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A Wrestling Life 2: More Inspiring Stories of Dan Gable
When most people think of the celebrated greatness that is Coach Dan Gable, they think of an almost mythic intensity toward wrestling. Gable breathes and bleeds the sport, and faithfully applies lessons learned from both on and off the mat. Expanding upon Gable’s first collection of stories, A Wrestling Life 2 goes a little deeper into the mindset and life events that have shaped the man, the wrestler, and the coach.
Through stories funny, heartfelt, intense, and always engaging, Gable shares more about the life he has lead and what can be learned from those experiences. He goes on to detail what have come to be known as the Gable Trained principles that he follows to keep his life full of “wins,” the revelations about how to cultivate success at the highest levels, and the reasons behind these steps for living well.
A Wrestling Life spent two months on the New York Times sports bestseller list, and has become an instant classic of sports memoirs. A Wrestling Life 2 is sure to add to Gable’s ever-growing legacy and entertain and inspire wrestling fans everywhere.
Through stories funny, heartfelt, intense, and always engaging, Gable shares more about the life he has lead and what can be learned from those experiences. He goes on to detail what have come to be known as the Gable Trained principles that he follows to keep his life full of “wins,” the revelations about how to cultivate success at the highest levels, and the reasons behind these steps for living well.
A Wrestling Life spent two months on the New York Times sports bestseller list, and has become an instant classic of sports memoirs. A Wrestling Life 2 is sure to add to Gable’s ever-growing legacy and entertain and inspire wrestling fans everywhere.
195 pages, Hardcover
Published June 1, 2017
14 people are currently reading
136 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
August 8, 2019
Five stars to Dan Gable, the world's greatest wrestling coach and, I'd add, world's greatest wrestler, although I see you Cael Sanderson and, maybe even more so, Kyle Dake. But for me, growing up in Iowa City and witnessing firsthand in the '70s the way Gable led the Hawkeyes to unprecedented dominance in the Big Tens and the NCAAs, it will always be Gable, so don't even bother trying to argue with me.
And don't tell me this book is a rambling mess of stories that reads like Gable just sat down at his computer in his basement one day and starting typing from memory and then went to bed, woke up and typed some more. Because of course it does, and that's just one of the things that makes this book such great reading. But chances are, and I'll bet you some spare change, that Gable wrote it out long hand first, because that's the kind of guy Gable is. And that kind of guy is dedicated, the hardest working guy in the room, the guy who knows that greatness only comes though extreme commitment and intense exertion and powering through adversity to find success.
I saw that on a regular basis as a kid in Iowa City. I knew who Gable was all the way back in 1972 when we lived out in Coralville before I even really understood what wrestling was because my parents wanted me to be aware of his amazing performance at the Munich Olympics, giving up zero points to win the gold medal. And I saw it all the time after we moved into Iowa City and I became familiar with the Hawkeye program. In fifth grade, Chuck Yagla and Timmy Cyzewski came to my grade school on career day to talk about wrestling and show us some moves. By then Gary Kurdelmeier had stolen Gable away from Iowa State, and he was putting his imprint on the program, even as assistant coach. I was hooked from that day on, and as I moved from grade school into junior high and Gable took over the Iowa program, I used to wrestle club in the Hawkeye wrestling room in the evenings after the team was done with their two-hour practice. Every day, even though Gable had wrestled for the solid two hours with the team against some of the best wrestlers in the country (and he wrestled everybody in the room back then), after the team left for the locker room, he would stay behind, and as my club team took over the mats pooled in sweat, he would remain there in the room hitting the take-down dummy attached to the wall, again and again and again, keeping that sweat going and not ready to end his work out. He would continue on for twenty or thirty minutes, long after everyone else was gone. He was relentless.
I saw just about every home wrestling meet in the Fieldhouse from 1977 to 1982, and I saw many of them mat side because my father was in a wheelchair and somebody (I'd like to think it was Gable himself because he was involved with the Johnson County Multiple Sclerosis Society) had the decency to let folks in wheelchairs park right along the mat. I'd sit there with my father, and watch some of the greatest wrestling of all time just a few feet away, Randy Lewis and the Banach Brothers, Mike DeAnna, Bruce Kinseth, Scott Trizzino; these were my heroes, and it was sheer brilliance to sit there watching Gable coach them to victory after victory.
