Richard Weiss: RW Wrestling Head Coach
Richard Weiss came to Australia at the age of 16. Fresh from former Czechoslovakian Socialist Sports School he stepped into Australian wrestling with confidence, competence and success.
Richard’s past coaches Slovakian Juraj Dancak, a successful junior wrestling coach, Sam Parker, the most controversial and successful Australian wrestling coach, Anatoly Beloglazov, the Olympic Champion and multi World Champion and Steve Knight - NCAA All American, Big 12 Champion for IOWA always gave him new challenges to live for – to be the best he can be. As an athlete, Richard represented Australia at the 3 World Championships and the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games. He is multi Australian Champion, VIC State Champion, and the Oceania Champion. Richard knows the hard work and the dedication one requires to become an elite successful athlete.
As an coach, his 4 years experience (2003 - 2007) working with the Mongolian wrestlers and at the Mongolian National Institute of Physical Education in Ulaanbaatar as an assistant wrestling coach gave him new passion to utilize his wrestling expertise and skills in developing and refining wrestling champions. His work included helping young wrestlers cope with the pressures of intense local interest in their achievements and failures in the sport. Richards' achievements were recognized in 2007 when invited to take part in the preparation of the Mongolian Olympic wrestling team for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. This dream was put on hold due to his wife's illness and their sudden return back to Australia.
‘Some dreams are broken but in the same time new dreams are created’ he said. Being involved in the sport for the past 30 years, Richard is now investing his time in coaching young Astralians on how to become confident, competent and successful athletes and individuals in life.
International wrestling has now become a highly technical and highly competent sport. New training methods are put in place to meet the international wrestling standards of leading wrestling nations like Russia, Iran, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, or Japan. Richard is now in the process of developing new leading national and international wrestlers in the next decade through competent, professional and holistic approach to coaching.
'In the field of sports, training is the process of repetitive, progressive exercise or work that improves the potential to achieve optimum performance' Phd. T.O. Bompa Richard is using his coaching expertise to create new dreams for many Australian individuals. He began working with young wrestlers in Frankston, including one young Russian boy who became the Victorian State Champion in 2009 and 3rd in the wrestling Nationals in 2010 at the AIS, Canberra. The change that is evident in young wrestlers as they become more self confident and successful has been most rewarding for Richard. He now coaches 15 individuals, and is recruting more and more. As well as his on-going interest in wrestling, Richard has also used his high level of athletic skill to assist many individuals with personal training, again focussing on individual needs such as dealing with weight, strength, flexibility, motivation, goal setting or just to have fun to be the best they can be.
