What is everyone’s wrestling experience?

[TobusRex 1,989]

Wouldnt you be 6th sophomore year?

 

Some states don't award places below 4th.

[boconnell 1,502]

I didn't wrestle until 10th grade after getting kicked off basketball and baseball teams in quick succession.  Took to it like I should have been doing it all along and fell in love immediately.  It helped that the level in Texas at the time wasn't that high.  Wrestled NCWA in college for 2 years.

Edited February 20, 2018 by boconnell

[TobusRex 1,989]

I started wrestling the last week of wrestling season in 1974 (4th grade) @ 84 pounds and wrestled my last match in 1994 at HWT. Placed at state a couple times. (blah blah blah blah).

 

Overall career record: somewhere around 125-35. I had an unorthodox wrestling style, middling technique, but great strength, balance, and motor. My go to takedowns were the Fireman's Carry and outside single. I had a nasty headlock and lateral drop. I worked relentlessly from the top using what later became known as the "Tulsa Ride" and was one of the top pinners in the state my Sr year. I never got pinned in my career.

Edited February 20, 2018 by TobusRex

[PSUMike 445]

5th grade - 104

6th grade - 126

7th grade - 110, 115, 120, and 126

8th grade - 138, 145, and 155

9th grade - 145 and 155

10th grade - 171, 189, and 215

11th grade - 189 and 215

12th grade - 189 and 215

 

Bounced around because our team was small and I'd take on the match up the coaches wanted (usually the better wrestler but sometimes the one they knew I'd pin). Was a pinner and a top position kinda guy. Had 28 wins my senior year and 18 were pins. Strong defensively from neutral but didn't have a great shot. Leg ride to power half or crossface cradle was my go to once I got on top of you. Had a decent reinforced tilt that I'd pull out on occasion as well. My biggest problem was I had a beast in my backyard that I couldn't get past. Multi-time state qualifier and placer and D1 recruit for a very well regarded program. Beat me in the district finals by 4 my senior year and by 5 in the semis my junior year. 

[TobusRex 1,989]

I didn't wrestle until 10th grade after getting kicked off basketball and baseball teams in quick succession.  Took to it like I should have been doing it all along and fell in love immediately.  It helped that the level in Texas at the time wasn't that high.  Wrestled NWCA in college for 2 years.

 

Witty response redacted!! Don't want to offend any bball people :D

Edited February 20, 2018 by TobusRex

[Zebra 545]

Lots of weight cutting, 20 pounds?  That's cute.

When you're that light and very lean to begin with 20 pounds is a lot. 

[KCMO2 624]

When you're that light and very lean to begin with 20 pounds is a lot. 

 

I was just messing with you.  I was 118 and 126 in college too, cutting weight was the main reason I got out of the sport.

[whyme25 54]

Never wrestled a day of my life. BB my whole life

 

20ish years ago my son approached me and asked if he could wrestle, I asked why he wanted to do something so foolish and he responded because all his friends were going to. I watched him become a multi state Champion and get a DI scholarship.

Along the way a witnessed some of the most outrageous, crazy parents at some youth tournaments, I wish I would have written down all the things I saw along the way so I could have written a book, with that said it has been a great journey and I have learned so much, Wrestling truly is a great sport!!

[TobusRex 1,989]

My dad was my biggest fan. He drove to all the tournaments and tried to make all the duals. He picked me up from practice for years, never complaining. Pretty awesome.

[Zebra 545]

I was just messing with you.  I was 118 and 126 in college too, cutting weight was the main reason I got out of the sport.

I kind of figured but still there were always these fat guys who talked about "cutting weight" when in reality they had 30 pounds of fat on them to begin with. Hell that's just getting healthy. 

[ThatLogSchuteWasCarrying 179]

A State Champion and proper legend carried me up and down stadium steps a bunch of times. 

[Zebra 545]

 

Along the way a witnessed some of the most outrageous, crazy parents at some youth tournaments, I wish I would have written down all the things I saw along the way so I could have written a book, with that said it has been a great journey and I have learned so much, Wrestling truly is a great sport!!

 

Lots of them. We had a local one my wife called the "Psycho-dad". I loved it every time my kid beat his. It's the little things that keep you going in the morning. Kind of like the smell of napalm.  

