The Broad Axe Standard
What We Expect From Athletes and Parents
A strong wrestling program is not built by coaches alone.
It requires athletes who are willing to work, parents who support the process, coaches who care enough to hold people accountable, and families who understand that how we behave matters as much as how we compete.
The Broad Axe Standard explains what our athletes and parents can expect from us—and what we expect from everyone who represents the Academy.
These expectations are not about perfection. They create consistency, trust, safety, growth, and a room where every athlete has an opportunity to improve.
The Three Pillars of Practice
Intensity. Focus. Integrity.
These words are more than a slogan. They describe how we expect athletes to approach training.
Intensity
Intensity means giving the moment the effort it deserves.
Intensity is not screaming, losing control, hurting a teammate, or trying to win every practice exchange at any cost.
Real intensity is purposeful effort. It means drilling at a pace that helps both partners improve, continuing to work when tired, and wrestling hard while remaining safe and controlled.
Intensity will look different depending on an athlete’s age, experience, and ability. We do not expect everyone to have the same pace or physical capacity. We expect honest effort appropriate to the athlete, the partner, the drill, and the moment.
Intensity is controlled effort applied with purpose.
Focus
Focus means being fully present for the work in front of you.
When a coach is teaching, focus means listening and watching. During drilling, it means paying attention to details instead of simply completing repetitions. During live wrestling, it means applying what was taught and making thoughtful adjustments.
Focused athletes do not need to understand everything immediately. They need to remain engaged, ask questions, accept correction, and keep trying.
Focus is choosing where your attention goes—and keeping it there long enough to improve.
Integrity
Integrity means doing the right thing even when nobody is watching.
It means giving honest effort when a coach is helping someone else. It means protecting your partner, following the rules, telling the truth, and taking responsibility for mistakes.
Integrity means refusing to cut corners because you think you can get away with it. It means competing fairly, respecting opponents, and representing Broad Axe well inside and outside the wrestling room.
Integrity is making your actions match the person you say you want to become.
What We Expect From Athletes
Athletes do not need to arrive at Broad Axe as champions. They do not need a perfect record, years of experience, or natural confidence.
They do need to be willing to learn, work, listen, accept correction, and contribute positively to the room.
Competitive success does not exempt anyone from the Standard. A first-year wrestler and a national champion may need different instruction, but both are expected to demonstrate respect, effort, accountability, coachability, gratitude, service, and integrity.
Choose Respect
Treat coaches, teammates, opponents, officials, parents, visitors, and yourself with dignity.
Respect is demonstrated by listening, using appropriate language, protecting training partners, and valuing athletes of every age and ability.
How you treat someone with less experience says more about your character than how you treat a champion.
Give Honest Effort
Talent is a gift. Effort is a choice.
Honest effort does not mean every athlete performs at the same level. It means each athlete works to the best of their current ability and circumstances.
We can coach mistakes, develop technique, and improve conditioning. We cannot help an athlete who refuses to try.
Take Accountability
Mistakes are part of wrestling and growing up. Excuses prevent us from learning from them.
Accountability means acknowledging what happened, accepting correction, and deciding what to do differently next time.
Accountability is not about shame. It is about ownership.
Strengthen the Team
Broad Axe includes champions, medalists, first-year wrestlers, young children, high school athletes, boys, and girls.
Experienced wrestlers should help raise the level of less experienced teammates. New wrestlers should be willing to listen, struggle, and learn.
A strong wrestler can improve personally. A strong teammate helps everyone improve.
Stay Coachable
Coachability means listening, asking useful questions, accepting correction, and attempting to make an adjustment.
The best athletes are not those who believe they already have every answer. They are the ones who remain open to learning.
Practice Gratitude
Every opportunity to train exists because someone helped make it possible.
Parents sacrifice. Coaches invest their time. Teammates share their effort. Sponsors and donors help create opportunities.
Gratitude appears in how athletes speak, train, care for the facility, and respond to coaching.
Serve Others
Leadership is not reserved for champions or older athletes.
Athletes serve the room when they help someone new, encourage a struggling teammate, clean without being asked, and choose to be responsible training partners.
Leave Things Better
Clean up after yourself. Put equipment away. Pick up trash even if it is not yours. Help care for the wrestling room, bathrooms, study spaces, and equipment.
“Someone else will do it” is not the Broad Axe mindset.
Live the Standard Everywhere
The Broad Axe Standard applies during practice, at tournaments, at school, online, and in the community.
Most people will never know an athlete’s wrestling record. They will remember how that athlete treated them.
