It wasn’t all that long ago that Bellarmine University Coach Spencer Adams was himself a collegiate wrestler, so it’s not difficult for him to recall how the line between self-indulgence and self-discipline has to be tiptoed during the holidays.
“Thanks for bringing up terrible flashbacks of when I couldn’t eat Christmas candy,” Adams joked.
Bellarmine’s last meet was on Dec. 17-18 at Indianapolis’ Midwest Classic, and the Knights’ extended break from competition will end Saturday as the team participates in the Spartan Mat Classic at Manchester (Ind.) University.
The holiday break perfectly breaks up Bellarmine’s regular season. The Knights had six meets before the layoff, and they will have six meets leading into the postseason beginning with the Spartan Mat Classic.
“It is a solid tournament, and like most smaller tournaments, the difficulty varies from year to year,” Adams said. “What I like about this tournament is that every guy whether they are our best or worst guy on the team is going to have success and failure. We need success to keep us happy enough to keep working, but we also need enough failure so that we can evaluate what we need to work on. I think our guys will have a good weekend at the tournament, and we should have a few medals to bring home as well.”
While Adams joked that the holiday break can be an endurance trial when it comes to testing willpower, he wanted the Knights to kick back, clear their minds and enjoy themselves during their time away.
“Christmas break from a wrestler’s standpoint is a milestone,” Adams said. “It means that all of the struggling and stress of a grinding season is halfway over. It is also a time where you can forget about all of the mistakes you made in matches, all the matches you should have won but didn’t, and most importantly, it’s a brief time away from the sport that allows you to ‘miss the mat’ again. After a couple weeks off, you start to miss the competition, the team and the basic life structure that practices, competition and classes bring.”
The refrigerator is perhaps the greatest enemy during the time off, with Adams noting that “while everyone else is gorging down food and desserts you’re constantly running through calorie counts in your head.” However, he’s not a believer in cutting weight, preferring that the Knights wrestle within 5-7 pounds of their optimal body weight. That way, as long as the Knights didn’t constantly raid the pantry over the break, it would only take a few workouts to return them to their competitive weight.
“Self-discipline is crucial over break because you do not want to come back really heavy and out of shape – this would set you on the wrong path right off the bat,” Adams said. “At this point in the season, once you start down a path there isn’t much time to make a new one so you better start off in the right direction.”
Adams said from a coaching standpoint the break presents the one primary opportunity during the season for heavy hands-on recruiting. It also allows coaches to enjoy the sport as a spectator without the worries of in-match coaching.
Heading into the second half of the regular season, sophomore Andy Dobben leads Bellarmine in victories with 14. Junior Brian Carman has posted 11 wins and sophomore Cole Tawney has registered nine.
“All around I think having this two-week timeframe is very important and refreshing,” Adams said. “In a sense, it’s that one real opportunity through the season to press the reset button.”
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