#105 A New Era in Wrestling: Katherine Shai's Inspiring Quest!

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's not important.
The intro is not important.
We just need to get right tothe facts, because we have a lot
to talk about.
We have a lot to talk about.
We have a very special guest,and I'm actually this is
probably a little different forme, because now you know, I've
talked to a few of the femalesenior wrestlers, but we're
talking to Lucha Fit, catherineShy.
Thank you for joining us.

(00:22):
Get your name out there, yes,but you bring a different.
You bring a different twist toit.
Right, we're still going totalk about your whole story, but
we just talked about before howI was kind of bringing up Eric
Barnett and the CompleteWrestler and the things that you
guys are bringing to the gamenow, and how you're changing the
landscape of how wrestling canlook and you're bringing more of
a I guess, a psycho,psychological approach to it,

(00:46):
you know, and and just healthieroutlook to it.
So, ladies and gentlemen, it'sa vision quest podcast.
We are joined by katherine shyand we are going to be starting
out with hey man, where are you?
Where are you from?
Where are you from where?

Speaker 2 (01:00):
where do I, where am I from, where, where do I reside
?
So I'm, I am from California,from the Bay area is where.
I grew up and I live in Denvernow.
So, I'll kind of like guide youthrough my, um, my background.
That basically leads me toDenver, so, um, so, my, my
wrestling journey starts with mydad.

(01:21):
And hang on, we got a kid outhere.

Speaker 1 (01:29):
Nice, that's fine, that's the whole part of this
that's fine bring it the firsttime.

Speaker 2 (01:33):
Hey, my son comes in on like my mental performance
calls.
Uh, he came in when I was doinglike the meditation portion
with my athletes and I was likeI muted myself and I was like
get out, that's awesome.
So if anyone wants, like theyideally had their eyes closed,
but if you had your eyes open,you saw me like no, get out of

(01:55):
here.

Speaker 1 (01:55):
That's awesome, my reality.

Speaker 2 (01:56):
Bring it, so we'll get into that too.
So, yeah, okay, grew up in theBay area.

Speaker 1 (02:02):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (02:03):
My dad went to the 56 and the 60 Olympic games
freestyle and then Greco Oregonguy Lee Allen.
Okay, and um, so my maiden nameis Fulp Allen.
My sister and I both wrestledmy sister Sarah as well on the
national team.
Um, so a lot of this journey islike with my sister as well.
We were mat yeah, we were justthere on the mat, my dad, um, so

(02:27):
my dad transitioned intocoaching after the 60 games and
because that was his greco, okaygames.
Because he, basically, becausehe broke his femur, uncle was
like I thought he was dead.

Speaker 1 (02:52):
Oh, I can imagine yeah, yeah, we're not talking
about cutting birch in thebackyard, we're talking about
cutting huge pine.

Speaker 2 (02:58):
Yeah I can't, I can't imagine so um so uh.
So he transitioned into hiscoaching career and he was doing
Greco, so he was the 1980Olympic coach, a boycott year.
Wow and he took a lot of worldteams and they kind of
structured a little differentduring then, like the Olympic

(03:18):
coach.

Speaker 1 (03:19):
You know this game.
You know this game, holy cow.
Okay, because I mean just wow,okay, yeah, so your Olympic
coach, keep going, sorry game.
You know this game, holy cow?
Okay, because I mean just wow,okay, yeah, so you're a little
bit coach.
Keep going.
Sorry, I'm gonna.
I'm amazed right now.
This is crazy okay so, um.

Speaker 2 (03:32):
So during that time, like the whoever was, like the
olympic coach would take, likeall the world teams, so he was a
coach throughout the 70s, umboycott year, and then in the
80s he so he was coaching atskyline college, which is a
junior college, so coachingmen's collegiate, and during the
time he would teach umself-defense classes.

(03:54):
He had a wrestling club and thewomen in who would join his
self-defense classes he wouldsay, hey, come join my wrestling
club.
And we know, at the time therewas a women's world championship
but team USA didn't sendanybody.
So late eighties my dad waslike, hey, let's have a, you
know, a, world team trialsbasically.

(04:15):
So that was held in Vallejo,california, and so my dad and
then simultaneously my mom werepretty heavy handed and growing
girls wrestling in Californiaand then in the nineties and in
the early two thousands, so, um,so my sister and I got to be a
part of that.
We were very fortunate to growup seeing adult women wrestle

(04:37):
because we were at my dad's club.
We would, um, you know, it wasfunny I was just reflecting on
this just in the last two dayshow I didn't really grow up with
like super structured, likekids club practices.
Um, I started wrestling atabout six and had my first
competition, but one.
I went to one and then, uh, itwas like one a year kind of, and

(05:01):
it started increasing more likefifth grade but I still didn't
have like once or twice a weekkids practices.
Really it was very casual.
I would like essentially likego to my dad's club practices.

Speaker 1 (05:13):
Sometimes there were kids there, sometimes there
weren't, sometimes the the womenwould like bring their little
kids, and so we'd yeah okay, sosometimes I'd wrestle with my
sister, but she's three yearsolder, so she was like much
bigger, sure sure, yeah, but soI mean, even as you were little,
were you still maybe wrestlingsomeone that was maybe not your
age, but they understood thatyou could.

(05:34):
They need to take it easy withyou but still wrestle around
with them probably yeah, yeah,yeah for lack of a better term.
You're, You're, um, uh, uh.
I'm getting old.
My brain, my brain is just goinguh uh, sparring, a lot of
sparring, or something like that, with someone that might be a
little bigger or whatever youknow.

Speaker 2 (05:52):
Yeah, maybe.

Speaker 1 (05:54):
Right.

Speaker 2 (05:54):
Like, but I remember, and I remember like it not
being very structured, you know,my son's sevens were kind of
trying to figure out like wherewe want to, where you want him
to be, you know, um, yeah, andhow much structure right now,
which that's like kind of partof my own theories on wrestling,
yeah, and so, um, so not untilmiddle school was it like actual

(06:18):
season, uh, a season ofpractices, but by then I had a
lot of, I had a lot of wrestlingexperience, um, going to
different things, and I was justin.
I was just in wrestling, prettysaturated in wrestling, but not
like, not like today, like,don't mistaken that to be like,
I'm going to practices all thetime and competing all the time,
no, just around the sport allthe time.

Speaker 1 (06:41):
But you're around a really good part of it.
Yeah, you know you get to seesome really not and not that you
knew it, but at the time, likeyou were taking in things that I
me and Matt rats didn't.
You know that kind of thing, sothat.
But I think a lot of what andwhat you're describing as far as
, like you weren't doing regularpractices, you weren't doing
turn, you know you guys weren'tgoing crazy trying to hit every

(07:02):
duel.
I noticed that a lot,especially with high-level
athletic parents.
You know your dad was crazysuccessful, did a lot of stuff
at a high, high level of a very,very tough sport.
And I noticed that with othercoaches as well, like former
NCAA All-American stuff likethat.
Let my kid do his thing Likethey.

(07:23):
Let you guys kind of feel itout if you don't like, you don't
like it because they rememberthat you know, they remember
that pressure of the competingand they still enjoyed it.
But they're like I don't know ifall my kids go through that yes
yes, so they.
I noticed that and so that'sthat's great though.
So you came up number onearound really really
knowledgeable wrestling.

(07:43):
You didn't know, you didn'thave to know it, but you were
just around it and took that in,and then, on top of that, you
had no like there wasn'tpressure for it.
So it was really really fun.
Did you notice that?
You know, other kids werecrying a lot and maybe you
weren't, because you know itwasn't as much of a and you're
kind of like hey.

Speaker 2 (08:12):
I wonder what's wrong with those guys.
You know I had some awareness,especially as I got older.
You know, like sure Idefinitely had some, some
awareness of of those aspectsand, um, it really, when high
school came in because I didn'treally like know where I would
you know, california girls, highschool was pretty established
even when.
So I went to high school um2002 to to and I graduated 2006.

(08:33):
I um as a family.
My sister was wrestling boysvarsity and as a family, we
decided, hey, this like we're,we're advocating for all girls
competition, and California hasenough that I can compete every
single weekend.
My sister ended her senior yearwith a pretty bad knee injury
from wrestling a kid who, yeah,and she was a very successful.

(08:54):
She was very successful withthe boys yeah and um, we were
like this is kind of like notour path anymore and so I went
all girls and I didn't reallyknow, like, where I would stack
up.
So like, when I made it tofinals of my first girls
tournament, it was like, oh,okay, I actually like I'm pretty
good, like I, I think I knowthis sport okay, so, um, so that

(09:16):
that was, that was fun.
That was lots of rollercoasters.
Um, in the high school so thatwas fun, that was lots of roller
coasters in the high schoolworld.

Speaker 1 (09:26):
What sticks out in your head, though, from youth?
What was the biggest thing?
Because you said you guysweren't going all over, but were
you in some events or whatever.
When you first did it, it kindof grabbed you, were you like
yeah, I definitely like this.

Speaker 2 (09:38):
Middle school.
Yeah, by middle school I wasdefinitely investing a lot more
time, more interest.
I wanted to wrestle more girlsand so I asked to go to the
USGWA Nationals.
My sister was going, so I wentand wrestled middle school.
How I did, I don't remember,not great, because I didn't have
a good idea of like how toprepare myself for a big

(09:59):
competition like that.
And I'm sure some of those kidswere training really hard.
I wasn't in that like mode yet,even just personally.
And then, um, like most of thetime, I'm just like tagging onto
things uh my big, my big tripwas going into my freshman year
in high school.
My dad put on, my dad with awent as a coach and then, um,

(10:20):
there was an organization thatwould do tours like world tours
for wrestling.

Speaker 1 (10:25):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (10:26):
Wayne, my gosh, what was his name?
Forgetting his name, I just mydad decided to go as a coach.
My sister went, like mostlyhigh schoolers, and then I
tagged along.
So we went to Beijing, china.
Oh nice 10 day tour Plus likedual meets with a Chinese team
and practices.
Wow, they beat me up.

