Wrestling is among the sports that have a great effect on the people that are associated with it. Many of these effects make be overlooked when looking from the outside. When thinking about wrestling people don’t really think about what goes into it like all the practicing, conditioning, and cutting weight. All that stuff can really take a toll on the body and the mind.
The first effect that it has on wrestlers is the practicing, Wrestlers often devote at least six days a week to the sport. Practicing isn’t just going through things they have to warm up for around thirty minutes then they all have to grab a partner and start drilling. Then occasionally the team will get some live wrestling in with the practice so the coaches will be able to see improvement outside of the meets and tournaments.
Conditioning is one of the most important things, almost every practice day of the week they run, so if they can’t keep up with the cardio then this sport is not for them. That isn’t the only way of conditioning besides running you will be doing conditioning through live matches and workouts that will include cardio.
“Conditioning is probably the worst part of practice because of how much energy gets drained out of you,” said Jonah Anderson, a 160 lb wrestler.
When cutting weight it takes a lot of discipline not only when eating, but when working out too so they can make the weight that you are trying to be at. Changing up their diet also is necessary to make sure that they are losing the most weight possible each day.
“Wrestling wouldn’t be as bad if you didn’t have to lose weight to wrestle at the weight class you want to wrestle in,” said Jacob Cremers, a 170 lb wrestler.
Losing weight is very mentality
draining and really takes all the fun out of wrestling, but other than that wrestlers enjoy the sport a lot. This sport is not for the faint of heart.
Photo by Elijah Dorion:
