Mark Branch was a two-time NCAA champion (1994 and 1997) and a four-time NCAA championship finalist (1994-97) for Oklahoma State head coach John Smith. Branch was an assistant coach under Smith until he took his current role as the head coach at Wyoming. As a wrestler, Smith won NCAA titles for the Cowboys in 1987 and 1988 before winning six World and Olympic titles in a row (1987-92). 

The following are Branch's thoughts on what he learned from Smith. 

ADAPT TO YOUR SURROUNDINGS

"I think as a coach I learned to continue to adapt and never stop learning. Keep looking at every situation as something new and something different instead of getting into a routine. I think that’s one of the most helpful things I’ve had as an experience of working around him and under him."

"As an athlete the confidence that comes from the commitment. It’s silly to think you’re going to have confidence if you’re not all in and your heart’s not in it and you’re not fully invested and ready to do what it takes to be the best. Those are some of the things that stick out to me among 1000 things."

DETAILS MATTER

"There were two experiences. I walked into college trigonometry on my first day of college. I couldn’t understand the professor. Not only was he pretty much speaking a foreign language but then what he was delivering was definitely a foreign language. My head was spinning so bad that I went over and changed my major and quit. I was going to be a math major and I changed my mind on the first day because I didn’t want that."

"It was the same thing in the wrestling room. When I walked into that wrestling room the things that were being thrown at me were so foreign that it made my head spin. The only difference was I wanted to wrestle and I was invested in that."

"I remember going back to my dorm room and writing everything down — every detail of everything I learned from that first year. I knew for a fact that there was no way I could comprehend it just seeing it once or twice and be able to retain it."

"When it comes to technique, he’s a professor. It was awe-inspiring but it was also intimidating because I sucked — I sucked bad. Why hadn’t I been taught all this stuff?"

"Instead of walking out and throwing in the towel — I was ready to figure it out."

"It was absolutely above my head. Trying to go out when he would teach something then you’d break out with your partner to try and work on it. I couldn’t put what I was seeing into body movements. I really, really struggled even drilling for a long time."

"It was like the movie ‘A Beautiful Mind.’ It was a bunch of symbols and me trying to figure out what it meant. It took a little while to be able to understand it. Once you did something and the movement felt right — it was pretty motivating to get it for the first time."

PATIENCE IS A VIRTUE

"He’s a really patient guy. I think he was the opposite of that as a competitor but as a coach, he’s pretty patient and looking at the big picture and that it’s a journey and that you don’t need to get everything done today. It’s not my style necessarily but it’s very successful and it’s very unique that he can do that."

"He could sit and work in one position for an entire week. I’m ok doing it but I’m worried about my student-athletes checking out on me. He had a great knack for taking his time to make sure you do it right the first time. That’s something I’ve tried to do but it’s not necessarily my style. I have to be aware of that and not get too far ahead with my thinking and be a little more patient."

CONFIDENCE IS KEY

"When I started being an assistant John had me teaching a lot of techniques at camps. The confidence he had in me that I could step up and do it the right way. It helped me see things from a different viewpoint. I absolutely felt within the first couple of years of being an assistant coach. I learned more about the sport than I had ever learned in my entire life. I think a lot of people have that same experience — just from a maturity standpoint. You might see something amazing that’s going to change you as an athlete but you can’t not think about when the next water break is or conditioning or how long the practice is going to go or how long you’re going to live wrestle. When you’re occupied with that there’s so much you miss out on. Once you have a different role you’ll catch a lot more than you ever did."

NO SCRIPT BUT STRONG DIRECTiON

"I think we have different styles but we never walked into practice wondering what’s going on. There was always direction. I write stuff down like crazy. Back in the day, I don’t remember him doing it that much but it seemed like he had a really good game plan in his head. As his assistant, we weren’t sure what we would be doing that day and so you would walk in and you wouldn’t have a script but you ran through a program that was well thought out. I try to write everything down and sometimes I’ll go off script — a lot of times I go off script but I have to have a script there to go back and reference. The thoughts about how we were going to train leading up to different competitions — but the game plan was there. He never got caught wondering what to do. It was always a plan. It was always designed to get the most out of us."