Character is what remains when nobody is keeping score.
Athletes at Practice
Athletes should:
- Arrive prepared and on time
- Listen while coaches teach
- Drill with purpose
- Provide safe, appropriate resistance
- Protect training partners
- Remain engaged
- Accept coaching and correction
- Give honest effort
- Avoid distracting the room
- Communicate injuries or concerns
- Care for the facility
- Help teammates improve
Athletes at Competitions
Athletes should:
- Arrive prepared
- Listen to their coaches
- Treat opponents and officials with respect
- Compete hard without competing recklessly
- Win with humility
- Lose with composure
- Take responsibility for controllable mistakes
- Support Broad Axe teammates
- Respect the host facility
- Represent Broad Axe positively
A difficult result does not excuse poor behavior. Winning does not make disrespect acceptable.
What We Expect From Parents
Parents and guardians are essential members of the Broad Axe community.
You provide transportation, encouragement, financial support, meals, scheduling, patience, and countless other things that make participation possible.
We ask parents to help protect the learning environment by allowing athletes to struggle, receive coaching, make mistakes, and gradually take ownership of their development.
Parents do not need to understand every wrestling technique. They need to support the process.
The Parent Standard
Broad Axe parents are expected to:
- Encourage effort, learning, and character
- Speak respectfully to athletes, coaches, officials, opponents, and families
- Allow coaches to coach
- Avoid giving conflicting instructions
- Communicate concerns at appropriate times
- Keep wins and losses in perspective
- Help athletes take responsibility
- Avoid comparing children with teammates or opponents
- Support the Academy’s standards
- Protect the privacy of other children and families
- Remember that long-term development matters more than one result
Parents at Practice
Stay Positive
Praise effort, courage, coachability, and improvement—not only wins or visible success.
Protect the Learning Environment
Keep conversations quiet while coaches are teaching. Athletes must be able to hear, learn, and work.
Let the Coaches Coach
Calling instructions from the side can confuse athletes and prevent them from learning to solve problems independently.
It is okay to let your child struggle. Productive struggle is part of learning.
Choose the Right Time for Questions
Detailed questions should usually wait until practice has ended.
Administrative questions should be sent to Melissa. Sensitive concerns should be discussed privately and at an appropriate time.
Parents at Competitions
Cheer Loud and Cheer Positive
Support your wrestler and their teammates without shouting technical instructions that compete with the corner.
Respect Officials
Parents may disagree with a call, but aggressive confrontations, insults, and prolonged arguments do not represent Broad Axe.
Let the Athlete Look to the Corner
During a match, athletes should listen to their Broad Axe coach. Trust the corner to coach the match.
Respect Opponents and Families
Opponents are young athletes pursuing goals of their own. Treat opponents, parents, coaches, volunteers, and host facilities with dignity.
Win With Humility and Lose With Class
Celebrate without humiliating someone else. Be disappointed without becoming disrespectful.
Children notice how adults respond to pressure.
When an Athlete Has a Difficult Day
Not every practice will feel successful. Not every tournament will go well.
Before criticizing, blaming, or immediately trying to solve the problem, give the athlete time to process.
Helpful questions include:
- What did you learn?
- What felt better today?
- What do you want to improve?
- Did you give honest effort?
- What did your coach ask you to work on?
- How can I support you?
Sometimes an athlete needs advice. Sometimes they need accountability. Sometimes they need food, rest, and a quiet ride home.
Communicating With Coaches
Parents should communicate directly and respectfully when concerns arise.
Avoid confronting a coach during practice, immediately after an emotional match, or in front of athletes and other families.
When possible:
- Allow emotions to settle.
- Contact the appropriate person.
- Explain the concern clearly.
- Listen to the coach’s perspective.
- Work toward the athlete’s long-term interest.
Membership, billing, and administrative questions: melissa@broadaxewrestling.com
Competition and travel questions: dan@broadaxewrestling.com
Coaching, program, and other questions: sam@broadaxewrestling.com
Shared Commitment
One Team. One Standard.
Athletes, parents, and coaches have different roles, but we share the same goal: creating an environment where young people can train safely, pursue excellence, develop character, and become better teammates and people.
Coaches commit to thoughtful instruction, honest feedback, appropriate accountability, and genuine care.
Athletes commit to Intensity, Focus, Integrity, and the Broad Axe Standard.
Parents commit to supporting the process, protecting the learning environment, and modeling the behavior we want athletes to develop.
When everyone understands and respects their role, the entire room becomes stronger.
Choose to Fight. Train to Win. Live with Purpose.