Study and training

Jim Ross posted in his blog about the passing of legendary Japanese wrestler, Mitsuharu Misawa, and mentioned the need to study him,

"It's a damn shame that the vast majority of American wrestling fans won't give a second thought about the untimely death of "a Japanese wrestler." I encourage all fans to find DVD's of Misawa and watch him in his prime, in the 90's especially. If one is really serious about about being a highly skilled, pro wrestler, then study the late Mitsuharu Misawa."

I will admit to not being familiar with all the Japanese wrestling greats, Misawa included. The ones I know of are Ultimo Dragon, Liger, Kenta Kobashi, Tajiri and the Great Sasuke….not much by any stretch of the imagination.

And of course there’s KENTA, Dragon Kid and Cima who am getting into recently and will study them.

Study. What does it mean to study? Oh I know what it means to study for a test or things like that, but in the world of wrestling what does it mean to study someone. You often here about people studying tapes or studying this person or that. What exactly should you be looking for I wonder. Sure I have watched wrestling all my life, and sure I have my favorites and I like to think I know the difference between a good and bad match but upon studying, what should I look for? What notes should I take? I know when I see particular guys, the favorites of mine, Benoit, Hart, KENTA, Red, Henning, Guerrero, I see things they do I like and think, hey I might want to do that. But what should I be studying. They way they execute moves? When they use particular moves in their arsenal? Things like that? It seems on the one hand to be a no-brainer, but I don’t want to assume and assume the wrong thing and create a habit I have to later break. I’ll just add it to my questions for Eddie in training tonight and make sure I get it answered.

Another question would be working out outside the ring. He said the best cardio you can do is the freestyling we do in the ring in training. But of course outside of that, you need to be doing something. Now I have been in sport all my life. Baseball and soccer as a kid. Wrestling and track in high school, track in college.

I know from those sports what I did to get in shape, with the running and such, but of course wrestling is a whole other sort of animal. So I will get his perspective on what I should do outside of the ring to build up my wind.

Can’t win titles sucking wind and being tired out against the competition. Can’t be the best if you can’t make it past five minutes. That won’t be me. I’ll be in the best shape of anyone, anywhere. That’s my goal: to be that much faster, stronger, more in shape, than anyone else who is in the ring against me. It will be a long road to that, but it's a goal I will work to achieve.