University of Minnesota Athletics
The Russian Summer
9/28/2016 12:00:00 AM | Wrestling
Often when a former high school coach reaches out with an opportunity, it's an offer to work a camp and make a few bucks, or a request to come speak to the current team. Colin Carr may have assumed the same when his former high school coach contacted him earlier this year. Fortunately, he took the call.
"Basically, [he] hooked us up with the opportunity to train where all these amazing Russian athletes train," said Carr.
Where these athletes train, in this instances at least, was Vladikavkaz, a city in extreme southwest Russia, just north of Georgia and tucked into the foothills of the Caucasus Mountains. As the story goes, Carr's high school coach in Washington, Ill., connected with a coach originally from the Vladikavkaz area and together they developed a plan where some of the high school headman's former athletes could visit over the summer and learn the finer points of freestyle wrestling from Russian athletes.
As exciting as the experience would be, the adventure began almost immediately once the group reached their destination.
"The airport in Moscow is nice but the one in Vladikavkaz was sketchy," Carr remembered. "It was a small airport and we were being bombarded by taxi drivers, grabbing us" and asking -- really, telling -- Carr and his friends they needed a ride. "We didn't know what we were doing. We didn't know what our guy, our coach, looked like either. We were pretty scared at that point but our coach eventually found us because we were wearing American wrestling stuff."
Having successfully made the three-flight, three-day trip from Chicago to Zurich to Moscow to Valdikavkaz, the group got into its training regimen. They worked out twice a day, five days a week, over the course of the next 17 days.
While the rules and the basic techniques of the sport are the same regardless of location, the differences in the Russian wrestling culture stood out to Carr.
"Everyone walks in [to the wrestling room] and you immediately walk around and shake everyone's hand," he said, attributing it to a gesture of respect before jumping into the hard work of the day. But it doesn't stop there. "Everyone's shaking hands after every drill."
"Their training is a lot more laxed and loose," added Carr. "They're always having fun. They're always smiling. You have to be serious but, at the same time, you have to enjoy practice."
That attitude toward training affected Carr in a positive way.
"I've noticed a huge difference right now from the time I left," said Carr. "I kind of feel like I wrestle more like them. I'm just loose."
He doesn't discount that these changes can also be linked to some of what he learned while sweating out workouts on Russian wrestling mats. He talks extensively about the focus on positioning, about always having his head in the way, about keeping his hips in. He sees himself taking fewer bad, extended shots during practice, a change that has helped him reduce his opponents' easy openings to score.
Carr's time in Russia introduced him to much more than just better wrestling positioning. He also had the chance to experience some of the culture, including weekly basketball games -- "they are the worst basketball players in the world" -- and a little bit of local travel, whether that brought him around the city or out into the Caucasuses. Carr recalls one event specifically that stretched his palate.
"We had a big feast and I ate a bunch of parts of a goat that I'm not really proud of," Carr said, adding that the food, in general, was "amazing."
"They make these things, they call them Ossetian Pies," a name that honors the region of Russia where Carr visited. "It's almost like a thin calzone that's full of beat leaves or cheese. Every meal there were like five of them ... I'm not complaining, but I gained a little weight."
Whether it was new wrestling skills, a new attitude toward training or an appreciation for a new culture, Carr learned a lot from his summer travels. More than anything else, he says he learned gratitude.
"They were very thankful for everything," he said. "It's a harder life over there than it is here. Every time I get into the wrestling room now, I'm just more thankful."
Players Mentioned
