The Art of Manliness - #118： Olympic and Collegiate Wrestling Legend Dan Gable

00:00:00.000 Brett McKay here and welcome to another edition of the Art of Manliness podcast so if you

00:00:18.940 are familiar at all with collegiate wrestling or Olympic wrestling you probably know who Dan

00:00:24.280 Gable is this man had a phenomenal career as a wrestler since high school in high school he only

00:00:29.820 lost one match in college at Iowa State University only lost one match defeated once he won the gold

00:00:37.100 medal at the 1972 Olympic Games and after this phenomenal career as a wrestler he went on to

00:00:41.900 have a phenomenal career as a coach of wrestling at the University of Iowa where he won 15 NCAA team

00:00:48.880 titles between 1976 and 1997 making him one of the winningest collegiate coaches out of all the sports

00:00:55.380 so phenomenal career he's just come out with a new book called a wrestling life biography stories

00:01:01.980 from his life a memoir and today on the show I talked to Mr. Gable about his career in wrestling

00:01:07.500 his life as a family man and how wrestling has made him a better man the lessons he's learned

00:01:12.700 from wrestling made him a better man a better coach better leader better husband better father

00:01:17.380 after you're done listening to this I think you're gonna be a lot of you're gonna be really motivated

00:01:21.620 to get out there and do something push yourself a little harder so without further ado Mr. Dan Gable

00:01:26.640 all right Mr. Dan Gable welcome to the show hey I'm I'm glad to be on so you are uh one of the best

00:01:41.020 collegiate wrestlers gold medalist uh you are the most successful collegiate wrestling coach at Iowa

00:01:47.440 some the question I wanted how did you get into wrestling originally was it something you fell into

00:01:52.440 or did you make the conscious decision like that's what I want to do I want to I want to be a wrestler

00:01:57.220 no it uh you know I guess if I fell into something it was where I was being raised so my hometown of

00:02:05.980 Waterloo Iowa had three high schools uh within the local community and all three of those high schools

00:02:14.620 were led by tremendous high school wrestling coaches and so because of that there was a rivalry

00:02:21.240 going and they'd already proven West Waterloo East Waterloo and then there's the town of Cedar Falls

00:02:26.620 at that time uh which is right next to Waterloo and uh and the coaches there were my high school

00:02:34.120 West Waterloo was Bob Siddons and you know and he's he's still I just celebrated his 90th birthday the

00:02:40.760 other day but he he dominated the sport uh you know I think it was 25 or 26 years you know he had

00:02:47.760 eight or nine state championships 10 or 11 uh seconds and the rest thirds and he he's put out a multiple

00:02:55.680 uh uh champions and then a lot of them went on to become uh NCAA champions I think I think there's

00:03:02.720 something like 13 or something that uh titles that uh my high school uh has has put out there

00:03:09.680 you know and I'm proud that actually they put up a statue in my high school of myself and and even

00:03:16.480 though they've had these other you know great wrestlers as well it's just I don't think any of them

00:03:20.480 went to maybe the the olympic level and that type stuff they kind of stopped after uh winning

00:03:26.220 division one college championships but East Waterloo was a guy named Dave Mavid and uh they

00:03:32.940 were winning state championships and then Cedar Falls was a three-time national champion named Keith

00:03:37.780 Young that wrestled at the University of Northern Iowa and he was putting out some great athletes as

00:03:43.140 well so when I was born you basically uh and my dad was a wrestler his and his friends were uh a lot

00:03:51.760 of them were actually champion wrestlers even though my dad wasn't really a champion wrestler

00:03:55.700 he uh really looked out for me and it was a sport that that just came natural to me I did I did I

00:04:03.160 played football I I played baseball I even ran track played some Saturday morning basketball

00:04:09.560 but uh and I grew up in the YMCA a lot when I was really young and I swam and that was my first

00:04:15.120 championship so I did a lot of different sports but you always had to try wrestling and

00:04:21.180 if you're from Waterloo and the fact that it was the sport that I enjoyed the most

00:04:28.820 and I probably was the most successful at so the bottom line as I got older I kind of narrowed

00:04:35.920 things down once I started high school in 10th grade I actually eliminated all the other sports

00:04:42.180 now I wouldn't have and I don't recommend that unless you're really a fanatic which I kind of

00:04:48.080 turned myself into but I would have still played football but my size I was the smallest guy on the

00:04:54.460 on the on the wrestling team not my sophomore year because high school was 10th 11th and 12th grades

00:04:59.840 and so I was the 95 pound um I entered the 95 pound state champion that year as a sophomore so

00:05:06.240 my size kept me in that sport uh for sure and I and the only sport that I've ever been involved in

00:05:14.220 where I'm consumed in it whereas like you know I have to wait I don't have to wait for somebody

00:05:19.480 to give me the ball I have to wait for the pitch you know I you know I just when it was my time to

00:05:24.740 perform it was my time to perform and and if you didn't if you let up at all you know it showed in

00:05:31.280 front of everybody so I don't know I just I love the practices uh I just I have a passion for the sport

00:05:37.660 there's a lot of people that have learned a lot about life through wrestling and not necessarily

00:05:44.060 have been the same winner but they just learned how to compete they learned how to be able to

00:05:48.740 survive and handle a lot of situations that are very critical for for life so for me I I just got a

00:05:56.980 passion for it so yeah let's talk about the fanaticism because that was something uh throughout your book

00:06:01.760 a wrestling life where um not only you but you know you talked to your friends and family members

00:06:07.820 and they talked about it and I thought it's funny how when your friends wanted to goof off you know

00:06:13.440 they wanted to go play or you know just hang out you wanted to take them downstairs to your parents

00:06:18.820 basement and train like you always you're always training uh as a even as a young man and so I'm

00:06:25.580 curious was this something that you were just born with or was that drive that fanaticism something

00:06:31.360 you had to instill in yourself I think it's a combination of two things I I do think that I

00:06:38.960 got things inside of me that that brings out the competitiveness in me because right away when I first

00:06:45.280 got involved in and swimming as my first sport back when I was about five or six years old it was just

00:06:51.340 like all of a sudden when they blew the whistle in the competition as compared to practice I was just

00:06:56.740 that much better so it was it was something that I think it was kind of innate born into whatever but

00:07:03.980 I tell you what I give more credit to the attitude I give more credit to the people that are around me

00:07:11.280 that I happen to be associated with I have some great leaders at the YMCA I have some great parents

00:07:17.400 uh then all of a sudden you know when I'm on track to be a very good um athlete in wrestling or other

00:07:25.040 sports at that time in junior high my my academics weren't good and all of a sudden it was a wrestling

00:07:30.800 coach that was in the algebra classroom that was the teacher that finally turned me around academically

00:07:35.920 and from there on I was a good student so my whole life was impacted by certain people and my eighth

00:07:42.520 grade math algebra teacher Martin Lundball uh actually turned me on to academics and he knew that I was

00:07:51.360 could could be a good wrestler but but uh I would not have been able to go to Iowa State University

00:07:56.900 I'd have been a community college kid for sure I might have ended up at Iowa State but I would have

00:08:02.000 been went a different route I wouldn't have the same family same wife I wouldn't have probably the

00:08:06.520 same credentials I wouldn't be here probably talking on the phone to you right now or in live uh talking

00:08:12.280 to you so you know it's one of these things that uh uh I'm just I don't believe in luck but I think

00:08:19.440 there was some luck involved that I had these good mentors along the way even in high school I

00:08:23.820 said number one high school wrestling coach who's still at the top of the record books even though

00:08:28.840 he hasn't coached for 30 years you know he happened to be my um my wrestling coach at West Waterloo but

00:08:34.740 he was also the guidance counselor so I was kind of a hellion when I was a kid and so he kind of helped

00:08:39.820 me there too and and you know besides the eighth grade uh wrestling coach and math instructor my my high

00:08:45.980 school coach being a guidance counselor so you know I was just one of these things that uh

00:08:49.680 I kept being brought along and so then I went to college and it was a national championship

00:08:55.140 wrestling coach and Dr. Harold Nichols and he taught me a lot about independence and which I already had

00:09:00.400 a lot of that anyway but he really um he his philosophy was you bring in some good wrestlers and them good

00:09:06.980 wrestlers will make other wrestlers good and so he had an environment was that was really tough for a guy

00:09:14.320 that wanted to um to go on and do some great things so you'd have to survive in that environment

00:09:19.380 or take a licking and I wasn't going to take a licking many times so so one of the things I love

00:09:25.460 about your the book the way you organize it is that unlike a lot of memoirs you that sort of like tell

00:09:30.460 every single detail of a person's life you pick uh poignant moments from your life where there was a

