chubby
Olympic champion wrestler Dave Schultz was known as “Pudge” in wrestling circles. He was a bit chubby in his youth. In fact, Dave’s friend Steve Holt stated in an article that Dave was a complete jerk with no defined muscles when he was in high school. He claims that Dave would often be mistaken for a scorer or a coach.
Steve first puts Dave in a weekend tournament that Steve was wrestling in during his high school years. Steve states, “I noticed this fat, chubby freshman kid sitting in the bleachers watching me through every round. He was looking at me and studying me like a scientist with a white lab rat in a maze! I was even taking notes!”
According to Jim Humphrey, a former Indiana University head coach, “he didn’t look like an athlete, with the sloping shoulders, shuffling gait and pigeon toes. He wasn’t particularly fast.”
So what sets Dave “Pudge” Schultz apart from other wrestlers? How did he get so dominant?
wanted mentors
The young Dave Schultz became a fan of wrestling. He couldn’t get enough. He wanted to learn the best techniques he could and looked for ways to get extra practice time.
For example, Chris Horpel met Dave when Horpel was already an NCAA wrestling All-American for Stanford. Dave, 14, came over from Palo Alto High and asked Horpel, 21, to wrestle with him. Horpel agreed, hoping to get rid of Dave after a few sessions. To his surprise, Dave kept coming back.
according to a Sports Illustrated article titled “Brothers and Brawlers,” “Dave, a dyslexic as a child, had started wrestling in the seventh grade on the advice of a teacher who thought it would help him build self-confidence. He did that and more. For his high school student Freshman year at Palo Alto High, Dave was a wrestling fanatic. He wore his t-shirt under his school clothes and his wrestling shoes everywhere. He trained up to three times a day. After his school training In high school, he would ride his bike a few miles up the road so he could practice with the Stanford wrestling team, whose coach, Joe DeMeo, would take him 30 miles north to Skyline College for a session with a club called the Peninsula Grapplers.”
Dedication
Dave Schultz was not a wrestling prodigy. He was dominating from the start. He took time and dedication.
Dave Schultz had dyslexia and was teased and made fun of by other kids. When Dave first stepped onto the wrestling mat in seventh grade, he was clumsy and uncoordinated. He didn’t even make it to the varsity team and while fighting JV he only won half of his matches. Many kids would have given up and found a new sport or hobby, but not Dave. He was determined and within two years he was ranked the second best fighter in the world for his age group.
I have already noticed that Dave Schultz practiced a lot. He put in more hours on the mat than most fighters would be willing to do. He walked across campus with his wrestling shoes strapped around his neck. He carried a huge copy of an illustrated wrestling guide in his backpack.
She didn’t get her driver’s license at age 16 because she didn’t want to spend time taking the class. He had a girlfriend for a short time during his senior year of high school, but he dumped her after she suggested that he should spend more time with her and less time fighting.
Focus on technique
Dave Schultz studied wrestling, breaking down techniques and breaking down each move. For Dave, wrestling was like a game of chess. He knew that he wouldn’t always be stronger than an opponent, but he could outthink him. in a Sports Illustrated The article Dave states: “Guys have certain tactics and I study them. Then I try to do what annoys them best.”
Schultz has been universally praised for being one of the best managers the sport of wrestling has ever had. He was considered by many to be the greatest technician in wrestling and a master tactician. His knowledge of wrestling was enormous.
Bill Scherr, 1988 Olympic gold medalist and friend states, “Dave possessed many unique qualities that gave him the drive and ability to become the best technical wrestler in the United States. First, Dave was as competitive as any athlete he ever met.” He didn’t like being beaten. He was consumed with being the best and he believed that learning more and better technique was the key to reaching that goal. Second, Dave had a tremendous mind. While we were on the National Team together, Dave got into chess and soon had us all playing. And I don’t remember him losing.”
Schultz viewed videotapes of his matches and those of his competitors. He always had a notebook with him and wrote down the techniques and things he needed to work on.
He learned freestyle and Greco-Roman techniques in addition to his scholastic wrestling even when he was in high school.
