I grew up watching my brother wrestle. He was very good. He started wrestling around the fourth grade and quickly became a top notch athlete. I was the kid sister tagging along all the time. My mom, dad, brother and I spent many, MANY weekends at wrestling tournaments. For our family this was definitely a year round sport. Every match video taped (my mom still has a couple of big tubs of thousands of matches on VHS in her basement). Every match watched and rewatched and critiqued. How can you change this? How can you counter that? My dad kept notes and stats and brackets from endless tournaments. In the beginning it was fun and exciting, but, wrestling became an obsession. By the time my brother got to high school he was being recruited. His freshman year our family moved to a new school in a new town for the sole reason of the wrestling program. Ken Ash, Hilliard High School. (It was the early nineties, no Davidson or Darby or Bradley yet.)
The fun side of wrestling was slipping away. As long as my brother won everything was ok. If he lost a match, or if a match was too close for comfort, things got ugly. I am not here to air my familys dirty laundry, so I won't get into details. But training was beyond intense. It was becoming abusive. I saw my brother cutting weight. He would go for days without eating or eating very little. No more than one small meal. He would pile on layers of plastics and sweats, go in the bathroom and turn the shower on full blast hot water so it was like a steam room. Then he would do push-ups and sit-ups. One night our mom found him half passed out and starting to convulse. He had no body fat at all. His cheeks were sunk in. But, somehow he found the strength to get out on the mat and win. Time after time. He was extremely tough. But he was beginning to hate wrestling. He was being pushed too hard. He was not winning because he wanted to win. He was winning because he was scared to death to lose.
My brothers senior year. He is at the State tournament. I am watching him on the mat. He gets put into some kind of head lock and put on his back. His arms and legs go completely limp. Ref calls the pin. My brother does not move. The other kid gets up, and there lays my brother. Unconscious. He is put on a stretcher and taken to the hospital. There are x-rays and tests. The doctor discovers that he was born with a bone deformity in his neck. He is told that if he continues wrestling he will most likely wind up in a wheelchair. You might think this was the end of his wrestling career. It was not, but it was the beginning of the end. He went on to red-shirt at tOSU. It was short-lived and he finally walked away from the sport all-together.
I spent alot of years wondering why in the world anybody would want to be involved in this sport. I had nothing but negative feelings towards wrestling. When I thought of wrestling, I thought of anger, abuse and fear.
Fast forward about 15 years, give or take. My hubby takes me to the State tournament here in Columbus. He is a huge wrestling fan. He wrestled in high school and college and was also very good. He is an official and hopes to be a coach. So, we are sitting in the stands, and as I look around I notice the people around us. They are excited! There is a feeling of joy. Joy! In wrestling! I couldn't believe the positive energy! These people were genuinely happy and excited and joyful watching these kids wrestle. There was no anger. I was so completely struck by this that I started crying. My hubby looked at me like I was nuts. I probably looked nuts. But, I just couldn't believe that there was a whole other side to this sport that I had not seen before. It was good. Actually it was great.
I am now an official. As an official you do see both sides. You see the victory. You see the defeat. You see the celebration and the tears. I love this sport today. I never thought I would, but I do.
I feel the same way. I didn't necessarily want the seasons to end though. It was the long 3 hour practices everyday that did me in mostly on top of wrestling for 12 years. Definitely got burned out. I loved tournaments and duals though. However, the day it all ended my senior year I was upset and wanted to wrestle still.
I'm with wearpants on this one! I would do it all over again! Maybe not the weight cutting but I look back now and I loved every second of it!