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Prilepin’s Chart: Answering the Sets and Reps Question

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A.S. Prilepin was a Soviet weightlifting coach who kept meticulous notes of over a thousand of training logs of his trainees. The result of these notes? A general guideline for strength training that people still use to this day.

The Chart

Prilepin’s chart was designed for powerlifters, but the strength training aspect is relevant to combat sports. Since powerlifting is also divided up into weight classes, the strength-to-size ratio is just as important. In short, it’s not just about how much you can lift. It’s also about how much you can lift BASED ON YOUR SIZE. See how this could be useful in combat sports like wrestling and jiu jitsu?

Percentages

If you’re completely unfamiliar with lifting, your 1RM is your one rep max. This is the maximum amount of weight you can lift with one repetition of any given movement such as the squat, deadlift, or bench press. The higher percent you lift, the heavier the load on your nervous system. This makes for longer recovery time and is ineffective from a volume standpoint. That brings us to the next definition.

Volume

Consider volume to be the weight you lift times reps times sets. For example, five sets of five reps of 200 pounds on the squat equals 5000 pounds of volume.

One set = 200 lbs X 5 = 1000 lbs

Five sets = 1000 lbs X 5 = 5000 lbs

Makes intuitive sense, right? The higher percentage lift, the lower the total volume. However, you still want to train for a high percentage of your one rep max too so that your nervous system is able to handle those weights. Long story short, you can see that strength training program can get very complicated very quickly.

Reps/Sets [Note: “Reps” are short for repetitions]

This column refers to the amount of individual reps performed in a set. It doesn’t exceed six repetitions because it’s originally designed for power lifts, which focus on explosive, perfect form. Anywhere higher leads to slowing down movements and suboptimal form. For power lifters, this is a problem. You want to be most explosive with the cleanest technique (because proper technique maximizes your ability to exert force while also minimizing your risk for injury).

Total Range

This explains the total amount of reps in the training session. This number varies because people respond differently to the same training sessions, but staying in the total range helps you get an idea of where the best results might be. World class strength coaches will understand that some athletes (regardless of sport) respond better to higher amounts of volume while some athletes respond better to lower amounts of volume when it comes to strength gains.

Optimal

Based on Prilepin’s observations, this is the optimal amount of total reps to perform. If you don’t have access and the financial means to hire a strength coach, this is a good enough starting point.

In this particular study, Prilepin’s Chart was applied to the three big lifts: the squat, bench press, and deadlift with favorable results. Additionally, these exercises will also give you the most bang for your buck! In general, while there is a time and place for isolation exercises (like bicep curls), you’d be far more efficient focusing on compound exercises that use more muscle groups such as the squat, bench press, dead lift, pull ups, rows, and overhead press.

Happy lifting! Do you feel that your strength training is adequate?

Military Strategy: John Boyd on Why Quick Decisions Win

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I recently listened to a partner at a Venture Capital firm talk about startups that are quick to take action. I couldn’t have said it any better myself, so here’s the quote:

“Commander John Boyd was a flight instructor for the air force. There was this expression that in a simulated dog fight, he could beat any pilot in like 30 seconds or some outrageously quick amount of time. People were like, “How does he do that?” He taught this form of combat, which was about moving very quickly. So, if you place yourself in the time I was reading about John Boyd, it was also when I was working with Eric Ries and Steve Blank. Eric Ries was a consultant at Floodgate before he wrote The Lean Startup. He’s famous just like … I have this magnetism for famous future to be authors, I guess.

We were talking, and we’re like, “Something really important is happening here - offshore labor, search engine marketing, opensource software, broadband penetration, global markets - and it seems like you can get a product to market for less money, you can do it faster.” Steve Blank started talking about this guy named John Boyd. John Boyd was this flight instructor in the air force and he could beat anybody in a dog fight super fast. Boyd’s fundamental insight was that sometimes you can win a battle purely by being faster.

