I have never wrestled a day in my life. I can only imagine the discipline and intensity that goes into becoming a good wrestler based on my years of 5+ hours a day of swimming.
There comes a time, though, when you realize an athlete just “has what it takes” in their sport. One of the more recent times that I’ve seen that kind of complete dominance is when I watch Usain Bolt run, at any distance.
Well, now I’ve found that dominance once again, and it’s in a 5-year old wrestler. FIVE years old. I would put ANY AMOUNT OF MONEY on this kid taking me down and pinning me in 10 seconds or less. This is unreal stuff.
I have a question for the birthday boy, Ricky Frausto Jr. (who is also a trainer at CrossFit Omaha), and other wrestler friends… How does someone get this good at such a technical sport at that age?!
Smashby's Training Blog 
Tom,
I have seen this video and although mesmerizing, it is somewhat unfortunate. I do not take anything away from this kiddo and the work he has put in but we must realize, like CrossFit aims to do, to remove ourselves from specializing, here at an early age. On top of specializing, this kid will have to deal with undue pressure from the outside world, especially those that know him or train him. In the sport of wrestling, I believe, it is best to develop physically (no weight cutting) before ever focusing in on the technical aspect of the sport. For example, I started when I was six years old and was a very dominant wrestler as a youngster but feel I peaked by high school. I am but only a case of one but I have seen it many times before. I’ve also seen many kids who never wrestled until high school, go on to have very successful careers in college and beyond.
Another example, is my son. He started wrestling at age 5 and my approach with his training has been that he goes to practice if he wants to compete on the weekends and that he knows basics such as one or two takedowns, how to escape properly, and finally how to pin his opponent (half nelson, etc.). Other than this, I leave the combat with kids his size to teach him leverage, increase his size and strength naturally, and to learn to feel the pain of losing as well as win with humility. As his brain develops, naturally, I will include more technique and show him special movements. Until then, I want him to learn how to not lose on his own, as we must all do.
I may be way off mark here as I don’t really know Steveo. He may just have it. His learning curve may just be that short. I would hope for that. Any other way would be disheartening and his probable potential to be great when it counts would suffer immensely.