00:09:36.480 teaching or learning experience and then share it and one of one of my favorites that made me chuckle was

00:09:41.500 uh your family had this phrase they used uh molly putts um you know can you explain what a molly putts

00:09:49.340 is and share this story about how your mom called you out for being a molly putts it's always mom

00:09:53.480 well well it's like again your home life so um what can you get away with well you know back in junior

00:10:03.240 high uh i got upset in wrestling winning a match got my butt stuck to the mat came home

00:10:11.200 pouting went to my room pouting wasn't talking to anybody all of a sudden she opens the door

00:10:18.260 and she looks at me and she what are you doing in here why you're not you know out here with us and

00:10:23.900 and i you know i just kind of shook my head a little bit and she goes you know yeah you're a molly putts

00:10:29.960 and i you know i just really what it was is i was kind of feeling sorry for myself you know and that

00:10:35.920 because of that i wasn't really going to take take that adversity on and that's what you do you know

00:10:41.120 when there's adversity you take it on and otherwise it takes you on and she knew that we could you could

00:10:47.440 she could use a terminology that would stick with me a little bit a molly putts and and uh i don't

00:10:53.780 think it was something that she originated with but somewhere along the line the word had stuck with

00:10:59.000 somebody and it got to her and when i was not doing what i supposed to do or my sister you know

00:11:07.500 we would uh we would catch that phrase in fact even that day of the snowstorm outside and it's in the

00:11:13.140 book she told me to get my rear end out there and shovel the snow right off and off the uh the driveway

00:11:20.440 and and so i i did it but i ended up uh showing her because it stirred up something in me and i was

00:11:28.400 already had a lot of anger in me from that match and so i just went around and helped all the neighbors

00:11:33.160 and shoveling all their driveways yeah you know it's it's just something that that uh you never forget

00:11:41.120 and uh there's little things and i have quite a few of those little things you don't forget but

00:11:45.040 you don't want to have them like all the time being negative you want to have a lot of positives

00:11:50.060 and so in my life i'm probably known more for losses than wins and had a lot of wins i think

00:11:55.940 seven years in a row one time in the scholastic style of wrestling where i i had all wins except

00:12:02.080 for my last one then i got beat but that stirred up a lot of action too sure yeah let's let's talk

00:12:07.000 about that i mean what what was i mean you talked about how everyone's more interested in your losses

00:12:11.160 and then you know even you said in your book that you are too because you know you kind of

00:12:15.340 analyzed and like what what was different about that match um it was the last match of your

00:12:20.500 collegiate career correct right and i already went through high school 10th 11th and 12th grade

00:12:26.260 undefeated yeah and uh so then i had a freshman year of uh you know you weren't eligible but i

00:12:32.040 never lost as a freshman in a scholastic match and then once i got to start wearing the iowa state

00:12:37.620 uniform as a sophomore and junior and right up to my final match i was undefeated and i would have

00:12:42.840 had the chance to be the only person to go undefeated through high school and college but

00:12:47.020 but you know it's like playing anything else you take something for granted you let up a little bit

00:12:54.100 you change your focus you get involved in the environment you start thinking about uh your opponent

00:13:01.840 instead of you and what you can do and you start getting awards ahead of time you know and and you

00:13:08.520 know there's a lot of things i could say like well yeah maybe the coaching staff should have done this

00:13:12.640 should have done that but you know what i was the captain of the team i both at west waterloo and

00:13:18.700 both at iowa state too and you know i i knew what i should have done and and i i really didn't i i'd let

00:13:25.340 up and when you get somebody that's raring for you and and they and they they build up some confidence

00:13:32.260 and you're not at your best game you're vulnerable and so i i learned a lot of lessons there uh in fact

00:13:39.700 i i say this i went 181 matches and with all wins i lost one match at the 182nd match and then i got good

00:13:48.560 and the reason why i got good is because i started focusing more on staying focused and actually

00:13:55.180 analyzing really what i needed to be better instead of just going to practice every day with no

00:14:01.060 with not like a plan of what really is needed in your life to be uh you know to be able to improve

00:14:08.580 uh in in your sport or in your life so you know it's like all of a sudden now i'm in a

00:14:14.520 in a transition stage going from collegiate wrestling to olympic wrestling so i needed to

00:14:21.640 become a lot smarter and not just be the hardest worker i needed to be the hardest worker and i need

