Investment

I think I’m going to blog more on Sundays, as I prepare for practice and my upcoming week on different topics in the wrestling and club wrestling world. Hopefully it adds understanding of who we are as a club, and perhaps a bit of who I am as a coach.

There are many currencies in our world. While money is the obvious first thought, time, energy, and attention all add in as well. In any athletic or business endeavor, people want return on investment. Sometimes the focus becomes more on the return, rather than the experience. If the return doesn’t come as quickly as some would like, they pull out of the investment. They say, “I’ve lost enough, time to move on.” Others dive in deeper, invest more time, more money, more attention, for the chance of return.

As club dues increased, I’m sure I’ll receive some questions as to why did they rise? For starters, if we hope to move into a non-school-related building, I need to build those funds. Secondly, with that increase, we plan to increase the services and time invested on our part. Lastly, when athletes are invested more, they’re more likely to work toward whatever their goal may be. That’s not to say “The club costs more, therefore the athlete will be better” or anything along those lines. But when every athlete knows they spent $X.XX, they’re now more invested in getting the most out of the program. When every athlete is doing that, every athlete strives for success more, attends more, etc. It’s easier to not show up when one is less-invested. Money shouldn’t be the only investment into training and goals, but it is an important one, especially in our area of the state with our club demographics. Some travel 45min to practice every Sunday. That’s investment. You don’t drive that time to come half-effort a workout. While motivation should and hopefully is still intrinsic, nobody can deny that monetary motivation is a factor.

We will never price a kid out of the club. We’ve slowly raised the rate from $0 when we started and had no success to speak of. At the very end of the day, if a kid attended every Sunday practice from September to the end of February, they’re paying roughly $3.00/hr for an environment to train in and coaching. That’s having a program backed with logic in wrestling training, individualized training with coaches who know you and strive to help specifically you, and coaching in the corner at events outside of the HS season. If price is ever a hindrance, athletes will always be worked with, whether it is a payment plan or a dues-waiving.

We’re invested. When athletes are similarly-invested, they’re more likely to achieve their goals. The hard part of such a personal sport like wrestling is that there is no magic formula. As coaches, we can’t tell you to do X, Y, and Z and you’ll be a State/National/World Champion. You could invest everything and not receive your desired return on investment. The experience is the real return… and that return is incredibly-varied based on investment of all stakeholders.