Coach Matt Lindland
Coach Matt Lindland, one of the founders of Team Quest in Portland, Oregon, is one of the world’s most renowned and respected coaches in wrestling and MMA.
Matt Lindland attended Clackamas Community College and won a NJCAA National title before matriculating to the University of Nebraska where he went 33-1 his senior year and won the Big 8 title. That same year Matt won a free-style National Title at the University Level.
A year after college Matt won his second National Title in Free-Style and won the Pan-Americans that same year beating Alberto Rodriguez Hernandez from Cuba. Matt had a tough decision to make, Free-Style or Greco-Roman, so he entered both styles at the US Open where he made it to the quarterfinals in Free-Style and semifinals in Greco.
Matt ultimately decided to focus on Greco-Roman and that same year Matt moved to Colorado Springs to train full-time at the Olympic Training Center and made the US National Greco-Roman Team. Matt made his first World Team in 1997 and kept his number 1 spot on the US team he retired from wrestling after he won the Olympic Silver medal and World medal in 2001.
Matt fought No Holds Barred in 1997 after seeing his teammate Randy Couture fight in the UFC, but Matt put MMA on hold so he could accomplish his wrestling goals. After winning the silver medal in the 2000 Sydney Olympics, Matt jumped right into the UFC in December of that same year.
Coach Matt started his coaching career in 1993 after finishing his collegiate wrestling career.
Matt founded the North West kids wrestling program and coached at two of the top wrestling clubs in the U.S.; Cobra Wrestling and Peninsula. That same year, Matt also started working with Chael Sonnen at West Linn High School. In 1996, Matt moved back to Lincoln, NE to take a job as an assistant wrestling coach at the University of Nebraska where he coached until 2000. During his tenure at Nebraska, Coach Matt coached NCAA champions and multiple All-Americans. Matt continues to work with USA Wrestling to this day.
In 2000, Matt started coaching wrestling and MMA at his Team Quest gym in Portland, Oregon. Coach Matt is still coaching wrestling, kickboxing, MMA, and the professional and amateur fight teams at Team Quest.
Dr Steve
Dr. Steven N. Hannant, PsyD, Sport and Clinical Psychologist, is an expert at helping people learn how to use the power of the mind to successfully improve their lives and achieve Peak Performance. His doctoral dissertation and research study was with elite Mixed Martial Artists (MMA), titled “Mental Preparation of Elite Athletes: A Qualitative Study.” The athletes that participated in the study have competed in the largest MMA organizations in the world including the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). He has recently published his first book, The Elite Mind of Mixed Martial Artists – Mental Training for Success in Sport and Life.. As an expert in the mental health field and sport psychology, Dr. Steve has developed the MentalTrainingProgram.com
Coach Fraser
Steve Fraser, is one of the most well-known names associated with the sport! In addition to being the first American gold medalist in Olympic Greco-Roman wrestling, Steve was my coach from 1995-2001.
Fraser began his coaching career as the assistant wrestling coach at the University of Michigan and Eastern Michigan University. He joined USA Wrestling as the National Greco-Roman Coach in October of 1995, serving as the full-time professional coach and works to develop Greco-Roman programs in the United States. To date, some highlights of his coaching career include:
- The 1996 Olympic Games, where the U.S. Team won three silver medals.
- The 2000 Olympic Games, where the U.S. Team won a gold, silver and bronze medal.
- The 2001 World Championships, the U.S. Team had its best performance ever, to date, taking home the third-place trophy. A U.S. Greco-Roman Team had never won a team medal at a World Championship. The 2001 squad also had a World Champion in Rulon Gardener and silver medalists Brandon Paulson and Matt Lindland.
- The 2006 World Championships, where the U.S. Team placed third as a team and had three individual world medals, including Joe Warren’s gold medal.
- The 2007 World Championships in Baku, Azerbaijan, where the United States claimed it’s first-ever World Team Title in Greco-Roman wrestling by defeating powerhouse Russia by one team point. The team featured three individual medalists; Brad Vering, Harry Lester and Dremiel Byers.
- Fraser has been responsible for 23 U.S. world and/or Olympic medals since he took over as USA’s head coach.
