Zane Richards: The Data Collector

Zane Richards makes methodical improvements to his game that fueled his Final X win over Thomas Gilman

The only detail Zane Richards seemed to miss at Final X was the time of his flight home. 

Richards was machine-like in how he maneuvered and calculated his every move to beat Olympic bronze medalist Thomas Gilman in their best-of-three series, and he worked constantly for 12 minutes of match time to stay in favorable positions. 

Richards was far more successful than most anticipated and took the best-of-three series with a 4-3 win in Round 1 and a late four-point move to pull off an 8-6 victory in Round 2. In doing so, Richards won the spot at 57 kilograms on the United States world freestyle team.

Richards said he made an appearance at the Beat the Streets gala later that night, met up with friends and started making his way to the airport for his flight back to Illinois. And while he did end up getting to the gate on time, it was a much closer call than it needed to be. 

“I read the itinerary wrong,” Richards said. “I thought the shuttle time was the flight time, so I messed that up, which is great.”

That lapse in Richards’ attention span flew in the face of his biggest strengths as a wrestler, which include his mat IQ, his preparation and the cold, hard science behind his six-year rise from a very good collegiate wrestler at Illinois to jumping level after level on the senior circuit.

While Richards was in tune with every detail in his quest to get the most out of himself, an occasional non-wrestling detail is known to slip through the cracks. 

When he got back home, Richards said he caught up with friends, family and coaches. He had a nice dinner, did a little laundry and tackled the sizzling task of paying his quarterly taxes as he reacclimated to daily life. There was undeniably extra juice in his step as he tackled those tasks as the new, undisputed top 57-kilogram wrestler in the United States. 

“My life was good beforehand and it’s still pretty good night now,” he said. 

Airport shuttles notwithstanding, Richards can use his diligence and brain power to simplify life’s daily complexities, just as he does with his wrestling. 

He is familiar with the art of wrestling freely, but supports his movements with a steady collection of data points before, during and after matches. Richards knows his game plans and can say with sobering honesty whether he did or didn’t execute them at a high enough level. After all, the science of getting better has no time to coddle his feelings.

In the immediate aftermath of the wins over Gilman, Richards was more looking forward to tapping into all that information than he was celebrating what he achieved. The ultimate conquest wasn’t just to make the U.S. world team, but to win a world title. And in a more macro sense, his goal continues to be extracting every single ounce of improvement he can. 

The biggest wins of his career were no exception.

“I don't think there's ever a quote-unquote perfect match,” Richards said. “There's very close and that's part of being human. But it’s a moment to learn and be excited for the fact that you have some of the best data you could possibly grab. So why not invest time into analyzing it a little bit and trying to get the most out of it?”

Perhaps the most critical sequence of Richards’ series win over Gilman was the perfect marriage of intuition and information. 

With 45 seconds on the clock in Round 2, Richards trailed 6-4 and was pressing forward. He was moving Gilman out of his stance, but wasn’t yet at a desperation point to throw something big at him. At the same time, Richards was acutely aware of the idea that Gilman could choose to take his own shot and try to kill clock that way.

Richards was ready for it and stretched Gilman out on a show-me shot. He then took him where his weight was carrying him for a takedown and exposure for that 8-6 lead. 

In the flow of the position, which lasted less than two seconds from Gilman’s shot to his four-point counter, Richards ran the numbers and saw zero downside in blocking Gilman out with his right leg and dragging him to the mat. He could feel in the moment that option offered the most favorable outcome of any move he could make.

From Richards’ point of view, the better he prepared, the more ready he would be to capitalize when a big opportunity presented itself in a clutch situation. 

At Final X, that was his moment.

“You've done so many reps to prepare for that moment,” Richards said. “You get repetitions to where it's so rehearsed that your body can operate, even when it's tired. You know how to operate in those stressful situations. Then, moments of inspiration can occur to where, ‘Oh, there's a chance here, if I do this well, I can score four and the drawback is nothing.’ 

“There's no drawback for me attempting this takedown in this direction because I either score two or four. Conveniently, it was four in that situation.”

And with that, Richards delivered one of the more stunning results at Final X, just as he did at the U.S. Open two months earlier when he took down NCAA champ Nick Suriano to set up the opportunity against Gilman. Their Final X pairing marked a rematch from the 2020 Olympic Trials, when Gilman teched Richards on his way to repping the U.S. in Tokyo. 

Much has changed since then, not the least of which is the methodical way Richards has sharpened his entire skill set to secure the opportunity he has now. He grasps the reality that his name doesn’t give American wrestling fans the same warm, fuzzy feeling that Gilman or even Suriano would at 57 kilograms, but he’s no less deserving of his chance.

Richards has growing confidence that not only can he represent the United States well at the World Championships in September, but he can keep winning bigger and bigger matches there and beyond. The science behind his training has given rise to more confidence, and the results have started to follow after years of chipping away at it.

“I believe in myself,” he said. “I know I can do these things. I know I can win. And as much as I say those things and think those things, what's really important is I go and I do the things as best as I can to make sure my behavior is in line with what I value.”

The joy of getting better, of course, always comes back to numbers for Richards, and he has used them to fuel his steady climb into the elite tier of U.S. wrestlers. 

Just don’t ask him for his flight info.

“You enjoy how there are struggles, but in those moments of struggle, there's opportunity to learn,” Richards said. “It's exciting to know that, ‘Man, there's something I'm missing here. But if I can find that one piece of the puzzle, I can move up a couple of percentage points, and then I could start beating this guy that has been plaguing my nightmares forever.’”