Warner: Starting kids early in freestyle and Greco is the consensus

Photo: Brian Owen, who runs the Inland Northwest Wrestling Training Center (pictured above) in Spokane, Wash., maintains that the U.S. Open and Junior Nationals in Fargo are the two premier events he focuses on throughout the year.

Editor’s Note: This column appeared in WIN’s Volume 31 Issue 11, which printed on August 22, 2025. 

By Tristan Warner

If you have not already, you will find that one recurring element in many of my columns is my recanting and retracting of former opinions or positions on certain aspects of wrestling. For example, a few years back I wrote a column about how disappointed I was with the new three-point takedown implementation. Now, after watching it unfold for two seasons, I think it has been a largely positive change. 

One topic I am not sure I ever publicly wrote about but surely answered many inquisitive wrestling parents about deals with when to dabble in the international styles of wrestling.

For some context, admittedly, I was never overly fond of either freestyle or Greco as an athlete. I wrestled exactly two Greco matches in my entire 20-year competitive career. I lost both matches to kids I would go on to defeat later in freestyle and promptly called it quits.

Conversely, I wrestled probably well over 100 matches in freestyle spanning from seventh grade all the way up through my fifth-year senior season in college. However, I was not too fond of it either. Selfishly, I found it maddeningly frustrating. As someone who relied on scrambling, funky positioning and turns from top to score points (in folkstyle), I scored on myself nearly as often as my opponents scored on me by rolling across my own back. I never made the adjustments to acclimate to freestyle as well as I should have. That was my own fault, though.

These experiences led me to develop a rather indifferent, or perhaps even callous, attitude toward both. Subsequently, when I started coaching, especially youth-level kids, I would often answer parents’ questions about “when should he or she start freestyle and Greco” with a careless, unpassionate response.

Truthfully, my answers were more derived from a place of not wanting to burn kids out or have a kid who shows promise quit the sport because he or she starts losing more in a brand-new style with which they’ve had little practice reps. I was treading carefully with their workload.

After a full year of working full-time for WIN, I have had some remarkable experiences covering international-style events. Similarly, having written nearly 40 USA Wrestling Coach’s Corner articles (see pages 12-15) and having been fortunate to speak with some of the most experienced and impactful coaches at all levels across the country, I have come to realize the fault in my ways.

Almost every single coach I’ve spoken to heavily advocates for kids to get involved with freestyle and Greco as soon as possible. They also urge and plead with their club kids and parents to become regular attendees at spring international-style practices, with some, such as Contenders Wrestling Academy in Indiana (featured on page 13) reserving the last day of the work week for “Freestyle Friday” all year long.

These various coaches emphasize the importance of the positioning learned in freestyle and Greco and just how important it is for folkstyle success. Mastering the control ties, balance and mat awareness that international styles demand is universal, they preach, even in folkstyle.

Big Game Wrestling Club (Iowa) frontman Dylan Carew (featured on page 14) advocates for using Greco success as a mental warfare tactic over opponents, while Brian Owen (Washington) (featured on page 15) says the U.S. Open and Fargo are the only two events he cares about.

Granted, I already knew these things. But just as kids often listen to a coach over their parents, even if the advice is the same, somehow it finally registers now. I guess some things never change.

Going forward, I plan to encourage club kids I coach and their parents to get involved, have fun, and extend their mat-time opportunities. After all, as Scott Kluever of Kaukauna, Wisc. said back in a November, 2024 USA Wrestling Coach’s Corner feature, “Wrestling people are good people, and I always say who kids hang out with has more influence than their parents, so wrestling in the offseason keeps them around so many special people that the wrestling community has to offer.”

And with the ultimate goal of developing good humans superseding developing good wrestlers, that reason is the only reason you need.

(WIN Editor Tristan Warner is a former PA state finalist and three-time NCAA qualifier for Old Dominion. He was a two-time NCAA Elite 89 Award recipient and Capital One Academic All-American.)