Education Series Preps Youth Coaches

Posted: September 2, 2015

September 3, 2015 |  In the first of BTSLA’s 2015-2016 Coaches Education Series events, 26 youth coaches attended the Coaches Orientation, a special training that serves to kick-off the youth wrestling season for BTSLA programs.
The training, which is designed to cover topics in youth coaching, positive coaching techniques, and provides the guidance and resources for coaches to teach youth development through wrestling, consisted of a 3 hours of classroom training followed by a hands-on coaches clinic on the mats.
Included in the classroom portion of the training was a short presentation by BTSLA coaches Sarah Saenz & Ignacio Andrade who recently returned from the National Wrestling Coaches Association Leadership Academy in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. The pair shared their experiences from the Academy and sparked some lively discussion on the current state and future of women’s wrestling. Sarah is the Head Middle School Coach at Community Charter Middle School and is active in California USA Wrestling. Ignacio serves as the Head Middle School Coach at Mulholland Middle School as well as the Women’s Coach at Birmingham Community Charter High School in Van Nuys, CA.
Following the classroom training, the coaches hit the mats to participate in a clinic led by BTSLA Developmental Coach Vlad Kochiev. The training covered the curriculum developed in part by BTSLA Coaches Education Coordinator Valentin Kalika and is designed for progressive skilled development and to prepare the athletes for BTSLA’s planned event and competition schedule.
BTSLA’s Coaches Education Series is a key component to the growth and development of wrestling in Los Angeles. Striving to educate all coaches, the event series includes relevant coaching topics on teaching wrestling through games, advanced training techniques, freestyle and greco training, and much more.