I wrestled in HighSchool. We had this one scary guy (thank goodness not my weigh class) who would do all that he could to freak his opponent out. You know stuff like rub against him/bad touch, Whisper stuff like your cute. was funny as heck to watch
Wrestling is one of the oldest sports out there. Back in the day at 5-6 120, I get in close, you were going down. Its not boxing, its not karate, but looking up from the floor sucks. Now at 5-6 250 I dont move as fast, but it never was about speed.
There was an old movie about it "Vision Quest" Our wrestling team supplied the extras for it, and our coach was the Ref in the final match.
I wrestled at 145 in HS, I was very good friends with a guy who came from a huge family of grapplers, one of his brothers, Dennis Hall, went to three Olympics and silvered at the 96 games.
At a reunion get-together, I got a chance to hit the mat with Dennis, I was lucky to make 3 seconds. BAM..BOOM...DONE.
Like watching the grapplers. I was 4'5, 95lbs, in 4, 5, 6, 7th grade. Little skinny boy but I was pretty good. When I got into 8th grade I stopped because the school I went to didn't have a program. Kinda missed it. Now still skinny but tall and way to out of shape to be doing it.
I wrestled for a short time in HS. 108lbs bracket. I was an ok wrestler, but I never really had any heart in it.
I left for two reasons. First I had a coach that was military sadistic in dropping weight. In fact I considered his devotion to it dangerous. We had guys that were "encouraged" to drop 35lbs (that they didn't have to lose). Absolute nut.
The final reason was a match I had against a midget. I was 5'10" 108lbs, this guy was 3ft something and 108" He was a body builder in his spare time.
Needless to say I had my ass handed to me, badly...
To this day I can't watch the stuff without cringing.
I just completed my 5th year of college wrestling at Michigan. Greatest sport in the world, those that have done it understand why. The above pictures show what might be understood as 'queer' from an outsider. But truth be told, wrestling is the hardest 7 minutes of anything in the world. Complete technical, and brutal competition, trying to essentially beat your opponent up. We just had a 21 year old Olympic Champion, Henry Cejudo. Youngest American wrestling Champion in history. Anyone who doubt otherwise, watch 5 minutes of an MMA fight.
Jamie (and any one else who's son {or daughter} may consider wrestling in the future,
Weight loss in the sport has always been criticized... and it should have been. Imagine those fanatical soccer, football, baseball, etc. parents who are of the "win at all costs" persuasion. Now imagine that same irrational person trying to create a competitive lineup in wrestling. They will ask their athletes to do anything... I know of coaches who have endorsed bulimic type behaviors, starvation, diuretics, laxitives, dehydration, and even blood letting to lose weight. These methods are not safe for student/athletes and anyone who suggests them is putting an athlete in danger.
Most wrestlers have their own stories of the food sacrifices and weight loss strategies they endured/suffered through. (My heavyweight even skipped a lunch once.)
The system for weight loss, at least here in Florida, has changed dramatically. Athletes at the beginning of the season are hydrated (they have a specific gravity urine test to establish this), weighed, measured for height and measured by skin calipers. These measurements are used to derive a safe level of weekly weight loss and at the beginning of the season, establishes the lowest weight they may wrestle. Student/athletes, coaches and parents are then armed with this information so they can moniter the athlete's weight loss. Lose weight too fast? No wrestling until you are back on track.
Is the system perfect? No. Is it better than having a coach tell your kid they are to lose 35 lbs. by the end of the year? You bet!
As a side note, I have been wrestling in school, college, the US Army and ooaching for over 34 years. In all of that time, I have never told a wrestler what weight they must wrestle. I have discussed with wrestlers and their parents where the wrestler may be the most competitive and how to get there. It was always a group decision. I encouraged my wrestlers to eat healthy foods and to work out harder than others. I always thought they should develop themselves into the "stud" that everyone else dodges.
The great news is that in the wrestling community (college at least), weight Cutting is essentially disappearing. This year no one on our team was cutting more than 5 pounds (which is one workout worth of weight). And all were highly competitive. With the one hour before a match structuring of weigh ins those studs cutting large amounts of weight are basically hurting themselves. Two years ago the guys on our team all decided to move up two weight classes. 141-149/157 our All American 149 to 165, 157 to 174. The result was 3 NCAA runner-up finishes, one for each of those guys that moved up. Previous to them moving up they were 4, 5, 6 at nationals. The weight cutting wore them down, and they never lived up to their potential at the Nationals. Its great to be able to focus on technique and getting stronger without compromising all that time to be losing lbs. Wardan has the right idea to a T. God i love that sport.
Marshj, I grew up in the era of plastics and working out in a sauna to make weight.
The origin of my weight philosophy? I took the idea from watching the Turks. In '89 when I was on the Army team we competed all over. The American ideal of a wrestler was a guy that was about 15% to 20% below their natural weight. Lean and mean... and weaker. The Turks- I couldn't believe it- trained like mad men- they as a team worked out like fiends. Then they ate and drank and smoked like it was a party. They did this every night. When it was time for weigh-ins they lined up in order and what ever they weighed - they wrestled. They weren't lean- they were well fed and in shape. They also kicked a$$. When I started coaching as an assiatant, I got the head coach to leave the Freshmen and Sophomores alone. I worked with the new guys. (There are no real feeder programs in most of Florida. I grew up in Ohio and wrestled out of Columbus and East Liverpool.) I coached conditioning and defense to them. If my young wrestlers made it to the 3rd period they almost always won. As a head coach, we talked nutrition and off season conditioning. I encouraged my student/athletes to try other sports for our school. More often than not they were studs on those other teams too. Our training was different too. Weights were free weights- quick reps in 30- 75 secs. Running was timed- not distance. My wrestlers did as much as they could in the alloted time. If some one slacked they only hurt themselves. We ran sprints on the football field- if you were one of the 1st 2 across the finish line or one of the last 2 across they got to sit out for a break. I had studs who never finished one or two so they could run every sprint. We'd do short 20 yard sprints and if they were 1st or 2nd across the line they "got" to do 50 push ups. It was a reward. You never saw guys working so hard for themselves and the privledge of extra work. I turned what was punishment on every other team- into a reward for our guys. Dodgeball- we ended every practice with a rousing game of dodgeball. You have never seen a group of exhausted teens come more alive than whn they get to pelt each other with balls. They loved it. My teams were tight, competitive and conditioned. As a wrestler, a coach and teacher, little has brought me more satisfaction.