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Everyone thinks they understand goal setting. They say, “I want to win states,” occasionally milk a little motivation out of that thought, but otherwise go about their business. What’s the matter with this? The benefit of goal setting isn’t that it helps fill trophy cases, it’s that it is the best way to promote personal growth and change. From this perspective, goal setting goes from a superficial zero-sum game, to a powerful, life-altering tool. What’s the difference between winning something and earning it? It’s the difference between being Michael Jordan and renting his trophies. Types of Goals Superficial: Winning the … Read More

Any coach can teach technique, but the thing that separates good coaches from great coaches is the ability to develop mental toughness. In this video, Gable talks about the steps to developing mental toughness in a specific athlete, how he evaluated the athlete, and the end result. Transcript Dan Gable: He had always had this problem of holding up. I tested him under tough conditions and I used the same conditions. When I figured out he could go this long, this hard, I mark it down and I asked him to do one thing. “Can you go one more second … Read More

Do you really know what Iowa Style Wrestling is?  It’s a style that can work for anyone, will lead to more fans and can maximize each wrestler’s potential.  Oh, and if you get two wrestlers that wrestle in this fashion, watch out and hold on to your popcorn, because it is going to be an entertaining match! Read on to learn from a Gable Trained NCAA Champ that toiled in the trenches of the Iowa Wrestling room alongside greats like the Brands Brothers, Lincoln McIlravy, Mark Ironside, Randy Lewis, Royce Alger and many more. What is the Iowa Style? A style … Read More

When Coach Gable walked into the practice room, he always had a goal he wanted to accomplish. But the plan to accomplish that goal almost always changed over the course of practice. Gable always kept his finger on the pulse of the practice room and constantly made adjustments based on factors like injury, energy, attitude and the constant goal of maximizing and extending the most productive moments in practice. Transcript Dan Gable: You figure out the process that you need, and you follow that process.  That doesn’t mean you don’t change it.  It’s like I go into practice, everyday I went … Read More

Ever since I started making my Gable Inspired Training Secrets available online, over 2 years ago, It has been my goal to provide motivated wrestlers and coaches with the most straightforward and useful training strategies in the world! Bringing driven wrestlers and coaches together with the most successful and proven training strategies and watching them reach heights they never thought possible is the sole purpose of this website and gives me extreme satisfaction. I have worked with over 30,000 coaches, parents and wrestlers both online and offline in the past two years and it never seizes to amaze me at … Read More

“Baseball is 90% mental. The other half is physical.”   -Yogi Berra, 13 Time World Series Champion As implied by the above quote, attitude, as opposed to technical knowledge or physical talent, is what wins in the most intense competitive moments. Skill and talent may the determining factors between elite and inexperienced athletes, but if two comparable wrestlers are facing off, a slight edge in desire can overcome a world of knowledge or athleticism. The wrestling top position is one of the crucial manifestations of this determination. Even though it is not as reliable a source of tangible points as … Read More

I was going through some old boxes and came across a few memorable photos. When I looked at them, I began to chuckle because several curious things stood out to me… The first is the team picture is from 1996, when I was a Senior at the University of Iowa. At the top of the picture you can see “The Box.” There were numerous reasons you could end up in “The Box,” but if you were in there, you could go ahead and assume that you weren’t getting the job done in some fashion… It could be in the wrestling room, the class … Read More

How To Become A Better Wrestler? Transitioning From College & International to Coaching Youth & High School was difficult! I asked myself… What were the important differences between elite college wrestlers and most youth, middle school, and high school wrestlers? What were the similarities? Establish a Goal. I determined my goal(s) to be: Develop each wrestler to their full potential (on & off the mat) Be sure those that were willing and able to wrestle in college, would be physically and mentally prepared for the challenge. Also, those that don’t want to wrestle in college should be prepared and motivated to … Read More

Dan Gable talks about his practice planning strategies when he was a the coach of the Iowa Hawkeyes, where he won 15 National Team Titles. He says that he would map out 365 days all leading to the NCAA Championship and plan his peaking strategy specific to the team he was going to have.  When it came to planning out his practices he wouldn’t go into great detail but he would assign each day either “Dependent” or “Independent” . He felt that the main goal when constructing a great team was to turn them all into coaches and leaders so if he … Read More