What Craig does is he will watch someone hit a move such as John Smith, and break it down into many steps and will pick up the smallest details that I could never notice. Craig will also make you drill the move over and over and over until you get every little detail right. I had to drill this one move from the crackdown probably 200 times, and at the time I was angry that he kept making me do it over. Little did I know that I would pin the returning state champ with that same move in the semi finals of the state tournament.

The first time Craig watched me wrestle in a tournament was at the Pre-season Nationals which were held in Pennsylvania. In the quarterfinal round I wrestled Todd Preston from Blair who is a nationally ranked wrestler. I ended up winning that match in double OT.  In that match I was not able to take him down with my high crotch because I was unable to get my hand to the outside elbow because he was blocking it off.

After losing in the semifinals to Steven Keith I had to wrestle Preston for third and fourth and I was very nervous because I was not able to get my shots off on him in the previous match. Craig was able to pick out the smallest thing and told me what to do: He showed me that all I had to do was circle my hand a certain way to position it on the outside elbow. I drilled it a few times on him and went out and ended up taking Preston down 3 times in a row with the high crotch by just making the small change that Craig had taught me in my hand fighting. Ever since that tournament I decided that I was going to travel 40 minutes after practice every day to work out at Craig's club. I knew it was worth it because the thing about Craig is that he is able to pick out minor details that can change your wrestling because once you get to a certain level the minor details are the only thing that you can add to your arsenal.

No practice at Craig's club was ever the same as it was the day before. Craig would study videos of how other great coaches ran their practices and would take their ideas and incorporate into his practices. That is what's great about Craig, he was always open to learn and try new things out. When it came down to crunch time (1 week before the state tournament) Craig would come to my house and go through a lot of my matches that I wrestled during season including the 2 that I lost. In all my matches he was able to pick out all the things I was not doing right, even in the ones where I would win. It could have been something so small such as not moving my feet right. He also watched all my opponents that I scouted and was able to pick them apart like nothing, so going into the state tournament I was very confident. I ended up wrestling the tournament of my life and because of the help of Craig this season I accomplished my goal of becoming a New York state champion.

Craig is a great guy and coach and I recommend to anyone who has a goal in wrestling to sign up for Craig's Ascend Wrestling Club or at least take a few lessons with Craig because he will be a great asset to you accomplishing your dreams.”