The Fight For Growth
At the conclusion of the 1989 academic year, Tom Ryan was prepared to test his comfort zone. Just a few months removed from a 2-2 tournament at the NCAA Division I wrestling championships for Syracuse University, he felt a yearning for something more. Despite being one of the top wrestlers in the 150 pound weight class, and the best wrestler for his team in Syracuse, Ryan felt his current output would not help him reach his fullest potential as an athlete. Rather than remain the best in the Syracuse University wrestling room, Ryan would move on and begin as a nobody in another room.
Having been there before, he knew the way from Syracuse, New York, to Iowa City, Iowa. Home of the illustrious Iowa Hawkeye wrestling team. The dynasty in college wrestling and the training ground for multiple NCAA national champions and Olympians. Their coach was an American wrestling icon. The legendary Dan Gable was the leader of the Iowa team after finishing his impressive international wrestling career. The Hawkeyes were loaded with talent. Their lineup consisted of individuals with elite wrestling pedigrees and multiple individual high school state championships. They were the attraction of the nation’s top wrestling talent. Their backups could likely compete for a national title at each weight. Tom Ryan, a national qualifier in his own right, wanted to leave the Syracuse University room, where he was the best of the best to join the Iowa room where he would be just another guy. At Syracuse University he would enjoy the benefits of a full scholarship. At Iowa, he would be given no guarantees and no scholarship money.
After packing his belongings and heading west, Ryan drove all night and arrived in Iowa City in the late morning. He took a few hour nap and then headed over to campus to the Hawkeye wrestling room. A room he frequently visited in the past for summer camps led by Coach Dan Gable. It was Gable who drew Ryan across the country. Gable had established a proven system for producing winners at Iowa. Ryan felt that Gable, along with elite training partners would be able to help him grow. He wasn’t chasing glory and fame. He was chasing growth. Growth caused Tom Ryan to leave the comfort of his Syracuse University gym for the unknown and deep waters of the Iowa Hawkeye wrestling program.
After getting stretched out in the Hawkeye wrestling room, the unknown new student on campus was thrusted into a brutal workout with some of Iowa’s best near his weight class. Ryan was seeking growth, and his first day on campus, just hours removed from driving across the country he was met with growth in the form of an exhausting, emotional workout that ended with Ryan crying in his car wondering if he had made the worst decision of his life. The Iowa middleweights went to work on Ryan over the course of the workout and it was clear there was a gap from where he was to where he wanted to be. After contemplating turning around and heading straight back to Syracuse, Ryan drove his emotionally and physically exhausted body to a motel to get a full night of rest. He would need it.
Over the next few months Ryan would join the room of elite athletes as a walk-on. He would steadily make progress training in the Iowa room and over time he would reap the benefits of being surrounded by truly elite people. Small incremental progress came over time and eventually it showed up in huge gains. Not only did Tom Ryan crack a loaded lineup of Iowa Hawkeyes but he thrived at the NCAA tournament his junior and senior years, his final two years of eligibility. He became a Big-Ten champion in both his junior and senior seasons. In a lineup full of NCAA All-Americans, Tom Ryan joined them with a 2nd and 3rd place finish at the NCAA tournament in his final two years. In his junior season he was the runner-up to eventual four time NCAA Champion Pat Smith of Oklahoma State. Ryan was edged by a close 7-6 margin after leading with less than a minute to go. He became a two-time conference champion and a two-time NCAA All-American. He reaped the benefits of his long drive from Syracuse to Iowa City.
After his wrestling career was complete, he remained in the sport as an assistant coach at another Big-Ten school, Indiana University. The Hoosiers were coached by Duane Goldman, another Iowa Hawkeye alum and a member of the ever-growing coaching tree of Dan Gable. It was in the next chapter of his life that Tom Ryan began to experience even more benefits of surrounding himself with elite people in the Iowa Hawkeye room. He surrounded himself with success and attached his name to success. A success that people wanted for their own programs. He had no shortage of coaching opportunities.
After serving as an assistant coach at Indiana he moved on to his first head coaching opportunity back east at Hofstra University in Long Island, New York. An opportunity he got at a young age, both because he operated at an elite level, and because he was a Dan Gable disciple. After leading Hofstra University a great opportunity came at Ohio State University. He became the head coach for the Buckeyes for the 2006-07 season. In fourteen seasons at the helm of the Ohio State program he has led the Buckeyes to three Big-Ten titles and one NCAA national championship. The Buckeyes have finished in the top five in the country eight times. He has coached six NCAA national champion wrestlers including one Olympic Champion.
Who Looks Foolish Now?
While it is certainly possible Tom Ryan would have ascended to the same heights had he stayed at Syracuse University instead of heading out to Iowa. However, it doesn’t take a Sherlock Holmes caliber detective work to see his trajectory was altered after his willingness to leave the comfort of Syracuse for an environment that would push him and help him grow. In hindsight it seems incredible, but the path to growth required him giving up the sure thing for the unknown. A trade likely seemed foolish to those around him at the time, but to an elite mind and individual the sure thing is as foolish as anything. The confines of our comfort zones will lead us in the wrong direction. We are either growing or decaying, there is no room for neutrality. For Tom Ryan, to ensure he was on the right end of that dynamic he forced himself to search for growth in the most intense environment possible. The foolish thing would have been to stay comfortable and pretend he was fully committed. Full commitment usually appears to be foolish in the short term.
Evaluating With a Long Game Lens
At any point in the early goings of a journey, shortly removed from a risk or big decision, a person could take an evaluation of how successful the decision was. For Tom Ryan, after his first day on campus he could have clearly felt like this was a mistake! After months of training and slowly making progress he could have felt like he made the worst mistake of his life. He could have felt like he was better off back in Syracuse with a guaranteed starting spot and a path to competing in the national tournament. Most successful people recognize that it takes time to truly evaluate risky decisions. It takes awhile before we have enough data to evaluate decisions and deem them successful or unsuccessful. Over the long game it is obvious not only was Tom Ryan’s decision to head to Iowa successful, it might have been the best decision of his life. The trajectory of his life was altered in a way that set him up for decades of influence, leading and coaching at one of the best universities in the country. The longer his life is removed from that critical transition, the more it becomes clear it was a life altering move in the right direction both as an athlete and a leading member of the coaching profession.
In Search of Growth
When presented with two options we must choose the path of growth. We are often presented with more than two options and the beauty is we get to choose. We get to choose if we will grow or remain stagnant. Whether it is our physical shape, our financial portfolio, our professional career, or our relationships with close loved ones. We get to choose if we will grow or if we will float to neutrality. A neutral position that will slowly take us to atrophy in the areas we are in charge of strengthening. It is in our best interest to pursue the environments and people who will help us grow the most. Of course those decisions will be met with short term loss, but that is the way growth works. Short term loss (free time, money, discipline, pain) for long term gain (Staying The Course).
Stay The Course,
JB