Wrestling is a competitive combat-type sport where you use grappling-type technique to score points and force your opponent into submission. Wrestling is a very intense sport where two opponents compete for three 2-minute periods or until one opponent pins the other. It is divided into 14 different weight classes ranging from 103-285 pounds. Each weight class is its own breed of wrestling. The lightweights are fast and are constantly rolling around and working in weird positions. The heavyweights are slow and spend most of their time in neutral trying to wear each other down. The middleweights are somewhere in between pulling attributes from both sides of the spectrum. No matter the weight class, wrestlers are constantly working on bettering their technique, maintaining their weight class, and on physical fitness.
As a participant of the my high school band, I had to attend a band preseason every year during the summer a few weeks before school started. During band preseason my freshman year, a junior, who was on the drum line with me, approached me and asked me to wrestle him on grass outside during our break. He said this in front of a few other members of the drum line and because this, I could not deny his request. As freshman I had to make a name for myself, and ‘coward’ was not one of them. He embarrassed me but told me that I should try out for team. I don’t know what made want to do it but I did.
My senior year, I broke my leg during a match at the first tournament of the season. It felt like the world was crashing down because I knew that I had wrestled my last match. I had to learn how to walk and run again and I never returned to the mat since.
When I was on the team, I developed a close bond with the team. We learned how to work as a together and perform better. This is what I enjoyed the most out of wrestling, Developing a close bond with the team made us perform harder at practice because we were all depending on each other. This astonished me because of all of the progress that the team and I made.
An estimated 25% to 67% of wrestlers use techniques such as over exercise, calorie restriction, fasting, and different dehydration methods to lose weight. Wrestlers tend to believe this type of action will improve their performance, but in reality this usually only makes things worse.
-Childrencolorado.org
Over my 4 years of wrestling, there were countless times where I had to cut weight to make a weight class. It wasn’t until I was long done with wrestling that I found out that this was bad for me.
In the future, I plan on doing something different. I joined the Mathematics Club and I am running for treasurer.
The Life of Chardo 