00:14:26.960 to be the smartest worker and when that happened all of a sudden i saw changes taking place you know

00:14:33.560 over time that gave me that opportunity to go to another new level so a lot of times people think

00:14:39.800 they're really good but they maybe aren't as good as they really can be and you have to make some

00:14:46.200 minor changes and and sometimes it takes a jolt to to bring that audio or sometimes it just takes

00:14:52.920 a good coach to be able to convince you that here's the things that you need to focus on gotta be a good

00:14:59.820 listener as well so one thing you you uh talk about in your book is that your your sister was tragically

00:15:06.140 murdered when you were a teenager um how how did that affect i mean i'm sure i know it devastated

00:15:12.220 you personally but how did it affect your wrestling career and how i mean did you throw yourself more

00:15:17.000 into wrestling because of it or as a way to sort of cope or what what happened there you know i i hear

00:15:24.780 this stuff about a lot of people well i gotta do this for myself yeah i gotta do this for myself you

00:15:31.480 know i need to you know i don't need to focus on other people and i don't i just need to um you know

00:15:37.900 do what i wanted to and and i'll be really good at what i can do and that type of thing well for me

00:15:44.160 it was more about people that really cared for me the people that really braved me the people that

00:15:52.240 love me the people that i was surrounded by even in friends and so i my sister was you know tragically

00:16:01.260 murdered in our house it was one of these things that it was going to crumble my family you know i

00:16:08.900 think i was going to make it yeah but my mom and dad i it just wasn't wasn't they weren't going to get

00:16:15.260 over it and it was one of these things that all of a sudden after maybe a month go back and living

00:16:22.440 in our house where all of a sudden when something happened that was extreme between those two

00:16:27.900 you know you know i just i had to i said i have to take this on you know i have to take this on

00:16:33.000 and i got up and i just i said i'm moving into her bedroom and because it was like haunted or

00:16:41.360 something you know and we just we didn't really we lost our kind of home you know kind of became a

00:16:47.280 house or something and i just went in there went to sleep and i actually didn't go to sleep but they

00:16:52.860 thought i did it actually started the healing process uh with making that that house that had

00:16:59.460 kind of developed into a haunted house into a home again but it also you know it's one of these things

00:17:06.860 that i was tipped off i was tipped off about the her killer and i never said anything so the lack of

00:17:16.560 communication uh you know it was like it was like a kid saying something that really didn't mean a lot

00:17:22.440 but it was a derogatory comment but it it's something that you can't overlook and uh i learned

00:17:30.060 that the hard way and it's probably made a big difference in my life but more than that i i i just

00:17:36.740 felt like i needed to focus on making sure that the people that cared for me that they really had

00:17:46.660 something to focus on more than just this murder yeah and uh you know i kind of just change their

00:17:54.480 attitude a little bit i mean you don't you never get away from it i mean it's sure i mean i can walk

00:17:58.320 in i mean i can think i walk what just talking about right now kind of emotionally breaks me up a little

00:18:03.160 bit and you and and it's and it's really sad but but it's what you do about it afterwards

00:18:09.480 for not just yourself but for a whole lot of people that makes a difference and and so for me

00:18:16.320 uh uh it's affected my whole life but you know it's not like i can uh say that i'm the only person

00:18:25.880 that's happened to but if i can use one word i can prevent something from happening for somebody else

00:18:33.460 or even in my life that's really adversity like that then that's really effective so you know

00:18:40.160 people say well you can handle adversity well well no i really don't want adversity i mean i you know

00:18:47.460 i i don't want losses i don't want things like this to happen so let's prevent him and that makes

00:18:53.920 a bigger difference and that's why i'm known for like some losses whether it be a loss of a sister

00:18:59.140 or the loss of a wrestling match you know that type of thing it's because it just doesn't happen

00:19:04.480 very often and i prevented a lot of those and so because that i've had a lot of success

00:19:09.100 in in in my profession a lot of success in in my athletic career and hopefully in in my family so

00:19:16.140 because of that you know it's like you're you you kind of people look up to you and you are you're

00:19:22.480 somebody that people really want to want to be yeah you know i'm proud of i'm proud of that

00:19:27.780 that's fantastic so becoming others focused you know whenever something like that right

00:19:31.460 directing yeah so so as a coach you know you kind of deal with athletes and you know what those

00:19:37.980 athletes are teenagers uh even the ones that train a little bit later they're maybe in their 20s but

