Before you spend money sending your athletes to tumbling class to emulate what you've seen from Wrestling Prep athletes, understand this: the two are fundamentally different in intent and execution. Coach Carolyn Wester breaks down why tumbling and her Body Leveraging movements can look similar, but don't transfer the same way. Tumbling chases a finished skill through disorganized effort, and rarely develops skills that carry into grappling; Body Leveraging uses Sequential Muscle Order to build, coordinate, and transfer force through a precise muscular sequence that maps directly onto movements during a match.

In this episode, Carolyn walks through the distinctions athletes and coaches need to understand: coordination, timing, force, control, appearance, and repeatable outcomes. The throughline is this: HOW an athlete moves through space is at least as important as the final result. Athletes sharpen the technique they already use, and open themselves up to the wrestling that Carolyn layers on top of Body Leveraging by training to order their muscles and transfer force.

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After a big win, the real work begins. In this episode of the Wrestling Prep Podcast, Coach Carolyn examines how social media and well-meaning praise from parents, coaches, and prominent figures can wire athletes to chase dopamine hits instead of building genuine self-worth. She draws a clear distinction between the mindset work that takes place to prepare for a big competition and the deeper neurological process of tracing personal happiness back to overcome fear, avoidance, and self-doubt. Coaches, parents, and athletes will come away from this episode with a clearer sense of why that internal pathway matters and what gets in the way of helping athletes build it.

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In this episode of the Wrestling Prep Podcast, Carolyn Wester, Drew Morgan, and Coach Cornell Robinson have an honest conversation about what happens when adult egos begin to outweigh athlete development, and the real consequences that follow.

Carolyn and Cornell start by laying out the coaching principles that get lost when winning, perception, or control become the priority: serving the athlete, protecting long-term academic and personal growth, and maintaining ethical leadership even when it costs a coach professionally. Cornell then shares his firsthand experience navigating a situation where internal politics and power struggles ultimately led to his removal as head coach, despite clear athlete outcomes and progress during his tenure.

Throughout the discussion, the group reflects on how rumor, fear, and “us vs. them” thinking damage programs, erode trust, and place kids in the middle of adult conflicts they never asked for. They also explore how experienced coaches develop perspective over time, learning to prioritize trajectory over individual results, and people over optics. In this Episode Vidal, Cheche (2024) Fair Competition: Sports competition and the pursuit of excellence as the essence of modern sports

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Coach Carolyn Wester shares highlights from a busy season of camps, clinics, and high-level training across the country. Over the summer, she coached in Kentucky, Montana, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, drawing athletes from 38 states and five countries, and led a Coaches Clinic that combined on-mat technical progress with open conversations about communication and athlete development. She then visited Driveline Baseball in Tampa, where motion-capture data reinforced the principles behind her body-leveraging system. From early morning sessions with national-level wrestlers to ongoing work with elite fighters, Carolyn reflects on a stretch of coaching that emphasized movement structure, positional strength, and the mindset needed to turn practice into competition success.

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Coach Cornell Robinson is a nationally respected coach with over a decade of experience leading U.S. age-group world teams. He has served as head coach at both Christian Brothers College Prep and Wyoming Seminary, where he was known for his athlete-centered, strategy-driven approach. In this conversation with Coach Carolyn Wester, Cornell shares why intentional training, not constant competition, is what leads to long-term success in wrestling. He reflects on how observing Carolyn’s movement-based approach helped him develop better athletes, not just tougher wrestlers, and how integrating those concepts into his own programs has elevated performance at the highest levels. Together, they discuss the value of being a lifelong learner, the cost of over-competing, and what truly prepares athletes for success beyond youth accolades.

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Coach Wester is joined by renowned trauma and addiction recovery expert Tennie McCarty to examine how unresolved issues in parents and coaches often surface in their relationships with athletes, sometimes sabotaging the very growth they hope to support. From toxic overinvolvement to the silent consequences of unspoken trauma, this conversation explores how boundaries, self-awareness, and healthy advocacy can shift the athletic experience from pressure-driven to empowering. Tennie shares insights from decades of clinical experience and previews the tools she’ll be teaching at this summer’s Wrestling Prep Coach's Clinic, including how to confront dysfunctional patterns, build trust-based communication, and stop passing pain from one generation to the next. This is essential listening for coaches and parents committed to the long-term development of the athlete and the person.

In this episode:

Shades of Hope

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In this episode, Head Coach Carolyn Wester unpacks one of the most important but overlooked dynamics in athlete development: avoidance and acceptance. Avoidance shows up as wishful thinking, rushed plans, unclear goals, and emotional deflection after losses. Acceptance, on the other hand, means facing reality: where the athlete truly is, what was actually done in preparation, and what needs to change moving forward. Carolyn challenges parents, coaches, and wrestlers to stop chasing outcomes and start owning the process. What do you really want from the sport? What’s been avoided in pursuit of that goal? And are you willing to accept responsibility for the results you’ve earned? From summer camp planning to post-season reflection, this episode offers a practical and honest roadmap for growing with purpose.

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In this episode of the Podcast, Coach Carolyn Wester sits down with Rob Setree and Mac Profumo to discuss the profound influence of Wrestling Prep on their Jiu-Jitsu training. Rob is a second-degree black belt and the co-founder of Criterion Jiu-Jitsu in Louisville, KY. In this conversation, Rob details his significant athletic improvements, noting that practicing the Body Leveraging techniques taught by Carolyn has allowed him to surpass two decades of prior training limitations. Rob shares a vision of the sport's future, where the ability to control and move one's body effectively will distinguish top competitors. Mac reflects on his rapid progress, emphasizing how training with Carolyn has revolutionized his approach and performance. The episode captures a transformative dialogue on how mastering one's physicality, as trained through Body Leveraging, is becoming indispensable in the evolving landscape of Jiu-Jitsu.

In this episode:

https://criterionbjj.com/

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