Wrestling giant lifts local grapplers to new heights
- Klas Stolpe
- Sep 22
- 9 min read
Max Askren wrestling clinic a lesson in life through sport
By Klas Stolpe
Juneau Independent
In the shadow of wrestling giant Max “The Technique” Askren, a wall-to-wall mat was covered with young grapplers trying to imitate what he had just shown them and process the wisdom he imparted.
“Good, good,” Askren, 39, said as he walked among youth locked in the complicated sport of wrestling. “Yes. Oh, now what will you do? There you go! Nope, see? Scoot, scoot…”
Filling the Juneau Wrestling Center, home of the Juneau Youth Wrestling Club, Askren was in the third and final day of his wrestling clinic Sunday.
Rain had not dampened the spirits of those attending, and Askren would pause lessons for conversation. Sitting in front of his charges, he points at a raised palm, “What’s up?”
And the questions flow and are answered, from “Who was the toughest you have beaten?” to “What is your favorite meal before matches?” and “What do you like better, freestyle or Greco-Roman?”
Note: Answers were Kirk Smith (heavily favored NCAA title match opponent), Mexican, and compared his favorite grappling style as, “it’s like peanut butter and jelly, or peanut butter and honey — I like them both.”
He enjoys the questions as much as the lessons.
“I think the best thing they can learn is passion for the sport and a way of doing that is enjoyable,” Askren said. “Wrestling is hard enough in itself that you make them grind, but unless you really love it you're probably not going to do it very often. If you enjoy something you're going to do it more often and the likelihood that you're going to be successful in it is a lot higher.”
Askren also learns in return.
“I think the biggest thing I see doing these camps is how excited kids are to learn and to have people around them that care,” he said. “Like in this community you can tell with this facility and with the people that are around helping, you know there's a lot of people that really care and I think there's never a shortage of good mentors.”
Max is co-founder and coach along with his brother Ben of the Askren Wrestling Academy (AWA).
“I started the academy because I love coaching,” Max Askren said. “I mean, I love wrestling, you know, but I love helping people and that age group is pretty pure. You go from 5-year-olds where they just want to run around and be on the mat and have fun, and you're not really teaching any technique. but they just, they’re balls of energy and joy. And then you go to the 18-year-olds, which I mean there's some 18-year-olds that are wrestling at the Olympic trials that we've had and so you get to coach at really high levels, and so those age groups are really fun.”
This is Askren’s first trip to Juneau. Academy coaches Weston and Wilder Wichman had instructed previously in Juneau, and Ben had been scheduled for this trip, but fell ill with pneumonia late this spring and required a double lung transplant.
“He is doing well,” Askren said when camp attendees asked. “Not up and running yet, but well.”
Originally, Max and Ben dubbed their unique system of wrestling “Funky Fresh Scrambling” and used that camp name until the mastered skill set became the AWA.
“The easiest way possible to describe is, you know, you don’t want to fight against the current,” he said. “So whatever the best method is to use as long as you can assess what the situation is and act appropriately. I think that is what we are doing. We are not closed off to any technique. I think we try to use the best technique for the situation.”
He has been wrestling since age five.
“My brother was six and I was four,” he said to the tiny hands raised. “My father believed the qualities learned from wrestling are the ones that would benefit us in life. I was going to practice because my dad brought me there and I would hang out on the sides of the mats...You guys probably have more room in this gym than my high school…I used to like video games, it wasn’t until seventh grade that I really started loving wrestling. When I was younger I loved video games and realized I had an addictive personality, but I wanted to find an addiction that was good for my life…Wrestling was something that if I could pursue it would open doors…I remember my freshman year in high school everyone would come over and work out in my basement, and so I started coaching them.”
Max, a high school All-American, would skip his high school graduation to coach in Nevada and Utah. He attended the University of Missouri (to wrestle and train with Ben — NCAA champion, Olympic qualifier and mixed martial arts competitor) and became a four-year starter, two-time Big 12 Champion, three-time NCAA All-American and a Division I NCAA champion as a senior in 2010. He was also a four-year academic All-American (interdisciplinary studies major focusing on linguistics). He won gold for Team USA at the 2013 World Cup.
“I have wrestled in Guatemala, Mexico, Belarus, Iran,” he answers a young wrestler's question. “Russia, too, way back in Siberia…and Tehran, we went there for the World Cup.”
Another wrestler asked if he would fight Jake Paul. One asks about his number of wins.