00:19:44.200 you know they can be and you got to be a bear to them a little bit sometimes you can't be their

00:19:48.660 best friends all the time and the fact that you might you know you might have confrontations with

00:19:53.280 in a in a sport like wrestling or any sport that's tough i mean swimming basketball football

00:19:58.760 you know i mean any any sport that you want to get something out of it you know you got to be

00:20:03.360 focused you got to put your mind to it and so you have to do a lot of that uh confrontation so

00:20:08.980 sometimes i'd be pretty upset with the athletes and so i'd have to kind of vision myself

00:20:14.540 to somebody else to stay motivated with that person and so i would also i would also get to know

00:20:22.020 their parents real well or their brothers and sisters or their friends and so a lot of times

00:20:27.340 i just would recall after a wrestling match when one of the a big win for a kid when all of a sudden

00:20:35.220 i'd know where the parents are sitting in the stands and i and after that big win i would look up there

00:20:40.520 and i would see the expression on those faces of those people that love that kid and i knew i was

00:20:46.160 doing my job yeah and and so that that's what meant a lot to me so i'd have to overlook sometimes

00:20:51.200 certain situations with a kid just because i could overlook it because i knew there was somebody

00:20:57.720 that really was very similar to my mom and dad and uh that there's a lot of meaning there oh for sure

00:21:05.300 um so a common theme that i found throughout the book was that of transitions um and it seems like your

00:21:14.340 your first real big transition i guess going from swimming to wrestling was a big transition transition but

00:21:19.900 the second one was um when you transitioned from an athlete to coach was it hard to make that

00:21:26.500 transition you know no no it's i guess you gotta define what hard is for and i was used to

00:21:38.340 situations of of combat where you know all of a sudden it was a new level a new level and because

00:21:47.480 that new level i had to go to a new level myself and i just didn't want to go at the same rate of

00:21:52.420 speed as everybody else so those transitions as an athlete were probably doubled or tripled because of

00:22:01.100 of the amount of work and effort that i would put into it but from a coach i mean from an athlete to a

00:22:07.640 coach there wasn't a whole lot of change except i didn't really change my the only thing i changed was

00:22:16.480 just that now i dealt with less control and i and i realized and i had i had to come up with a

00:22:24.300 a way of feeling really good about that and the reason why i could feel really good about that is

00:22:30.820 because it was more difficult to coach somebody to be a champion than be a champion yourself at least in

00:22:37.680 my life i mean because i had a lot of success as an athlete and you know i had a few knockdowns but

00:22:43.880 that i got right back up and went to greater heights and and so you know so i you know as

00:22:49.960 as you look at coaching you just aren't the guy that's wrestling and you're not really scoring the

00:22:58.880 points you're just adding a percent or two percent you get that kid to perform and some of these coaches

00:23:05.840 that their athletes are totally dependent on their on their coaches in the corner they're not

00:23:13.360 going to win a lot of matches because the coaches aren't wrestling and so there's really it's more

00:23:19.040 rewarding because i i knew what i knew pretty much i was going to win every time and when my athletes

00:23:24.920 go out i don't always know that until they prove it to me and because of that it's a little more

00:23:32.520 difficult but it's a little more satisfying too and when you take on that flavor uh it's there's a

00:23:39.000 lot of meaning so i mean i know there's probably some uh people who are listening who are coaches or

00:23:44.760 in in some sort of leadership position i mean what do you do and were there some overarching principles

00:23:49.900 you used as a coach to get the best from your athletes well you got to work harder than they do

00:23:57.740 and so they got to know you have their best interest they got to believe in you and you as a coach

00:24:05.760 are more scientific than them as an athlete because they're depending on you for a lot of learning

00:24:11.560 so you know what what's good for me in 1974 75 when i started out as his and coach 10 years later you

00:24:19.540 better be 10 years smarter you better be 10 years more updated you better know what's currently going on

00:24:26.480 in terms of skills and and training and you know how to how to do things correctly and you know and

00:24:33.440 and those coaches that stick with that old coaching style that you had in the beginning and don't change

00:24:39.900 you get outdated and you you don't keep up it's like anything else um it's like okay so longevity

00:24:47.780 so in wrestling it's a tough sport football is a tough sport you get you get injured and you you do

00:24:52.840 repetitions and you wear some joints and you know it's like a good coach will actually figure out

