About the Authors of the Medusa Method.

It’s a father, son collaboration, to draft, map, develop and publish the Medusa Method © for individual wrestlers and as a new coach’s program building resource.  The sole ownership, copyright and distribution of the Medusa Method and Medusa Athletic, name, brand and material is Nicholas Caesar Pehl’s.

Patrick Pehl, my father, a life long wrestler, coach and competitor…. Developed a coaching method, we have now fine-tuned and named the Medusa Method, drawing on his experience in competition and coaching.  He developed an approach to an accelerated method to produce match ready, local, state, national and international level wrestlers in folkstyle, freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling.  As a high school coach, he was in a 4-year high school that had no elementary or middle school program.  His wrestlers were years behind other wrestlers in experience, technique and practice & competition time.  For his wrestlers to excel or become tournament, league, district, regional or state champions, the bout experience imbalance had to somehow minimize, fast and the experienced wrestler’s advantage had to work for the favor of the less experienced wrestler.  To my father’s credit, he found a way and now we have it ready to share with Medusa members.  If you have questions please feel free to contact me anytime support@medusaathletic.com.    

FORWARD BY PATRICK PEHL:  As a wrestler I was fortunate, lucky even, as a 6^th grader, I got the attention of one of the best and most prolific wrestlers and wrestling coaches in Washington State, Cash Stone.  You see, Cash Stone was a man that always had his iconic flat top haircut …… and my grandpa Al Pehl, was his barber…. And if you know anything about a ‘to the skin’ flat top, it has to be cut at least once, every other week.   Well, a couple of the times, Cash was getting his hair cut at my grandpa’s house, I would be there doing chores, cutting wood, working the gardens, cleaning the stalls or moving feed and helping my grandpa.  Cash saw me and told my grandpa …. ‘Al, your grandson’s a wrestler’ and my grandpa answered, ‘No he has chores to do’ …. And Cash said, ‘Al, your grandsons a wrestler and I want him to come to my camp and wrestle’ and my grandpa said ‘ No ‘Cash’, I’m not paying for some camp and your not getting out of paying for your haircuts’ …… and Cash said ‘No, Al, he’s a wrestler, i’m not getting out of paying for my haircuts and he doesn’t have to pay to come to the camp, I want him there.’ …. And my grandpa said if I complete my chores and deserve to go … I could go as long as wrestling didn’t get in the way….. and that was my start.

Cash took me under his wing, in camps, practice, tournaments in school wrestling, freestyle and Greco-roman.  When I went to a tournament, I was entered into every level I was allowed, my age group, older age groups and the open men’s age group.  I would usually win my age group and get beat in the older and open groups.  By the age of 14, I won my first major open tournament at 44 kilos, (yes, a whole 98lbs and yes, not any grown men at that weight, but it was a weight class and I won) and secured a spot on my first international team to Germany to compete in freestyle and Greco-Roman, then tour through Germany and finish with a chance to compete at a world level, in a world tournament.

So what is the moral of this origin story? It is to sum it up, that a coach took an interest in me and I started early. By the time I started my 3 year high school, I had 5 years of 'year-round' wrestling, I wrestled 3 styles of wrestling locally, nationally and internationally, my opponents were in many cases college age wrestlers and internationally, grown men….. and in my high school matches, in many cases, my opponents were first year wrestlers…. That was as far as my perspective went, I was a wrestler, thinking like a wrestler, focused as a wrestler and anyone’s shortfall was my advantage and I had a wonderful, wonderful time.

Fast forward 15 years …. And as a coach, I was on the other side of the equation.   A coach with all first-year wrestlers in the varsity line up (life is funny huh?) …. Simply feeding them to the experienced wrestlers, as a sacrifice, to gain experience and mat time ….. This did not sit well, at all, with my competitive spirit or heart, watching my wrestlers get crushed both physically and mentally.  I did not want to be a program where every once in a while, a natural talent would come into the program and do well, I did not want to be a program where by the time my wrestlers were Juniors or Seniors, the stars would align and they could maybe place in State. 

At that time, it was time to study the video of my wrestler’s flow and study some champions match flow ….. and play chess, devise a new winning strategy of action, re-action, a ‘one-style’ approach for my wrestlers, that would get current results, but also open the world of freestyle and Greco-Roman competition in a fun way … so the styles and style differences weren’t all a black hole, an over whelming, confusing and/or poor experience to be avoided, as opposed to a fun experience that is chased.   

America is a great nation; Americans are great athletes and we love our sports and we win because we love our sport, we win internationally because our sports are a passion not a job …. But we win in spite of our wrestling foundation before us, not because of it.   Kids go into high school wrestling programs with zero exposure, to get beat and defeated in front of friends and family, and that’s no fun.  High School wrestlers get minimum exposure to freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling ….. which means two things 1) if I am not winning at school wrestling, why would I want to pay money to go get beat at Freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling, that I am not sure if it will help me do any better at my school wrestling?  2) How is America going to field the best American international teams in freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling, if our school wrestling style is different and a majority of our wrestlers never get involved?  Not to mention the little talked about fact that high school wrestling and college and university wrestling are NOT THE SAME! (yes, another style; with its own rules).  A high school wrestler could win state at his weight; and be at the top of his/her talent in February (HS Folkstyle)…try to wrestle Freestyle and Greco-Roman and be an international champion over the summer ….and start a collegiate program in the fall and be expected to perform at a national level in a style they have never really wrestled, with their college career and education hanging in the balance ….because if you lose too much you are off the team and out of school or if you focus on learning the new style and rules too much and your grades fall …. You are off the team and out of school ……. (I have been in that boondoggle) … now I ask you, where in all that is a wrestler going to have international caliber focus on freestyle and Greco Roman wrestling in workout, local, national and international competition to become an American Olympian? That is the state of the American wrestling gauntlet … and in spite of that grinder, wrestling survives, though it is not flourishing, wrestlers still strive to win in front of a home audience, to be a high school state champion and America wins championships internationally at freestyle and Greco-Roman, but we could be and do so much more.  Streamlining the American wrestling gauntlet would be an improvement for the sport of wrestling, wrestling programs in schools and universities, wrestling student athletes and America’s dominate standing in world wrestling.  

Where would I start? Right on the mat, right in the wrestling room, right in the wrestling programs …. Teaching a ‘one-style’ approach to all four styles (High School Wrestling, Collegiate Wrestling, Freestyle Wrestling and Greco-Roman wrestling).  With emphasis on athletes knowing their skills exactly (and testing out to the next level), a roadmap to their goals and a personal plan of winning strategies to beat higher skilled opponents in clutch scenarios.  The Medusa Method, will lift the fog of the unknown …. And when an opponent sees a Medusa protected, schooled, tested wrestler … they will know they are in for a match!  Just like the days of old, for a thousand years before, the face of Medusa will turn opponents to stone.