“No!” he exclaims. “He’s not a famous wrestler, he’s a famous YouTuber…I have never been in a fight my whole life, and there are a lot of random guys that walk up to me and try to pick a figh,t but they don’t deserve to get beat up that bad, they don’t know what they’re walking into…Part of the enjoyment of wrestling is having a challenge…I don’t remember the wins, I remember the losses because I learned more from them.”
Askren read to the campers periodically, notably from Atomic Habits by James Clear. He also related a British study that showed college athletes do better in academics during the season because they only have so much time in a day.
“Once you guys have a strict schedule you can’t procrastinate,” he said. “Your time management skills are important. I have been good at mine since a young age because I didn’t have much time to spare. I would go to school, get all my homework in school, do some on the sideline before practice, crush it hard in practice, go home and grab something to eat, lift, wrestle, hang out with friends for an hour or study with them and then the next day starts.”
Askren acknowledged he was not a cell phone guy.
“I write things down,” he said. “I still have an assignment notebook where I fill things out and write them out…If you guys actually make plans to do stuff, one, you will remember it, but two, the likelihood that you guys will actually do it will become way higher. Every single day, before I go to sleep, guys, I have my next day planned out, two or three things that I really need to do…At your age maybe you have two homework assignments and then afterwards probably wrestling or strength training or something, OK, write it down. I can’t recommend that enough, write down when and where you are supposed to do it and the likelihood it gets done improves…If you guys are really trying to make a change, to get better, plan for it right now.”
When the final session ended he stayed a while after, signing autographs and wrestling shoes, answering more questions and relating to — possibly — himself at that age.
Asked how wrestling changed his life, Askren said, “That's a good question. I mean, I don't know where I'd be without wrestling. I've been wrestling since I can remember and I can't see myself not wrestling. I don’t know if wrestling changed me. I can't tell you how it changed my life. I feel like it's given me a great outlet to be able to share experience and knowledge with kids and impact their lives in a positive way.”
Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé senior wrestling captain Alex Marx-Beierly, signed shoes in hand, spoke of the clinic.
“It was really great,” Marx-Beierly said. “I learned a lot more from the crackdown position, the scrambles and just a lot more, not basic stuff, but more like fundamentals. And that it is always good to keep practicing that over and over again, and to learn from an amazing wrestler like Max Askren…(pauses) Sorry, I get kinda, he's really cool that he's here. I'm really excited to see him and to learn from him, from a guy like that, is just a great experience and I'm very happy I was here for that."
"I plan on keeping practicing the things that he taught me over the rest of the season and keep working on it…This sport is an art, really. Like once you get to know wrestling and when you've done it as long as I have, which is not really as long as some other people, but it becomes beautiful. It's really great. You know what I mean? You do move after move. It is constant movement. There's never a dull moment in wrestling and I guess it is like a dance, it's always moving, all over. Fluid like a river I guess is the way to describe it.”
JDHS freshman Madelyn Dale added, “I think it was a good opportunity to work on some stuff because I am kind of newer to wrestling, like this is only my second season of it, so I think it is just a good opportunity to learn some new things. I just think wrestling is a good way to challenge myself and it is also just a fun sport.”
A last question caused Askren to pause.
What is the hardest lesson to teach about wrestling?
“Wrestling is tough but it’s so fun,” Askren said. “I mean go hang out with a bunch of 5-year-olds, they just want to wrestle each other all the time. It’s a sport that really, if you don't mess it up, I feel like people are more likely to just do it all the time. Kids naturally want to rough house and test their limits and I think there's a lot of times adults do it the wrong way and that makes it unenjoyable. So I think that's one thing I talk to these guys about."
"It’s like 20 or 30 years ago everyone wanted to wrestle as hard as they could and if some kid couldn't take it because he wasn't tough enough he wasn't meant to be a wrestler, when in all reality, he could get tough enough, you just have to introduce him the right way. You go to Little League baseball, nobody's trying to win a world championship and you're not trying to make him run laps until he quits. But in wrestling, it was almost like they wanted to prove how tough the sport is, the more people that quit, it was proof that the sport's tough. As opposed to helping them along the way and helping them grow so that eventually they can handle that workload, and I think that is the better approach."
"Wrestling is fun. It is kind of like a dance, I mean in that context you have a partner and you’re trying to figure out the best way. I think wrestling is a pretty cool sport and it sounds like Alaska’s got a really cool thing going on, even though maybe some of it is unintentional, where they go to Ketchikan and the team is all staying together in the gym. It is pretty unique, but it probably also helps with the shared community... Wrestling’s fun.”
• Contact Klas Stolpe at klas.stolpe@gmail.com.