00:24:59.460 ways to train your athletes that will be less evasive but yet just as hard to work but because

00:25:06.680 you've stayed up to date more current and i'll just give you an example when i was growing up in high

00:25:12.160 school and college training for the olympics i used to do deep squats with heavy weights on my shoulders

00:25:18.320 you know you know and go down all the way down full squat back up full squat back up i mean i'll tell

00:25:25.180 you it was tough work and it was hard it was grueling and you were exhausted and you got tough because of

00:25:31.020 it but you know it's like okay after a few years you you realize that you did a lot of damage to some of

00:25:37.400 those joints where they have more modern machines there's ways of recovery now that you can utilize in your

00:25:46.700 practices or after you know after practices that weren't available then in my day i you don't

00:25:55.860 want to go to the training room the training room is like off limits because the coach would say

00:26:00.720 you know that's for people to get hurt you know it's like don't go to the training room so me and i

00:26:06.180 you know i'm almost breaking arm or a leg or something and i wouldn't go to the training room

00:26:10.440 i just tape it up and stay out there but nowadays you got to use

00:26:15.260 science a little more you got to be a little smarter and a good coach will continue to learn

00:26:22.520 the skills and techniques that that really um that can help you the most you don't have to work any

00:26:29.480 less hard but again it's almost like you're smarter but it's more like because you're more updated

00:26:34.280 educated and that makes a big difference so that's a transition that that uh i was able to

00:26:42.160 kind of do well for some reason i stayed right up to what what's current and continue to do that

00:26:48.120 so another big transition was you had this fantastic um successful coaching career

00:26:56.620 and uh wrestling had become basically a part big part of your family life um your your family's

00:27:04.080 schedule revolved around wrestling and you talked about the moment when you you've decided or

00:27:09.760 realized it was time for you to you know retire from coaching that you're i think your youngest

00:27:14.360 daughter got really upset and started crying just didn't want to leave have that part of her life

00:27:19.600 uh leave her um i know there's some older folks who are listening to the podcast who are getting to

00:27:25.360 that point where they're about to retire i mean for someone who's been there is there any advice

00:27:30.440 about making that transition from you know doing your calling full time uh to maybe making it a

00:27:37.700 smaller part of your life well here's the first the first thing is you prepare for things your whole

00:27:44.340 life you have to and if you don't you're not really going about what you need to be prepared for

00:27:50.180 so there's certain things in your life that are going to happen and there's such a thing as

00:27:55.100 you know it's like people say retiring which i i really don't believe in retiring but you might

00:28:00.200 change positions or you might change jobs or you might just um stop doing one thing and go to

00:28:08.200 another and that's kind of what i did you know i just went till i couldn't walk anymore at that time

00:28:15.040 you know i just well you coach you you had a very physical way of coaching i mean you actually got

00:28:19.260 down down on the mats and well wrestled with you right but more than that that was my way of

00:28:23.620 continuing to exercise because i love the sport yeah and so i'd wrestle every day not all during

00:28:28.400 practice but you know at least for a half hour after practice let's say keep up three guys there

00:28:32.400 and just you know once you get you know 50 years of wrestling in your body it's pretty much

00:28:37.720 you know you're you've uh done a lot of uh especially when you start out and you don't really

00:28:43.520 have all these scientific principles that were you know you when i first started you know they didn't

00:28:49.360 want you to drink water during practice you know so it's like uh you know once you learn that you

00:28:54.800 can drink water in practice you actually get a lot more accomplished so you know but um you know it's

00:28:59.960 just one of these things that uh uh that you learn over time and i uh i learned a lot of things over time

00:29:08.720 and and i um continue to learn that but but when you go to retirement it's like for me you know i i focus

00:29:15.760 on the things that i'm really able to focus on right now so you just make adjustments sure my

00:29:21.680 daughter who was six my youngest daughter who was six years younger than the next daughter

00:29:26.080 didn't understand it because i just kind of rocked her life but you know what this book

00:29:30.540 her kind of writing the part of the chapter me writing part of the chapter on her because i have

00:29:36.140 a chapter on each daughter actually solved our any issues that we had between us

00:29:41.740 uh as far as like you know i i didn't realize i rocked her world you know and so you got to be

00:29:47.720 better prepared for not just you stepping down in retirement but what it does to the people that

00:29:54.720 love you that are around you that are close to you and that are used to certain things i did not take

