Dan Gable is best known for his coaching accolades (including 15 NCAA team team titles for university of Iowa) but the legend is primarily forged on a career that totaled only one lost match in his entire collegiate career. Gable even managed to snag an Olympic gold medal without giving up a single point back in 1972. At one point he used the term “horse with blinders” to describe himself in regards to wrestling. His “attack, control, execute” philosophy is a dead ringer for success. The man behind the Gable Grip helped redefine an entire generation.
Still Gable is a firm believer that wrestling is for everybody and not just select few:
“They say wrestling isn’t for everybody, but I say it should be,” said Gable when discussing some of his insights early on. “We’re the only sport out there where you have to make a weight class, whether you go up or down you have to learn and understand nutrition to meet weight. It’s also one of the sport that takes quite a bit on endurance, combining track and field, swimming and other activities.”
In this incredible video interview with Lex Fridman, Gable talks about how losing his sister in tragical circumstances (she was r*ped and m*rdered) when he was 15, changed him and fueled him in his career.
“It made me a lot of who I am.”
