About Us

TBTWC strives to provide our youth of all ages, sizes and experience levels with a positive experience in wrestling. We work to teach them valuable skills important in life such as good sportsmanship, teamwork, discipline, hard work, sports ethics, self-motivation, confidence, character, courage, dedication and confidence to be Champions in life, on and off the mat. The structure of our program is to promote individual excellence from an unwavering commitment to being the best we can possibly be. “We’re building this thing the right way and building it to last.”

Of the many sports your child can participate in, wrestling is perhaps the most misrepresented, misunderstood and underrated. Hopefully this guide will help expose the myths and uncover the benefits wrestling has to offer, and most importantly, help parents understand how this unique sport compliments other sports choices their child makes.

The Actual Sport of Wrestling

Based on self-discipline, hard work, skill and determination.  Conducted on a mat with wrestling shoes and headgear.  Physically demanding, is relatively low “impact” and combative.  Does not involve or even tolerate actions intended to cause injury.  

World class wrestlers utilize skills, strength and endurance developed over a lifetime of practice and hard work.  

Primary objective in wrestling is to gain control of your opponent and to ultimately pin your opponent by holding both shoulder blades simultaneously, on the mat for a period of two seconds. 

Ability Groups

Expanded Information about Little Hammers/Novice/Open/Elite classes

Little Hammers – 1st of its kind class for the Topeka Blue Thunder Wrestling Club!

The little hammers practices are geared towards 3-5 year old potty trained 1st year wrestlers who are not quite ready for requirements of the novice room.  A younger wrestler(3yo or 4yo) MAY be best suited for 2 years of little hammers before moving into our novice program but the goal is to progress up through the levels as soon as possible by learning all of the required technique in each level.

Our novice room is very structured and requires a child to be somewhat self motivated, non interruptive, and able to function without their parent in the room.  This leaves a lot of young wrestlers in the making without a place to fall in love with the sport.  That is why we created the little hammers.  If we can drive a love for sport into them at a young age, we can keep more kids involved in something that benefits them personally, socially, physically, mentally and spiritually FOR LIFE.

Little hammers will focus on:

Basic wrestling movements and positions

Tumbling

Games

Early mindset training

!!!!!IT IS NOT RECOMMENDED THAT LITTLE HAMMERS COMPETE!!!!!

Novice – This group is geared towards a slower pace of learning with more fun and games.  The goal of this group is to teach the wrestlers to love the sport while also teaching the most basic  fundamentals in USA Wrestling’s Level 1 core curriculum.   We do a lot of agility and tumbling with this group and usually end the practice with a game.  We demand your wrestler’s attention in practice(regardless of level) and we do call them out for being a disruption to the group.
 
Open – This group is geared toward accelerated learning of the fundamentals of wrestling and wrestling movements.  The goal of this group is to get wrestlers’ competition ready as quickly as possible through teaching all of USA Wrestling Level 1 core curriculum and some of USA Wrestling Level 2 and 3 core curriculum.  We do some agility and tumbling with this group as well as a fair amount of conditioning.  
 
Elite – This group is geared toward continued mastery of our “go to” offenses and defenses and keeping our wrestlers in the best wrestling shape as is possible.  This group is expected to know and be able to perform USAW’s level 1 curriculum completely as well as much from level 2 and 3.  We are constantly introducing new techniques to our elite wrestlers.  The expectations are that the wrestlers in our Elite room are training to become State/National Placers and Champions.  These practices are all gas and no brakes and can be VERY physically and mentally demanding for your wrestler(s).  Our goal has always been and remains to be to break down your wrestlers physically and mentally so we can then build them back up stronger.  Lots of blood, sweat, tears, and puke have been shed in these practices.  Once your wrestler is ready for the Elite room, it is in my and all of our staff/boards opinion that the treatment they get in that room will have a tremendous and invaluable impact on them both on and off the mat for the rest of their lives!

Who are our coaches?

  • Joshua Hogan (12th year)

    • Email: topekabluethunderwrestling@gmail.com

    • Text: 785-213-0412

  • Travis McBurney (7th year)- Totalpackage29@gmail.com

  • Austin Killinger (6th year)- whosaustin10@gmail.com

  • Chris Bas(4th year)- Christopher.Bas@bnsf.com

  • Ryan Garrison(3rd Year)- ryan.garrison32@gmail.com

HS Advisors?

  • Joshua Hogan: WRHS Men’s Wrestling Coach

    • Email: hoganjos@usd437.net

  • Damon Parker: WRHS Women’s Wrestling Coach

     

Oversight Committee?

  • Doug Vincent – dvincent@slitopeka.org

  • Justin Broxterman – jbrox17@gmail.com

  • Heather Worrel – hgworrel@gmail.com

  • Aaron Rivera – arivera765@yahoo.com

  • Lance Doyal – ldoyal@cox.net

 

Founding Members

Greg Murray & Mark Mikoleit

Contact Us

Topeka Blue Thunder Wrestling
topekabluethunderwrestling@gmail.com

Coaching Information

– In order to coach for TBTWC you need to complete a background check, complete safesport training, and purchase a Wrestling Leader membership from USA Wrestling. 
– Go to USAW’s membership website and create a profile.  
– Under that profile on that website you will be able to do the BG check/ follow a link to SS training/and pay for your USAW wrestling leader membership.  
– BG check and SS training must be done b4 it will let you purchase WL membership.