It’s like let’s say you’re in a Russian MiG and I’m in an F16, and I make the wrong move but you haven’t moved yet, then I make the right move before you’ve moved yet. Just the mere fact that I was able to make a move and course correct before you made your countermove means two things. I can get in the right position relative to you, but, more importantly, it’s very disorienting to you ‘cause you don’t know where I am. I was here, now I’m there. The philosophy of John Boyd that was inspiring to me back in 2005, and one of the reasons I started Floodgate, was, I was like, “You can do this as an entrepreneur and an investor.”

The F16 fighter jet was designed to John Boyd’s spec. An F16 doesn’t fly faster than a Russian MiG, but it changes directions faster. The F16 fighter was a system, it wasn’t just the plane, which could change direction faster, it was the mind of the pilot. The mind of an agile pilot with an agile plane will beat a Russian MiG all day long. So, I was like, “That’s what’s going to happen with startups.” That’s why 500,000 is the new 5,000,000, and that’s why we need to go fund these agile entrepreneurs. They’re going to be able to force multiply, and the big competitors who’ve raised a bunch of money are going slower, doing waterfall development, they’re going to be disoriented by how fast these companies move.

What I really learned from Boyd was kind of this idea that if you are a speed based competitor, you can be wrong but still be right quicker, which makes you right.”

 

To view the transcript of the entire show, you can click here.

Anyway, “Forty Second Boyd” (according to Wikipedia) could supposedly beat any pilot in a dogfight within forty seconds, which was unbelievable. While that transcript related to startups, the advice is great in terms of self improvement and pursuing excellence in any discipline.

As you know, there’s a massive difference between starting when you’re “good enough” and starting when you’re “perfect”. You can always adjust along the way for the former (and you’ll probably reach a high level of mastery faster than if you waited for perfection in the first place).

What’s the key takeaway here? Don’t let paralysis by analysis get you. Get moving towards your goals. Wanna start a lifting program? Do it. Looking to start crosstraining in another sport like boxing, jiu jitsu, or judo? Do it now. Unless you’re injured and medically unable to train, there’s no need to “wait for the right time” before you start training. Getting in shape will happen along the way if you’re conscious about taking action.

Looking to attend a training camp but don’t think that you’re ready? Go to camp and prepare to the furthest extent possible before that.

Wondering whether or not you should be ready to enter a tournament one month from now? Commit to it.

Trying to run/read/relax regularly? Take the first step now, even if it’s not the “perfect” decision in the perfect situation that you’re looking for. There’s always the possibility of adjustments.

By following John Boyd’s principle, you’ll find that you can take massive action, make mistakes, and still “win” over the long term. Compound interest generally favors the investor who started earlier and not the investor who put the most money in later. I believe the same applies when you invest in yourself through learning, wrestling, and jumping levels.

Take action now. Adjust along the way.

Thinking Out of the Box: Prep School Edition

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Good old prep school days.
This post is brought to you by Vermont Wrestler, a regional wrestling site designed to take the ‘aggravation’ out of ‘navigation’. Steve Cerrone does all the leg work so you’re just a click away from ‘anything wrestling‘. Be on the look out for his upcoming recruiting showcase where roughly 25 college wrestling programs from the New England region will be in attendance! To find out more, click here.
The elusive prep boarding school (for the sake of this article, prep school and private school will be used interchangeably) brings all sorts of different images to different people. Some envision something similar to a Harry Potter movie. Some may think of private schools that recruit some of the most athletically gifted people in the country to create one “super term” in a particular sport like lacrosse, basketball, or wrestling. Others may think of spoiled rich kids sent off to fancy boarding schools where butlers cater to them 24/7. On the more extreme end, some people even think you get sent to boarding school when you do something terrible and need some serious help. Truth be told, the answer is probably somewhere in between those extremes with a unique twist to each school. Two well-known examples you may be familiar with are Blair Academy and Wyoming Seminary.
Private boarding schools create this unique environment where people all over the world come to study in a particular school, which results in a student body as diverse as New York City. Academics tend to be very challenging, but you’ll have some incredible resources at your disposal (sail boats, architecture studios, black box theaters, and state of the art athletic centers just to name a few). Your teachers are also your dorm faculty and sports coaches, so they will get to know you beyond your knowledge of Calculus or American History. Similar to living in college, you’ll be living by yourself, but you’ll also have some structure built into the school. In terms of personal development in and out of the classroom, you’ll have a hard time finding anything that comes close (outside of your personal growth as a wrestler, of course). This unique experience comes with tons of benefits, which is what I’ll try to convey to you in this post.

