Throwdown Thursdays: Staying Connected Through Wrestling
5/22/2020
Wrestling to Beat the Streets DC is currently offering an ongoing virtual workout and mentoring series called Throwdown Thursdays, where DC students can learn from top wrestling athletes and coaches and stay connected with the sport of wrestling.
American University head coach Teague Moore was in a recent session to run athletes through a wrestling-based workout and offer insight on the mentality it takes to compete and become a champion. Students from a variety of local high schools gathered for Coach Moore’s training session via Zoom. For more on Coach Moore’s many accomplishments as an athlete and a coach, click here.
From a workout space in his basement, Coach Moore took participants through a series of seven wrestling exercises that are simple enough to be done at home without a partner. While the exercises were basic, none were unimportant. Coach Moore emphasized that even his Division I athletes were being encouraged to do versions of some of the same exercises in every workout during quarantine.
After the workout, Coach Moore responded to a few questions posed by BTS DC coaches. Coach Moore discussed strategies for personal accountability during stay at home orders, and emphasized the importance for athletes to have their academics, work ethic, and lifestyle under control. At American, he said, they strive for a team culture that emphasizes wrestling and training hard, diligence in classes (AU boasted the #2 team GPA in NCAA Division I Wrestling in 2019-2020, in fact), and a no-drinking, no-drugs lifestyle. “Partying,” as Coach Moore put it, “wrecks hard work,” and it can be agony to see talented athletes throw away opportunities for success and an education with bad decisions.
In closing the session, Coach Moore posed a challenge to the wrestlers present:
“At the end of quarantine, are you going to be able to look at this time as a good thing for you as an athlete, or will you look back on it as a waste of time? With this kind of time on your hands, there are no excuses not to get better.”
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