Speaker 1 (10:49):
So, yeah, well, you went there, right.
I mean that's the whole.
I mean you didn't know that.

Speaker 2 (10:53):
I just continued to kind of like grab on to little,
like those kinds of littleopportunities and I was very
fortunate being in that kind ofan environment right right to be
able to take advantage of stufflike that.
So really like middle school, Istarted doing more and then
high school was like, okay, thisis like what I do.
Um, I did other sports.
I ran cross country, I swamthat wasn't significant for me.

Speaker 1 (11:15):
I was gonna ask you that if you were like a two,
three sport, you know kind ofkind of kid but and honestly,
the sports you're in, I mean youhad the time anyways because
there were different seasons,right.

Speaker 2 (11:24):
Mm-hmm.
Yes.

Speaker 1 (11:24):
Plus running.
Yeah, running is beautiful forwrestling.

Speaker 2 (11:28):
Loved cross country for wrestling.
I did it middle school, nice,actually, through college.
We don't need to go there.
I wasn't like a college runner,I went to Any soccer, any
soccer.
No, oh dude, I I never didsoccer man the first time I
played soccer was indoors at theOlympic Training Center, lucky

(11:51):
on the walls.
So I was like cool, this is funyeah, I played out there a
couple times.
It's very, very nice out thereand during that time, like going
to more camps, taking advantageof going to girls camps.
The first time I went out tothe center I was like 16 or 17.
So just you know I'm findingthe opportunities getting.

(12:13):
So then I went to.
We'll try to wrap this part up,because now we're getting,
we're taking, I don't know wehaven't even got to the senior
level.

Speaker 1 (12:22):
Nope, nope, that's, that's the point.
So OK, just point.
So okay, just a heads up, andwe may even have some comments
here.

Speaker 2 (12:30):
Oh, you're getting comments.
Can I see that?

Speaker 1 (12:32):
Yeah, yeah.
So Joe made a comment here.
He goes I'm here for you.
Oh, I see, see, denver, denver,yeah.
And then my fellow countryman,wrestle Madness.
We all get along.
We're all this little chasm ofa community.
It's fantastic.

(12:54):
So that's the whole point here.
Everybody gets to hear you'vedone podcasts, I've heard them.
We get a little deeper.
Gary Mayhem and I went foralmost three hours.
Oh my God, he's got afascinating life story so oh
yeah, well, so do you, andthat's the thing, especially
coming up to lucha fit.
I know we're not going to spendforever on all the other stuff,
but so a little, a little moreof the high school level here.

(13:17):
What the camps and stuff wereyou?
What were some of the toughercompetitions you went to in high
school?
That maybe opened your eyes alittle bit more than the next
one yeah, um, nationals.

Speaker 2 (13:28):
Okay, um, I got to go on a second, uh international
tour.
I'm trying to remember how wekind of how that came about, but
that was to austria.
So I did a competition austriaand then we stayed and did a
camp.
I had a slew of wrestlers whowere still around for a long

(13:50):
time.
I know that Deanna Bettermanwas on that trip.
Deanna was on that trip.
Who else was?
There's a few others thathaven't stuck around, but a lot
of those girls were like they.
They stayed on the circuit fora long time.

(14:10):
Yeah, um, nationals, going tousgwa nationals as a high
schooler in the high schooldivision, not middle school, um,
that, those one that was big,starting to compete at senior at
the u S open.
So at the time, how old wereyou?
16.

Speaker 1 (14:28):
Nice.

Speaker 2 (14:29):
Not common anymore, not what we do anymore.

Speaker 1 (14:33):
That's why I asked.

Speaker 2 (14:34):
That's why I was like especially because, um, now you
know, there's so many highschool opportunities now, like
you know, at senior nationalthat the U type of uh yeah
there's like the showcase nowfor high schoolers, right for
girls, and then the boys havesomething else you at the us
open, the us open.

Speaker 1 (14:55):
I know the girl.
I think the girls have theirown division the girls have the
show 15 and the boys it's calledsomething else, I think oh, I
don't know what the boys have,but I know is it because like
liam's and u17 stuff like okayokay, things like that.

Speaker 2 (15:08):
You're 23 and then seniors for boys, so yeah so
really because, because it'slike you for me, like I know the
route that I'm going, like Isee my sister doing that route.
She was three years older thanme, so I got to see kind of like
her doing the college route anddoing all the senior level
competition and really it waskind of like the moment you had

(15:31):
an opportunity to wrestle thewomen at the highest level, you
did it.
So a bunch of high schoolerswould wrestle at the U S open at
16, the moment you couldqualify.

Speaker 1 (15:44):
So so that, oh yeah, To me that's all I mean.
I know the dangers, but mean,to me that's all I mean.

Speaker 2 (15:48):
I know the dangers, but to me that's like all right,
that's awesome, it's wild,right.
I wish I could like find thosematches.
I don't, I don't think I mean Ibet you I'm we might have some
of them recorded, because wehave a lot uh and we like, but I
haven't been able to take themout, but so I think, I would
think that eventually back thenyou would think track wrestling
would have had those on.

(16:08):
I don't think that was a thing.
No no, I don't remember whenthat started.
Yeah, I don't think so.

Speaker 1 (16:15):
Yeah, but anyways.
So the high school portion was,you know, as far as the
strategic, you guys are just outtrying to compete as hard as
you could with the toughestwomen in the country that you
could.
So when you guys are training,was it in high school when you
really started to learn BecauseI think you were obviously going
16 and going to the seniorlevel you guys were learning

(16:36):
some training methods that mosthigh school kids didn't learn.
So were you learning how tocycle through and get ready for
a tournament then at that pointin high school?

Speaker 2 (16:51):
I don't think super well.
Well, I think it was more liketake opportunities, um, because
when fargo would come around,which was like another pretty
significant one.
Um, I always had a lot of feararound like overtraining during
that time, because I'd beentraining so much, yeah.
So for me I realized, you know,later I was like, okay, I
wasn't training the way I neededto in order to be prepared for
fargo yeah, that was a goodlesson for me.

(17:12):
I think um I was always in themix, but um all american.
Yeah, okay, okay but I justwasn't where I wanted to be once
fargo came around.
But so that was a good lessonof starting to learn like, oh,
how do I actually cycle?
Well, how do I take time off sothat I could actually like

(17:33):
train hard for Fargo?
I was always just like I'malready so tired.
I get it, I totally get it andthen I went to Menlo college, so
that's where my dad wascoaching, so he started the

(17:56):
program in 2001.
My sister graduated andattended like within the first
few years, and so then I got tobe there with my sister for a
year and then she left for theOlympic training center, so, um,
so I did four years at MenloCollege.
That was when it was like wewere very in sync with senior
level route.
So we start off the seasonprobably with Sunkist Open,

(18:20):
sunkist International.
We'd have some like collegetournaments or like some dual
meets like, and then reallytruly like we had, we had um
nationals.
I was um fourth, my freshmanyear.
I lost my sister in semis.
A wrestler, dang it, nick.

(18:41):
Wait, yeah, that was rough.
Um, then, I think my sophomoreyear, I think I was third, I'd
lost to jessica medina in semisokay and then and then junior
senior year.
I won, did your sister?

Speaker 1 (18:59):
win it then.
So you did lose to the champion.
Okay, you got that.
You got that, that's okay.
That's okay, right, yep.

Speaker 2 (19:08):
Exactly.
And so it's still even thatcollege season like it's still
for us like built into worldteam trials.
So then as soon as school wasdone in May, I would go spend a
month at the Olympic TrainingCenter getting ready for world
team trials.

Speaker 1 (19:24):
So you guys had your mind on the money, man.
Yeah, you guys said you were.
Well, that's the other thing Iwant to ask you that dynamic
with your dad being coach, howwas that?

Speaker 2 (19:34):
I think it was pretty awesome.

Speaker 1 (19:37):
And my dad's.

Speaker 2 (19:38):
My dad was very different than most coaches,
very more soft-spoken, more andand my dad was in his uh, you
know, 60s, 70s.
He passed in 2012 and um, so hekind of was in his wise man era

(20:00):
, so um way more wise.
And all my, all my teammateslike we're all such good friends
are my college teammates and soat the time they were like I
don't get it, I don't get whatcoach is saying, you know.
And now they're like coach wasso wise, like father figure and
it really brought us alltogether like that's cool um, it

(20:23):
would sit, so it was a prettyspecial group that yeah, that I
had at menlo college, some somenames that people will know if
you watch the ufc a little bit,a little bit carlos yes so she
was my college teammate, nice umashley evan smith, who's been a
little bit like out of thecircuit for a while now.

Speaker 1 (20:44):
Can't say I remember that one.

Speaker 2 (20:46):
Because Carla just like kind of just made her like
last retirement fight and stuff.

Speaker 1 (20:52):
Oh, really Okay, Okay , yep.

Speaker 2 (20:53):
And then, who, oh, oh , oh, who's on the?
Oh?
No, Don't worry, there's a lotof men who are Menlo College and
have fought in the UFC.
Okay.

Speaker 1 (21:08):
I've been fighting all day long.

Speaker 2 (21:10):
Sorry guys, I'm so sorry, can't hate on her.
Don't hate on her.

Speaker 1 (21:15):
I'll find you.

Speaker 2 (21:17):
Look up Menlo College UFC and you'll find who I'm
talking about All of them, yep.
Anyways.
So yeah, so did the, so did thedid the college route and then
went to the Olympic trainingcenter.

Speaker 1 (21:29):
So what with the college route?
Because I can't remember, asfar as the women's circuit back
then, as far as college went,what were their national
championships for you guys backthen?

Speaker 2 (21:39):
And where?

Speaker 1 (21:40):
where were those held ?

