all girls session. Special thanks to coaches: Cuccia, MaryAlice, Brianna, Kyle, and Phineas for your help during the week.
United States World Team Set
The Wrestling World Championships are set to take place September 13-21 in Zagreb, Croatia. There are three styles: men’s freestyle, women’s freestyle, and men’s greco roman.
Every year, the best wrestlers in the country wrestle it out in qualifying tournaments to determine who will represent the United States. Two wrestlers at each weight class qualify for an event called Final X. Those wrestlers must partake in a best 2 out of 3 series to determine the country’s representative at that weight. Final X took place on June 14 and below are the Team USA reps.
At the 70 kg weight class, 18 year old PJ Duke took out NCAA Champions Antrell Taylor, Ridge Lovett, and Yianni Diakamaholis on his way to becoming the senior level representative.
Men's Freestyle
57kg – Spencer Lee (HWC/TMWC)
61kg — TBD (Vito Arujau or Jax Forrest)
65kg – Real Woods (CKWC/TMWC)
70kg – PJ Duke (KDTC)
74kg – David Carr (CRTC/TMWC)
79kg – Levi Haines (NLWC/TMWC)
86kg – Zahid Valencia (CRTC/TMWC)
92kg – Trent Hidlay (WPWC/TMWC)
97kg – Kyle Snyder (NLWC/TMWC)
125kg – Wyatt Hendrickson (CRTC/AFWCAP)
Women's Freestyle
50kg – Audrey Jimenez (LVRTC/TMWC)
53kg – Felicity Taylor (BGWC/TMWC)
55kg – Cristelle Rodriguez (TWC/TMWC)
59kg – Jacarra Winchester (TMWC)
62kg – Adaugo Nwachukwu (WCAP)
65kg – Macey Kilty (IWWC/TMWC)
68kg – Kennedy Blades (HWC/TMWC)
72kg – Alexandria Glaude (CARTC/TMWC)
76kg – Kylie Welker (IWWC/TMWC)
Strength, Technique, Conditioning, and Mindset So Important in Wrestling
Strength. Technique. Conditioning. Mindset.
These are the 4 core competencies of wrestling. Some wrestlers have strength, some technique, some conditioning, and some mental toughness. But the best wrestlers excel in all four areas and that excellence is built all the time. Every day. Not just on some days but on all days. Especially in the summer when there is ample amount of time to get better. So if you haven’t touched a weight, stepped on a mat, hit the trail, or developed your mind, you better get started, because the longer you wait, the further you fall behind.
Discipline weighs ounces.
Regret weighs tons.
—Coach Eby
Unique Grip Training to Level Up Your Wrestling
Hand control is a huge fundamental of wrestling and grip strength directly correlates to controlling an opponent’s hands. Rice bucket training is one way you can strengthen your hands.
Rice bucket training involves performing various hand and wrist exercises with your hands submerged in a bucket of uncooked rice. You can aim to train your hands at least once a week for 5+ minutes doing various exercises like in the below video. The deeper your hands are in the rice, the more resistance you will feel.
Here are some exercises you can do:
Open and close hands
Spread fingers wide then bring them back together
Search for small objects in the rice using fingertips
Move hands up and down or side to side, pivoting at the wrist
Pinch fingers together then open
Other ways you can train your hands: dead hangs from a pull-up bar, farmer’s carries, plate pinches, pull-ups / chin-ups, towel pull-ups, hand grippers, and wrist curls.