Get to know Menomonee Falls HS wrestling coach Quinn Elliott
MENOMONEE FALLS, Wis. — Quinn Elliott began wrestling at age 11 and was a two-time Scholar All-American at 126 and 134 pounds for Upper Iowa University, under Coach Mike McCready. Quinn began coaching 29 years ago with J-Robinson Intensive Wrestling Camps. His head coaching experiences have been at Platteville, Cudahy and Milwaukee Marshall high schools. Coach Elliott was also an assistant coach for Carroll University in Waukesha.
This is his second year as the Menomonee Falls Youth Wrestling Club’s coach and first year as the Menomonee Falls High School head coach. Coach Elliott plans to keep the traditions of Menomonee Falls wrestling alive and continue improving the progress of individual wrestlers to improve team success.
“I find it very important to build wrestling relationships by building up one’s confidence and self awareness,” explains Coach Elliott. “Wrestling is a mentally demanding sport; developing younger wrestlers emotionally is key to their coachability and becoming a stable competitive athlete.
“My other focus is to help wrestlers understand that their body position, with technique, leads to a higher percentage of success when competing. Wrestlers need to practice skills correctly and be a good partner to keep focus on proper technique. All else will fall into place once the whistle blows!
“Wrestling is a personal sport, where any mistake is exposed while you compete. Understanding why a loss happens and having the ability to regroup to correct the situation in the next match is an important life skill for wrestlers to live by. Sometimes you may lose a match, yet win the situation you are in. For example, one may wrestle a better opponent, yet if the lesser wrestler keeps the match close, or does not get pinned or lose by a lot of points, that could be a winning situation for that wrestler to keep progressing during the season toward eventually beating the other wrestler by the end of the season.
“Coaching wrestling is very one-on-one and a personal connection. As a coach and athlete, you are vulnerable to your emotions and getting beat even when you put forth your best effort. Being a wrestler first, you learn wrestling is probably the hardest thing you can do in life. Once you have wrestled, you understand things from the outside of being the individual competitor. As a coach, you need to know your wrestlers individually to meet their needs for competition and help them succeed off the mat as well.
“Wrestling is a global community. We need the coaches of all clubs, teams and communities to work together; if we commit to that we all will be successful. We can say one team, club, community or individual is better than another, yet we need each other to keep the sport of wrestling alive and well.”
In the off season, Coach Elliott coaches at Ringers Wrestling club in Menomonee Falls.
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