Wrestling fanatics, come out of the closet!

Off-topic
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Right off the bat, let me disclaim. This thread is not about professional wrestling or wrasslin’ or any other issue connected with that particular form of entertainment, i.e., WWF, Slam!, etc., normally found late night on the telly. Don’t care for it, don’t want to know about it. Instead, it’s about collegiate or Olympic style, freestyle, Greco-Roman, or anything connected with USA Wrestling, the Canadian Amateur Wrestling Association, or similar organizations in other countries.

I made a couple past posts about wrestling or with references to wrestling and had almost no responses specifically aimed at the sport, which surprised me. I wonder then if anyone else in Unicycleland participates in or is a fan of wrestling. I wrestled in high school, admittedly 130 lbs. and 25 years ago. Now my boys wrestle in school and love it. Mom and Dad can’t wait for each and every meet.

In my opinion, wrestling is one of more extreme opportunities for physical conditioning. And as I posted previously, I consider it a spotlight sport. In other words, it’s one on one on the mat, all eyeballs are on the center of the mat and there’s no hiding. It’s very clear at the end who was the better man (or woman for that matter. One of the teachers in the Rochelle Elementary School District has traveled the world participating in amateur women’s wrestling.)

One of the neatest aspects of the sport is that strength lags technique, much as in unicycling wouldn’t you say? Such a scheme requires a concentration on basics and a dedication to skill development, one of life’s most important lessons for all journeys through life. Mary and I initially purchased a unicycle to help the boys learn and understand body balance, which we felt key to becoming a better athlete. When I see Ben or Brad do a chest spin on top of their opponent or maybe a balanced carry through another move, we know from whence they came. From time to time, I have paused and wondered if through unicycling we have achieved our goal. But when I see how the boys are moving, running, developing, I know we have.

We are very fortunate to have a fantastic wrestling program here in Rochelle. There is a young kids club with up and coming wrestlers that feed the Jr. High and High School teams. The school teams are coached by some of the finest around. We are very privileged to have such leadership in our wrestling programs. As a result, Rochelle Wrestling nearly always comes out on top in our competitions.

We’d love to hear from other wrestling fanatics here in the forums. Please post to your love of, lack of love for, opinions, pictures, personal results of this great sport. Go ahead and brag. Can’t wait to read about it.

Bruce

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I used to wrestle in Jr High.
I had it tough thou…

I wieghed 78lbs and had to wrestle 98lbs and above.

I learned very quickly how to use my opponents wieght again himself.

(IE: my muscle strength against my opponent, then completely letting go of resistance, and tossin or turning my opponent over :D)

It a hugely satistfying sport.

I didn’t stick with it thou … I moved into motorcycle riding …
(My dad had a Kawasaki dealership)

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Re: Wrestling fanatics, come out of the closet!

You asked for it. You are one proud daddy and your kids seem to have found a hugely satisfying sport for them. But… I have never wrestled in any official way and I totally lack a love for it.

BTW, ISTR that you once wrote that you initiated unicycling for Ben and Brad because it might help them with football (or was it soccer?). Now you say it was for them to learn and understand body balance. Not necessarily inconsistent but it seems like the emphasis is somewhat different. Not that it matters much though.

Klaas Bil

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I don’t wrestle meself, but I enjoy watching it. real wrestling, like you said, not WWF or any of that poo.
the last time I wrestled was at a cross country spaghetti feed. I took on one of my teammates who actually is a wrestler, he weighs something like 265 lbs, and I weigh about 140. needless to say, I lost. And he didn’t really do anything, he just sat there while I ran into him over and over, until he pushed me over and held me there and that was that.

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I prefer the WWF, WWE, whatever it’s called how. Not that I actually watch it, but they are much more conditioned that ‘real’ wrestlers.

As choreographed as their moves are, it’s still a 240 lb man flipping off from 20 feet and landing (stategically) on top of someone else. That is nothing short of awesome. I watched a documentary on it, and subsequently researched it further, and it completely changed my mind on it. They are some of the finest physical performers out there )

Funny how before I really knew anything about the sport and physical conditioning involved, I pictured them as cheap circus type entertainment.

Nice that your kids have so many things they are into though!

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Re: Re: Wrestling fanatics, come out of the closet!

