Iowa Wrestling Strength Coach Travis Rutt looks on as Alex Meyer and Thomas Gilman hit a workout in the newly remodeled Iowa Wrestling weight room.
I have been asked quite a few times over the years a simple question. What makes wrestlers so tough? There are a lot of answers to that question. Toughness, quickness, meanness, balance, explosiveness, and endurance come to mind. But for me, the answer is a very quick response…STRENGTH! Wrestlers are unbelievably strong. This is not a strength that can be measured by a bench press total or number of reps of 225 lbs, a 40 yard dash time, vertical leap, or any type of weightlifting totals. You cannot always tell who is really strong in hand-to-hand by their looks either. I am even more impressed with the strength of lighter weight wrestlers that may not look it, but I assure you that they are incredibly strong.
Wrestlers have more hand-to-hand strength than anybody on the planet. You truly cannot understand hand-to-hand strength until you have a world class strong wrestler of any weight grabs you. Then you know. Part of why I like UFC commentator Joe Rogan so much is that he is always showing respect to wrestlers, especially because of their strength. He is always commenting on the strength of wrestlers while calling a fight in the UFC with the best fighters in the world. With over twenty years of training to his credit, Rogan has a Black Belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu under two of the the most famous BJJ instructors in the world. He would know.
It only stands to reason that the cornerstone of Iowa Wrestling over the last forty plus years has been strength and conditioning. Dan Gable was, and I’m sure still is, a fanatic about strength for the sport of wrestling. Tom Brands is now carrying on that tradition as the head coach of Iowa Wrestling. Gable and Brands were very well known for their strength in their wrestling career and have always led by example as a coach when it comes to strength..
Iowa Wrestling has made some huge moves in their strength training recently. The first move was to bring in a certified Strength coach in Travis Rutt last year. Coach Brands commented:
“Because of a rule change, we had to go the route of getting a certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist because of the oversight that they wanted to have. Travis Rutt is an expert Greco-Roman wrestler and a very good college wrestler, who has his Strength and Conditioning certification with a unique background on how to make that work the best for wrestlers. Jesse Donnenwerth (Iowa Wrestling Trainer) knew Travis Rutt When that position opened, that is how it all got started. We brought Travis Rutt in and I never looked back.”
Travis Rutt has a very impressive background to be the Strength and Conditioning Coach for Iowa Wrestling. Rutt was a four-time placewinner and two-time State Champion at New Prague High School in Minnesota. As a senior in 2008, Rutt won a Junior National Title in Greco-Roman and placed fourth in Freestyle. Rutt competed for Wisconsin before transferring to Oklahoma for his senior season. In 2009, Rutt won the Junior Fila GR World Team Trials. He then represented Team USA at the Fila World Greco-Roman Championships in Ankara, Turkey. In college, Rutt was a three-time NCAA National Tournament Qualifier and placed seventh at 184 lbs. in 20011.
Coach Rutt commented:
“Recently all sports at Iowa have a Strength and Conditioning Coach. We have an Olympic Strength and Conditioning department that is up to six people. They take over all of the other sports. I actually work for that department and I have been assigned to the wrestling program. Any place else it does not happen like that. It also helps having the background that I do as a wrestler and a strength coach so I fit in really well for this position. I do not believe very many other wrestling programs have a dedicated Strength coach especially with a background in wrestling like I have.”
What are some of the changes you have seen for the strength training of wrestlers?
Travis Rutt: When I was in high school, we did BFS (Bigger, Faster, Stronger). It was good but it was kind of a one size fits all type of program. In college our program was what the football players did. I think that is the way it is in most places. Wrestling is very unique in that the goal is not put on a lot of weight, but to get stronger. That is where my wrestling background helps out.
Did you have an influence on the remodeling of the weight room?
Travis Rutt: One day Tom said to start thinking about re-doing the weight room. How you want to see the weight room and what you want in there. The new weight room looks great.
Brandon Sorensen hitting Med Ball Slams with Coach Rutt looking on.
An office that was at the end of the weight room was torn down to add another 400 square feet of space. There are several new lat pulldown machines (high and low combo) and an impressive dumbbell rack all the way up to 170 lbs. They also added another power rack station and put in a new floor and walls complete with great motivational sayings on them. As I said, the weight room looks completely different. In my last blog I talked about the Arms Race for Recruiting. Adding in a certified Strength and Conditioning coach and upgrading the weight room is Iowa Wrestling’s way of competing for recruits and developing their wrestlers.
Coach Brands, I am very impressed with your newly remodeled weight room. It looks completely different.
Tom Brands: We’ve had the need to upgrade and we are probably a year late. The administration worked with us on the money that we needed to make this happen.
I could tell right away at the Grapple on the Gridiron that your team was bigger than the year before. Do you think that is from bringing Coach Rutt in and a new emphasis on weight training?
Tom Brands: I think that when you have someone that is there for you in their area of expertise, you are going to have an overall better program. Travis Rutt upgraded our weight program and Travis Rutt also upgraded our entire wrestling program. All we need around here is partners. We need our athletes to be partners, we need our coaches to be partners, we need our fans to be partners, we need our administration to be partners. We’ve got that. Now we need to get back to winning.
As today’s athlete continues to change, Iowa Wrestling is right there to evolve to keep their program ready to compete with any other wrestling program in the country. Providing a certified Strength and Conditioning coach with a wrestling background like Travis Rutt and a new weight room to a recruit is a great way to not only keep pace, but to raise the bar in the Recruiting Arms Race. Just like the Grapple on the Gridiron did.
My next blog will be released on Wednesday with a preview for Iowa Wrestling recruits competing in the Junior National Freestyle Tournament.