College Before College

If you still have a hard time understanding what a private boarding school is, consider it to be the pre-college experience before college. The rules are ultimately more structured than college (for example, depending on the school, you may be required to be back in your dorm room by 8pm or 9pm on weeknights, etc.)
The application process for prep schools is very similar to the college application process, so it’s great practice. Financial aid is also available (both merit and need based), so you may be able to afford boarding school despite the initial price tag that you see. This is because some of these schools have such massive endowments (alumni donations to support the school) that they can afford to support students as long as the student seems to be a good fit for the school. However, the unique twist to boarding school is that you can enroll at any year of high school, which makes it different from college. For the most part, you’ll see students enrolling in their freshman or sophomore year of high school. Some high schoolers choose to repeat their senior year of high school in prep school to get more academically prepared for college. This is called a Post-Grad or PG year. Additionally, if you demonstrate that you are receiving financial aid for prep school, colleges may be more understanding of your need for financial aid and will put that into consideration when you apply to college, which works in your favor.

Prestige and Academic Rigor

Personally, my senior year of high school in boarding school was harder than my freshman year of college. I made Dean’s list more often in college than in high school (though admittedly, I still had plenty of room for maturity in high school). Many of my classmates found their college freshman experiences to be similar.
During the application process, some colleges seem to recognize prep schools for their academic rigor as well. In some cases, they will inflate your GPA up if they see that you are from a boarding school since they know how difficult it is (to provide context, many admissions offices will actually deflate high school GPAs). For example, I went to what was (and still is) considered an elite prep school and about 25% of my graduating class went on to Ivy league schools. If you’re aiming for some of the best colleges and universities in the US, it may be worth looking into a solid boarding school to prepare you for it.

Similar Benefits to College

People generally pursue a college degree for several reasons- education, professional opportunities/networking, extracurriculars, social life, and other particular needs. In many cases, you’ll be able to find these same benefits in prep school. We already covered education, so we’ll explore the other categories.

Professional Opportunities/Networking

As you would expect from a school with such an impressive academic turnout, your professional network grows pretty well as a result of this. For example, to my knowledge, my friends from high school went on to work at firms like JP Morgan, Google, Goldman Sachs, Ernst & Young, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Deloitte & Touche, and KPMG. At the time of this writing, some were still pursuing MBAs and JDs to get into prestigious consulting and law firms in various large cities like New York City, Boston, and Chicago. A brave few have gotten involved with various startups and have succeeded. Some of the older alumni go on to run (or own) large multinational companies as well, so you have an expansive network to tap into.

Extracurriculars/Social Life

Some prep schools will actually have more extracurricular activities and options available than certain colleges. For example (and to be fair this isn’t even common within prep schools), some prep schools have an on-campus golf course or ski hill. This all depends on what you’re searching for, of course. You can find a club or sports team for virtually anything. In terms of social life, boarding schools vary in terms of structure and freedom, so you’ll have multiple options to choose from. Depending on the size of the school (it ranges anywhere from 300 to 2000 students), schools will also have a different feel (similar to the choice of living in the suburbs as opposed to living in a city, but on a smaller scale).

Take a Look!

To start, you may be interested in checking out which schools attended Prep Nationals to have an idea of how good each school is in terms of wrestling. There may be consistent front runners at Prep Nationals, but some of the smaller schools may be just as good while being in places with less wrestling depth. For what it’s worth, the most “prestigious” boarding schools tend to be located in the New England region, so you’ll have plenty of schools to search from based on those two criteria.

