For every sport competition, we have our typical packing list of must haves: uniform, food, water, lucky socks. But the more we compete, the more we find ourselves in situations where we didn't have what we needed. And even though we try and buffer for most situations, not everyone knows what to pack just in case. Here are the 5 items you should never forget to bring with you to a competition.

Girls and women’s wrestling is thriving, and as more athletes step onto the mat, it’s crucial for coaches and parents to understand how to support their mental development effectively. While boys and girls share many of the same challenges in wrestling—overcoming setbacks, staying motivated, and managing competition stress—there are differences in how they process and respond to these experiences.

Girls wrestling is rapidly becoming one of the most exciting and empowering sports available, providing young girls and women the opportunity to grow both physically and mentally. Whether you’re the parent of a budding wrestler or a young athlete stepping onto the mat for the first time, learning the basics is crucial for building confidence and embracing the journey of wrestling.

As a wrestling coach, have you ever wondered where you fall on the spectrum of coaching styles? Are you “Coach Cupcake,” always soft, overly accommodating, and hesitant to challenge your athletes? Or are you “Coach Drill Sergeant,” relentlessly demanding, sometimes to the point of breaking trust and respect?

In competitive sports, the mind is just as important as the body. Coaches know the importance of strength, conditioning, and technique, but mental performance is often an underdeveloped area for both the athlete and the coach. As times shift and we’ve become more aware of what creates a well rounded athlete ready to perform at high levels, so must we shift into a new phase of education for coaches. Integrating mindfulness and mental training into your team's routine can help athletes stay calm under pressure, perform with clarity, and build stronger team bonds.

What is your why? Can you even remember anymore? When you do something for so long, its almost inevitable for your 'why' to come into question. Your why is the reason behind your effort. It is what keeps you driven, if you don’t have a why you may be weak when things get hard.

I seriously, seriously appreciate the honesty that athletes approach me with when they want advice on injuries. I can hear the genuine fear of falling behind in their voices. Having faced that same fear myself, I want to offer insight into the proactive steps athletes can take, even when it’s tempting to sit on the sidelines and wait for clearance to wrestle again.

The seeds were planted by the dreams and aspirations of women who aimed for gold medals on the world’s highest stages. They broke barriers and reshaped reality, showing how deeply wrestling could resonate with women. Just like a plant needs support to thrive, women’s wrestling needs allies to help it flourish and create space for women.

January also marks the time of the year when women’s NCAA leaders gather for their annual convention to conduct NCAA committee business. My attention will focus on the potential vote approving women’s collegiate freestyle to become their 91st championship sport.

If they vote in favor of approval, it sets the stage for some compelling questions about the future of female wrestling. For example, can girls and women’s wrestling become a more independent  and self-sustaining industry? More importantly, does freestyle wrestling offer the best opportunity for females to adopt a streamlined development and competition process based on one style of wrestling? 

I’m a student-athlete at Choate Rosemary Hall, a highly demanding academic institution for high schoolers. I plan to continue pursuing a rigorous education and to compete at a high level of wrestling in college. Trying to balance both worlds can feel overwhelming. At times, it feels like I have to pick between my education and my sport. Limited opportunities for women to pursue both high-level academics and wrestling along with the challenges of being in a male-dominated sport have forced me to find unique ways to deal with stress, insecurity, and burnout.

As the fastest growing sport in the US, wrestling is attracting new females to the sport. The US is well on it’s way to sanctioning girls wrestling in every state in order to have all-girls teams. However, while sanctioning is a work in progress and states are growing their participation numbers, this means many girls across the US who want to wrestle must compete against the boys. This poses a challenge for the athlete, the parents, and the coaches. This article chronicles two female athletes who were the only girls on their high school team. Forrest Molinari grew up wrestling in California, and continued her career to make world teams for Team USA. Rose Martines started wrestling her Junior year in Oregon, and completed her Senior year as the only female on her high school team. Neither athlete had a female wrestler come before them as the example for how to be the only girl on the boys team, they were the trend setters. As we continue to encourage girls to try this amazing sport, we are going to need the experiences of others to forge a path each generation that comes to the mat after us.

Warming up for competition is a non-negotiable part of any athlete’s routine, yet maintaining energy levels throughout a long competition day is often overlooked. Managing energy across multiple rounds ensures you're mentally and physically prepared to perform at your peak in every match. From the initial morning warm-up, through re-warming between matches, to cooling down afterward, each phase is essential for recovery and staying "in the zone."

As athletes, we all have our fears—those little voices in our heads that say, “What if I mess up?” or “What if I lose?” Whether it’s freezing up on the mat, letting ourselves down, or worrying about disappointing our coaches, fear is something we wrestle with every day. And the truth is, it doesn’t just go away as you get better at the sport. In fact, those fears can get louder. But here’s the game-changer: you don’t have to get rid of them. You just have to learn how to live with them.

There is a lot of pressure for young athletes to be successful. Being successful on the playing field has education, career, and social implications. The better the athlete, the greater the scholarship amount to play a collegiate sport, the greater chance of continuing on a professional level. The better the result, the more recognition the athlete or the parent receive from those around them. The notion that sport is fun, which instills healthy active lifestyles and teaches life skills, has been put on the back burner. The idea that multi-sport athletes produce whole athletes with better overall skills, has become second to specialization. It is believed that single-sport sport specific skills produces the highest quality. Here's the danger with this mentality: it feeds the mindset that if specializing at 18 years old is ideal, then specializing at 13 is even better. And if this is the case, then we should begin specializing our children in one sport at 8 to get an earlier start ahead of peers.