09/09/2026
Sometimes one piece of advice can change everything.
Coach Joe Betterman shares the advice that changed the way he approached wrestling.
“To Be at Peace”
There was a point in my wrestling career when I was ready to quit. I was frustrated because I wasn’t getting the results I wanted, even though I believed I was doing all the right things.
At the time, my coach at the Olympic Training Center was Olympic champion Momir Petkovic. We were training in Sweden, and after one practice, I sat on the mat crying. A Swedish wrestler whom I normally beat had just beaten me up during practice.
That was only the tip of the iceberg. We had just come from Belarus, where we competed in a dual championship—and I went 0–5. I had spent two straight weeks getting my butt kicked, and I felt completely defeated.
Momir walked over and asked me why I was crying.
I told him, “I’m no good at this sport. I don’t even know why I’m doing it anymore.”
He looked at me and said, “You need to be at peace.”
My mind had been racing, and I was focused on everything that was going wrong. Momir reminded me that, at the end of the day, I could still breathe, the sky was still blue, and I was going to be okay. I needed to enjoy the journey and learn to see the sport from a different perspective.
After that conversation, my wrestling career truly began to take off.
Whenever I lost, I learned to take a deep breath, find a moment of peace, and study the loss instead of letting it define me. Every setback became an opportunity to learn, evolve, and become a better athlete.
Being at peace didn’t mean that I stopped caring about winning. It meant that I stopped allowing a loss to control me. Once I learned that, I was finally able to become the wrestler—and the person—I was meant to be.