The Hero’s Journey

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Joseph Campbell’s concept of a Hero’s Journey from the book “Hero With a Thousand Faces” caught my eye. Defining a hero as “someone who found, or achieved, or did something beyond the normal range of achievement, and who has given his life to something bigger than himself or other than himself”, he shows examples of individuals (both real and mythical) who undergo the hero’s journey. The result? A similar, repeatable pattern. Regardless of what you pursue, the Hero’s Journey appears to be a very interesting way to take a step back to see the bigger picture of what you might expect out of your journey. Personally, I’ve seen this pattern occur in cycles in different stages of my life, each with different obstacles to overcome. Now that I look at it from a higher perspective, I can see that there is in fact a pattern to it all.

Another heartening takeaway from the book is the fact that heroes didn’t begin as heroes. They became heroes from the circumstances they faced and inevitably had to overcome. Don’t think you’re capable of achieving great things? That’s fine- you’ll get there. Just take the first step.

With that in mind, let’s break down the Hero’s Journey based on Ray Dalio’s interpretation of the Hero’s Journey in his book, “Principles“.

Call to Adventure

The Hero’s Journey begins in the ordinary world we all live in. At some point, the hero is drawn to a “call to adventure”, or a calling of some sort. Sometimes, this call to adventure starts as a gentle pull or a minor attraction of sorts. At first, I certainly wasn’t in love with wrestling. Various factors drew me in, but that’s a story for another time. Eventually, I caught the wrestling bug and got addicted. I couldn’t watch or learn enough wrestling at any given time (to be fair, I still have this tendency and have to suppress it in order to get productive with other endeavors. It’s torture, man).

To others, the call to adventure is like love at first sight. Ioannis “Hermes” Melissanidis supposedly saw gymnastics for the first time on TV, and immediately knew that this was what he wanted to do. He had found his call to adventure. Initially, coming from a family that consisted mostly of doctors, his family wanted nothing to do with it, and refused his request to arrange a trainer to study gymnastics and compete for Greece on the Olympic team. “Absolutely not!” they said. So, what happened next?

Crossing the Threshold and The Road of Trials

At this point, life ceases to be ordinary. You embark on your Hero’s Journey. Along the way, you fight your battles, resist temptations, experience success, and overcome failure. On this journey, you’ll mostly likely receive help from other, more experienced people in the form of advice or mentorship. You gain allies and enemies along the way. Most importantly, you learn how to fight, often against conventional opinions or “wisdom”. You overcome your fear of fighting because of the sheer, incredible determination to achieve what you want, and gain skills from your battles or tests along with gifts (in the form of advice or anything else) from others.

With determination that is unusual of most children (and certainly adults), eight-year-old Hermes went on a hunger strike for several days (if you’d like to read this brief story, search for the heading “The Daimon in Action”). He refused to eat until his parents agreed to discuss the issue, and they eventually came to a compromise. Hermes finally got what he wanted- permission to study gymnastics full time. His parents would support it logistically and financially (after all, they were doctors and doctors can afford this sort of thing). In return, Hermes promised that he would also become a doctor, and so continued his Hero’s Journey.

In case you were curious as to how that particular journey ended, Hermes graduated from medical school and won a gold medal at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.

Abyss

At some point, as the hero, you experience at least one massive big failure that tests whether you have the resilience to rise again with more wisdom and determination. If you do, and I’d be lying to you if this were easy, you’ll undergo a significant change (Joseph Campbell refers to this as a “metamorphosis”) where you experience the same fear, but propel yourself through that fear with enough determination to stay on the path and keep moving forward.

In my particular case with my high school wrestling career, this abyss was my first ever summer training with the Thai national team, where I got my ass kicked for the most part. To make matters worse, I sprained my ankle on the second day of camp, which was the first time I ever missed wrestling training due to an injury. My ankle continued to heal for two weeks, but I could no longer stand the idea of missing practice so I returned to training somewhat prematurely (for what it’s worth, I knew that I’d have a full month to rest between training camp and school, so I decided to make the most of my training). As for the metamorphosis, I returned to school completely changed in mind, body, and spirit (according to a few friends and mentors). Training camp had truly changed my life, and I would never be the same person after that.

