WHAT I WAS TOLD. WHAT I WAS AFRAID OF. WHAT I WROTE DOWN TO SURVIVE.
Fargo does something to you. The scale of it. The noise. The sea of singlets from every state. You can walk in ranked and walk out shaken. You can walk in unknown and walk out with a story you tell for the rest of your life.
I competed at Fargo multiple times. Every year, I kept notes. The kind you scribble at 11pm because you're too wired to sleep and you need to get it out of your head and onto paper.
These are from 2004. I was the age of the athletes competing this week.
WHAT I NOTICE LOOKING BACK Reading these now, twenty years later, a few things stand out.
The mental notes come first. "Go into the match with confidence in each move."
"Act like everything you do is your strategy for control."
Writing down your strategy is proven to increase your recall, and to interrupt the spiraling thought patterns. I definitely needed a way to process all the intensity of this event. My journal was that outlet.
"NO REACHING UNDER!!"
Someone had to tell me that more than once for me to write it like that.
"To be #1 you have to train like you are #2."
I don't know who told me that, but I wrote it down. I had strong resonance with that statement at the time. The statement means to not be complacent, as if you've already made it. I still believe this today.
LESSONS THAT I STILL HOLD
Confidence is a decision. Go into the match believing in each move, especially your shots. You've drilled it. Trust it.
Reshot, reshot, reshot. The first shot won't always score. The second effort is where matches are won.
Stay in your own match. Don't worry about others getting the first takedown. What's happening on the next mat is not your business.
Ask what you did wrong. Not to punish yourself, but to get better. The feedback loop is the whole point of a tournament like Fargo.
Learn from every style you see. You're surrounded by the best young wrestlers in the country. Watch them. Absorb it.
8,531
ATHLETES COMPETED AT FARGO IN 2025
THE LARGEST WRESTLING TOURNAMENT ON THE PLANET
HOW FARGO COMPARES TO OTHER MAJOR TOURNAMENTS
Fargo is nearly 2× the size of the #2 largest tournament — and 30× larger than the Olympics. Sources: USA Wrestling; NHSCA; tournament organizers.
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