Photo: High school wrestlers representing Beat the Streets New York Academy were afforded the unique opportunity to wrestle during the Final X intermission on June 14 in Newark, N.J.

Editor’s Note: WIN Publisher Bryan Van Kley sat down with wrestling legend Dan Gable for an exclusive interview about current topics in the sport. This article appeared in WIN’s Volume 31 Issue 9, which was printed on June 5, 2025. For more practical advice from Gable for wrestlers, coaches and parents, buy a WIN Digital or Combo Subscription here. Archived Q&As with Gable are in every issue in the Archives Section.

WIN: Why do you think it’s important that wrestlers continue from folkstyle into the Olympic styles?

GABLE: There’s really no difference between them (the styles); they’re all wrestling. Wrestling’s wrestling. If you put an opponent on their back and pin them, you win. If you’re good on your feet and good on the bottom, that carries over for both freestyle and scholastic wrestling.

Terry Steiner (head U.S. women’s freestyle coach who wrestled for Gable in college) doesn’t agree with me on this. And I don’t know where Bill Zadick (U.S.’s head men’s freestyle coach who also wrestled for Gable) is on it, but that doesn’t matter. They can have their own beliefs. I believe if you know how to “escape in reverse”, then you’re going to be better because you’re going to get taken down less by knowing how to scramble. You do things to escape in situations like when somebody shoots on you. You stop them, and you escape from them, so they don’t get you. In fact, even better, as they shoot, you score and go around them or snap them down or whip them over. You’re learning defensive moves that work too.

So, I really believe scholastic wrestling is a very important part of our Olympic success. And you’re going to say, well, these kids have been doing this all their life, and they’re really better on defense. Well, yeah, so the first thing I learned in wrestling is just to get off your back, because that’s (getting pinned) a match-ending move. The second thing I would teach in freestyle and Greco-Roman is how to keep from getting ankle-laced and gut wrenched, because those are match-ending moves.

WIN: What are your thoughts on sports specialization vs. being a multi-sport athlete?

GABLE: It depends on whether you can handle one sport, so you don’t get burnt out, and it depends on your size. For me in high school, one of the reasons I didn’t do anything but wrestle was because I was 95 pounds, then 103 and 112. And then when I had started having success a lot, and I learned, it helped me from a motivational point of view. For most people, I think you need to be involved in more activities.

However, if you’re going to be a three-sport person, and let’s say you love wrestling, football and baseball but you’re going to move forward with wrestling after high school, I would add freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling. Those come in at a different time, mostly in the summer when you’re out of school. You get another six to eight weeks of wrestling that ends with the national tournament in Fargo.

WIN: How many days a week should kids practice?

GABLE: I wouldn’t make them go to practice every day, but I would teach them to want to go to practice every day. And by that, it’s not necessarily a practice where there’s an actual coach putting you through it, but you figure out how to learn what you need. In the end, it’s really about how hard you push yourself and not how hard the coach pushes you. Bottom line, am I going to get up and make an accomplishment every day? Yes! You know, you should be doing push-ups, sit-ups, chins, go to the YMCA, and then also wrestling practices.