Why I hate wrestling

[K-chan]

At the age of 17 my brother has arthritis.

Last year his arm was broken just above the growth plate. Coach asked him to finish the match rather than pulling him to make sure he was okay resulting in further injury. I took us six months of rehabilitation to get it to where he could work out for more than an hour without his arm tightening up. There were mornings when he couldn't even stretch his arm out. One of us would have to stand behind him pulling his arm slowly to force the muscles to extend.

For anyone who know my brother, they know he doesn't express pain. Like I said I watched him wrestle all three periods with a broken arm and only lost by a minor decision against a state placer. So it was hard hearing him cry out in actual pain in order to help him cause that meant it hurt a hell of a lot.

So when after a tournament he was complaining about his arm when immediately went to the doctor. Diagnosis, arthritis at age 17, and he's going to feel that injury for the rest of his life.

I hate this sport. I hate what it does to these kids.

Our 125 broke his ankle, so now my brother has been forced to drop down to 125. That leaves his spot at 130 open. Some tournaments he fights 125, mostly 130, and now with an injury in 135 coach makes him fight that class too sometimes, but still he has to weigh in at 125. Ten pounds makes a difference on the mat, but a loss is a loss in the eyes of the team. Yeah yeah cutting weight is a badge of honor.....but have I mentioned by brother weighed nearly 150 this summer?

This thanksgiving he is allowed a pound of food, that's it. There is a match on Saturday and he's at 128 right now. He looks awful, starved, dehydrated, wasted. He sleeps most of the day when he isn't at practice. He has no energy or fuel to do anything else. When a person doesn't eat their skin takes on this ashen dullness. Its horrible, and there isn't a damn thing I can do.

There is about 5 JV kids who'd leap at the chance to wrestle Varisity, more if you include the kids who would drop any amount of weight to take his spot. He won't quit, too much of a fighter in him, and coach is coach will all the godly power that it entails.

So everyweekend I come home, there is another bruise, cut, or scar he is sporting and there isn't a damn thing I can do. Thank god he is a senior.

Never let your children wrestle. Its not worth it.

[Suna-chan]

Yikes...that really sounds pretty terrible. I kind of know how you feel - my sister did the marching band this year at my school, and I must say it was BRUTAL.

They would nearly force the kids to come, even when they were sick with fevers (it was a lot of emotional abuse that made the kids feel like they had to go - the directors would get angry at them and would yell at them and all the other kids would kind of bully up against the sick kid if they skipped a practice)

And I remember the fact that with those all day Saturday practices 9am-9pm, and the practice from 4pm-6pm on Monday, and on Tuesday and Thursday the 6pm-9pm practice, and on Friday the games that would go from 5pm(warm up) to 11:30pm.... my sister barely had any time to eat (and ended up losing a significant amount of weight and always feeling tired..she had to go to the doctor because it got so bad)

Anyway, I hope that your brother ends the season without any other significant (or minor!!) injuries, K-chan. Meh to all these high school activities that cause injury, fatigue, and any other negative side effect x-x

[Ming]

That's awful to hear, and to some extent I can understand what your brother is going through, as I had a surgery on my ankle a couple of years ago to correct it, but every now and then it just hurts and I know it will for the rest of my life.

At any rate, this is my problem with sports. Not saying that sports are bad, but coaches and even parents take them WAY to seriously. Newsflash, there are other, better things in life. I played football my freshman year in high school, and this was one of the things that I really didn't like. The coaches tried to treat the players like some sort of strange cult, tried to control their lives and I wouldn't have it, much like you said that your bro is only allowed a pound of food on Thanksgiving.

I was told that I couldn't eat certain things. I was like "Fuck that, I'll eat whatever I want." And apparently, the players also weren't allowed to wear black socks (because the head coach didn't like them), and anything that wasn't Nike (since Nike was a sponsor of the team). One day, I came to school wearing sandals, and one of the playes was like, "Dude...you can't wear sandals. Coach doesn't want you too."

It's really ridiculous. These are activities that are supposed to be about fun, not about the coaches being able to gloat that their the best. It's not for them, it's for the players.

