Wrestling | 5 Reasons Why High School Students Should Learn Wrestling

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Reasons Why High School Students Should Learn Wrestling

Have you ever had a friend or a random person who talks bad about Wrestling? Have you also heard them talk about how gay they think it is and that performing a wrestling takedown is naturally easy to do?

Well, ignore that person. People who talk bad about Wrestling have no idea how hard the training that you go through is! Coming from experience, from the sports I played during gym classes back in high school.

I would say that Wrestling was the most challenging sport that I have ever done. In high school, I was a part of the wrestling team. The reason why I joined is that I wanted to learn another style of a combat sport.

I was learning kung fu back in the day too, but one day it just came to my mind that I needed something new to learn. During my time wrestling in high school, I noticed that I am learning more than just takedowns and throwing techniques. 

I also discovered more about myself and what my capabilities were. Since this sport has helped me find out more about myself. It came to my mind of sharing the reasons why I believe that high school students should consider taking Wrestling.

5 Reasons Why High School Students Should Learn Wrestling

Wrestling Double Leg

1. Strengthens You Physically

When I first started wrestling, I noticed that my physical strength was weak at the time. Whenever it came to live wrestling rounds, I felt my clinching strength not feeling as strong as my fellow teammates. 

But as the months went by, I felt stronger because of the numerous amounts of repetition of techniques I practiced with the team.

Strong Mind

2. Strengthens You Mentally

Wrestling strengthens you mentally because of the amount of cardio that is involved. Whenever it comes to drilling techniques and doing live wrestling rounds, you will find out how fast you get tired. 

Wrestling Cardio is different comparing to running cardio because of how much energy is involved using. To condition both our cardio and skills, there were days when my high school wrestling coach would get the whole team to play king of the mat. 

wrestle, sport, ring fight
What is King of the Mat?

King of the Mat is a game where the winner for every live round they wrestle will keep on going until they lose. It gives everyone a chance to wrestle until one person gets taken down to the mat and gets pinned. 

When it was my turn, I remember being the winner of wrestling with one of my training partners for the first round. Without having any rest, it sucked wrestling the next person. I was fatigued, and he was able to get me down and pin me to the mat within 30 seconds of the round.

From this experience, I noticed that wrestling a person who is fresh while being fatigued was a way to test the mental strength. It was about seeing how long I can go on for without giving up.

Wrestling Stance

3. It Disciplines You

As a young high school kid, I never had the mindset of being a hard worker and was very lazy in my studies. I would also make a ton of excuses for reasons why I did terrible on a school assignment or an exam. But that began to change once I got into Wrestling! 

Wrestling changed my perspective of what hard work means. In practice, whining or making any excuses was not tolerated! If we wanted to get better, all we had to do is train hard. Results do not come as fast as we expect them to. 

Ever since going through the discipline in wrestling class, I began to put in the work in my studies as well. I would have still been a lazy whining individual if it weren’t for this sport. 

With the change in my mindset, I started to notice that working hard gets you results and that sitting back and having fun gets you nowhere.

4. It Humbles You

Wrestling for sure humbles a person! I saw this happened to an old friend and training partner of mine that I used to wrestle with back in the day. At the time, my friend used to be a very arrogant individual that was a part of the team. 

The reason why he was so arrogant is that he was so proud of himself for not losing to anybody for the first month. He also made a claim to everybody on the team that nobody will be able to beat him. 

However, after he made that claim to the team, for the next training session, it was him and I that had to wrestle against each other.

Live Wrestling Practice Story

During our live practice round together, what happened was I managed to be the first person on the team to get a takedown on him. I also pinned him down to the mat to give him his first loss. 

After that moment, he became very frustrated with realizing that he was beatable. At the end of practice, he told me that the takedown and pin were a fluke and that I got lucky. 

Then I responded to him by telling him that “nobody is invincible and that anybody can lose on any given day”. After he heard that, it began sticking to his mind. But as the months went on, he has experienced getting pinned by the others on the team as well.

After going through that experience, he has learned to accept defeat. The reason why is because he realized it helps himself to improve. Wrestling has caused him to have a change of heart to developing himself to become a humble individual.

Not only him but everyone on the team as well. Even myself included since every practice is a humbling experience.

Wrestling | Friendship
Friendship

As the time went by from wrestling alongside with my old friend and teammate, I got to say a true friendship was built between him & I. He might’ve been arrogant from the start of wrestling. But, as we got to know each other and going through humbling beginnings together through practice. We became good friends.

We even did our strength & conditioning after school to stay in shape after wrestling season was over. I never really was into strength & conditioning back in the day. But, seeing my old friend’s hard work ethic to do that type of training inspired me to get into it.

Ever since I developed a new sense of motivation from seeing my friend’s work ethic,  I began training just as hard as he did. That new sense of motivation that I developed is still a part of me to this day. 

And I got to say a big thank you to my friend for helping me find that motivation within me.

Wrestling Suplex

5. It Makes You Want to Get Better

During my first wrestling competition that I had back then, I lost two times against two different types of competitors from other high schools. They were both a lot stronger and better than I was. 

Losing sucks, but what it made me realize was that it is considered a lesson towards myself. I learned that there are a lot of improvements that need adjustment within my wrestling style. 

If I want to improve, the only thing I could do was get my ass back into practice and work on my weaknesses. Working on my weaknesses was a way for me to make sure that I don’t make the same mistakes again.

Conclusion

Since wrestling is such a tough sport, the discipline & the hard training from it has strengthen me in ways I couldn’t imagine. Not only did I become physically & mentally stronger, but it also disciplined me to work hard in anything I do in life.

Wrestling is a humbling sport too, which made my teammates & I realized that anybody can lose when training this sport. Losing sucks, but going through it has made us understand that it’s “a way of learning”.

Going through the tough obstacles in wrestling may be hard, but it’s one of the best ways for high school students to grow if they want to become stronger.

If you have any questions about why high school students should learn wrestling, please leave a comment or send a message.

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