Like any sport, wrestling is built on routine and repetition.

Whether its practicing technique or doing conditioning drills, wrestlers are constantly working on their craft, preparing for their next match.And in the case of many regular season tournaments, that next match might be a matter of minutes away, with many wrestlers competing several times in one day.But what happens when that next match isn't a matter of minutes…or hours…or days away?By the end of this week, all eight TIMES NEWS area wrestling teams will have completed their respective regular seasons, leaving a gap between matches that for some will span well over a week.Handling the lull between the end of the regular season and districts can be just as important to a successful postseason as anything that happens on the mat during the first few months of the season."The break can be a good thing and a bad thing," said Palmerton coach Dave Lavin. "On one had, you give the wrestlers a chance to rest their bodies and mentally prepare to peak for the postseason. On the other hand, however, with too much time off, practice can become repetitive and some wrestlers may actually lose focus and just go through the motions while they look towards "the end.""When you compete closer to the district tournament, you become vulnerable to injuries that can have an impact on a wrestler's postseason."Lavin, for one, is a fan of having an extended respite between matches and will adjust the team's schedule accordingly."I like having about a week and a half to two weeks (off) leading up to districts," he said. "At this point, practices don't need to be too long or drawn out. The wrestlers should already be in good shape. We don't do too much extra conditioning because the wrestling and drilling serve as conditioning themselves."The intensity will be higher, with more of a focus on hard drilling and live wrestling this week and the beginning of next week and we will taper off next Wednesday and Thursday by just drilling and focusing on technique leading up to districts."Like Lavin, Northwestern coach Jim Moll makes sure practices are more specialized with end of the season in sight."Practices are shorter, but more intense," the coach said. "The drilling is starting to be more individualized for each wrestler. They get a chance to really focus on improving the things they do well...the things that they will need to perfect to beat some of the tough wrestlers they will see at districts, regionals and states, rather than learning new techniques."Keeping a high-level of intensity in the wrestling room without regularly scheduled competitions is something coaches combat with a variety of strategies."To avoid losing the high-level competition we will try to generate competition-level wrestling in our room using inner squad matches and or situation wrestling," said Tamaqua coach Jon Mashack. "We also promote optional use of regional clubs such as the Lehigh Valley Athletic Club, Pyramid Wrestling Club, and Steel Wrestling Club for those athletes interested in doing extra (work) on their own."Other coaches look for opportunities outside of their own gym to keep their wrestlers sharp."Normally, we would start to travel to other schools to practice during this week and next, to help prepare for the postseason," said Moll, whose team has two matches this week. "Working out at a school like Parkland or Northampton helps keep the student-athletes in competition mode during the gap in competition."It also allows them to see different wrestling styles. This week we are having Oley Valley come to our place to workout."Panther Valley coach Tim Robb employs a similar strategy to keep his team fresh."We condition in the morning, and then look to get a good drill and live session in for regular practices, while still concentrating on technique," Robb noted. "But I try to get together with another school and scrimmage to get out of the regular grind at least once."While still working on fundamentals to ensure the team stays sharp, coaches are to keen to add variety to the day-to-day activities to avoid the eventual repetitiveness that comes with repetition."To minimize the monotony, we try to vary activities during practice, interject fun activities at least once or twice each week," Mashack said. "We also have scheduled team-building activities, such as movie nights, etc… but that is still a work in progress."With no shortage of options to stay occupied, it's safe to say teams will be busy even without regularly scheduled competition.*****FALCON INVITATIONAL ... Jim Thorpe and Palmerton took part in Salisbury's Falcon Invitational over the weekend and each team had quite a bit of success. The Bombers' Josh Evans entered as the top seed at 138 pounds and won the title, going 5-0. Jim Thorpe's Kevan Gentile (106) and Palmerton's Zachary Graver (160) and Jared Mooney (170) took second in their respective weight classes. The Olympians' Ali Capobianco (132), Antonio Madera (145) and Robbie Geisinger (160) all took fourth, as did the Bombers' Zack Christman (152).