Wrestling

Here’s what the college wrestling community says are the best warm-up games

November 15, 2024
chandanmalana

The wrestling community can hardly agree on anything. Folkstyle or freestyle? Tournaments or duals? 

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These debates rage on and extend to questions about the best way for athletes to warm up before their duals and practices. Dodgeball or handball? Basketball or spikeball? 

We polled fans and athletes on social media and interviewed several coaches and athletes to answer this question once and for all. The results show that while no one game is a universal favorite, all of these activities bring teammates together, inspire competitiveness and create a fun atmosphere that is good for the future of college wrestling.

Implementing games

New York University coach Bruce Haberli’s approach to coaching wrestling practice practice, specifically the warm-up portion of the practice, has taken a sharp turn away from his days as athlete, a time when athletes had to be “foaming at the mouth” to prove they were ready to compete. 

“When I wrestled, everything was intense.” Haberli said. “And if you weren’t intense, the theory was you didn’t care enough. That’s so far from the truth.” 

Haberli has now evolved with the sport, keeping up with psychological and physiological trends in wrestling and listening to his athletes. Back in 2007, through the encouragement of his assistant coach and his team, he started implementing a new game into the wrestling room, one that the team calls “scatterball.”

This game, much like dodgeball, pits athletes against one another with the winner being the person that tags out all of the other competitors. The difference, however, is that in NYU’s game, each athlete competes for himself, rather than his team, and there is no middle dividing line on the court. The game is played with “those sponge middle school balls” so that no one gets hurt, Haberli said. 

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Danny Lightfoot, a senior on the team, said the game helps him “get a better sweat [and] work a little harder.” He played games — mostly spikeball — during high school wrestling practices, too, but he said he usually had to beg his coach to play.

Haberli, meanwhile, encourages his athletes to play games because of the benefits they provide athletes both physically and mentally, and Lightfoot appreciates that philosophy. 

“Wrestling is a very nerve-wracking sport…even practice sometimes can be a little nerve wracking if you know it’s gonna be like a match day,” Lightfoot said. “So before practice and then before competitions, I think it [playing games] helps take a lot of the pressure off while still being very competitive at the same time and just getting you mentally ready.” 

Changing the games 

Dodgeball, or scatterball, as the Violets call it, was the most popular choice amongst wrestlers and fans in the “warm-up game” poll, earning 54% of the vote on X and 40% of the vote on Instagram. The game is a popular choice with the reigning national champion Penn State Nittany Lions, too. 

Handball came in a second, trailing by just 9 percentage points on Instagram and 23 percentage points on X. Maryland, Michigan, Wyoming and Ohio State have been known to be handball teams in the past. 

Spikeball — a game historically played by Oklahoma State — came in third on X and Instagram, with basketball finishing fourth. App State has been known to shoot hoops, though skill level across all four of these sports ranges significantly by athlete. 

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But these weren’t the only ideas shared. Jarrett Jacques, a five-time NCAA qualifier for the Missouri Tigers, shared that Mizzou plays kickball, while the official account for Monty Tech wrestling, a high school program based on Massachusetts, advocated for a game called “matball.” Chris Foca, an All-American at Cornell, voted for soccer. 

The debates among athletes themselves about which of these games are really best actually led Indiana and specifically coach Angel Escobedo to not only implement games into his practice routine but ultimately change the kind of games he offered based on wrestler feedback. 

When Escobedo first started coaching, he, like Haberli, put his athletes “straight to work.” But then he too started to recognize the benefits that come from starting practice in a more lighthearted way. 

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“I could see just their attitude, how they approach it, how they approach practice after games — I really like that,” Escobedo said. “So I want to get the most out of my guys. And sometimes, you know, playing the game before we’ll do that.” 

He started adding handball into practices, but then included dodgeball into the rotation as well, based on the results of a team vote. Each game — regardless of style — typically lasts seven minutes or so, and the team will play two or three rounds before transitioning into harder aspects of the practice. 

Jacob Moran, a 125-pound graduate student at Indiana, prefers dodgeball to handball because of the partner aspect of dodgeball. When Indiana plays handball, the team uses small spikeballs and plays 15 v. 15, in teams. In dodgeball, Moran and assistant coach Riley Lefever join forces to peg their teammates with the volleyballs that function as dodgeballs. If Lefever isn’t playing, Moran won’t play. He’s loyal to his teammate. 

The games have become so popular amongst the team that guys will come in on their off days to play, Moran said. 

“We’ll have guys come into our room and just play dodgeball for 45 minutes to an hour, to just get an extra workout it,” Moran said. “They’ll text the group chat and be like, ‘Hey, who wants to come in and play dodgeball?’ So I think it’s been a way to bring people into the room…and the guys, the guys love it…They play hard and get a good sweat going.”

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Escobedo does worry sometimes that too much dodgeball may wear out his team or cause injury. The good news for Escobedo, though, is that as long as he sticks with dodgeball, the risk for injury amongst his athletes is lower. Arizona State athletic trainer Jess Battilochi explained that of the games that wrestlers often play, dodgeball is safer than other options like handball, the team’s original warmup game. 

“Handball probably causes more injuries than it prevents,” Battilochi said. “We’ve definitely seen our fair share of injuries from handball because the guys are so competitive.” 

The most common injuries sustained during these games are concussions and sprained ankles, Battilochi said, so she prefers that ASU not play as much, particularly near the postseason. But she also recognizes the cardio benefits that athletes get from running during the game. 

For Escobedo, the games make more sense for his team than some of the more traditional wrestling warmups, even with the varied potential for injury, so he allows the team to play and stay loose within and beyond the structured practice team. 

“I think it’s just a great way to get these guys moving. You know, the old fashioned way of just running around in a circle? It’s kind of pointless, especially in wrestling,” Escobedo said. “So like the movements of dodgeball where you’re kind of flipping around, trying to dodge, trying to be mobile, that’s more, you know, tailored towards wrestling. So I think that’s why guys really, really like to play it on their off days.” 

He does make his team warm up before games now, too, though, just in case. 

Games on the go

 The games don’t stop just because athletes compete away from home either. 

“We bring the balls on the road,” Indiana’s Moran said. “Nothing changes.” 

The games are a part of the team’s warmup routine now, just like stretching. 

If the team is planning to play handball before an away dual, Escobedo said he will either bring spikeballs or tape balls for his athletes. 

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“We’ll try to find some dodgeballs, or throw some on the bottom of the bus if we’re bussing,” Escobedo added. “Usually, if we’re flying, and we probably will just bring spike balls, just because it’s easier to travel with.” 

Worst-case scenario, Indiana uses tape balls in place of spikeballs, particularly at tournaments when space is limited. 

Arizona State, meanwhile, always has a backup ball made up of tape and a towel, courtesy of Battilochi.  

“We’re always looking for a ball to use when we’re on the road so they can play,” she said. “I just decided to keep one instead of them making one each week we travel. It’s probably the most random thing in my medical kit.”

Haberli and his NYU team have had to improvise for away duals and tournaments, sometimes using hacky sacks or soccer balls in place of the squishy dodgeballs that they normally use for their warmup games at home. 

“These games, they just continue no matter where they [the team] go,” Haberli said.

This commitment to keeping wrestling light and fun is something that Haberli said is becoming more common amongst college wrestling coaches. One of the fun things about watching his particular team play these games, though, whether home in New York City or on the road, is that Haberli gets to see his athletes unwind. 

“These guys, they do a lot of school work, and, you know, it’s a research institution, and they’ve got a lot on their plate,” Haberli said. “So when they come here to a certain extent, they look forward to getting on the mat and getting some of that edge off, and getting out of the classroom and having the ability to just get in here and fight for a couple hours, right?” 

Every good fight, however, starts with a warmup game of scatterball at NYU. 

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