Klaas,

On one hand you are correct, and on the other hand, you are also correct. We initially purchased a unicycle to help the boys develop body balance in order to make them better soccer players. I remember we finalized the choices down to a slack rope between the clothesline poles in the back yard and a unicycle. Standing on a slack rope in the back yard seemed so boring and limiting so we chose the unicycle, not realizing there was a whole world of unicycling out there. Sure am glad we made the right choice.

But a good sense of body balance can help across the board in athletics. We know we’ve seen an improvement in the boys’ performance in other areas, like wrestling. We’ve even heard the proverb now that body balance is the key to intelligence. Either way, we’ve had a great time with just the unicycling, something that we never imagined would happen.

Bruce

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I agree.

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Woah. Now hold on a minute there. Physical conditioning, and lots of skill for dangerous acro moves, yes. But no choreography, bad writing, bad plot. If you mean to put on a show, put on a show. If you mean to have some sort of competition involving wrestling, then wrestle.

Give me the real thing anytime. If I want to see athletes put on a show, I’ll go to a show that presents itself as a show, and not as some kind of sporting event.

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All the westling shows WWF style I’ve ever seen ( 3 I think, I worked in the venue I didn’t chose to see them ) were just that, shows. The competition element is all part of the “plot” there is no real competition, the good guy wins or nearly wins, the bad guy gets booed by the crowd and cheats. Its pantomime in lycra. The audiance get to go nuts and shout a lot, theres costumes, props, a set, music and lighting effects. Its a show.
Admittedly not the type of show I would pay money to see, but plenty of people will and do, they nearly always sold out in our 1000 seater venue. More than cold be said for some of the more high brow shows that came in such as opera and theatre.

SArah

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I’ve gotta say that freestyle wrestling is one of the most fun things in the whole world.

I’ve wrestled for my high school team for 4 years now and I really enjoy it. The one problem, is that in Canada, wrestling… or sports in general aren’t as publicized in high school as they are in the States. I wish it were.

In short, wrestling is cool.

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BIG wrestling tourney yesterday. Eighteen schools and a very long day… twelve hours in the gym! By the end of the day, the gym had a certain locker room aroma going on.

Brad took fourth place in his weight class after losing the 3rd/4th place match 2-1.

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I wrestled in high school, 177lbs, and I’m 6’-4.5". So why didn’t I play basketball (I could jam when I was 15 years old). Wrestling was more of a challenge, it is the most physically demanding sport I’ve ever done. I got so much from just that aspect of it, pushing myself far beyond where I thought I could go, and surviving. Not just surviving, but thriving.
I went to college at the premier wrestling school on the west coast (at least in the 70s when I was there), Cal Poly. I did Track and Field at that level, but I saw some awesome wrestling. We routinely had dual meets with both Iowa and Oklahoma schools (if you have followed wrestling, you know which ones) and would win 2 or 3 of them. To wrestle at that level, you need supreme dedication, and strong joints. There was always someone being carried down the trainiing room from the wrestling room with a blown out knee/shoulder/elbow, the program was 3-deep in HS state champions. That is one of the other reasons I didn’t wrestle at that level.

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I wrestled in high school 140 lbs. ago.

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“Come out of the closet”

I personally have never quite understood this phrase, i believe it is due to the fact i am taking it too literally.

If Homosexuals are said to “Come out of the closet” wouldn’t it seem wiser, from my observation, for them to tay in the closet with all the other homosexuals. would the prospect of finding a partner not be higher inside the closet than out in the world. from what it sounds like, those blokes/ladies in the closet must have contracted a disease of sorts. We should have that closet quarantined.

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Do you know Pandora personally?

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nope, my girlfriend would object if i got to know another girl ‘personally’

Ignorance is bliss :slight_smile:

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My only experience of wrestling is what became known as ‘drunken homoerotic trampoline wrestling’. You get a 12 ft trampoline, strip down to just your jeans and go man to man (see where the ‘homoerotic’ bit came from), winner is the man left on the trampoline at the end. It was great fun late one summer’s eve.

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Regionals! We had a pretty long day today in Morrison, IL. Big Bad Brad took the place by storm and ended up in the championship match at the end of the day, but ended up taking second place by the time it was all said and done. Top three in each weight class though go to Sectionals next week in DeKalb. Top three there go to State.

Onward and upward…

Photo of Brad in the parade of champions before the championship matches.

Parade of Champions.JPG
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Brad 2nd place 2007 Regionals.JPG
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i wrestle at 103 at my highschool