How to Become a Freestyle Wrestling Coach

According to Olympic gold medalist Dan Gable, once you've wrestled, everything else in life is easy. Wrestling is a sport that can be incredibly grueling and requires a mixture of power, speed and technique. Greco-Roman and freestyle are the two Olympic wrestling styles and most high school and collegiate programs are very similar to freestyle wrestling. The coach is a vital portion of any wrestling team. Becoming a freestyle wrestling coach takes a lot of time and diligence.

Instructions

    • 1

      Learn how to freestyle wrestle. You can't coach it and teach it if you aren't familiar with the rules and techniques involved with it. You can either learn and practice it in high school or college as part of a program or you can seek out schools and gyms and learn from experienced wrestlers.

    • 2

      Compete in freestyle wrestling. The more experience you acquire in competition, especially internationally when possible, the more attractive you will be as a coaching candidate.

    • 3

      Earn a teaching degree. If you are coaching a high school wrestling team, you will likely need to teach a regular class. Likewise, showing you have a certification for teaching shows others responsibility and good skills as a coach.

    • 4

      Apply for coaching jobs. You can find wrestling coach job listings by contacting schools, checking newspaper job sections as well as looking at wrestling websites such as WrestlingUSA.com, TazSport.com or TheMat.com. Consider assistant coach positions as well so you can gain additional experience and earn your way up to a head coach position.