As an athlete, Steve Fraser won a gold medal at 90 kg (198 lbs) at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, becoming the first U.S. wrestler to ever win an Olympic gold medal in Greco-Roman wrestling. He won five matches on the way to the title, including a 1-1 criteria decision over Ilia Matei of Romania in the gold-medal finals. Among his key victories was a 4-1 decision over three-time World Champion Frank Andersson of Sweden. He also won a gold medal at the 1983 Pan-American Games, was a member of the 1979 and 1982 U.S. World Teams, claimed a U.S. Nationals titles in Greco-Roman in 1981 and 1983 and was a U.S. Nationals freestyle champion in 1984.
Fraser was a Michigan state high school champion at Hazel Park High School, later attending the University of Michigan where he was a two-time NCAA All-American. He received his bachelor’s degree in physical education. He was named USA Wrestling Athlete of the Year in 1984, has been inducted into the Michigan Wrestling Hall of Fame and the Michigan Amateur Sports Hall of Fame and, in 1994, the National Wrestling Hall of Fame.
Through years of dedication to wrestling, as an athlete and a coach, Steve Fraser has not only changed the sport itself but has affected the lives of many young athletes who trained with him. MMA fighters Randy Couture, Dan Henderson and Matt Lindland all were coached by Fraser and they are some of the toughest athletes in the world. Providing a positive environment where nothing is impossible, Steve Fraser is someone who can help every athlete become a champion! I hope you enjoy his writing as much as I do.
Dr Rick Addante
Dr. Rick Addante earned his Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the University of California, Davis, where he was a fully funded as a Doctoral Fellow of American Psychological Association Diversity Program in Neuroscience from an NRSA awarded by the National Institute of Mental Health; and holds a B.A. degree in Psychology with a Biopsychology concentration from The College of New Jersey (TCNJ), where he graduated “cum laude” from the Honors Program and won the Marshall P. Smith Award in recognition as the top psychology student in The College, won the John Wandishin Award given for “best exhibiting the qualities of honor, courage, leadership, & service”, and was a finalist for the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship. He has been selected for additional advanced training at some of the best scientific institutions available, including Princeton, Cold Spring Harbor Labs, & Woods Hole Biological Labs.
While at TCNJ, Addante was a 4x NCAA wrestler for David Icenhower from 2000-2004 on teams ranked among the best in the nation. He followed his collegiate career by becoming Head Coach of Robbinsville High School (founding a new high school program), was an Assistant Coach for Team NJ (National Runners-up in the Brute-Adidas National Duals), and was then the Head Coach of the Florida Atlantic University Wrestling Team from 2005-2006. He has provided extensive personal training, mentoring, and tutoring to many students for over ten years, and his trainees have won numerous championships and earned All-American honors collegiately. Rick competed for the UC Davis Triathlon Team for 3 years, and then went on to train Mixed Martial Arts with Team Alpha Male in Sacramento, California; as a licensed FAA pilot for high performance aircraft, he also served as the Team Pilot as well.
Addante grew up wrestling in Illinois, and then competed as a captain for New Jersey perennial power Southern Regional High School, under the training of Jerry Tabbachino and John Stout. Off the mat, he has made a successful solo trip to the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro, and is also a certified Rescue Diver & Master Diver working at UC Davis Marine Biology Stations throughout the west coast. Further leadership positions have included leading public outreach efforts for National Brain Awareness Week, serving as the Chair of the UC Davis Neuroscience Graduate Student Association and as President of the National Honor Society of Psychology at TCNJ.
Dr. Addante is currently a Post-Doctoral Neuroscientist at the University of Texas at Dallas. He has published in several peer-reviewed scientific journals about the neuroscience and psychology of human memory, brain states, and cognitive performance, as has been covered in national news by US News & World Report, ScienceDaily, Yahoo! News, plus international coverage by affiliates of the Wall Street Journal and throughout Southeast Asia, and has been selected to present his research to the United States Congress. He is a frequent speaker at various scientific symposiums and conferences across the country that range from Stanford, San Francisco, Dallas, Lake Tahoe, and Woods Hole Laboratories (MA), and is a member of numerous professional organizations & scientific societies. His scientific publications can be accessed at PubMed, and dissertation is available here. He can be contacted at Richard.Addante@UTDallas.edu