The Ultimate Boon, Crossing Back Into Ordinary Life, and Returning the Boon

Joseph Campbell calls the hero’s biggest reward “the boon”, which is the special knowledge about how to succeed that the hero has earned through his journey. Eventually winning more battles and acquiring more rewards becomes less exciting to heroes than passing along that knowledge to others, or “returning the boon”. Once the boon is returned, the cycle continues and you move into the next phase of your life.

You’ll see this extremely often in combat sports. Marcelo Garcia, one of the greatest of all time in Jiu-Jitsu, runs a gym in New York City to pass on his knowledge. After Dan Gable‘s historic run to Freestyle Wrestling gold in the 1972 Olympics where he didn’t give up a single point (with a torn ligament in his knee), he went on to coach at the University of Iowa, which became one of the most successful and dominant wrestling programs in the United States. American Judo legend Jimmy Pedro became one of the most sought-after judo instructors in the United States, coaching some of the best judokas in American history, including multiple-time Olympian and medalist Travis Stevens along with two-time Olympic gold medalist Kayla Harrison.

Key Takeaways

At this point, the cycle of the journey repeats. Maybe you undergo the Hero’s Journey as a coach, or your call to adventure pulls you in another direction entirely like business or acting. Regardless of the next steps, here are some key takeaways from the Hero’s Journey.

First, the Hero’s Journey seems to manifest itself in different ways. The beauty of this idea is that it can take the form of small projects or massive undertakings. Regardless of similarity in structure, each journey is ultimately unique and truly your own.

Second, achieving the extraordinary is not a linear process. You will experience lows along with the highs. You’ll end up with enemies along with friends. More importantly, you’ll experience some of the most profound changes in your life, and perhaps the most rewarding. You’ll experience the paradox of seemingly discovering yourself while reinventing yourself at the same time.

Finally, if you’re currently going through the Hero’s Journey, you may feel lonely at times. Maybe you feel as if nobody understands you. If this is the case, remind yourself that you are not alone. Throughout history, people have felt the same thing that you feel right now and have overcome it on the way to achieving incredible goals. Now that you no longer live in the ordinary world, you will feel isolated at times, and that’s okay. You have the choice of turning back, but something tells me that you won’t. That something is the compelling inner voice that you are finally listening to, and it reminds you of three truths:

  • On the other side of that dark tunnel is light, and there you will find what you are looking for.
  • Throughout the journey, you become increasingly capable of reaching the light at the end of that dark tunnel.
  • The ultimate boon waiting for you at the end of the tunnel is worth cherishing and more importantly, worth sharing.

To achieve extraordinary goals, you must surpass extraordinary obstacles.

How far are you along your own hero’s journey?

Are You Scared Of Tough Academic Schools? Maybe You Shouldn’t Be

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I recently read a post on Quora where a student (it wasn’t clear whether or not he/she was an athlete but it’s still relevant) got accepted to Stanford and Dartmouth, but was afraid of not being able to keep up with classmates since both places are known to be some of the best academic institutions in the country. This insightful response got the most upvotes.

Let’s explore this thought process through different perspectives.

College Advisor

This may not be standard practice, but certain college advisors or recruiting consultants try to get a good reputation by saying that a large percentage of their students get into their top choice school. However, it’s important to remember that there are two main ways to get into your top choice school as a student.

The first way would be to raise your level academically and athletically in order to get accepted by these selective schools. Of course, this takes years. You can’t go into senior year realizing that you’ve been lazy for three years and hope to reach your potential top choice school if it’s a very selective school. Intuitively, this makes sense. Are you really going to win an NCAA title by going through the motions for three years and then deciding to work hard in the last year? Absolutely not. It may be a different story if you’re a truly gifted athlete, but why would you want to roll the genetic dice like that? Assuming you’re on a college wrestling team, you already care more about wrestling than a majority of the population. If you care that much, why would you leave it to chance? As you can see, this is the proper way to get into your top choice school. Set high standards and work your tail off to reach your goals. However, college advisors or recruiting consultants don’t have control over this, so they may look at the second option. So, what’s the other option to get into a top choice school?

