Dan Gable on Winning, Discipline and the Lessons That Built a Champion

Dan Gable (0:00)

You know, when you start winning a whole lot, all of a sudden, you might have a tendency to lay back a little bit, and that's when you got to get a little tighter even, too, if you want to keep it going. And what I learned about that is the longer you don't tighten that down, and so you may go three or four years, because I did. When I had some issues with my team, they were still winning titles, that's how good we were. But then all of a sudden we lost, unexpectedly.

So then it was like, okay, we'll win next year. We'll get over this in a hurry, even though it hurts.

It didn't happen next year. It took, I look at the team and I see where the team was really kind of being a little crazy for four years, and it took us four years to actually get back up. Yeah, we got second or third, but when you're used to winning all the time, and I call that the longer, the longer.

SPEAKER_2 (1:00)

Americans are capable of achieving extraordinary things when they have the freedom and opportunity to do so. This is American Potential.

David From (1:14)

Everyone, welcome to the American Potential Podcast. I'm your host, David From. So we're in the Heartland in Iowa, celebrating America's 250th anniversary, alongside Americans for Prosperity, at the heart of our nation celebration, here in Adventureland, which if you haven't been to, it's an adventure. And it's just, it's a great time. We're really excited about the program today, and excited to bring the podcast to you here. We're really excited about having with us a legendary Iowan, really a legendary American. But in Iowa, he's a bit of a deity.

It's one of the greatest wrestlers of all time, one of the greatest wrestling coaches of all time, Dan Gable. And so I'm so excited to welcome Mr. Gable. Dan, thanks so much for joining us, and for letting us come hang out here in Iowa.

Dan Gable (2:02)

Well, I'm glad you came to me, because I can spread the good word, the good word of wrestling, the good word of just being a good person, a lot of good words. So I appreciate the opportunity.

David From (2:14)

Well, for folks who may not be wrestling fans who are listening, your accomplishments are unparalleled. I mean, undefeated in high school, in college only lost your final match, then Olympic gold medalist, maybe the most amazing statistic that when you won the gold medal in Munich in 72, you didn't surrender a single point. I mean, that's unbelievable. And then go on to one of the most successful coaching careers at the University of Iowa Wrestling.

Dan Gable (2:45)

Yeah, a lot of times there's short periods of time where people are very successful. But then when they have to go on with their life, they're not quite as successful. But I've been able to make accomplishments at every stop in my life. And I'm not stopping now.

David From (3:02)

Yeah, well, what do you attribute that to?

Dan Gable (3:05)

There's just a whole way of life with me. And I had a mom and dad that probably didn't have the best bringing up.

And they definitely just wanted to make sure that their kids had the best bringing up what they didn't have. And so that is right where it started, right there. Of course, I was a little out of line even early on. And so they went for help, too. They needed help. They went to the YMCA.

They went to Boy Scouts, Cub Scouts, you know, they went to things like that to give me a little, to help them, really. So when I came home, I was probably more type, more likely to be a good kid.

And they put me in surroundings. And then they actually didn't give me what a lot of kids have. And what's what America has, freedom. But when you're a kid, I don't know how much freedom you really should have at that early age. You should have more like stability and more people that are looking out for you because you need a lot of bases built and built strong. And so I had that, you know, I was swimming in competition when I was 10 years old, you know, and by the time I was 11 or 12, I was a state champion swimmer at the beginning level. And it's kind of funny because I was a state champion in the backstroke, which in wrestling, you don't want to be on your back. So, you know, it's kind of interesting there. But, you know, once I got to junior high, the Waterloo community had great wrestling going on. And they knew this kid needed that sport more than swimming because he had to compete against swimming or wrestling at that time. And I chose the right sport.