The Benefits
of Wrestling
By Jack
Fisher (info@texaswrestling.com)
Editor of
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.