You may have guessed it- lower your expectations. “What’s that, Jonny Wrestling? You wanna wrestle at this school? Ha! In your dreams. Let’s go through this list of schools you actually have a chance of getting in.” The issue here is that Jonny Wrestling actually had a shot of getting in that school, but the college advisor or recruiting consultant wanted to look good for his or her business by lowering Jonny’s expectations. This is absurd. It’s the equivalent of a wrestling club telling their wrestlers not to go for state championships so that the club owner can tell parents that 90% of their wrestlers meet their high school wrestling goals. If a kid wants to go for a state title, let them. If a kid wants to apply to a really selective school, then let them at least try.

If you’re reading this as a college advisor or recruiting consultant, then let me give it to you straight- cut the crap. You’re a scum bag for even considering this option, and you need to stop this right now. Are you seriously lowering that kid’s potential and talking them out of a high quality education just so you can look good for your business? Screw that. Getting a college education and a degree from a great academic institution will open many doors and lead to tons of opportunities for students, and lowering their expectations just so you can look good is basically taking advantage of a teenager’s future for the benefit of your business. Find a better indicator of success for your advising or consulting business or get out. Parents, be wary of this. If you so much as get the impression that they see your son or daughter as a dollar sign or statistic on their brochure or annual report, then proceed with caution or find someone else altogether.

College Institution

The hardest part of a tough academic institution like an Ivy League school is getting admitted. You may certainly face your own challenges after that, but you can expect the college to be much more helpful in your endeavors after you get accepted. Why is this the case? Let’s take a look at it from their point of view. In particular, we’re going to be looking at acceptance rates and retention rates to gain a better understanding.

The lower a school’s acceptance rates, the better and more selective they look. It’s a way or saying, “A lot of people want to come to our school, but we only take in the best of the best.” Fair enough. That’s one way to build a school’s reputation, and this makes sense. The better quality a school is, the more people will know about it, and the more people will apply to it. Colleges can only let so many people in every year, which leads to a lower acceptance rate. It follows that lower acceptance rates are correlated to high quality schools. Of course, that’s not the only indicator of a college’s success.

High retention rates show a college’s ability to keep students at school (as opposed to transferring schools or dropping out). If retention rates are low, that could mean that the college is doing a poor job supporting their students or failing to create an environment in which students can succeed and be happy. Since students aren’t doing well enough or simply aren’t happy (and it can happen for various reasons), they’ll likely transfer. In some cases, students will even drop out, thinking that college isn’t for them.

In short, you want to see low acceptance rates and high retention rates in a top choice school. Of course, you also want to see standardized testing scores and a GPA within your range. There are also some intangibles that go into the decision (how do you quantify a spectacular essay and/or recommendation letter?), so you might as well try.

Don’t Sell Yourself Short

Any good wrestler will go to competitive tournaments to get exposed to the best competition. They’ll go to practices at the better clubs in the area where they know they’ll be pushed. You aren’t doing yourself any favors by ducking the competition. You know what you need to do to be the best that you can be.

Look at academics the same way, and remember the original purpose of going to college in the first place: a degree and an education along with the opportunity to wrestle for four years. Even if you’re on a full scholarship, someone else (a parent, an institution, etc.) is paying for your four or five years of college. Would you ever pay $50,000+ per year just to wrestle? You may as well get your money’s worth and get an education while you’re there too.

Apply to those places. Challenge yourself so that you can push yourself to be the best that you can be. Assuming that those colleges or universities are a good fit for you, enroll in those places. Academics matter.

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D3 Wrestling: What’s It Like? Am I Good Enough To Wrestle D3?

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D3 Wrestling: Is it for you?
Multi-colored tassels: the academic equivalent to gold chains.

You might be considering whether you should wrestle in college, but the D1 wrestling life doesn’t quite sound like what you’re looking for.

D3 wrestling programs are overshadowed by their D1 wrestling counterparts and don’t get nearly as much attention. Of course, it’s unquestionable that more world class wrestlers ultimately emerge from D1 wrestling championship programs. If multiple D1 NCAA titles and Olympic aspirations are on the table for discussion, you’re better off looking at D1.

Statistically speaking, however, many of us aren’t successful enough in high school to get recruited for D1 (myself included), even though walking onto a D1 program is certainly possible in some cases. For those of us who aren’t getting looked at by D1 programs (don’t lie to me! You know who you are), you may be wondering two things in particular:

“Am I good enough to wrestle D3?”

“What’s D3 wrestling like?”

We’ll start with whether or not you’re good enough. Then, we’ll cover what you can expect from the D3 wrestling lifestyle. Finally, we’ll give you a case study based on someone who made the most of his D3 wrestling experience while winning numerous awards along the way.

How Good Do You Have To Be To Wrestle D3?

Let’s start by tackling the athletic scholarship issue. NCAA D3 programs are not allowed to give athletic scholarships, but you can get plenty of financial aid for D3 wrestling schools through other means outside of the athletic scholarship.

You may be really conflicted at the moment. Maybe you were a good wrestler in high school. You might have passed the 100-win mark while placing at a number of tough tournaments (including the state championships), but aren’t quite feeling the D1 wrestling vibe. Maybe you haven’t even passed the 100 win mark in wrestling, but consider yourself a decently tough wrestler. You might have started wrestling as late as freshman year of high school and have fallen in love with it ever since. Is it worth giving D3 wrestling a try? Absolutely.

The skill levels potentially vary more in D3 than any other division, and it really depends on the program. The best D3 wrestlers will be able to keep up and compete with anyone in the country regardless of division, while tough and technically sound high school wrestlers will be able to beat some of the D3 competition right away. Some D3 wrestling schools struggle to fill a lineup, and you’re welcome regardless of skill level just to fill a weight class and pick up forfeits. That works too.

So, how hard is D3 wrestling? We can take my high school senior year record as an example (I started wrestling as a freshman in high school so we’ll leave my prior year records out of this). I won a small tournament and placed at a few competitive tournaments consisting mostly of New England prep schools. At 32 wins and 8 losses, I was one win away from tying the school record at the time for wins in one season, and qualified for every postseason tournament possible up to Prep Nationals. I placed 3rd at the prep school equivalent for the Connecticut state championships, 6th in New England preps, and didn’t place at Prep Nationals.

Putting that into perspective, my college freshman year wrestle off for the 141 weight class was harder than my third place match at states the previous season. However, I certainly won my fair share of matches in college that year, but I lost a lot of matches too. Matches were certainly winnable, but tough.

Long story short, you’re probably good enough to win D3 matches eventually. Of course, with a D3 program, you most likely won’t be factoring in just wrestling, which takes us to the next question.

How Hard Is D3 Wrestling? What's It Like To Wrestle D3?

In many cases, D3 wrestling is about balancing everything in a way that’s consistent to your goals. Here, we’ll cover the academic, athletic, and social side of things. Since D3 wrestling doesn’t have have the athletic scholarship, you’re there because you want to be there. It’s not about money to go to school anymore. With this flexibility, you’ll also find that many D3 wrestlers are more engaged on campus than just being on the wrestling team (but of course, this also depends on the culture of the specific program). College wrestling is still a huge time commitment wherever you go, but you ultimately learn how to make it work because you want to.

Academic

Ultimately, you’re in college for the education and degree (along with your four years of NCAA eligibility, of course). Expect strong academic programs to challenge you if you attend a school with a good reputation. Of course, this can certainly apply to other divisions as well. Pre-med programs will be difficult anywhere you go (watch out for Organic Chemistry, also known as “Orgo.” That’s supposedly the pre-med killer).

Successful D3 wrestlers keep their grades in check, especially if they’re on an academic scholarship. If you’ve earned yourself an academic scholarship, make sure you do the necessary work to maintain your grades so that you don’t lose your academic scholarship. Communicate with your coach about this if necessary. Obviously, if your grades sink and you lose your academic scholarship and can’t afford to attend the college, you won’t be wrestling for that college anyway. Coaches tend to be understanding of this, especially if you’ve shown initiative in trying to manage your time and work hard in practice.

Personally, I chose to wrestle in higher weight classes because I found that my brain got too sluggish (I also wrestled very poorly) when I cut too much weight. My grades would suffer along with my wrestling performance, so I would often wrestle at a weight class where my mind would still be functioning properly.

Athletic

Along with your in-season practices starting sometime in October, be ready for preseason and off season workouts. This may include team runs or morning lifts. In season, expect morning lifts or runs along with wrestling practices in the afternoon. D3 wrestling is still wrestling, and the time commitment will still be noticeable. You most likely won’t be living the same lifestyle as a typical college student.

Ultimately, you get out what you put into wrestling. It’s not uncommon to see wrestlers at extra lifting or drilling sessions. D3 wrestlers aren’t necessarily less committed. In some cases, they’re wrestlers who just had a late start to the sport (like myself) but are still extremely passionate about it.

Professional Benefits

This certainly varies by college, but many of my teammates (and athletes from other sports) had jobs lined up for them after graduation. Some of them (myself included) had a job offer going into senior year of college, which is a great feeling. It’s the job equivalent to committing to a college or being accepted early decision for your college application.

In my particular case, former wrestlers who had graduated were more than willing to help me out by giving me academic advice or professional advice, and this went a long way. I still had to be proactive about searching for opportunities, but I certainly considered myself fortunate to have two very prestigious internships on my resume by the time I graduated college.

You can also leverage your wrestling experiences during job interviews too, and I certainly did. When possible, I actually tried to transition the conversation into how wrestling gave me plenty of opportunities to prove myself as a leader and as a professional (although I also had to be careful not to overdo it). For what it’s worth, I met more former D3 athletes at my job than any other division.

Social Life

You can certainly expect to have friends outside of wrestling (including friends who don’t even do sports to begin with). You also have the opportunity to get involved on campus. For example, I was part of the Interfaith Leadership Council, gave tours, and was one of the student leaders for the International Student Orientation program which was new at the time.

Now here’s where things get controversial, but we’ll talk about them anyway. If you end up hating wrestling and feeling like you want a regular college life, you always have the option of quitting. Wrestling might have helped you get accepted into college financially, but there’s no athletic scholarship money dangling over your head. Some people quit to focus on school or tend to other personal challenges. It all depends on the specific circumstances.

Depending on your reasoning for quitting wrestling, however, you’ll need to look at a few other points. Parties will be there after you graduate and so will a very active social life if you choose. Food and relationships will also be there after you graduate, so there’s no need to feel a sense of urgency there either. Thanksgiving and Christmas meals? Don’t worry. There’s plenty of that after college, too. You only get four years to wrestle in college, so it’s worth making the most of it since you probably won’t get it back after college.

Case Study: Jake Gordon, D3 Standout and CEO of DressedGPS

Jake Gordon, a native of Los Angeles CA, ventured all the way to the Lehigh Valley in PA to wrestle D3 at Muhlenberg College while majoring in business and minoring in political science. He served as captain of the varsity wrestling team for two years and finished with the all-time record in tech falls at Muhlenberg. He also was elected the Philanthropy chair of Alpha Tau Omega.

Gordon is also the recipient of the 2018 NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship, which was given to only 26 male athletes across all divisions for excellence in athletics and academics. He has won numerous awards specific to Muhlenberg College as well. A few examples outside of the awards he won in wrestling include the 2017 Paul M. White ’27 Business Award, the 2018 Muhlenberg Goodwill Prize, and the Muhlenberg Future Alumni Leader Award awarded to one male and one female student of each graduating class.

If that wasn’t enough, Gordon is also co-founder and CEO of DressedGPS, an online platform that allows students to rent or sell outfits to other students.

Long story short, this man’s achievements are legendary and he certainly made the most of his college experience. You can listen to his incredible speech about his college experience here.

Speech

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What sort of college experience are you looking for? Do you want to make the most of it the same way Jake Gordon did? If so, D3 wrestling is worth considering.

Che Chengsupanimit
Che is an entrepreneur and co-founder of College Wrestling Recruiting. He is a former member of Thailand's national freestyle wrestling team and current combat sport enthusiast. Che graduated cum laude from Muhlenberg College in Allentown, PA where he was a four year starter and three year captain. Click here to read more about Che and his writing!

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