So anyway, a lot of what Gable writes about in A Wrestling Life 2 is familiar territory to me, and I enjoyed following Gable's sometimes jumbled train of thought as he bounces from memory to memory and story to story of some of the great moments in his life as a wrestler, a coach, and a family man. Highlights in the book for me were reading about Gable's love for the sauna (I spent a lot of time cutting weight in that sauna in the basement of the Fieldhouse), recruiting Chris Campbell who turned out to be one of Gable's toughest wrestlers early in his career and a really interesting guy as well (my parents sold their old upright piano to Campbell and I helped him move it into his house out in Coralville one really cold winter's night), and seeing Gable call Lisbon's Royce Alger the toughest wrestler he ever coached. (Sorry for tech-ing you at that Belle Plaine tournament, Royce. You were a bit out of your weight class that day, but it makes for a good story to tell now that I'm fat and old.)
I would imagine there are a lot of readers out there who wouldn't have the patience to stick with Gable as he rambles on down memory lane here, especially toward the end of the book where he gives a season-to-season recounting of his coaching experience on the international and collegiate levels and then wraps up with shout outs to about fifty of the individuals he sees as most important or influential to his life or to the sport of wrestling as a whole. But to me it was all pure gold, even when he praises that tool Jim Jordan or finds something nice to say about Donald Trump, who I have a hard time believing was any kind of real wrestler back in high school. But nobody's perfect, not even Dan Gable, although for me he is probably the single person most responsible for inspiring my drive and giving me the determination to achieve whatever limited success I have found in my life.
And don't tell me this book is a rambling mess of stories that reads like Gable just sat down at his computer in his basement one day and starting typing from memory and then went to bed, woke up and typed some more. Because of course it does, and that's just one of the things that makes this book such great reading. But chances are, and I'll bet you some spare change, that Gable wrote it out long hand first, because that's the kind of guy Gable is. And that kind of guy is dedicated, the hardest working guy in the room, the guy who knows that greatness only comes though extreme commitment and intense exertion and powering through adversity to find success.
I saw that on a regular basis as a kid in Iowa City. I knew who Gable was all the way back in 1972 when we lived out in Coralville before I even really understood what wrestling was because my parents wanted me to be aware of his amazing performance at the Munich Olympics, giving up zero points to win the gold medal. And I saw it all the time after we moved into Iowa City and I became familiar with the Hawkeye program. In fifth grade, Chuck Yagla and Timmy Cyzewski came to my grade school on career day to talk about wrestling and show us some moves. By then Gary Kurdelmeier had stolen Gable away from Iowa State, and he was putting his imprint on the program, even as assistant coach. I was hooked from that day on, and as I moved from grade school into junior high and Gable took over the Iowa program, I used to wrestle club in the Hawkeye wrestling room in the evenings after the team was done with their two-hour practice. Every day, even though Gable had wrestled for the solid two hours with the team against some of the best wrestlers in the country (and he wrestled everybody in the room back then), after the team left for the locker room, he would stay behind, and as my club team took over the mats pooled in sweat, he would remain there in the room hitting the take-down dummy attached to the wall, again and again and again, keeping that sweat going and not ready to end his work out. He would continue on for twenty or thirty minutes, long after everyone else was gone. He was relentless.
I saw just about every home wrestling meet in the Fieldhouse from 1977 to 1982, and I saw many of them mat side because my father was in a wheelchair and somebody (I'd like to think it was Gable himself because he was involved with the Johnson County Multiple Sclerosis Society) had the decency to let folks in wheelchairs park right along the mat. I'd sit there with my father, and watch some of the greatest wrestling of all time just a few feet away, Randy Lewis and the Banach Brothers, Mike DeAnna, Bruce Kinseth, Scott Trizzino; these were my heroes, and it was sheer brilliance to sit there watching Gable coach them to victory after victory.
So anyway, a lot of what Gable writes about in A Wrestling Life 2 is familiar territory to me, and I enjoyed following Gable's sometimes jumbled train of thought as he bounces from memory to memory and story to story of some of the great moments in his life as a wrestler, a coach, and a family man. Highlights in the book for me were reading about Gable's love for the sauna (I spent a lot of time cutting weight in that sauna in the basement of the Fieldhouse), recruiting Chris Campbell who turned out to be one of Gable's toughest wrestlers early in his career and a really interesting guy as well (my parents sold their old upright piano to Campbell and I helped him move it into his house out in Coralville one really cold winter's night), and seeing Gable call Lisbon's Royce Alger the toughest wrestler he ever coached. (Sorry for tech-ing you at that Belle Plaine tournament, Royce. You were a bit out of your weight class that day, but it makes for a good story to tell now that I'm fat and old.)