Speaker 2 (21:45):
So it was just held at the different colleges.
I mean, it was a pretty smallcircuit, it was called the WCWA.

Speaker 1 (21:53):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (21:55):
It was a coalition of all the coaches and leaders who
built those programs and theyput it together.
Who built those programs andthey put it together.
So the WCWA shifted even justrecently, within the last five
years.
So now we would have Menlo's atNAIA school, so we would have
been part of NAIA, which Menlois now moving to D23 or

(22:21):
something.

Speaker 1 (22:22):
So yeah, only because of people like you.
Right, bringing it up.

Speaker 2 (22:29):
Bringing it up, that's right man so that was the
only like college nationals wedidn't have, like now there's.

Speaker 1 (22:36):
Now they're divided up yeah, that's why I was
wondering, as far as just the,how that landscape has changed.
Yeah, yeah so they.

Speaker 2 (22:43):
They kind of dissolved the WCWA and those
NAIA NCAA there's anotherorganization.

Speaker 1 (22:50):
They kind of took those over and made it official
NCAA takes everything over.

Speaker 2 (22:56):
Well, it hasn't yet right.
We don't have a nationals yetNot yet no.
We had a nationals.
We had a nationals every year,but still it was a portion of it
, but it was still accumulation.
It was always building forWorld Team Trials.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (23:16):
And I know you guys always had it.
I just couldn't rememberexactly how they ran it because
I know I read something about ita while back on the internet.
But, like you said, it was justdifferent back then.
But so we, now we get into thesenior.
Now you've been overseas, soyou've had the experience going
overseas and you wound up goinginto the senior level having

(23:40):
that much of that muchexperience.
So with that being under yourbelt, it was all.
It wasn't new to you, right?
It was just a different, youknow different tournament name
and you're going in?
were you still seeing some ofthe same girls that you were
wrestling at the college levelcoming back through where there
are a lot of retirements?

Speaker 2 (23:56):
oh yeah, oh yeah, yeah, like the same group all
the way through, like even ohreally oh, yeah, yeah yeah, that
get boring well, it can get alittle tedious because you're
like and then you all end up inthe same room at the olympic
training center and battling forthe same spots and they're like
be a team, team usa, and you'relike it's hard, it's hard, yeah

(24:22):
, no, I going um.
I had a lot of that experience.
I had made um a junior Pan Amteam, so like you, 20.
Yep.

Speaker 1 (24:30):
I read that Um and I won.

Speaker 2 (24:32):
So I won junior Pan Ams Nice.
Uh, got to go to Venezuela,that was fun.
And then both my sister and Imade university world.
So it was a little differentand it was like a different
organization who ran that.

(24:54):
So I won University Worlds.
So that was like during mycollege years.

Speaker 1 (24:59):
Okay, okay.

Speaker 2 (25:00):
So I was going in with a lot of like good
international experience.

Speaker 1 (25:05):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (25:06):
So when I got to the training center I was dealing
with a pretty nasty elbow injury, going into world team trials,
age group world team trials solike basically trying to make
another u23 team I'm going touse the same terminology as now,
but it was university worldsyep coming in as like the
retainer reigning world champion, and then I lost my first round

(25:29):
.
Well, I didn't lose, I got, Igot injured, but yeah, I got
taken over very awkwardly.
It was like awkwardly overalmost like a half fireman's and
I posted and then I just likerolled out and was like
screaming so my ucl tour and wetried to reach.

(25:50):
So then, and then I moved tothe olympic training center and
we tried to rehab and it's likeyou know, we have the best care,
we have the best care in theworld.
It's really the professionalsare amazing.
So we did as best we could toget me ready for world team
trials and I was a mess Like I.
Just I couldn't compete.
I was taped every day.
I then got like an ankle injury, an ankle injury.

(26:16):
I have an article on Lucha Fitabout this experience.
People really look for thisarticle because there's not a
lot of information about TommyJohn surgery.
Oh yeah Well it's all baseball.

Speaker 1 (26:24):
You're going to baseball forums for that one.

Speaker 2 (26:26):
Yeah, so if you want to learn more about my
experience, I write that wholething.
I have a whole injury sectionon LutraFit about that.

Speaker 1 (26:35):
LutraFitcom.
Lutrafitcom yes.

Speaker 2 (26:39):
So I had that surgery and then I spent the next year
because that was 2010.
So I spent, or no?
Yeah, that was 2010.
So I spent 2010 to 2011rehabbing.
I feel like I didn't have asmuch time.
Maybe my timeline, I'm notlaughing at your injury.

Speaker 1 (27:01):
I'm laughing at the background, that's all.

Speaker 2 (27:03):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 1 (27:05):
No, no, I could hear the kids in the background.

Speaker 2 (27:07):
Oh, can you hear the?
Oh, I thought you meant thisbackground.

Speaker 1 (27:09):
No, I'm smiling, it's hilarious.

Speaker 2 (27:12):
That's my two year old.
I'm not smiling at your injury,just just saying that's my
little two-year-old that'sawesome um, so, yeah, so rehab
the injury and at the same time,I was needing to move up to 55
kilos.

Speaker 1 (27:28):
So for those who didn't know?

Speaker 2 (27:30):
when women's wrestling was first introduced,
we had four weight classes.
Oh what?
So I couldn't go down to 48kilos, like 105.
I mostly wrestled my collegecareer at like 112.
And then the next weight up is55 kilos 121.
So I had to work.
So I had to work on I love thatstuff.

(28:00):
That's great.
Um, I had to like getsignificantly bigger so I did
the craziest amount of squatsand weightlifting you could ever
imagine.
Like my whole life was in theweight room Cause I was.
I had my big old brace on andall I did was try to get bigger
and I'd never really been ableto like gain a lot of weight
over the years.
Yeah, for me right so yeah.
So then I um, I got myself ready, got myself bigger, so I'm

(28:25):
wrestling 55 kilos.
I was like everyone's so big umand um got myself ready foric
trials and for 2012, and so thatwas like it was pretty
significant for me, because nowall of a sudden I I felt like I
was kind of behind and I didn'thave all this time.

(28:48):
I didn't have like a four-yearcycle get ready.
My now my second Olympic trialscause.
I competed at the 2008 Olympictrials, I also at 55 kilos, and
I was very small, for I wasunderweight and but and I was

(29:08):
still actually underweight by2012 too.
So I I proved to myself howwell I could prepare myself for
something big.
So, like what you were bringingup, like how to prepare
yourself well.
Well, I went from like injuryand being out and not competing
to like getting a couple thingsin and figuring out and then
competing, the best I ever had.

(29:30):
Because I had made nationalteams at a non-olympic weight,
but at the time it was notconsidered that only top two was
right.
So I was like in the mix, I wasthird but I wasn't treated like
national team, which was alittle frustrating.
Now it's not even the case.
Now there's even top four, likewe're, you know.
You mean like we're like, yeah,like these wrestlers are badass

(29:53):
, it's not just the number one,it's not just the number two,
it's not just the number three,like yeah, right um, so it was
like even more slim pickings forresources and for, just like,
even recognition.
You know, I mean like, oh, whoare you?
You're third at the non-olympicway.
Who cares, right?
Yep, um.
So it was the first time 2012olympic trials.

(30:15):
I lost to kelsey campbell inthe finals, who beat holland,
maroulis, um and went on torepresent, and so I lost, lost
to kelsey and uh, and I made myfirst national team at an
olympic weight yeah so to me itreally proved like, oh no, I'm
actually in the, the mix, reallyin the mix, and there are some
like very tough women, yeah, Iwait so.

(30:40):
So then then the cycle goes in.
2012 was a pretty tough yearfor me.
Going into that Olympic trials,like just within a month before
we had a pretty big scare withmy dad.
He went into the hospital, washaving issues, my sister and I
flew out and we just like werewith him.

Speaker 1 (31:00):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (31:01):
I'm trying to kind of like deal with.
You know, oh, does he go onhospice?
Does he do this?
And this is just weeks beforeOlympic trials, so he didn't
attend Olympic trials in 2012.
He coached us in the quarter in2008.
Um, so then this is becomesthis dynamic of like who's my
coach and who's in my corner andall sorts of things, and that's

(31:22):
kind of, that's kind of a bigpart of what I do.
Now.
You know, yeah, um, because theso, then so.
Then he ended up passing.
So Olympic trials is usuallylike May, june, probably May it
may have been April, May I wouldsay April, May, somewhere in
there.
It's gotten a little earlier inthe years.

Speaker 1 (31:42):
Usually it's the US Open and then the Olympic trials
.
I think are usually after.
Some crazy setup like that orwhatever, but I'm not willing.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (31:52):
So, my dad ended up passing um in June of 2012.
So after Olympic trials, um, sowe just like spent a lot of
time at home and and with my momand um, so that was a hard
definitely a hard time for ourfamily and um did you think
about not wrestling anymore?

Speaker 1 (32:13):
Was that ever a thought in your head?
Oh yeah, oh yeah, because, thenbecause like you talked about
having him coaching you in thecorner for so long you know
forever.
I mean forever, the.
I mean I, I can't imagine inhigh school he was, was your
coach in high school.
No, so all the way through.
So that that's tough.
I mean just.
I mean thinking about just as aparent in general, losing a

(32:34):
parent, and then that parents,the person that's being a corner
, that's, that's a, that's a.
That's a tough gig right there,man.

Speaker 2 (32:40):
So yeah, yeah, and didn't really realize like how
much the foundation of, like myfamily structure, yeah, was
intertwined with my wrestling.
Now my sister was retired.
She retired right before 2012.
She was also third 2004 andthird in 2008.

(33:03):
So she had just retired rightbefore 2012.
Another, another kind of injurythat she was like I think I'm
done.

Speaker 1 (33:12):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (33:13):
So it was just me, and so this was like I think I'm
done, yeah, um.
So it was just me, and so thiswas like a tough transition and
um, going in 2012, we usuallyhave like a non-olympic worlds,
so it was like go back to thatnon-olympic weight catholic, and
go win.
This is your time.
I had other people telling methat and I was like you don't
understand, like I don't evenknow where my head of space is
at, like my dad.

(33:34):
I don't know what wrestling isto me right now, so I wrestled.
It was meh, like if I was in adifferent place, I think that
would have been my time to likemove into that position and
start, you know, make a worldteam.
And yeah, that would have beenthe time.
But I, I just 2012 was a reallytough 2013.

(33:55):
It was really tough, like justtrying to figure out who I am
and like what are.
What do I want to do?

Speaker 1 (34:02):
For sure that's tough .
I mean that's, that's a roughroad, and I mean just coming out
and even think, like you justsaid, like it was just I'm the
only one competing now, so it's,did your, did your sister jump
in your corner?

Speaker 2 (34:17):
Has she always been in your corner with your dad too
?
You did jump in my corner hereand there, but by then, um, she
got married in 2013 and wasliving in virginia, so she kind
of like was doing her life, yeah, yeah so.
so that cycle like started offpretty rocky.
And then I want to say I thinkit was like 2013 or 2014.

(34:40):
We had Seiko Yamamoto, who camein and was an assistant coach
at the Olympic Training Center.
And Seiko Yamamoto is a multitime Japanese world champion, an
amazing person all around, likejust one of my, like a dear
friend and a amazing mentor.
And I latched onto Seiko causeI was like I don't, I don't have
like a coach.

(35:01):
I don't like, I was just kindof drowning in, like I just
train all the time, like, and Iwasn't really like improving
dramatically, like I wanted to.
Um, so I have felt like I had alot of years at the training
center that I was just trying tofigure out where I am and what
I'm doing.

Speaker 1 (35:20):
Kind of drifting around figuring it out.

Speaker 2 (35:24):
When you're stuck in the number two and number three
spot, it's really tough.
That's where I was.
The difficult part about livingand training at the Olympic
training center is like yourcoaches are helping you every
day and they're not the ones inyour corner so they can't really
be like fully the ones who arelike here's the strategy of how
you're going to win.

(35:44):
Like I didn't.
I wasn't talking, I was justgoing to practices training as
hard as I could.
You know, and not seeing theresults, and then, like you're
just kind of like what do I do?
This is the best place for usWomen's rest, like female
wrestlers to be.

Speaker 1 (36:01):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
What's going on?
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (36:04):
Yeah so.
So when Sago came, I reallylike latched onto her and she
really helped me develop mystyle, especially as a lanky
wrestler.
I'm about five seven and neverfelt like anyone was like
coaching my style very well.
Um, it was kind of like theycoached for like that compact,

(36:27):
explosive wrestler and I waslike every time I get under I'm
getting extended, like I don'treally understand.
Seiko helped me understandwrestling mechanics in a whole
new way and it fueled likeeverything from there.
I was like, oh my gosh, this isamazing and it made me fall in
love with wrestling again.

Speaker 1 (36:46):
Nice, oh good.

Speaker 2 (36:49):
And so started kind of feeling that energy again and
going into 2015,.
I couldn't even tell you about2014 right now.
I'd have to even like look backand be like where did I go?
What'd I do?
Like I was going on tours.
We're training, you know, we're, we're sure I was going to.
We're doing all the things.

Speaker 1 (37:08):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (37:11):
And 2015 was like things were really coming
together.
I was like putting those thingsinto place that Seiko had
taught me.
So I was second at the at theFrench Grand Prix.
Then there was another I thinkthere was another competition in
between there.
I had like a lot of things backto back, and then we were in

(37:33):
Mongolia and I was in the finalsfor the Mongolian open.
Yep Okay and all of a sudden,I'm like wrestling the finals
and I just like drop.
I took a shot and I just droppedand I go to the corner of the
32nd break and Terry's like whathappened?
Terry's down here.
I don't know, I don't know, Ican't like even walk my foot now

(37:53):
, like I don't know what's goingon.
So then struggle through thelike second period.
I think I was only down by likea takedown.
Um, I ended up losing thatmatch, hobbled off, and luckily
we had a trainer who was likereally, really knowledgeable and
she's like I think this is, uh,a lens frank fracture.

Speaker 1 (38:13):
Really.

Speaker 2 (38:14):
Heard of that thing.
I know Kyle Dake had the samething, angel Escobedo had the
same thing, because I talkedwith those guys about it Okay.
So pretty much like right away,went and had surgery.

Speaker 1 (38:31):
Okay.
So what did they have to do forthat surgery though?
Cause I know we've met withAngel down in Indiana for for a
recruitment trip, but he didn'tget too far into it.
So what did they have to do?

Speaker 2 (38:44):
So what they do is they take a plate and they take
screws and it's like like the,the tiny little ligaments in
between your big toe.

Speaker 1 (38:51):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (38:52):
And, like the next toe has separated and torn and
you can't repair those tinyligaments, so they take a big
metal thing and they screw it into like the bone so that it
fuses back together.
Yeah, so you have that for sixweeks.
So I couldn't walk for sixweeks.

Speaker 1 (39:14):
I had a knee like a sprain, I was going to say, okay
, all right, you couldn't doanything on it for six weeks at
all.

Speaker 2 (39:20):
Yeah, so for me it was after like some serious
success and I think, even goingto that season I had like I
think I was second at the NYCand then I went to Russia and
had a really good competitionand like it was just like things

(39:44):
were coming, yeah, yeah, um.
And now I'm like out again,second surgery, um so six weeks
no walking so this is my wholesummer, 2015 summer, yep, um.
And then I basically had tolearn how to walk, how to shoot,
how to, how to run like how toshoot, how to how to run like,
how to shoot, so that you're,like foot can move, like this
again.

Speaker 1 (39:58):
Yep, yep.

Speaker 2 (40:01):
And then, and then they take it, take it out.

Speaker 1 (40:04):
Really.
Yeah, so but then now, now isthat, is that considered like
another surgery, then removingthat and then the recovery time
kind of gets added on?
Yeah, I don't remember therecovery time kind of gets added
on.

Speaker 2 (40:14):
Yeah, I don't remember the recovery time being
too bad for that, it was morelike the superficial, like the
surface area.

Speaker 1 (40:21):
Yeah, yeah, okay, gotcha man, that sounds rough
With soccer.
I've rolled and done a lot tomy ankles and had feet, injuries
especially.
You know you're talking abouthow you have to roll on it at
the position thing and can'thold a position or anything like
that.
If you're, if you're notrehabbing correctly, because

(40:42):
once your stance is different,now everything's different.
Now you're going to go throughand retrain differently, you
know.
But yeah, I would assume,obviously, like you're talking
about the doctors out there,especially at the Olympiclympic
training center I mean, what washow rigorous?

Speaker 2 (40:59):
was the rehab for that, as far as just kind of
going through day to day everyday, was it like I mean, anytime
I've rehabbed anything, it'syeah, you're doing something
every day because otherwise likeyou're not, you're not just
like sitting out, you live atthe olympic training center.
You're not just like hanging out, right, you're going.
You're essentially going everyday.
Maybe there's a few you knowdays here or there that you have
off, but like, maybe you'redoing soft tissue work, maybe

(41:19):
you're in rehab, maybe you'redoing things on your own, maybe
I'm rehabbing.
Something else that needed likeevery day you get attention, no
matter what.
You're giving yourselfsomething, um, because then
there's conditioning.
So then I'm doing like otherconditioning and doing my weight
training.
I'm doing, I'm going into sportspsych and I'm doing, uh,

(41:39):
mindfulness meditation orsessions with my sports
psychologist.
So it's always something um,especially 2015, like we're
going into olympic year, you, soI had less than six months to
get myself rehab, like like onthe mat, and then you know

(42:01):
you're like gotta get yourselfready and competition ready and
all those things.
But that 2012 experience showedme that, like I like, I know
how to get shit done Like I getmyself ready and prepared for
competition.
I know what that needs to looklike.
I know know how hard I need totrain.
I know what it needs to feellike.
So 2016, I was like okay, I'mreally.

(42:21):
I got myself ready, I had, I.
I wrestled the best I'd everwrestled um was your doubt so
like?

Speaker 1 (42:30):
because I noticed liam had to have knee surgery
when he was in surgery not notin the surgery, but like you've
just gotten done, he was inrehab, things like that.
He was super down because hecouldn't do anything right.
Super down as soon as he was Imean the moment, the moment he
was released to be able to dosomething like it was almost
like he overdid what he wassupposed to do because he he

(42:51):
needed to out.
Did you find that becauseyou're talking about meditation
and things like that did youfind that that helped keep you
through a lot of what you're notnecessarily just a hard time,
but even once you bounce back,it was like you were like boom,
right back at it.
Didn't even matter that ithappened.

Speaker 2 (43:08):
Yes, and I write a lot about this.
I have a couple articles about.
I'm falling behind in wrestlingwhy you're not getting back on
the mat properly.
So some of the biggest mistakesthat athletes make first is
they think that they need to gothrough this emotional and sure.
Yes, you need to express youremotions.
If you're sad, it's hard, sadand yeah it's hard.

(43:35):
Okay, yep, but it's almost likeyou do it, you give it more
justice because you're like look, I'm depressed because I can't
get on like no, you gotta likeswallow your pride a little bit
and you gotta be like well, nowI do something else.
Doesn't mean that this was easy,like I literally one day was
like kicking my scooter becauseI was so angry.
Okay, so bear with me, I meanlike yeah, it doesn't mean
sunshine and roses and I waslike I know exactly what I want

(43:57):
to do and it's all great, no, no, no, yeah, yeah.
This Yep.
But I was like it doesn't matter, like what I want to do,
there's a plan here, so what can?
I do over and over every day.
I had something I had to to docould do whatever.
Yeah, like I couldn't, I handfought with coaches on the wall,

(44:20):
with my knee on a chair nice Ididn't need to do anything about
my foot like, but I was able tolay in against the wall and
have Anderson fight me like this.
Let's hand fight Okay.