00:29:59.760 that into consideration uh and so there needed to be something else done at that particular time

00:30:07.600 instead of me just boom um jumping out of the sport as a head coach uh you know i stayed in it and i

00:30:15.640 still am in it but i should have took her consideration a little bit more i don't know exactly how i would

00:30:22.660 handle it but i think if i would have just been able to maybe communicate to her more why i was

00:30:28.740 getting out of it i think it would have been a lot better i don't think she understood that

00:30:34.060 her dad was human yeah because she never saw that part of me probably and she didn't understand

00:30:40.840 that this guy needed to um take a break in his life to recover and get his help back even though

00:30:46.360 he can do a lot of great things for the sport of wrestling so she didn't know that she was nine

00:30:51.260 years old or something like that and i i could have helped her transition but i didn't till this book

00:30:56.720 is out there you go so but we're good now that's good that's good glad to hear that um so you you in the

00:31:03.680 book with this great phrase and it really stuck with me i've been thinking about it a lot lately

00:31:08.820 uh it's the patience of change how do you stay patient with change i know there's a lot of people

00:31:16.360 out there there's a lot of people out there they they set goals and they do it for a couple like a

00:31:22.180 month and they don't have the progress they were hoping for and then they just give up um so

00:31:27.740 let me tell you about the patience of change the patience of change i really don't like

00:31:36.620 the patience of change and if i had my way my way would be when i want to change and go from one

00:31:44.600 thing to another and get that change completely to where i want it i want it right now and that's

00:31:51.260 the way everybody is but the thing i understood is and i and i didn't like it is that it it's not

00:32:00.220 going to happen just in one day it's not going to happen in two you know it's it's gonna it's

00:32:06.440 going to take some time and i think there's some scientific proof out there that if you don't stay

00:32:11.340 with something for at least two weeks 10 to 10 days to two weeks that you don't even have a chance

00:32:19.320 to having any kind of a cultural type of change when you're used to doing something your whole life

00:32:23.700 a certain way and so you know you you have that shot at changing but you know if you can at least

00:32:31.820 understand and if you can at least feel a few things that might if you have just any kind of

00:32:39.920 success during that time period you know you got to use that as motivation to go on and even even if

00:32:46.480 you don't you got to realize that sooner or later it will change but if you don't stick it out and if

00:32:57.100 you don't have that patience which i don't have the patience but i actually just made sure i i stuck

00:33:04.240 it out uh i would see a difference and that difference is going to happen you just don't know

00:33:10.980 when it's going to happen i'd love to have it happen immediately and change the first day but it's

00:33:16.100 not gonna even though you may have a good first day you might you probably won't have a good second

00:33:20.720 day but once things start going your way you will see that change and believe it or not

00:33:29.980 my wrestling career as an athlete once i you know once i you know i was wrestling from the beginning

00:33:37.720 but once i got into my about third year in college

00:33:42.380 so i'm you know i'm going through three years of high school i have a freshman year that's you're

00:33:50.680 ineligible and then you got a sophomore then you got a junior year i think it took that long to where

00:33:56.160 all of a sudden i wasn't having a bad day at practice and by that i mean bad day for me would

00:34:02.440 have been somebody taking me down or or somebody score a couple extra points and that's a good day

00:34:08.040 for most people but you know my standards were already pretty high just from a success point of

00:34:13.460 view so you know basically i i just didn't have a practice where i didn't dominate you know and uh

00:34:22.960 you know so that that type of and then when you go to the competitions you add on what's going on there

00:34:28.280 you're you're pretty much thinking you're i mean you're pretty good i mean you don't really brag

00:34:36.120 about it you just you have that to rely on that confidence that you build because some people are

00:34:42.280 good practice wrestlers some people are not good practice wrestlers some people are good meat wrestlers

00:34:47.260 some people aren't good match wrestlers but when you just have success a lot because you get to that

00:34:52.220 point you have that patience of getting to that excellent level then you know you pretty much

00:34:57.960 uh are gonna do well however i proved that uh that you still are vulnerable and that you're still

00:35:05.900 human and it's just like the story with my youngest daughter i mean you know it's uh you still gotta do

00:35:13.440 your homework yeah and if you don't do your homework somewhere someplace somebody's gonna be

00:35:19.880 outsmarting you and outworking you and out focusing you and and you know that that type of thing but

