Last May, the U.S. Junior athletes competed at the American Championships in Havana, Cuba. Cary Kolat, two-time NCAA wrestling champion, flew to Cuba to help coach the U.S. Junior team. While he was there he noticed something that was strikingly odd when he walked into the weight room for the Cuban National Team. Kolat immediately took out his phone, snapped a picture and posted it on his Twitter account, along with the caption: "Here is a shot of the weight room at the national training center.
The weight room was a hole in a wall; the tiny room consisted of one 45 pound weight, a few rusty pull up bars, and other weight equipment that was falling apart.
Cuban training facilities do not compare to the extravagant training facilities that professional athletes have access to in most developed countries. However, Cuba consistently produce some of the best wrestlers in the world.
Mijain Lopez, two-time Olympic gold medalist, is one of out of many great Cuban wrestlers that the world has seen on the mat; every wrestler at the professional level know his name. He trains in the tiny weight room a long side many others.
Lopez resemble the Cuban wrestling style, physical and mental, all to well. His success comes from his ability to make something out of nothing via risk-taking, hard work, and preparation. When Lopez see an opportunity to score on the mat he is going to take it because he knows that he prepared via countless hours in the mat room. He does not worry about what is going to happen, the scoreboard, the tiny underfunded weight room he trains in everyday, or not being well liked if he loses.
What can we take from Cuban wrestlers? The ability to turn nothing into something. The ability to work with what you have in order to achieve maximum results. The ability to risk it all even when you know the odds are against you. The ability to capitalize on opportunities. The Cuban Wrestling Mindset.