(44:41):
Awesome, that's awesome, there'salways something, always,
always, always, something thatyou can do.

Speaker 1 (44:45):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (44:48):
And I did everything that I could do without
disrupting the process, becausethe process is the most
important thing with the rehab.

Speaker 1 (44:58):
So I don't mess with that as a as a coach.
So I coach, I coach soccer, butlike just having cause.
I played on the national teamand things like that when I was
younger with soccer, so knowingwhat the injury process and
rolling my ankles so that waswhat I told him as well was.
He was 45 minutes out ofsurgery and he was in the weight
room right and I was like I'mall for doing whatever you can

(45:18):
to make sure that you're stillin it, because you should,
because a lot of kids now theyget an injury.
What happens is it's not thedoctors necessarily I'm going to
go ahead and blame mom and dad.
Mom and dad, you need to takeit easy, you need this, you need
to stay here.
They can take it easy whilestill staying in condition,
somewhat of condition on theside, because there's always,
like you said, you're handfighting, you're sitting with

(45:38):
your leg up or whatever and justdoing this and hand fighting,
whereas you know, like withsoccer I mean there's plenty I
could be doing If I was going tojust sit there and do the
inside of my foot while I'msitting on a chair, I can pass a
ball like that.
You know just little things tokeep things going right and not
just to be stank.
So it's, it's, it's.
It's impressive again, thewhole lucha fit thing as far as

(45:58):
what with the articles that I'veseen so far, and not not only
just encouraging as a coach butalso helping that process as far
as the healing process, knowingthat if you have a kid that's
out, yeah, you know you wantthem to take it easy, but
include them still in somethingto keep them, because it's also
a part of up here, it's themental side.

Speaker 2 (46:15):
So that's yes, yes, yeah, yeah.
For coaches who have those kidsinjured on the side, hey, what
do you feel like you can dotoday?
Upper body, lower.
You know like okay, okay, cool.
Then I'm going to give you fiveexercises to do.
You've got to do them over andover, and when they're just
sitting there, you justencourage them again, again.
You're like, hey, remember yougot to keep going.
I don't take it personal, youknow like.

Speaker 1 (46:35):
Right, right, that's right, do it.

Speaker 2 (46:38):
You know I'm like come on, yeah, don't forget,
you're doing this.

Speaker 1 (46:43):
Yep, that's right.

Speaker 2 (46:47):
Yes, there's a lot of ways to include your injured
athletes in the process, Evenlike I need you as a timer right
now because, you are going tobe watching the match now
they're engaged I always have asecret agenda it keeps it, and
it's a good one, because it'skeeping their brain going still,
yes, just within the parametersof what they're supposed to be
doing anyways.
So yes, keep them and keep themengaged.
Keep them involved, keep themon there when they want to be

(47:10):
like, oh, I can't do anything,I'll just go home.
You're like no, no, you have tocome each day, like it's still,
you're still part of your job.

Speaker 1 (47:16):
You come in, I've got tasks for you.

Speaker 2 (47:17):
You've got workouts to do um.
You know, you can even havethem like write out their own
workout right.

Speaker 1 (47:25):
Yes, and that was something that I noticed that I
think josh had some of thesekids do a few times, like some.
They got some prettysignificant injuries.
They're going to be out for awhile right, yeah but I mean, as
a parent and I'm sending my kidto a club like that I'd rather
just keep him going too, andjosh was proactive about that as
far as like, hey, you know, youcan still come over here and
run, uh, run my phone, or comeover here and once you run the

(47:46):
radio, just whatever it is, sothey can still be there yeah
some of the kids will leave alittle earlier or whatever.
But you know rehab things likethat, or just they didn't want
to just sit on the side anymore.
But coaches are beginningbecause of things like what you
have, they are continuing tolike improve with how the mental
side of things work in thepractice room and not just in
competition right Becauseobviously going through getting

(48:08):
into your senior level.
That's what you know helped getyou through and obviously led
you into this.
But where did you wind up?

Speaker 2 (48:18):
what were some of the the bigger um gains that you
made after that injury.
Um, well, I mean, really Ididn't have a lot of time to
compete, um, trying to rememberwhat I was able to do, I mean,
obviously it was like qualifyingmyself for um olympic trials
was like the myself for umOlympic trials was like the
first step, um, and that can belike that can be really rocky

(48:38):
and rough when you're justgetting back into things.
You know.
So, yeah, so that was like thetask was be healthy, get that,
get that checked off the list,move on.
Um, so, um, um.
So I didn't have like a ton oftime to be able to compete, okay

(49:00):
, um, but I was still like ableto get myself ready and I and I
was like this is the best I'dever wrestled.
So um and I had, so like I,sarah hildenbrand and I had been
going back and forth um and Iwrestled her at like one of my
first competitions back and itwas the first time I lost to her
and I was like so it's uh, lookat that, sorry.

(49:25):
Then we wrestled at schultz.
So I got to wrestle the schultzand I won the schultz.

Speaker 1 (49:30):
So that was okay, one that is now be coming back.

Speaker 2 (49:34):
When the schultz wrestled sarah in finals beat
her in finals yep tight match,really tight match.
And then I had her first roundolympic trials and like any any
wrestler, experienced wrestlerwho knows like one of their
toughest opponents is they havefirst round.
You're like okay, so that was abig the game.

(49:55):
There was like the mental prep,like yep, really, really over
and over, reset myself a hundredto like a hundred times to get
myself ready to like be in astate to compete with someone
else who's very high level umand I came in and I tacked her
and it was like it was just, Iwas like who am I right now?

(50:17):
like it was a very out of bodyexperience because we just had a
tough match at Schultz.
So it just like shows themental prep, because I couldn't
tell you that.
It was like all these otherthings I did and I grinded
harder it was like the mentalprep.
It was the focus.
It was the focus, it was theintentionality around my
training that helped me makethose shifts and I had no idea

(50:38):
they were there.
I didn't know they were coming.
That's what's really cool aboutthe sport Right.
And then I had Helen, and semishad a good match with Helen.
First time she'd cut down to 53kilos.
It was very up in the airwhether she'd make weight the

(51:02):
first time she even made weight.
So it was like, oh okay, she'shere, you know just kind of have
to deal with.
So I lost to Helen in semis andmade my way back to third and
in the third place spot still analternate.
I've never lost to therunner-up, They'll always be, on

(51:24):
the end Yep.
And then I I took time off, myhusband was.
We were kind of ready to liketransition.
We've been married for twoyears.
His job was ready to transition, so we moved it to Denver, up
here, okay.

Speaker 1 (51:42):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (51:44):
And I was like I don't know.
I like I'm not feeling, I don'twant to go wrestle at world
team trials.
I don't really know what I wantto do.
I needed a shoulder surgery.
My shoulder had been reallynagging me for years.

Speaker 1 (51:59):
Did the shoulder happen with the elbow?

Speaker 2 (52:01):
No.

Speaker 1 (52:02):
No.

Speaker 2 (52:02):
Okay, it was like a lot of overuse, a lot of really
bad wrestling position Like, ohyou can, especially in high
school.
I would be like you canmbar meor like half nelson me to the
ends of the earth and I'll neverturn so I like and then getting
underneath and letting peoplecrank on my shoulders something
that I work on with with mywrestlers a lot yeah so they're

(52:25):
not in the same position intensewear and tear like.
So I don't know when my labrum,my shoulder, had torn, but it
was, it's been torn, and it wasdaily maintenance too, on top of
my major injuries that I'd had.

Speaker 1 (52:40):
There's so many little things so I I can feel
free on that one because I hadthe same thing in my right.
I didn't have surgery because Iwas like I'm 45, I'm not worth
fixing anymore.
But Mine came from pulling abow.
I got it about fifth one and Ihad to literally let go of the
string because it hurt so much,like right in here.
It was so intense.

(53:01):
But I had always dealt with leginjuries.
I was soccer, I didn't have alot up here, you guys had a lot
everywhere as far as wrestlingand I wrestled up until my
junior year but I did not gothrough what you guys went
through.
But my legs I'll tell you what.
Right now I'm really startingto pay the price.
But the upper body injuries Inever realized how incapacitated

(53:24):
I'd be without being able touse an arm.
You know things like that andyou guys were dealing with that
constantly.
So obviously you dealt with itand kind of went on with it and
you competed with it.
Now I would have pushed out andprobably wouldn't have competed
with it, because that's justhow I am.

Speaker 2 (53:35):
It was a lot of years with that injury, yeah, yeah,
and I just was like I've hadenough, I don't even think I can
do this anymore.
So I went in and had surgeryand had it all repaired, yeah,
and then was kind of commutingdown to Colorado Springs for

(53:56):
rehab and I was also pregnantduring that time.
Not letting not letting anyoneknow because I didn't want to
lose, like, my access to thetraining center we had no policy
training center.
we had no policy and I was like,oh, darn terry steiner, like I

(54:18):
can't go to camp right nowbecause, because I'm, you know
still trying to get paid andwhatever services.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, so I was like, oh well, I've got the shoulder
surgery so I'm coming to camplike a day you know yeah,
hanging out hanging, justhanging out.
You know, I like my trainer andTerry like pretty far in.

Speaker 1 (54:37):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (54:39):
So then I was like, by the way, I'm pregnant.

Speaker 1 (54:44):
It was kind of hard to hide at that point.

Speaker 2 (54:47):
It was kind of where I was like I think my trainer is
going to see when I like, gointo my sports bra to get
treatment.
That maybe.
What is this?

Speaker 1 (54:57):
Just wear some bigger sweatpants.
You know that kind of thingyeah.
Whatever it's going over thatway, it's like oh, I'm just
different.

