Writing-Time Advantage: USA Wrestling Coach’s Corner on Levi Jones

Photo: Jones fiercely advocates for wrestlers to add the exercise of journaling to their daily routines. Click here to learn more.

Editor’s Note: This article appeared in WIN’s Volume 32 Issue 1, the High School and College Preview Edition, which printed on Oct. 10, 2025. 

By Tristan Warner

It has been said that you learn more from a loss than from a win. While that may sound like a blanket statement based on outcomes rather than actual performance, in the case of Levi Jones, one particular loss led him down a career trajectory he might have never seen coming.

Jones, a three-time NCAA qualifier at Boise State (2008, 2010 and 2011), reached the quarterfinals in 2010 as a junior where he was defeated by a true freshman from Cornell by the name of Kyle Dake.

Jones was eliminated in the Blood Round later that evening while Dake went on to win his first of four NCAA titles the next day. 

After spending one year on staff at Arizona State and several seasons at his alma mater as an assistant, the dream-crushing news struck seemingly out of nowhere on April 18, 2017, when it was announced Boise State was immediately terminating its wrestling program.

“It was a messy situation,” Jones reflected. “It was something you never saw coming in life. We were headed in the right direction but got blindsided. I didn’t know what was next.

“God put it on my heart that I was still going to serve wrestlers in some way. I had the idea to go all in wherever I was, so I started helping local kids in my garage. I wanted to help them accomplish goals and dreams and started thinking of different ways to do that.”

Nearly a decade removed from that painstaking quarterfinal loss to Dake and now fully entrenched in the club coaching scene, just by happenstance, Jones stumbled upon an interview Kyle Dake provided after winning his first NCAA title.

“He said that every day since he arrived at Cornell he wrote down in his journal that he was going to be a four-time NCAA champion.

“That was the a-ha moment,” Jones said. “In general, coaches in all sports tell you to write down your goals and what you learned, but it becomes scattered and all over the place. There never was a tool where it was all in one spot.”

To go along with his All In Wrestling System, which Jones championed from 2016 up until just a few months ago in 2025, the All In Wrestler’s Journal was born.

Why would wrestlers need to journal? One might ponder this.

“There are studies that show your retention of what you are learning is 43% higher when you talk about it. You can retain another 23-25% by writing it down. So, you can achieve between 60-65% better retention by simply thinking it, talking about it and writing it down,” Jones explained.

“In wrestling, you can’t get better without retaining information. It is a powerful retention tool.”

Now partnered with Ben Askren, who is also a fierce advocate of the product and journaling altogether, Jones has made it his full-time work to travel around the country and provide wrestling programs an opportunity to understand and reap the benefits of journaling.

While Jones stepped away from full-on coaching a few months ago, in large part to spend more time with his seven-year-old son who is among the world’s highest-ranked youth golfers, Jones envisions the All In Wrestler’s Journal becoming a staple of wrestling programs everywhere.

“I always had a dream that you could walk in wrestling rooms, and it would be weird if people didn’t journal,” Jones stated. “I think journaling as just a five-minute practice needs to be part of everyone’s routine.

“It is designed to be simple and effective at all levels. DI wrestling programs are probably the main people buying it. Probably half the Top 20 DI teams in the country use it.

“Ben (Askren) right now has two new lungs and the other day he did a social media post and his whole journal was full. It works for everyone. We have people fighting cancer and CEOs who are using it every day in their businesses.”

Jones views the journal simply as a tool that can help wrestlers accomplish their goals and, in turn, fall in love with the sport of wrestling.

“Coaches and parents out there are on a quest to get their kids to fall in love with the sport. You just don’t fall in love with our sport by working crazy hard every day. Two things make our sport fun: winning and when something you learned works.

“We do too much fun and games as coaches because we’re told, ‘kids need to have fun.’ What is fun is kids learning something and it working for them. We need a tool and this journal, and even this article … those are tools. Do you really want your kid to fall in love with the sport? Give him or her every tool he or she might need.”

Jones’ final words of wisdom for wrestling coaches and parents? Well, it has become even more clear to him during the few months he’s stepped away from the immersion of the daily wrestling grind.

“At every level, coaching is just giving love and serving with love. Come from a genuine place. Good coaching is just a level of love you’re willing to give at every level.

“The phrase ‘Serve with love. Love to serve’ is on my steering wheel. You have to love what you do genuinely. That was something that I learned over the years. The people that pour into your life … whether they are a great wrestling coach or not … the ones who are most impactful serve with love.”

Visit www.AllInWrestlersJournal.com to learn more.