[TobusRex 1,989]

I was just messing with you.  I was 118 and 126 in college too, cutting weight was the main reason I got out of the sport.

fatass....

[TobusRex 1,989]

A State Champion and proper legend carried me up and down stadium steps a bunch of times. 

 

You lie!!

[buckshot1969 450]

I was meh.  I won more than I lost but I was more interested in girls so I quit after 10th grade and focused on the babes.

 

I liked being in shape but the weight cutting really got to me, I was missing school and was always weak.  I remember being way ahead in my last tournament and then letting the kid pin me so I could go get something to eat.  Wrestling was never fun, but I think that's why I like to watch it so much.  I feel like I have an idea how much work goes into being one of the top guys (basically anybody who wrestled Div. 1) and admire them so much for their sacrifice.  We see them for a few minutes a week but they work harder than any other athlete to be able to compete at the level they do.  And for all of that hard work and all of their achievements they can walk down any street and the odds of anybody noticing them is almost zero.  

[TobusRex 1,989]

 they can walk down any street and the odds of anybody noticing them is almost zero.  

 

I saw Dieringer coming out of Hideaway Pizza when he was a student at OSU. Sure seemed small up close!

[okwrestle 25]

Payed football, wrestled , and ran track all four years in hs,

Wrestling was by far the most demanding primarily because of the weight cutting.

Our coach used to tell us that if we can handle wrestling's demands we'd be better prepared for whatever life throws at us.

In hindsight, I agree, that the discipline and mental toughness aspect has helped me.

I'm 62 and still work out 5 days/week Mon - Fri in the am before work. I credit part of that discipline to wrestling which has stayed in my blood.

I love the sport and have a deep appreciation for the talent and sacrifice of those at at the D1 level. 

[rcoates1 154]

I think it’s pretty cool at the mixture of guys that wrestled and guys that never did and got lured into this great sport. I recently converted a guy from a basketball fan to a wrestling fan. He doesn’t know anything about the sport, but wanted his son to be aggressive so I told him to bring his kid to wrestling practice. In two months his son has really come out of his shell and begs to go to tournaments. My friend told me that he still has a lot to learn but he likes watching wrestling better than any other sport now and has even gone over to Laramie to watch the cowboys. I think once people are exposed to wrestling they quickly learn how fun and exciting it is.

[Rocep 48]

Started wrestling when I was cut from the baseball team. Really considered not wrestling after my first year, but my dad was college buddies with my high school coach, so I refused to let my dad look like a punk with a wuss kid. Still was not good my 2nd year, but broke .500. State qualifier as a senior. State tourney was a carry tournement so I was out after first round. Refused to let my career end that way. Trained for a year while attending school close to home. Transferred to the only D1 school in the state my second year of college. I was the least credentialed kid in the room, but I worked my ass off the compete. Trashed my back in practice 2 days before Thanksgiving, and that was all she wrote. Took third at the only tournament I attended. Everyone else on the team that went was a state/Fargo placer, and I barely qualified for state. Was the only one that placed. My last match I beat a kid that ended up being a NAIA runner-up. I always tell people I won my first and last match ever, to heck with the middle. Been coaching high school for ten years now.

 

Side notes:

1) college wrestling was nothing like I imagined. I thought it was gonna be a room full of guys driven to be national champions. Wrong. So many of those dudes were looking for a good time. Early morning practices smelled like natty light and whoever they were with the night before.

2) crazy how everyone before the internet era I wrestled with in college was a match away from placing at Fargo.

[boconnell 1,502]

Witty response redacted!! Don't want to offend any bball people :D

I certainly wouldn't have been offended.  I still like playing and watching basketball for fun (I can say that about almost any sport), but I wish I had never wasted a day playing it competitively.  I'm 5'9" and wrestled 149/157 so on a basketball court I was doomed from the start.  If I'd wrestled at a younger age I may have been pretty good.  I grew up in Fresno/Clovis area where there is real wrestling but didn't start wrestling until I lived in Dallas where the wrestling is very weak compared to some of the country.  