I would imagine there are a lot of readers out there who wouldn't have the patience to stick with Gable as he rambles on down memory lane here, especially toward the end of the book where he gives a season-to-season recounting of his coaching experience on the international and collegiate levels and then wraps up with shout outs to about fifty of the individuals he sees as most important or influential to his life or to the sport of wrestling as a whole. But to me it was all pure gold, even when he praises that tool Jim Jordan or finds something nice to say about Donald Trump, who I have a hard time believing was any kind of real wrestler back in high school. But nobody's perfect, not even Dan Gable, although for me he is probably the single person most responsible for inspiring my drive and giving me the determination to achieve whatever limited success I have found in my life.
May 19, 2023
Tyler Harper
Flores
AP Lang
5/9/23
A Wrestling Life 2: A Review
Excitement, knowledge, lessons, and discipline intrigues many readers in A Wrestling Life 2, an autobiography by Dan Gable. This sequel to A Wrestling Life by Dan Gable builds on many of his stories and fills in the holes for what was forgotten and left out. Even the smaller and less important stories to Gable are still great, and anyone can take something out of them. Gable's life is wrestling; every chapter and story in the book has something to do with the sport he bases his life around, mostly telling about his success competing in wrestling at the highest level and even coaching a successful wrestling team at the highest level. I don't believe that the author is attempting to push a motive onto me directly but, as a reader who is also a wrestler, I definitely get more motivation by seeing how hard and smart Dan Gable would work throughout the book. The author's claim is that Dan Gable has an extraordinary life that is diffrent from many people, as shown through the stories that are told. The stories that support this claim are on topics like how he started wrestling in his youth at the YMCA, some of the craziest, smartest, and best people he has coached, and stories on how all of his strong beliefs came to be.
As I read I noticed a few flaws such as how the book was unorganized. Dates were somewhat in order, but the were flashbacks and stories would jump around in time throughout the book. This might have been the author's purpose, but it made it slightly more confusing. I also thought that someone who had not read the first book would be confused, and some things would not have made as much sense without background information. Overall, even with the cons of this book, I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a variety of quick stories about the inspiring life of a champion.
Flores
AP Lang
5/9/23
A Wrestling Life 2: A Review
Excitement, knowledge, lessons, and discipline intrigues many readers in A Wrestling Life 2, an autobiography by Dan Gable. This sequel to A Wrestling Life by Dan Gable builds on many of his stories and fills in the holes for what was forgotten and left out. Even the smaller and less important stories to Gable are still great, and anyone can take something out of them. Gable's life is wrestling; every chapter and story in the book has something to do with the sport he bases his life around, mostly telling about his success competing in wrestling at the highest level and even coaching a successful wrestling team at the highest level. I don't believe that the author is attempting to push a motive onto me directly but, as a reader who is also a wrestler, I definitely get more motivation by seeing how hard and smart Dan Gable would work throughout the book. The author's claim is that Dan Gable has an extraordinary life that is diffrent from many people, as shown through the stories that are told. The stories that support this claim are on topics like how he started wrestling in his youth at the YMCA, some of the craziest, smartest, and best people he has coached, and stories on how all of his strong beliefs came to be.
As I read I noticed a few flaws such as how the book was unorganized. Dates were somewhat in order, but the were flashbacks and stories would jump around in time throughout the book. This might have been the author's purpose, but it made it slightly more confusing. I also thought that someone who had not read the first book would be confused, and some things would not have made as much sense without background information. Overall, even with the cons of this book, I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a variety of quick stories about the inspiring life of a champion.
August 1, 2017
Dan Gable is a wrestling icon. World and Olympic champion and coach of 15 NCAA championship teams at the University of Iowa, Gable is perhaps the most revered American figure in "the world's oldest and greatest sport." And then there's Gable the storyteller. We were introduced to that Dan Gable in "A Wrestling Life, the Inspiring Stories of Dan Gable", a collection of 26 vignettes about his life, career and family. It was indeed inspiring.
Now Dan has blessed us with a sequel, "A Wrestling Life 2, More Inspiring Stories of Dan Gable". Always one to strive for improvement, this book is even better than the first. Once again taking a "short story" approach, he adds new tales, but also does into greater detail about events, challenges and remembrances covered in "A Wrestling Life". The book opens with "Gable Trained: An Introduction", a series of observations and ruminations that apply to all arenas. Lede sentences like, "It's important to learn from adversity.", "Teamwork is important no matter who you are and what you do." and "There need to be consequences for unacceptable actions." kick off paragraphs that are as much about life as they are about wrestling.