[Buda]

First of all, dont hate wrestling. wrestling is the best sport and ill tell you why. The only thing you should dislike is that coach. sounds like a real jack ass to me, and if i had wrestled under him i might just have knocked him out. any good coach will pull a wrestler from a match if he is realy hurt. and your brothers freaking arm was broken? i would have shot the coach. Also, if he knew what he were doing he wouldent have made him drop a weight class. being severly underwight has killed people. espesialy wrestlers. when the coaches push them, they go to far, like eating a box of x-lax, or running in sauna suits. if he wieghd 150 in the summer he should have wrestled 140, 130 is pushing it, and 125 is just plain stupid. i could drop 25 pounds, hell i could drop 50, but thats cuz im a heavy and i have the wieght there to lose.that coach is a dumbass. wrestling is not solely about winning. its about family, support, working together to get better, and then showing that other guy that you have worked harder than he has, you spent more time in the gym, you OWN that mat and he cant be on your turf. generaly speaking this means you want to win, but its more about making the other guy say, "man that was the hardest match i have ever had." it dosent matter if you won or lost, you still showed him that you wouldnt give up. but that dosent mean you do something stupid and keep going if your hurt. because no matter how many t-shirts say it, wrestling is not about intentionaly hurting your oponent. its about making him uncomfortable, then showing that you can overpower him, outsmart him, or both.

so please, dont hate my sport. hate that coach because he ruined it for you and your brother.

and tell your brother to stop starving himself. and if the coach has anything to say about it tell him to shove it. wrestling is awsome, but very little is worth your heath, and this is not one of those things.

I say encourage your childern to wrestle it can teach you a whole lot of very useful things, just keep an eye on the coach.

[KiSin]

I agree with buda. As I was reading your post about the only thing running through my head was why the coach would do that.

I'm sorry that jack-arse ruined it for you, and I'm not even a sports person.

[Reverend]

Buda's got the right idea K-Chan. Speaking from experience as a wrestler, and one who has been injured a whole lot from it, I'd have to say that your brother's coach has violated just about every ethical line a coach can.

Whe you play a sport, a coach is supposed to be looking out for your safety while at the same time doing what is best for the team. You say that your 135 pound slot is open now? If I was the coach, I'd tell your brother he's bumping up to that weight class.

If he's already got arthritis in his arm, and it is as bad as you say, I'd seriously consider bringing this up to the school administration. This crosses the line. Plus I know how it feels to become permanently injured from wrestling. I've snapped a collarbone, seperated a shoulder, broken my left wrist, and pulled my left MCL and ankle all from having a coach that did not look out for my best interests

[Ultrawolf]

[K-chan]

The problem is severe lack of good coaches. I could be more open minded about it if I didn't see the same thing happen to other kids in other schools. I had a friend in another school who went to the hospital because of dehydration. But he was the hero because he was country champ at 103, a startling turn around from his failing previous season at 140.

I've seen too many kids vomitting into trash cans. I've seen coaches rip apart wrestlers who've lost, while the kid is spitting up blood on the mat. I've seen to many kids shunned by their own team after losing a match. When he broke his arm I watched the other team cheer, when they annouced Ty was withdrawing from the match. That coach was right among them too.

Its not just the coaches.

"Nick Nick! Don't let up. Don't be soft. Take out his knee! The knee, the knee! Its weak! He's weak! Kill him! Kill him Nick! That's my boy" That was the mom sitting in front of me. I would have loved to stab her in the knee slowly twisting the knife, then ask her if she'd like to do that to another person.

Wrestling parents, football parents, dancer mom, they all suck.

And what's worse is that its not going to get any better. 3 kids on his team are aspiring coaches, this is what they know and its how they'll coach their team. And they'll all be parents of future little wrestlers. Schools won't do anything, not when the wrestling team is the only one to bring home a State trophy. I understand there are some new laws to take effect next year so many of the coaches are bitching about. Its about time cause frankly that's the only way anything is going to change.

[Blackmage]

I think its just the whole south thing. When I was in Cali I never heard of anyone who wrestled going through what they do down here, and yes iwresltes my 8th grade year. It was a hell of a lot of fun!

But as said blame the caoches not the sport.

[Buda]

You find people in every thing you do that take things to far. but you shouldent condem wrestling for the bad coaches. Just like you shouldent condem the internet because of porn, hatesites, viruses and the like.

Wrestling is primal, grueling, and very brutal; but it should never be about injuring your oponent. "Go for the knee, its weak" means, you can manipulate his leg by using this ankle and knee, and thereby you control atleast one half of his hips, and you can make him go where you want. i doubt your mom reaserched that guy and told your brother to capitalise on an old injury, if so, your mom is as bad as that coach, and you know how i feel about him.