Area wrestlers gather at Cedartown for camp
Matt Pitt and Matt Stanfield, coaches and operators of Grindhouse Wrestling in Calhoun, organized the camp for students. The duo said they typically work with USA wrestlers not old enough yet to work with a middle or high school coach, but also works with those wrestlers over the off season.
The camp marked the fourth and final camp that Cedartown High wrestlers have been involved with this summer, said new coach Brandon Gordon.
Gordon, who was hired at the end of the school year, has previously worked with the Bulldogs on the mat, and said he was glad to be back and involved with the program.
He said his wrestlers were set to focus on fundamentals and strength training for the summer, and that “anyone at Cedartown will be working.”
Gordon added he has set a goal for his wrestlers to perfect at least 5 setups before the start of the new season in the fall.
“Our focus in our program is to get our setups,” he said. “We want to get more involved in our setups, and get our takedowns down perfect.”
Pitts and Stanfield, whose youth wrestling club, said they saw plenty of hard workers on the floor during the camp.
“All our drill sessions went well,” Pitts said. “They know they’re going to wrestle a lot. Its been good.”
The camp also featured wrestlers from Rockmart. Coach Drew Lindsey said he felt all the wrestlers would get something out of the camp.
“We brought people from seven years old to 17, so anytime you can get out on the mats in the summer, its a good opportunity,” he said. “Just by being here in the summertime, they’ll all benefit.”
Nick Forsyth and Devin Darden are among the names who participated in the camp Lindsey felt had a shot of doing more in the coming year.
Pitt and Stanfield said large focus was on getting techniques down now during the summer the wrestlers will use when they take to the mats in late fall, but that it takes more than just learning manuveurs.
“There’s different variables, and thats what they learn as they get older. It’s all the same positions that you just have to keep hammering,” Pitts said.
“We like to call it chain wrestling, where each move builds link after link until there is a chain of fluid motion,” Stanfield said. “That’s where you want to get to.”