Humble and willing to learn
Dave Schultz learned Russian and other languages so he could speak and learn from fighters from different nations. And, he willingly shared his technical knowledge with anyone. He was a great ambassador for the sport of wrestling. He had friends all over the world.
Two-time Olympic champion John Smith states: “He took the time to teach you techniques. He wouldn’t let you go until you understood it. This is very unique in wrestling, because most athletes have their information. Dave Schultz was not Here.”
Dave was willing to learn from fighters, even the seemingly less talented ones. He didn’t have a big ego. He was willing to learn a good technique from anyone. Information and knowledge were valuable to him. He was always collecting everyone’s brains and asking other fighters about moves.
Other wrestlers with obstacles
Legendary wrestler Gene Mills, stated in a book: “I was an 88-pound ball of butter my freshman year of high school when I started wrestling in Wayne, New Jersey. Wrestling was the sport for me and I won the states in my last year”. and two NCAA championships at Syracuse University in 1979 and 1981. My father taught me my favorite move: the half nelson. on top. It worked very well for me “.
Colleges weren’t that interested in Gene even though he had been dominant in high school. Mills was small and claims he could only bench £100 at the time. His former coach from Syracuse remembers Gene as a puny high school senior, and yet he took a chance on Mills, who would go on to become one of the greatest wrestlers America has ever seen.
A two-time NCAA champion, Gene set the NCAA Division I career pin record with 107 pins. That record stands to this day.
Gene was unable to wrestle in the 1980 Olympics due to the American boycott. Says Gene, “I wanted to break through to the Olympics and I knew I had to get down to 114.5 to reach my goal. It was hard for me, but I did it.”
Unfortunately, he was unable to wrestle at the Olympics, but he did win the prestigious Tbilisi Tournament in 1980, which was said to be more difficult than the Olympics at one time.
According to the article “Gene Mills: The Uncrowned King,” “Gene Mills achieved what no other human being has accomplished since the Russians’ renowned Tbilisi Tournament began in ’58. He had no bad grades, which means he defeated all eight enemies by 12 or more”. more points. He immobilized seven of his victims.
IN Sports Illustrated The article referred to Doug Blubaugh as “a beefy, haircut Olympic champion who wears thick horn-rimmed glasses.” In fact, some say that Doug Blubaugh was legally blind without his glasses. If you look at pictures of Blubaugh, he might even look a bit nerdy until you look closely at his body and see how muscular he was.
A fellow wrestler described Blubaugh as “smart, confident, kind, generous, and a Superman with Coke bottle glasses that allowed him to see the world a little differently than the rest of us.”
Doug Blubaugh was another humble and friendly man like Dave Schultz who turned out to be a great fighter and trainer. Blubaugh grew up on a farm with no electricity or running water and had vision problems, but it didn’t interfere with his desire to become a great wrestler.
Three-time NCAA All-American Ken Chertow didn’t start out as a perfect wrestler. It took time and practice for him to become so successful.
Chertow states, “When I started wrestling in high school, I quickly incorporated shadow drills into my training program. I was slow and chubby, so my shadow drill wasn’t very fluid, but I steadily improved every day.”
Olympic champion Kendall Cross may not have looked so imposing when he stepped onto the Oklahoma State campus. But after winning the 125.5-pound Olympic title in 1996, Sports Illustrated spoke with USA wrestling coach Joe Seay who had a few words to say about Cross. “He came to Oklahoma State 10 years ago as Gumby, with no muscles. He became a champion.”
final thoughts
Maybe you are clumsy and uncoordinated. Maybe you are a little overweight. Maybe you are small. Maybe you are skinny. Maybe you’re not that strong. Maybe your vision is not so good. Perhaps you have had to overcome many adversities in your life. You may not look imposing at all. But, Dave Schultz and other fighters have shown that with practice and determination it is possible to become a better fighter than you ever imagined.
Remember to seek out qualified mentors and teachers, dedicate yourself to spending a lot of time practicing, focus on perfecting your technique, be willing to listen and learn, and be humble and work hard. Then you will almost certainly become a successful fighter.