Speaker 2 (55:03):
That's all yeah, yeah , that's fun, but you played the
game.

Speaker 1 (55:07):
You played that, I don't blame you.

Speaker 2 (55:08):
You played the game yes, yes yeah, I didn't know I
didn't know right, um and so, uh.
So yeah, I had my son in 2017and I hadn't didn't really have
plans of like returning towrestling, because I was like
that's mom life now.
So I was not like training tocompete again, I was just
rehabbing my shoulder, okay, umand then yeah.

(55:34):
And then, um, yeah, yeah, andthen I started kind of getting
the itch again the next year andstarted, started and I wanted
to like be involved in wrestlingin denver anyways.
So I was trying to find likewhere can I just like hop in a
room, where could I like wrestlewith somebody, uh, doing some
jujitsu?
Oh nice, because that's whereyou can actually find like

(55:54):
female partners who are adults.
And um, and then started like I, my husband finally was like
okay, you're going to thispractice again so yeah, are you
trying to wrestle again?
I was like no, no, I'm not, youknow, just, I just you know

(56:18):
rumors yeah I didn't know, Ijust wasn't ready to admit it.
And he was kind of like youneed to make this choice.
And I'm, like I'm terrified tosay yes, I want to do this
because I know what that meansfor us and our family and the
sacrifices you guys have to make.

Speaker 1 (56:32):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (56:34):
And now we have a little one.
So, and then and then it wasthe absolute best possible thing
I think, as a family, we couldhave ever done was to have me
come back and wrestle.
I mean, this is like it was.
It was just such an incrediblejourney to come back and I
wanted to come back with acompletely.
I was like, if such anincredible journey to come back

(56:54):
and I wanted to come back with acompletely, I was like, if I'm
coming back to wrestling, I'mcoming back with a different
mindset.
I'm not, you know, I'm notcoming in thinking, okay, here's
katherine, number two, numberthree, like I have to just shift
into who I want to be in orderto be the olympian that I'd like
to be, yeah, to be the worldolympic medalist, and um, so it
was like ridding myself of a lotof old programming of what

(57:16):
wrestling should be, uh, likethe way I grind and how hard and
like can I work smarter?
Um, so this journey.
So I like first competed againin 2019.
I found a mma gym in denver whohad a female owner and also
she's an MMA fighter.
It became my home and I, likewhat I wanted to manifest was

(57:37):
somewhere that I could bring myson and he could just run around
.
I could have him with mebecause he was.
I started training with themfull time because I was battling
around, but I was committed tobeing with them full time.
We made this partnership likeright around his first birthday.

Speaker 1 (57:57):
So, um, I love this cycle, by the way.
We started out with your dad,with you being around all of it,
and now your child is going tobe around.

Speaker 2 (58:05):
That's awesome.

Speaker 1 (58:06):
I love that, that's the best circle ever.

Speaker 2 (58:09):
Full circle moment.
So, so, um, and then I competedfor the first time in 2019 at
the schultz on the train centerthat was a mess.
I was like it's gonna go sogreat, it was a little rough
really really like discouragedme and then, and then I started

(58:31):
just like putting it together, Iwent to, I went to, I went to
Japan for 20 days.

Speaker 1 (58:39):
Yeah, left him home.

Speaker 2 (58:45):
Yeah, I went and trained in Japan for two 20 days
at the same university whereKaori Icho was coaching.
She was working on her return.
She was trying to make the 2020team.
That was so awesome.
That was really really cool.
Then I came back.

(59:05):
I went from my terrible debutat the Schultz to finals at the
US Open, which was reallyawesome.
It was just fun, and then fromthere I won world team trials
and then that qualified me forFinal X.

Speaker 1 (59:22):
Final X I had.

Speaker 2 (59:23):
Sarah in Final X, and then it was just like that
mental challenge and all thosethings of like yeah, these women
have been wrestling for thelast.
This is 2019, right I stoppedin 2016 yeah, yeah so the last
three years try it all overagain the last three years,
these women have built.
So there's just um, it's just atestament to like, no matter

(59:47):
where you are in the place ofyour career or who you've
wrestled in the past and who youbeat.
You know, last time we wrestledI attacked her.
Right now, here I am losing toher at final acts.
But you know what like the thisis um, it's such a tough sport
and it's also a sport of likeyou can make the progresses and

(01:00:08):
you can.
You can keep building and andeven for like sarah and her
career right like.
She talks about the challengesthat she went through for the
like the two cycles like yep forsure I know, I understand, I
get what she's talking about,you know also part of that
journey for her.
you know, like we're alsointertwined.
It's really cool, um, I meanlike when it comes to like Helen

(01:00:33):
and Adeline Vicki Anthony, likethose, those women started
competing in high school, likethey're just a couple of years
behind me and we've known eachother since high school.
So like that's when at thebeginning you're like, have they
stuck around?
And I'm like, yes, yes, theyhave.

Speaker 1 (01:00:52):
Yes, We've known each other all for decades now.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:00:56):
Same faces, yeah.
So really, what was cool aboutthis whole experience was I
figured out how to do it on myown.
I took the skills that Ilearned from the training center
and, even though there was alot of rough patches and I
really think I was there toolong in some ways and not I
didn't have like the coaching.

(01:01:17):
I didn't have like the coaching.
That like not saying that thecoaching wasn't great, it was
the structure of not having acoach guiding me through this
process.
My, my ability to improve aftercoming back for three years of
semi-retirement was fast.
It was really fast to go fromnot training, not training, not

(01:01:38):
training at all, to back on themat and in final X, like just
figuring those things out.
It's, it's, it was just cool toexperience, it was really cool
to experience.

Speaker 1 (01:01:52):
And then that's a good way to go.
Oh, final X, man, that's, Imean I.
I came in.
I've never been to a final X.
I've never I've watched on TVyou were wrestling on the map.

Speaker 2 (01:02:01):
Yeah, I mean and it was the first time I started
seeing women portrayed a littledifferently in the media.
The way women celebrated, likethat's a whole nother
conversation, but like it is thefirst time, yeah.
The first time I like reallycelebrated a match was in that
third and my third place matchat the 2016 Olympic trials and I

(01:02:23):
was like really, I had thispretty wild, exciting match for
it to make that national teamspot and I just like celebrated
like I never had before.
It was a really significantmoment for me.
And then, after that, seeingimages, videos of the women
celebrating, it was because we'dbeen in this mode of like well,

(01:02:43):
I deserve to be here and I'mstoic and I have no emotions.

Speaker 1 (01:02:48):
I saw it across the board were you guys getting
backlash for having celebrations?
Were there people saying no Idon't think.
I don't think there should be.
I mean, obviously we're okaywith the guys doing it, why
can't everybody?
Yeah but it was just kind of astigma you guys had as far as it
was.

Speaker 2 (01:03:03):
It was kind of just like we have to be like stoic
sure we're still earning ourright to be here.
We can't just express.

Speaker 1 (01:03:14):
Right, yeah, nope, yep, I know what you're saying.
Yep, exactly yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:03:18):
So I started seeing the women do that more.
I saw final X and I'm like, ooh, this is exciting, like women
are being featured more.
So it was really cool to be apart of a final X.

Speaker 1 (01:03:27):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (01:03:28):
Um and to, to just you know all the different
components of it.
It was really, it was reallyreally cool, um, so it was fun.
That made it fun to like comeback and be a part of new, new
events I'd never been a part of.

Speaker 1 (01:03:43):
Did you have your family there?
For that?
Were they in attendance, myhusband was in my corner.
That's awesome.

Speaker 2 (01:03:49):
And my son was there with my mom Cool and my son was
there with my mom Cool.
And also during this time mymom started getting involved in
USA Wrestling, so she got on theboard for USA Wrestling.

Speaker 1 (01:04:04):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (01:04:09):
And then she picked up some committees and some
chairs of some committees andthen all of a sudden she's like
like I'm running as second vicepresident of usa wrestling and
then all of a sudden this lastyear she is now first vice
president of usa wrestling underbruce bomb gardner.

Speaker 1 (01:04:23):
so wow, family you are just rolling into wrestling
you guys are in it.
That's awesome that's.

Speaker 2 (01:04:31):
We're in it deep.

Speaker 1 (01:04:32):
That's really cool.
Well, and that's, I think,honestly, if there, I think a
lot of families would reallylike to do that in ways to be
able to be that involved.
But I mean, you guys have somany ties to just great
wrestling from the past that itonly makes sense that your mom
would do that.
It, does it just made sense,that's cool.

Speaker 2 (01:04:54):
That's really cool.
She has played a huge part ingetting the right people the
right resources and why girlswrestling has been sanctioning
the way it has.

Speaker 1 (01:05:00):
Nice.

Speaker 2 (01:05:02):
Because they formed a committee to do that High five
to mom she's over there watchingthe kids right now.
Nice, so Awesome.
Come on thanks, yep, yep.

(01:05:22):
So um, awesome, come on, thanks, yep, yep, so yeah.
So I mean I'm I'm very proud,very proud of my family and the
legacy they've built.
My sister's been integral invirginia helping, helping with
virginia girls wrestling um.
They've gotten a lot ofpushback and I thought you were
wearing Virginia.

Speaker 1 (01:05:35):
Yes my son's coming to Virginia oh nice, my sister's
in Virginia.

Speaker 2 (01:05:42):
She was the women's director for many, many years so
women's wrestling yes no, no,we can't do that.

Speaker 1 (01:05:52):
so yeah, so yes, no, no, we can't do that.
So um very cool.

Speaker 2 (01:05:57):
Yeah, so uh, uh, yeah .
Then we had like COVID year.

Speaker 1 (01:06:01):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:06:04):
The C word.
Yeah, um.
And that year gave me like itwas really cool because I lost.
Well, it was uncool because Ilost access to all my coaches.

Speaker 1 (01:06:17):
Yeah, training center .