 

I really fell in love with wrestling as a coach.  My first year as a Head Coach in Houston I had an assistant who wrestled in PA (at Messiah college) and he knew more technique than me by a mile.  I had been a neutral only guy as a competitor and he was unbelievable on top.  By the time I helped him move on to a Head Coaching job he had taught me a ton of technique and I'd taught him a ton about coaching kids, and we were both much better for the experience.  

[jchapman 1,140]

Wrestled 4th-12th grade.  Varsity last three years, 160, 171, 189.  My main sport was football, and I ended up playing D3 in college.

[redblades 322]

I started in 8th grade, and wrestled thru high school.  My forum handle is a rueful reference to the mat burns I acquired on my upper back and shoulders.

 

(actually I was pretty respectable - ranked in the state - by my senior year.  But my team mates still gave me lots of ****, because I was such a geek!)

Edited February 20, 2018 by redblades

[Alexander_Delarge_655321 63]

Started wrestling at age 10. 4 years of high school wrestling and 4 years of college wrestling. Played baseball from age 5 through high school. Played football from age 10 through high school. Good times. One thing I would change is the weight cutting my freshman and soph. year of college. I should have just wrestled up a weight as losing the last 2-3 pounds was not fun and took a toll mentally. My Jr and Sr years were a much better experience. 

[GoNotQuietly 999]

I was extremely fortunate to have a legendary coach's club in my hometown when i started wrestling in 7th grade.  I even had the greatest women wrestler in the US  at the time, and many all-americans and future D1 guys as training partners from the jump.  Basically got my freaking butt kicked by everyone on my own H.S. team while being juggled around the real studs in the lineup my first couple years.  Came a breathe away from a Cadet greco title, and was part of some truly amazing NYS teams with future D1 champs and even a future UFC phenom. Knocked off a Sr. nationals AA in my first round at States, but blew my knee out in the process and tried in vain to wrestle through it but lost in the semis and did the semi slide by to 6th. 

 

Went to wrestle at Boston University because they were one of the few schools who had an accelerated physical therapy program and a wrestling team, and a couple of our club's guys and my high school partner were there already.  Had some solid seasons at 141, but bumped up to 157 when school got too brutal with the cut. Also, my close friend was a defending conference champ at 149.  Beat a bunch of AAs along the way, and placed at University nationals/ world team trials in greco a couple times, but couldn't ever get through a whole season healthy and ended up blowing out my ankle as a senior.  Not sure if I would chose college wrestling again, to be honest; the physical and psychological toll it extracts is really hard to put into words.  That said, I'm truly grateful for all the gifts wrestling has given me and wouldn't trade them for less hip pain, except on really damp days.

 

Thought about pursuing Greco post college over at Ivan Ivanov's training center in Idaho, or head out to the OTC, but decided it was too brutal of a lifestyle for how much I had paid for my education.  Coached a couple of years at a private school with our own freestyle and greco club, which was very successful and fun, before starting my career.  Recently, I've helped my good friend found a club in upstate NY, named after his college roommate, the late Jake Curby.  Mostly work with rehabbing local guys who have been burnt out by wrestling and trying to foster a healthier approach to the sport.  I avoid "youth" wrestling and weight cutting like the plague that they are.

[PAFAN01 50]

I went to college as a football player and hopeful basketball player.  Although from western PA I had never seen wrestling in HS.  I played football and didn’t make the BB team.  So a friend who was on the wrestling team said I should try wrestling.  I thought I was a tough guy (football player) so I went out for the wrestling team.  Needless to say  I wasn’t so tough on the mat.  I really liked the physical nature of wrestling and it was certainly a better conditioner than football.  I continued with football and participated on the wrestling team for 4 years.  I was never very good but I stuck with it.  I never cut weight.  My senior year our 190 pounder got hurt before the conference tournament and I was the last man standing.  I am 5’ 9’’ and 190 was probably the most I had ever weighed.  But I represented for the team.  Didn’t win a match but we won the conference tournament.  Fifty years later our championship team was inducted into the colleges' hall of fame.  So I went from never seeing wrestling to being part of a hall of fame team.  Later I convinced my son to try wrestling and he was very successful and wrestled in D1.  Wrestling is now my favorite sport (all styles).  Wrestling fans always inquire if I wrestled.  I say I wrestled but do not consider myself a wrestler.

Edited February 21, 2018 by PAFAN01