Saw this thought i would share

colonel130 · November 5, 2006

WRESTLERS: Are the strongest fastest and smartest athletes in the world. But that's not what makes them unique. They are the MOST dedicated people in the world. They sacrifice their lives to a sport of fighting. Where practice is 3 hours of lifting and throwing and conditioning. 3 hours of a literal street brawl. They give up there social lives. They cant party and get drunk because making weight on Saturday won't allow it. They cant go smoke after school cause they worked too damn hard to get into shape. They have no team out on the mat with them to help get past an opponent. They stand on a mat with all eyes on them, alone, no one to fall back on when they make a mistake, no safety to make the tackle, and no goaly to make a diving save. They are the leanest meanest and strongest in the world. Ladies want them, men want to be just like them. So this is a tribute to all those who sacrifice everything, their free time, their food, and most importantly their life. Why would someone work so hard, til they are puking in practice, sweating in their 3 layers and a sauna suit or skipping that badass party? Or why would they induce the blood sweat and tears? Or the early morning runs, or mid day workouts or the extra run after practice to lose that last pound to make weight. The road in wrestling always ends in tears. The man that takes second cries cause his dreams are over, and the man that wins it all cries more than anybody because finaly everything that they have afore mentened is finally worth while. Wrestlers will wrestle through anything because they are friggin' wrestlers. And greatness walks right with the word wrestler. I salute all who commit there life to something greater, something bigger than themselves. Wrestlers dont do wrestling cause they like it, you would be crazy to like to beat yourself up on a daily basis, and get beaten up by teammates and opponents just as much. Yet there are the few who love it, they do it cause they were born to. These select people I applaud. There is no future in wrestling, no pro league, no million dollar contract. Just a smelly practice room and a dream to be great.Wrestling is not a sport, its a lifestyle.

Teresa Baker · November 5, 2006

Appropriately said! Great message!

Mr Granby · November 8, 2006

wonderful i almost teared up!!!

119Rider · November 8, 2006

Probably the best description I have ever heard about a Wrestler. Thank You for sharing.

JJ · November 8, 2006

thats is by far the greastest thing i have ever heard but one thing was not mentioned we all give out sanitey to this sport we lose our physical and mental stamina to compete for the spot compete greatness

kdsmith27 · November 9, 2006

The Benefits of Wrestling

By Jack Fisher

Editor of Texas Wrestling Magazine

Talking with football coaches, I find they labor under the myth that wrestling is an off-season sport that detracts from their program and does not support the goals of football. What are the goals of football? Strength, speed, endurance, quickness, coordination, balance and weight gain are the most sought after outcomes for young athletes in football. I will concede that wrestling does not support the goal of weight gain but encourages its athletes to maintain or cut weight. Football and wrestling are both maligned by the public for the methods often used by their athletes to achieve their weight goals. More has been said about the ill effects of weight gain products than the methods wrestlers use to lose weight. Now with the rule that a high school athlete cannot lose more than 10% of their body weight from the certification weight at the beginning of the season, less controversy surrounds weight loss efforts as it has achieved a more natural process. Having 275 as the limit for heavy weight wrestlers, it excludes offensive linemen tipping the scales at more than 305 pounds. Football coaches need not fear that their behemoth linemen will shrink in size, as they would be disqualified the minute they step on the scales. The sleek, speedy, muscular, linebackers and defensive backs, however, will find wrestling the most enduring off-season sport.

Ounce of ounce, you will not find a stronger athlete than a superior wrestler. Many an unskilled and inexperienced wrestler has achieved victory through strength alone. Those who achieve greatness, however, are skilled, experienced, and strong. Wrestling coaches of winning programs incorporate weight lifting and strength building as a part of their training, some even having weight rooms, free weights and weight machines of their own. Even wrestlers that do not follow a regimen of weight lifting on their own will acquire strength on the mat by the resistance they meet in their opponents. The sport demands that you overpower your opponent, hence the need for strength.

Speed is an indirect outcome of wrestling. It is achieved by the strength and conditioning requirements for a wrestler in training. Just as in track (which by the way is a sport that does not overlap in seasons with wrestling), the great sprinters do much weight training with the lower body, an effective wrestler will work the upper and lower body equally. There is great demand put on the lower body of a wrestler as he pushes against his foe while in the neutral position, or in having to lift his opponent off the mat while bringing him down to the mat under control. As a part of conditioning, some coaches require running distances and sprints to get the body in shape, just as a track coach would do for his runners to build speed and endurance.