Speaker 2 (01:06:19):
Couldn't go see the national team coaches.
My others, my other team, myother team behind the team that.
That we kind of started workingtogether.
I think maybe it was after theU S open.
I forget when we started, butTroy Nickerson at UNC.
So I was after the U S open, Iforget when we started, but um,
troy Nickerson at UNC.

Speaker 1 (01:06:36):
So I was there Okay.

Speaker 2 (01:06:38):
Yeah, so no, that grew really well, so.
So they were like in my cornerI'd get up to Greeley as much as
I could.
Um and um, so.
So I had this awesome crew andthen, all of a sudden, COVID was
like nope, you can't, like Icouldn't go see Troy, I couldn't
go down the training center.
That was rough.

(01:06:58):
Um, so it was me and my husbandin like the basement or at high
schools that we could get into,and it was rough.

Speaker 1 (01:07:11):
Rough.

Speaker 2 (01:07:13):
Rough.
And my husband wrestled incollege.
So we met at menlo college andhe was wrestling there, okay,
and has a wrestling backgroundand um.
So oh, you guys, just but notlike senior level, like not like
, so we're just trying to yeah,we're trying to kind of figure
it out together, but it made usreally form like a deeper

(01:07:37):
partnership for sure.
Um, it was my corner at Olympictrials, along with Troy and um,
yeah, it was emotional.
It was emotional, uh,tournament.
Um lost in the finals of themini tournament.
Yeah, lost in the finals of themini tournament.
Yeah and yeah, not exactlywhere I wanted that to finish,

(01:08:02):
but there was a lot in that year.
Yeah, yeah, there was a lot inthat year and honestly, I'm very
grateful for my return towrestling, what I was able to do
and how it catapulted me intowhat I'm doing now with lucha
fit so now we get into thatlater right, right.

Speaker 1 (01:08:26):
so with the with, with that transition going from
competition into, I would say,now, more of the coach slash
mindset, cause there's a it's awide variety of things that you
guys cover on each of it.
So what was?
Was that a COVID?
Was that spawned from COVID?
Kind of hanging around, sittingaround thinking, you know, we
don't have this in wrestling,you know?
Was it kind of like that?

Speaker 2 (01:08:48):
So I started well, my sister and I had started full
balance wrestling like a blogslash.
Hey, maybe you want to sponsorthese athletes.
I don't know how we were hopingpeople would find us.
I don't know beginnings of ofinfluencer world.
Like we started youtube, okay,I was like we were doing those
things, yeah, before, yeah, um,and so we had written some, some

(01:09:09):
blogs broke a lot of ground.
We did.

Speaker 1 (01:09:11):
We'll say that you guys broke a lot of ground, man.

Speaker 2 (01:09:14):
Good job.
And then 2017, when I waspregnant with my son, my husband
and I sat down and we're like,let's transform full-ballon
wrestling into something else,because I didn't know if I was
going to wrestle again.
Okay, so we transformed it andhe came up with the name Lucha
Fit.
So Lucha is to wrestle to, tostruggle, to fight, um, and we

(01:09:38):
kind of the idea originally waskind of like we want, like the
lay person, to see wrestling asa way, like could wrestling be
wrestling fitness, and so that'skind of where that name evolved
and it's just, it's stuck, it'sit's worse.
You know, I didn't want it tobe like so wrestling like you
know, like that it didn't.

(01:10:00):
I couldn't, you know, maybepull in some non wrestlers to
that world.

Speaker 1 (01:10:06):
So that that was the thing that I always thought
about is with jujitsu rooms.
You always knew wrestling guyswent in there because they
wanted to learn somethingdifferent, right, it was just
something to be able to compete,whether they got older or
whatever.
You don't hear the opposite.
You don't hear a wrestling roomlike just a kid coming in to do
like stance and motion kind ofstuff because it tired him out
and he got a good workout for it, right.

(01:10:27):
Like nothing like that whereit's always wrestlers went in
there because they're trainingto compete and they're doing
this and they're trying to getready for this wasn't just
really just kind of exercise,right.
So expound on that a little bitas far as how you guys kind of
came into that yeah, I thinkyou're.

Speaker 2 (01:10:42):
You're kind of like spot on there with, like our
thought process on it.
Okay, um, I, I want more peopleto access and be interested and
be around wrestling.
I don't want it to be thisexclusive club that you can only
get into if you've, like,checked off certain boxes or
you're tough enough or you'vecut enough weight or whatever
the case may be that we qualifysomeone being like a tough

(01:11:03):
wrestler.
And so you know right now, likea lot of women are getting into
jujitsu, a lot of women ask mecan I would love to learn
wrestling like?
I think that that's an entry,you know, into the possibility
of getting more people aroundwrestling, casually wrestling it

(01:11:23):
is possible.
I love that reese humphrey'sbeen talking a lot about this
casual wrestling, the weekendwarrior wrestler like, and it's
there's a way to do it.

Speaker 1 (01:11:33):
There is.

Speaker 2 (01:11:34):
There's a way to do it without it being grind.
I call it the head bashing.
I recently spoke about this onInstagram and TikTok about your
grandpa's war story, whereyou're like oh, in my days I

(01:11:54):
wrestled like this and I'll bondyou with the football jersey,
uh-huh.
And you're like, and then Iwould have the other piece to
this is that I would have andnow we're getting off the topic
of like, why lose your fit?

Speaker 1 (01:12:06):
But yeah, we'll get back.
We'll get back if you want, butwe'll bring it back.
I would have female wrestlerswho come in and they would like
tell me about what their coacheswould like say and do and I was
like okay, you did saysomething about this the other
day, yeah, yeah, and I was likeokay, that's interesting, like

(01:12:27):
yep, would that help you likewrestle?

Speaker 2 (01:12:30):
you know, and I can't give, I can't give you like a
specific example you're fine, Ifeel like we all know what I'm
talking about correct um, oh,they would like make us like we
wouldn't.
We wouldn't all do the rightthing, and then we'd all do
sprints yep like so you neverlearned it are you showing it
properly?
Yeah, yeah, to me.

(01:12:51):
I'm like, if they're not doingit right, I'm probably not
teaching it well enough.

Speaker 1 (01:12:55):
Correct.

Speaker 2 (01:12:56):
Yep.
So this is the stuff that I'mlike starting to talk about
where and people are definitelyresistant.
They're like a littleuncomfortable with that, which
is fine.

Speaker 1 (01:13:05):
Yeah Well, because it touches a nerve on sometimes.
It doesn't allow them then tocontinue on with what they're
doing because it's a, it's abetter thought number one, it
might make them have to do alittle extra work and be
proactive and probably beingmore mindful about coaching,
because you can tear, I meancoaching soccer.
I've seen kids get destroyedjust because they're playing on
the jv team.
You know like you're and you're.

(01:13:27):
You didn't even like demotethem.
We just they just needed to behelpful for jv for a weekend,
right, and just kids are losingtheir minds.
Now you have coaches that aregoing to sit there and browbeat
them because they don't know howto do you know like a burpee
properly?
Did you show them how to do itthe right way?
Because there's probablysomeone probably thinks of
burpees something else yeah,they could have learned in a

(01:13:48):
different way, right?

Speaker 2 (01:13:49):
so yeah, like you said, kind of understand your
athlete a little bit, yeah, yeahand coming back into wrestling,
I was in a lot of rooms indenver and there's places that,
like I was, like I'll never goback because the way they were
coaching, the way they werespeaking to the kids.
There were things like I justhave.
I have a high standard of whatI think is okay, what's not okay
.
So it's not everyone's standardand that's fine, and I think

(01:14:12):
that there's like a time in theplace for different things.
And sometimes there's coacheswho are like fighting success
and I'm kind of like and I mightnot agree with it, but that's
life, right.
But we know that we have thispretty, pretty strong culture
issue around wrestling.
We know that it's very ingrainedin us and the mission with

(01:14:35):
Lucha Fit.
You know I've written a lot ofcontent for athletes and I
really want to shift my focus tocoaches.
Like I want to be able to reachmore coaches who then reach the
athletes and say this is how wedo things.
Now, you know, one greatexample is I was in a room a
room that I was in a lot, and Istayed around, had good partners

(01:14:56):
, but they were like oh, lastweek they're all doing all the
kids were doing sprawls.
Ok, listen.
Like I was like I'm not doingthis right now because I do my
sprawls.
I do them efficiently, like inmy 30s, like wrestling again, so
I don't need to do like athousand.

(01:15:18):
Um, I gotta do them right.
But I but I take that theorydown to that.
Uh, to the younger athletes too, right, they're like last time
we did like 400 sprawls and Iwas like, okay, well, you guys
just started and so I was like Ithink I asked how many of you
guys doing?

Speaker 1 (01:15:34):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:15:34):
Well, last time they did like 400.

Speaker 1 (01:15:40):
And I was like okay, we just started and all of them
look terrible.

Speaker 2 (01:15:42):
I haven't seen one good sprawl and I was just
watching them and they got up tolike 100 and something and I
was like because we're soobsessed with the work.
Yeah the grind.

Speaker 1 (01:15:58):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (01:15:58):
The volume, yep, as long as it's more volume, and
you sweat it hard and the heatwas turned on and you had your
sweatpants on.
Then you got work done.
No, they all look like garbage.

Speaker 1 (01:16:10):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:16:11):
Okay, yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:16:15):
And the other thing.

Speaker 2 (01:16:16):
The other thing, not quantity man as I speak about
this, I know that I'm going toget a lot of pushback about um,
which I have, about um makingwrestling like not tough, like
oh, if I take that out, if Idon't have kids, do 200.
Oh, yeah, yeah, oh then whatare you talking about?

(01:16:38):
Like you're trying to makewrestling not as tough, because
wrestling is a tough sport, andthen what I say to that is like
you guys have no clue the typeof training and conditioning and
work I've put into this sport.