Co-author, Kyle Klingman, incorporates interviews with former opponents, wrestling legends, friends and Hawkeye athletes. These offer additional perspective to Gable's stories.
"A Wrestling Life 2" is, of course, a "must read" for any wrestling fan, but it also a wonderful reading experience for those fascinated by success in all forms.
Now Dan has blessed us with a sequel, "A Wrestling Life 2, More Inspiring Stories of Dan Gable". Always one to strive for improvement, this book is even better than the first. Once again taking a "short story" approach, he adds new tales, but also does into greater detail about events, challenges and remembrances covered in "A Wrestling Life". The book opens with "Gable Trained: An Introduction", a series of observations and ruminations that apply to all arenas. Lede sentences like, "It's important to learn from adversity.", "Teamwork is important no matter who you are and what you do." and "There need to be consequences for unacceptable actions." kick off paragraphs that are as much about life as they are about wrestling.
Co-author, Kyle Klingman, incorporates interviews with former opponents, wrestling legends, friends and Hawkeye athletes. These offer additional perspective to Gable's stories.
"A Wrestling Life 2" is, of course, a "must read" for any wrestling fan, but it also a wonderful reading experience for those fascinated by success in all forms.
February 26, 2025
This is the 2nd book that Gable put together with a co-author setting out snippets of his high school, college, and international wrestling career; and his college and international coaching career. I enjoyed the first book more than the second, although I gave them both 4 stars.
I was a one-year, bad wrestler in an Iowa high school. I grew up knowing who Dan Gable was and what he did for the sport of wrestling in Iowa, nationally, and internationally. Dan gives you a glimpse of what it was like coaching at Iowa and internationally. I enjoyed his stories about various wrestlers that he had wrestle at Iowa and the struggles and successes they had on the mat.
I would have liked to see the two books combined into one and I would have preferred them to tell his story chronologically. The stories about Dan are all over the place. Organization was a key for Dan throughout his career. Not here, however.
I was a one-year, bad wrestler in an Iowa high school. I grew up knowing who Dan Gable was and what he did for the sport of wrestling in Iowa, nationally, and internationally. Dan gives you a glimpse of what it was like coaching at Iowa and internationally. I enjoyed his stories about various wrestlers that he had wrestle at Iowa and the struggles and successes they had on the mat.
I would have liked to see the two books combined into one and I would have preferred them to tell his story chronologically. The stories about Dan are all over the place. Organization was a key for Dan throughout his career. Not here, however.
June 27, 2017
Dan Gable has had an outstanding career as an athlete and coach. He is relentlessly driven in achieving his goals, and deserves every victory and every piece of respect that he has earned. He is one of the most impressive people you'd ever hope to meet, and he genuinely wants those around him to become successful.
I really liked the first "Wrestling Life" and was looking forward to reading this second book. In my opinion, the first book is great for any athlete or anyone looking for general motivation. The second book is for the serious wrestling fan. It does contain some stories, but it is much more focused on the history of the sport, and Dan's involvement in that history. I liked it and am glad that I read it, but I honestly didn't enjoy it as much as the first book.
I really liked the first "Wrestling Life" and was looking forward to reading this second book. In my opinion, the first book is great for any athlete or anyone looking for general motivation. The second book is for the serious wrestling fan. It does contain some stories, but it is much more focused on the history of the sport, and Dan's involvement in that history. I liked it and am glad that I read it, but I honestly didn't enjoy it as much as the first book.
January 14, 2026
A Wrestling Life 2 is another inspiring book by Dan Gable he goes more in depth and talks about more stories that led him to be one of the greatest and most influential wrestlers of all time. In my opinion it's not as good as the first book, but it's still a great book that I definitely recommend. If you are looking for a great easy book to read I'd check this one out.
July 17, 2017
Terrific look into the mind of a great coach, motivator, and competitor. I recommend it highly.
January 28, 2018
good read. highly recommended. great motivational.
April 5, 2023
More Amazing Stories from legendary Wrestler Dan Gable teach you so much about Hard-Work, Dedication, and Discipline.
September 1, 2023
Not quite as good as the first book; but some great stories from the greatest wrestler of all time
Read
November 16, 2025March 2019
March 9, 2021
It reads like a modern day Marcus Aurelius. It's a modern day Meditations, only the Roman emperor is now an Olympic freestyle wrestling champion and wrestling coach. Full of stories on discipline, work ethic, practicality, coaching advice and reflection.
March 27, 2020
Another great book by Dan Gable
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews