Friday was the first wrestling meet of the year. It was educational, to say the least.
It's a team of newbies, so the expectation was to go out, give a good effort, and learn a lot. Winning matches was going to be the exception rather than the norm. I tried to make that clear ahead of time! I didn't want anyone going out with unrealistic/heroic expectations. The first year of wrestling is humbling. The wrestlers who stick around for year two are usually leagues ahead of where they started!
I thought the kids did really well for where we started. They all looked like they'd learned something and some even showed talent! There were a few matches that might have gone our way on a different night if we'd zigged instead of zagged.
There was one odd event that was new in my career. Only one of our newbies had any trouble making weight. He was 1 pound over before weigh ins. He said he'd been eating and was hydrated and was in the middle weight classes, so we suggested he work out a little. After 15 or 20 minutes, we'd see where he ended up.
Weight control is a big topic in wrestling. Non-wrestlers sometimes think it involves starving oneself. Usually, it involves sweating. The average person can sweat away pounds in an hour workout. As long as they're hydrated before and hydrate after it's a normal thing for the body to handle.
You can take it too far. There are crazy wrestlers out there, especially as you progress higher in the skill hierarchy. Professional fighters will cut ridiculous amounts (Jorge Masvidal did 20 lbs in the course of six days). Several college wrestlers died in the 90s after hours in crazy conditions trying to make weight. I never did much weight cutting myself. I occasionally had to jog a little in sweats, skip breakfast, or chew gum to spit in a cup on a bus ride to lose a couple tenths of a pound. The most crazy thing I saw was Craig Greenburg ditching 6 lbs (from 125 to 119 lbs) wearing sweats and jogging through a steamy shower area (over an hour or two? I remember my shock at the numbers, not the time).
Nowadays, there are more safety rules in place for high schoolers. Wrestlers have to have their body fat and hydration measured at the start of the season. A plan is calculated for the whole season and if a wrestler ever weighs in below their allowed weight it's big trouble. The only thing we said about weight control before the match was to tell wrestlers there were weight classes and to pick one they fit in. None of the coaches were under the illusion that we were going to be winning much (especially with forfeiting 3 weight classes).
So back to the newb. After he rolled around in his sweat pants and a hoodie for a little, he had dropped about half a pound. He had been wearing a t-shirt and board shorts combo, so we suggested he switch to a singlet to save a couple tenths of a pound on the weigh in (and hopefully pee while he was in the locker room). He ditched his sweaty underwear and made weight on the dot.
So...why am I mentioning this? 0.6 lbs for a healthy middleweight well above his minimum allowable weight is nothing. We told him if he didn't make weight, he'd have to forfeit and wrestle as an exhibition match (because the goal was to gain experience, not win!). At most, he rolled around lightly in a normal temperature room with a friend for 20 minutes or less (and I really think it was less). The only foul was he ditched his underwear for 5 minutes (you are supposed to weigh in with it under your singlet).
In the wrestler's third match, he got pinned. The moment he got up, he sprinted off to the locker room and threw up. He didn't come back out and the trainer went in after him. It was an anxiety attack.
"I have anxiety," never came up in practice. I heard after the fact that the kid's dad had wanted him to wrestle while his mom was strongly against it. She was in the stands and did not approve.
I'd noticed he was hyperventilating in the match. I was recording and you can hear me saying stuff like, "You're doing great! Slow your breathing down! Sloooow it down. Great job. Just do your best and slow your breathing." When the kid was nervous before his first match, I told him it was normal for wrestlers to lose their first bout. The goal was to go out there, do your best, and not worry about it.
So it was a big surprise when I got a text later that we'd been accused of pushing him to cut weight unsafely.
It blew my mind.
Our wrestling room has been maybe a tenth as intense as my HS wrestling experience. Without any veteran wrestlers and being desperate to retain/attract newbies, we've kept it fun and without conditioning. The biggest thing I know of was one day I had them do a 5 count pyramid at the end of practice. In a 5 count pyramid you do 5 of a set of exercises, then 4, followed by 3, 2, and finish with 1. It was a total of 15 push-ups, sit-ups, sprawls, and 4-count Russians.
My freshman year, the first pyramid we did started at a count of 10...and that was the starting point (which is 55 of each exercise by comparison).
But to get back to the point, the trainer was mad at us. She suspected us of conducting the room in an unhealthily and complained to the athletic director. The wrestler quit the team and we never saw him again.
Fast forwarding, I can tell you it was upsetting, but nothing major came of it. We didn't do what we were accused of, so there was nothing to find. There was talk of a dietician talking to the kids about being healthy and she came to the room to talk to kids one day. All the kids said they were eating healthy and some had even gained weight (muscle!).
After the accusation, I made a point to tell the kids they needed to make sure they ate carbs for lunch, protein after practice, and hydrate all throughout the day.
Meanwhile, my old school's star is rising! They're all good people, so I wish them well. Javier is the only one from my middle school squad still on the team, but he's a captain. I was glad to see that he's doing well.
We had an 8th grader last year who switched schools to wrestle with them, as well. Walter's a future state contender and would've been a huge help to our program. I can't blame the Walter's dad for wanting to find a more established program. They're all in for the sport and hoping for an eventual scholarship (and that's realistic in their case!). Walter may come back our way one day or not. Either way, I'm rooting for him to win his weight class at States.
Hopefully, this year will be a seed year for us and the program will grow in the future. It'd be more likely if our newbies were freshman and sophomores instead of juniors and seniors, but that's a thought for a later date. The goal this year is for all the kids to learn, grow, and be better for the experience.
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