The varsity wrestling team is trying to condition longer and harder this season to give them enough energy to wrestle in a long match if necessary.

Senior team captain Braeden Beck wants to improve the team technique by giving feedback to his teammates. He said, “After matches and stuff just going up to kids, telling them what they need to improve on stuff that they can work on that we saw in their matches [and] just elevating their overall technique is gonna take them from the level that they’re currently at to [the] next level.”

The team always does some sort of conditioning each practice, but Beck feels they need more time conditioning. He said, “Throughout the practices we normally start with a warm-up you know jog around, team stretch, then we will go into drilling which is just wrestling, working on our moves, then full go which is trying to stimulate a match. Then after practice, we normally do a kettlebell workout or we will do some kind of sprints, and some sort of conditioning.”

The past two years, they’ve practiced five days a week. Beck said, “I think we should take one of those days at least and just do a conditioning day, get us off the mat, give our bodies time to recover. We are still working on conditioning, so I think that could really benefit the team.”

Beck wants to take a day to do some different types of cardio. He said in early November, “Last year at the end of practice we all get on the line and we run sprints, or during preseason for the past few weeks we’ve been going out after practice and we’ve been doing interval sprints. We jog for twenty yards, sprint for twenty yards, walk for ten yards, catch your breath.”

Junior Sal Palmisano believes conditioning is very effective and helps the team preserve at the end of a match. He said, “Conditioning is the most important thing period because someone might be better than you and you might just be able to wrestle a whole match and they might only be able to wrestle a period. If you could wrestle the whole time I don’t think you’re losing at all really and it’s gonna be really hard for someone to beat you when you’re constantly attacking them and when you’re in shape.”

Palmisano feels conditioning can help an individual in specific ways. He said, “I believe conditioning should be focused on anything really, it’s only solo so it depends on the person and what they need. Some people might need to [do] this, other people might need to do something else, it depends on what you need and what’s effective for during matches.”

Traczyk also wants the team to be able to last for a longer time. He said, “We can last more than three periods. We can last three periods right now, however some of these matches go into overtime and now we will be able to last more than three periods.”

However, Traczyk doesn’t necessarily think there’s a reason to change how the team has been conditioning. He said, “The current conditioning plan is just fine by itself. Our team’s conditioned.”

Traczyk feels this way because conditioning already takes place during practice. He said, “We run everyday, we do wall touches, we do sprints, and I don’t think there’s any reason to change it. We wrestle, that’s enough conditioning by itself.”

Beck’s focus is the team maintaining enough energy to get through all their matches throughout the long season. He said, “I think that a lot of the team gasses out towards the end of the match, and I think that that’s something that was plaguing the team last year. I think that’s something we can really improve on.”

The wrestling team’s season began this weekend with a match against Roosevelt High School in Kent. They compete again on Dec. 10 at Cardinal in Middlefield.