00:35:27.200 but one thing we didn't cover is and i think this is really key this is really key and it took me a

00:35:34.940 long time to understand this part but yet i was doing it already and that's why i could have this

00:35:42.520 success and i call it what's called recovery uh because when you have high goals no matter whether

00:35:50.820 in athletics or in profession or business family you know you really have to be at a high level

00:35:57.420 all the time but you also have to be able to recover to be able to get back up the next day to

00:36:03.280 be able to go back hard again and so that recovery is whatever you need in your life on a daily basis

00:36:10.940 you get it you get it even with the hard work that you do you need to recover so safe and it can be a

00:36:18.680 simple thing it's like uh oh you might have to go to movies yeah you know you take the time to go to

00:36:26.500 a movie or you or you may enjoy um a good tv set a show you know or or you know like for me i didn't

00:36:32.900 realize this but after my wrestling practices i always loved to step to set in like hot tubs or

00:36:37.880 saunas or steam rooms you know that type of stuff but what i was doing is i was kind of getting a

00:36:42.700 massage and it was it felt good after a good hard day of training and so i was really doing myself

00:36:49.540 a justice by taking that time to do that stuff instead of hurrying into practice hurrying out of

00:36:55.020 practice hurrying home and i'd be still i'd still be in the locker room an hour after everybody else

00:37:01.120 left but what i was doing is actually getting my mind and body recovered to get ready to go the next

00:37:08.060 day and then i'd go home and if i if i had a vice or two that i needed that i needed a mountain duo

00:37:14.360 you know i might get a mountain duo you know but it's like if so it's what you need and what you know

00:37:22.160 what you think you can what you think you can uh handle but i'll tell you what uh uh you have to work

00:37:28.740 at it and um that recovery part is something i look right now i'm walking around my yard right now

00:37:35.700 and i got a cabin in my backyard and my wife's got a house here and i live there with her but i got

00:37:43.440 a cabin in my backyard and so i've got an office now i got a little help club in there and it's

00:37:48.940 kind of open to the to the deer and the turkey out here in the country but but it's like i got

00:37:55.940 everything in there i that i i need to recover i mean you know to get ready to work hard because i

00:38:01.340 like working hard i like one of these i'm one of these guys that that want to make a real contribution

00:38:06.480 and to help people to help your family to help what you do and so right there and i got a steam

00:38:12.440 room there i got a sauna i got a whirlpool i got outdoor shower i got a workout room in there i got

00:38:18.380 a desk where i do work uh you know and i and i'm and i'm facing the woods yeah and and so when i'm

00:38:25.080 working all of a sudden a big buck deer might run out because i'm kind of an outdoor crazy guy too

00:38:30.220 so i've kind of created an atmosphere that helps me recover and i don't have to travel once a year

00:38:37.380 to go for two weeks vacation i can go in my backyard and i and i can i can work in my a little little

00:38:43.620 cabin that um you know that gets me gets me kind of ready to go you know and so i think people

00:38:48.920 sometimes are on this pace and they don't have the patience and the reason why they don't have

00:38:55.140 the patience is because they don't have any break in their life so when you talk about patience and

00:38:58.960 change it's gonna be how you structure your everyday life to make sure it's structured well

00:39:05.720 and when it's structured well you're gonna do good fantastic well dang it well it's been a fantastic

00:39:11.240 conversation thank you for so much for your time it's been a pleasure

00:39:14.840 hey i enjoyed it uh it's pretty in depth and uh i hope that uh you get this thing out to a lot of

00:39:23.240 people and a lot of people actually uh maybe tune into the great sport of uh amateur wrestling i thank

00:39:29.760 you thank you again thank you so much our guest today was dan gable he's the author of the book

00:39:34.920 a wrestling life the inspiring stories of dan gable and you can find that on amazon.com

00:39:40.140 well that wraps up another edition of the art of manliness podcast for more manly tips and advice

00:39:47.080 make sure to check out the art of manliness website at artofmanliness.com and if you enjoy

00:39:51.280 this podcast you feel like you're getting something out of it please please please give

00:39:54.200 us a review on itunes or stitcher or whatever it is you use to listen to your podcast also

00:39:57.980 recommend us to your friends i'd really appreciate that until next time this is brett mckay

00:40:01.720 telling you to stay manly

00:40:03.720 you

The Art of Manliness - June 11, 2015

#118： Olympic and Collegiate Wrestling Legend Dan Gable

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