I once overheard an outstanding wrestler (state champion at 145 and two-time state placer) who also was an all-district standout in football his junior and senior year at linebacker, comment at the end of football season, "its wrestling season now and time to get in shape!" Those who wrestle and play football will tell you that four quarters of football does not put near the demand on you physically that three, two-minute periods of wrestling will. That is why there is a 45-minute mandatory wait period before a wrestler can get on the mat for the next match. The demand for action at all times is emphasized further by the fact that a referee will caution wrestlers for stalling if they are not actively trying to take down their opponent from the neutral position, pin their opponent if on top, or working to escape if on the bottom. You cannot build a lead in wrestling and coast to the end comfortably. Time outs are allowed for injuries only, not to catch your breath. It is no wonder that a wrestler lies exhausted on the mat at the end of a grueling match. And, then there is overtime and double overtime.

Quickness is often a trait acquired on the mat by experience. A wrestling coach can drill his team on moves over and over again, but until the match experience requires reaction to the moves of your opponent, the wrestler does not learn the value of quick reactions. The takedown, escape, and reversal are moves based on quickness. Though some thought is required in analyzing your opponent and consciously working your opponent, the truly great wrestlers will instinctively and quickly react to situations to gain the advantage. Quickness is a by-product of endurance also, as the quicker wrestler late in the third period of a close match usually prevails.

Coordination and balance are interrelated in that a wrestler measures his opponent, using a series of motions with hands, arms, and feet to lift, trip, drag, push, or pull his opponent to the mat under control. The wrestler uses his momentum and his opponent's momentum to set up takedowns. Riding your opponent requires great skill in positioning and balance. The great wrestlers keep their opponents off balance at all times with a series of coordinated moves. A two-time state placer in wrestling at 215 attributed his success in football as a two-time all-district defensive lineman to wrestling teaching him how to maintain balance and use his opponent's momentum to his advantage. He might have been a three-time state place or champion and three-time all-district or all-state defensive lineman, had he not had his knee blown out in football his junior year.

Wrestling is the only off-season sport that supports all facets of a football program. Even weight gain is achieved after wrestling season ends. Most wrestlers will tell you that as soon as wrestling season is over, most of them balloon up to weights well above where they started the season.

There are other benefits that wrestling has over football as a sport, which should be analyzed as well. The injuries in wrestling are less debilitating than in football. It is unheard of to have a wrestler go through knee surgery or shoulder surgery or any surgery as a result of injuries sustained in wrestling. The most frequent cause for matches to stop for injuries in wrestling is for blood time due to bloody noses, scratches or scabs being knocked off.

Though football is a team sport and emphasizes team work for success, a valuable lesson for any athlete to learn, wrestling combines the advantage of team work as a dual team member, while allowing a wrestler to rise to victory based upon his own merits or handle defeat with no one to blame but himself. There is a combination of teamwork and individual acclaim in wrestling. If team unity is lacking or the team as a whole is weak or even non-existent, a wrestler can experience a successful season and even be a state champion as was the case for a young man several years ago from the small town of Pilot Point, Texas.

Great football players would make good wrestlers just based on athletic ability, but great wrestlers would make outstanding football players. Football should become the off-season sport for wrestlers.

ontherise · November 9, 2006

to colonel i loved the post. it is very encouraging to hear that, and to kdsmith i don't know where u got that but i agree completely, wrestling is def a great sport for football player, and not far behind is track.

Mr Granby · November 9, 2006

i started to read that and then i was like "i dont feel like reading a book!lol...j/k i read it it is very true.....

naplesme · November 11, 2006

I've got one more to add. It's from Carl Pepin a writer for the York County Coast Star in Kennebunk, Maine:

Wrestling is not a glamour sport

Its history dates back to ancient times and there isn

kdsmith27 · November 11, 2006

Toughest Sport

WRESTLING-THE TOUGHEST SPORT

Wrestling the ultimate tough sport

By John Hunt Sports Editor

This column was written on Jan. 15, 1995 about the sport of amateur wrestling. Several people had expressed an interest in re-running it. So here it is again, almost 10 years later.

Those guys who refer to Arkansas-style basketball as "40 minutes of hell" apparently never stepped on the inside circle of a wrestling mat.

You have team sports and you have individual sports. Wrestling is one of those that's definitely an individual sport and at the same time, a part of the larger "team" concept.

Some sports are tougher than others. Some require physical strength and the ability to run fast. Others require the ability to jump long and high while possessing acute hand-eye coordination.

But as far as the ultimate physical, mental and emotional challenge goes, no sport on earth rivals amateur wrestling. We're not talking about what you see on television with Hulk Hogan and those guys.