Speaker 1 (01:16:49):
Right, right.

Speaker 2 (01:16:51):
If I took you through a session and I was like here
we go, this is how we're goingto drill, this is how we're
going to spar, this is how we'regoing to stay mentally focused
the whole time, you would beshot.
And then the conditioning Ihave you do after the
conditioning that I did in Japan.
Oh my gosh, some of theseveteran tough people within
wrestling would be shocked yeah,okay, would be shocked yeah

(01:17:15):
okay, would be shocked, maybe,like my body is gonna fall apart
, not because like more likefrom the fatigue, like the
intensity, like yeah um, notbecause you've been beat up
william's gone through some ofthose iowa workouts.

Speaker 1 (01:17:28):
I thought I was gonna die just watching like, for I
was like you guys are nuts.

Speaker 2 (01:17:34):
Our camp going into 2012 and 2016 was in Iowa.

Speaker 1 (01:17:40):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:17:41):
So I did those stadiums, y'all, I did those
stadiums.
I know what it feels like to dothe stadiums and then sprint.
No, I've done that.

Speaker 1 (01:17:50):
I was forced into a badger camp my sophomore year
with my brother.
It was probably one of theworst camps, didn't?
No, I've done that.
I was forced into a badger campmy sophomore year with my
brother and I.
It was probably one of theworst camps that I had.
We were running with guys thatare backup camp randall not cool
, um, because I again, I was asoccer player.

Speaker 2 (01:18:03):
Yeah, I wasn't made for doing well, you knew how to
run, for sure, I know how to runand I and I loved wrestling.

Speaker 1 (01:18:08):
It was fun, but it was not there.
It was I was.
That was soccer, like Goingthrough that camp, and now
you're talking about running.
Oh my God, I didn't want tothink about it.
That's torture.

Speaker 2 (01:18:18):
Yeah.
So basically, through theseexperiences that I have now
detailed over the last hour, Ihave figured out how to make it
more efficient, make wrestling alittle more efficient, make
your training a little moreefficient, how to be intentional
, how to do it in a short amountof time because you are coming
out of surgery.

Speaker 1 (01:18:37):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (01:18:39):
How to peak yourself for a big moment like Olympic
trials.

Speaker 1 (01:18:44):
I think that's the one that's missing the most,
especially from younger kids inhigh school up to college is
peaking.
You hear about them talkingabout it, right, but you never
really see someone through thatprocess correctly.
So I think that's a huge one.
That I noticed on the websiteas well was the whole peaking
subject goes.
Ah, yeah, because it's justweird, because everyone's
different, right.

(01:19:05):
Everyone's got a different vibe, different mojo that they wind
up getting at certain times.
So it's awesome that you'redoing that in a perspective
where someone can grab that.
They sound pretty pissed.
We'll be done pretty soon.
I don't want to make the kidsyeah, we're wrapping up soon.

(01:19:25):
But so with the evolution ofwhat you went through and then
coming up to lucha fit, where,where what's the what is your, I
guess, mission statement to beable to going forward with it
yeah, yeah, um, really okay.

Speaker 2 (01:19:39):
So the the mission is to reach hundreds of thousands
of athletes, coaches and parentsto create serious culture
change within wrestling, to getthose three groups to start
thinking really intentionallyabout their training instead of
just what they think wrestlingis.
Um, I, I want to like educateas many within the wrestling

(01:20:04):
world as I possibly can.
Um, so, right right now, um,you know, I've, right now, you
know, I've got a course on LuciaFit.
That's all about video analysis.
Okay, so, instead of the oldtraditional like, I'll watch a

(01:20:24):
YouTube video and there was acool move and I thought that was
cool, so I tried to like, Istarted trying it in practice.
Yeah, I'm teaching you andtaking you through how to like
break down video.
I create a whole process on it.
That's one that I've beenimplementing in my old video,
and I was like if I had lookedat it from these lens you know,

(01:20:45):
from this lens how cool I wouldhave like figured out, you know,
like the simplest things oflike oh, I was in a front
headlock multiple times.
I thought that this match wasall about when I lost in this
position.
It was really about the frontheadlock, you know, like
something like that.
I was in there five times, Iscored twice.
I should have scored the threeother times, or why did I not?

(01:21:07):
Okay, so we'll look.
So we're breaking down, andthat's just one example of many,
and I have you break it downfor yourself.
Um, opponent study and elitelevel study.

Speaker 1 (01:21:18):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (01:21:18):
And then as a coach, you can do the same thing Like
how do I want to, how would Ibreak down my wrestlers, how
would I break down theircompetitors, how do I study
elite level, study in the elitelevel wrestlers, and then start
bringing that back into the,into the room, so starting.
That's you know kind of whereI'm buzzing right now, because
it came out of.
it came out of COVID that did umbecause my husband and I were

(01:21:40):
like studying video like crazy.
I'd never liked video before.
I was like always veryfrustrated with watching my own
video.
So, um, and we he helped melike figure out a way to
actually study it, to beproductive and not frustrated
all the time.
So so we, we created thiscourse because we're like let's

(01:22:03):
take this knowledge, let's likeput it out there.
So we've we've had coaches.
I went and taught this systemto beat the streets, LA, which
was really really incredible,and teach it in person was super
fun.
So it's an online on your owncourse.
Basically, you need to go.
Okay, you have to go.

(01:22:26):
Yeah, we probably should.
We probably should wrap it up.
That's the mission.
I have tons of free articlesI'm writing constantly.

Speaker 1 (01:22:43):
Say that again.
You guys have video on theretoo.

Speaker 2 (01:22:49):
I have some different video, but more on my social.

Speaker 1 (01:22:52):
It's an easier platform.

Speaker 2 (01:22:53):
Right now, I do have a youtube channel and I link to
it, like I have a way to help, ahelpful way to see, like how
you should warm up and cool downin between matches and energy
manage.
Okay, um, and that's on myyoutube channel, but it's also
like in the article um so I'vegot a lot of and I'm out, I'm

(01:23:14):
figuring out like the next stepshere, you know, of what coaches
want, what's the next steps?

Speaker 1 (01:23:20):
You put some feelers out.
I saw that the other day, yep.

Speaker 2 (01:23:22):
Yeah, so that coaches are getting the resources they
need.
I am.
I actually have a survey.
Anyone can reach out to me.
I have a survey that I'mputting out so that I can hear
that feedback from coaches and Ican learn, like, what's what's
going to be, what's going to bethe right way to that?

(01:23:43):
Coaches want to like, learnthis information.
What are the exact things theywant to learn and what's yeah,
what's really going to motivatethem to keep learning?
I don't want to keep learning.
I don't want it to be boring,right, right.

Speaker 1 (01:23:56):
It's great you've got the coaches on the side of that
as well, not just the athletes.
That's great that you havesomething not only to help the
coaches along, but you'rehelping the coaches as far as
just better themselves, as faras furthering their coaching as
well.
Yeah, because it's differentnow.
I mean things are changing.

Speaker 2 (01:24:20):
So you guys are, you're helping them evolve yes,
things are changing rapidly andand wrestling.
Like I, I clearly love thissport.
Um, I feel really deep into it,even if I'm critical, even if
I'm critical about the culture.
Um, it's not personal, don'ttake it personal it's the whole,
it's to help change.

Speaker 1 (01:24:29):
It's to help change.

Speaker 2 (01:24:30):
I mean, really it is yeah, like somebody commented on
tiktok and they're like don'ttalk down to people, and I was
like no okay, I'm not reallytalking down, I'm just talking
very passionately aboutsomething that I felt like was
an athlete safety thing.
Sure, okay, you know somepeople want a gentle approach
whatever whatever, but we needto like.

(01:24:51):
We need to be up front withthese things and be like are we
okay with this as we see asnormal?
Are we normalizing it andsaying it's totally cool, let's
just treat these athletes thisway, especially high schoolers?
Are we just afraid of the truth?
Like you said, they have tohave change when they confront

(01:25:14):
it.

Speaker 1 (01:25:14):
That's scary, yeah yeah, it is, it is.
I mean, that's the hardest part, I think, is just, I mean, just
being an old guy, you knowthere's certain things that I
don't like and there's certainthings I don't change.
Sometimes those things have tochange in order for things to
get better.
So you, gotta suck it up.
you know we're gonna let you gobecause I think your kid's gonna
murder you in the middle of thenight If you don't get going
pretty soon.

(01:25:34):
But, catherine, it's been avery great time here talking
with you.
You took forever with us.
I appreciate that.
Thank you Everybody.
Go check out lucha fitcom.
Check out all of thepossibilities that there are on
there for coaches, athletes.
I mean changing the game.
Hopefully we can help you downthe line here.
I know Joe and I are trying towork on a couple of things.
Hopefully it's all worked outwith that too.

(01:25:55):
So let's keep that going, let'skeep changing this wrestling
game and let's make this abetter place.
You got any shout outs at theend?
Here, your kids.

Speaker 2 (01:26:05):
Shout out to my kids.
Shout out to my husband if he'swatching, because he's actually
in Boston right now.
Shout out to anyone that I'vewho's watching or watches this
in the future that I have workedwith, um, because you guys are
always the people like anyonethat I've ever worked with or
gone to a camp or clinic orwhatever.
If you've attended with, youknow me being there.

(01:26:26):
Everything that I collect, allthe information I collect from
those moments I use for LuchaFit, like everything's fueling
that future.
So come subscribe, becausethere's gonna be so many new
things coming and, um, it's justexciting, it's, it's all new.

(01:26:46):
Wrestling has never seen thisbefore.
So, um, jump on the trainawesome luchafitcom check.

Speaker 1 (01:26:52):
Check it out everybody.
We appreciate you hanging out,catherine especially.
Thank you for hanging out withus.
I only need you for a minuteright when we're done, so I'm
going to end this right now.
People go check out LuchaFitcomPeace.

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