With their bodies taking a severe beating in every wrestling match, junior 197-pounder Tyler Dickenson and his teammates need to be in the best possible shape to carry them through to the end.
During an intense match against No. 18 Northwestern’s John Schoen on Sunday, Dickenson extended past regulation and took the match into a sudden-victory double overtime before winning.
“I’d like to think that I train harder than anybody, and I’d like to think that as the match goes on, (my opponent is) going to break before I do,” he said. “That’s the kind of mentality you have to have as a wrestler.”
With such tough conditioning comes the confidence and an energy boost, Dickenson added.
“I felt more and more confident because I felt confident in my conditioning because we work so hard,” Dickenson said. “The longer it went into more and more overtimes, the more confident I got and the more I thought that (Schoen) would break and I wouldn’t.”
To get in top shape, head coach Tom Minkel starts with a five-week period in the preseason. The team weight lifts and runs three or four miles at each practice.
The Spartans (8-4 overall, 0-3 Big Ten) then make a trip to Spartan Stadium and run the stairs of the lower bowl, starting with a third of it, and then each subsequent day, they add one up-and-down section of the stadium.
The Green and White also incorporate a tailored game of soccer into their workouts, based on the game the ancient Mayans would play.
The Spartans also learn how to deal with their serious fatigue and get comfortable with it, Minkel said. They learn to find a balance in matches so they put forth enough intensity without emptying their tanks.
“You mentally distance yourself from it,” Minkel said. “You can feel the fatigue, and you can see the fatigue, and it still really hurts, but it doesn’t compromise your decision making.”
Going into the third period of matches, the Spartans are confident in their training and conditioning to get them on top of their opponents.
“I’m a big believer that the better conditioned you are heading into the third period, it doesn’t matter how skilled they are,” junior 174-pounder Curran Jacobs said. “If they’re exhausted when the third period comes around, that’s when I love to capitalize on dominating them.”
The team’s physical shape has allowed them to come from behind and win individual and overall matches, sophomore 149-pounder Dan Osterman said.
“Other teams might not be as conditioned as well as we are, so at the end of the match, we know we’ll be good and ready to go,” Osterman said. “I think that’s a big reason why we’re starting to come back at the end of matches and win those matches.”
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