Wrestling is one sport where boys turn into young men. Wimps need not apply. When the going gets tough, wrestlers come to life.

And when it comes to "fighting for your life," wrestling is one activity that comes to mind.

I was never tall enough to play basketball and certainly not big enough to join the football team. Wrestling just seemed like my kind of sport where it didn't matter if you weighed 75 pounds or 275.

Why do young men accept such a challenging scenario in which you have an opponent on the other side of the mat who wants to make mincemeat out of your body?

What is the attraction when there's not much glory and certainly not much chance of gaining a college education with a wrestling scholarship?

Wrestling provides that opportunity where you can challenge yourself to be the best you can be. When that six-minute match has ended, you are the one who's accountable for what happened.

As so many wrestling T-shirts proclaim, there are no timeouts, no substitutions, no place to hide and no way to escape. Just WRESTLE.

Talking about putting every ounce of energy into a sport. If you do, you have a better than average chance of succeeding. If you don't, you will get pinned in a hurry and you will be humiliated in front of God and everybody else.

Blood, sweat and tears are commonplace around wrestling mats. A hard crossface across the nose will get your attention and a tight half-nelson that blocks your airways will give you a chance to value life from another perspective.

Wrestlers are among the most self-disciplined athletes you'll find. In many cases, weight loss plays a role and wrestlers must continually keep their eyes on the scales. Sitting down at the dinner table and eating an uncontrolled amount is out of the question.

More often than not, the diet of a wrestler whose weight is a problem includes lots of salad and plenty of fruit. Forget the dressing on the salad. And don't forget about those baked potatoes, full of carbohydrates and starch. Just don't think about butter or sour cream on that spud.

When was the last time you did anything as hard as you could for two minutes? Take off and run down the street as fast as you can for 120 seconds. Swim as many laps in the pool in the same amount of time. Pump the pedals on that bicycle. Sound tough?

That's just the start of what wrestlers must endure during a match. And they must endure three of these grueling two-minute drills.

When the whistle blows, it's just you and your opponent.

It's pressure, pressure and more pressure. Pure brute strength matched against someone your size with near-identical physical ability.

There's no chance to set your own pace. Unlike other sports where you can coast if you want, wrestling doesn't allow it. To let up is grounds for a quick pin and the humiliation among friends we mentioned earlier.

As another T-shirt so adequately describes, "It's not a battle...it's a war."

Wrestling teaches more than slick moves on a mat. It exposes a young man to adverse conditions where he must rely on pure guts and determination to survive.

It teaches about caring for your teammates and sacrificing yourself for their benefit. It teaches you how to be mean as a snake one minute and gentle as a lamb the next.

You battle your opponent tooth and nail for all you're worth, but you shake hands and even embrace afterward. congratulating each other for the courage to enter the fray.

It provides a model for respect and admiration of other people. It forces a young man to make the most out of any situation and it teaches self-confidence along with self-esteem.

There are plenty of outstanding wrestling teams in this country. Literally thousands of hours are spent in the practice rooms, working to perfect certain moves.

All are winners. Even those who get pinned in the quickest times are winners. As the old saying goes, "It's better to have entered the fight and lost than not to have entered at all."

So you want to try your hand at wrestling? Better yet, before the years on your body catch up with the silliness of your brain, get a grip. You still want to walk and talk, don't you?

Instead, go out for a long run. After a long, hot shower, treat yourself to a hearty meal. Then go see the wrestling team of your choice.

Then maybe you'll know more of what I'm talking about.

COPYRIGHT

kdsmith27 · November 11, 2006

I am wrestling. Do not weep for me!

This speech was given as a farewell tribute to Marquette University wrestling at a gathering in Milwaukee, WI. on 11-3-01 by Ohio State Head Coach Russ Hellickson.

From the ancient walls of Samaria and from Hieroglyphics written on the tombs of Egyptian Kings, we know that wrestling is a sport of the ages. It touches the lives of all who participate in it and many times even those who just observe it.

Who can forget the emotional victory of Jeff Blatnick over cancer before his gold medal win in Los Angeles in 1984 or the heart rendering upset victory of Rulon Gardner over previously undefeated wrestling icon Alexander Karelin in Australia at the 2000 Olympics.

You can see the impact of the sport in the eyes of even its youngest combatants. Perhaps in apprehension of that very first one on one or that glorious twinkling elation that comes from the first victory over the vanquished foe.

And for those who stay the course for a career, their eyes reflect a passion that penetrates deep into their very soul, a look that impacts for a lifetime and yes a look that makes them what they are.

Here is an image that I want to leave with each of you tonight: