Legends of the Mat: Jeff Buxton and Ernie Monaco Share Timeless Wisdom

This week, Wrestling Mindset founder Gene Zannetti sits down with two legends of the sport, Coach Jeff Buxton and Coach Ernie Monaco.

Jeff Buxton is the head coach of the SKWC RTC, Team USA Mens Freestyle Coach, and owner/coach at Buxton Athletic Training Center. Previously he was the head coach of the Lehigh Valley Wrestling Club and built the nation’s powerhouse program Blair Academy.

Ernie Monaco is the founder and owner of the Edge School of Wrestling, the first amateur wrestling school in the United States. He was inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2022 and has coached some of the best wrestlers in America over the past 40 years.

In this special mastermind, we discuss some of the most interesting and controversial topics in wrestling. What are the best wrestlers doing differently? How do you avoid burnout? Why you should avoid Club Jumping? The relationship between parents and coaches, how they can affect their wrestler’s performance.

They also get into more advanced topics like teaching wrestlers how to lose and how they can gain more from it than they think. How decades worth of Soviet research can benefit the American wrestler. And how to combat the biggest performance obstacles- self-doubt, perfectionism and anxiety.

 Edge Wrestling:

Website- https://www.edgewrestling.com/

Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/EdgeWrestlingSchool/

Twitter- https://twitter.com/EdgeWrestling

Instagram- https://www.instagram.com/edge_wrestling/

Ernie Monaco National Hall of Fame- https://nwhof.org/national-wrestling-hall-of-fame/bio/15475

Buxton Trained:

Website- https://www.buxtonatc.com

Instagram- https://www.instagram.com/jeffpbuxton/

Timestamps:

1:20 – Mastermind with two legends

11:02 – Revolve your training around match days

20:40 – Downside of club jumping

23:40 – To be a good student, put the time in

36:24 – Allowing the coach to do their job

1:02:22 – When should a kid get on the mat

1:11:09 – Learning more from your losses

1:27:40 – In wrestling, every individual is different

1:31:20 – Applying Soviet research to American wrestling

1:52:35 – Perfection and anxiety

2:11:43 – Teaching how to lose

2:25:20 – Keeping up with what’s happening on the mat