Is it too late to start Wrestling?

[ergo189 1]

I'm 17 yrs old and I want to learn wrestling. I have never done any sport seriously. But I've been lifting weights for 1 1/2 years.  Is it too late for me to start? I'm starting training this saturday. (My friend invited me). He said that they usually don't accept newbies at this stage because their tournament is soon but he say I can still join but I'm gonna have to adapt to their workouts. Should I join now or wait until the tournament is finished?  Also any tips for a beginner? Thank you.

Edited November 7, 2019 by ergo189

[Shiraz123 524]

HW legend Mohebi started age 19 so definitely not too late 

[spladle08 633]

I'm 17 yrs old and I want to learn wrestling. I have never done any sport seriously. But I've been lifting weights for 1 1/2 years.  Is it too late for me to start? I'm starting training this saturday. (My friend invited me). He said that they usually don't accept newbies at this stage because their tournament is soon but he say I can still join but I'm gonna have to adapt to their workouts. Should I join now or wait until the tournament is finished?  Also any tips for a beginner? Thank you.

The older you get before starting the more a$$ whoopings you take before winning but its never too late... unless you're 30... then its is way too late.

[Lurker 824]

Absolutely start but don’t worry for a second about any tournament/match results....for awhile. I’d even suggest avoid competing in any tournaments for a bit. Focus on improving on something every day, and having fun. (This message is NLWC approved). But seriously it’s a tough sport, as tough as it looks it’s even tougher once you’re in the grind. But it’s a wonderful sport and where you are focused makes all the difference in the world. 

Edited November 7, 2019 by Lurker

[Antitroll2828 221]

George st.pierre starting wrestling when he was 16 and by 20 he could beat everyone on team canada. A lot of it is just mindset and dedication , definitely not too late.

[Plasmodium 1,213]

6 minutes ago, Antitroll2828 said:

George st.pierre starting wrestling when he was 16 and by 20 he could beat everyone on team canada. A lot of it is just mindset and dedication , definitely not too late.

Just curious - has anyone actually seen this guy in a refereed match?  Has he ever been in one?

[jchapman 779]

16 minutes ago, Antitroll2828 said:

George st.pierre starting wrestling when he was 16 and by 20 he could beat everyone on team canada. A lot of it is just mindset and dedication , definitely not too late.

A modern day Robin Reed!  

[spladle08 633]

Just curious - has anyone actually seen this guy in a refereed match?  Has he ever been in one?

Yeah I think thats one of those unsubstantiated legends.
However... they did say Ngannou could wrestle competitively against the top French heavyweights after a few months of ever wrestling...

I do believe that one
A competitive heavyweight match with an unequalled freak of athleticism vs a more experienced guy in a country not known for wrestling, seems more likely than.
An average middle weight kid beating everyone on your team and never even testing the waters of a tournament showing.

[1032004 426]

OP are you in high school?   If so then I'm sure they'd welcome you and you can join now, but you probably don't want to wrestle in a tournament (assuming you'd even have a varsity spot) until you have a better idea of the rules and such

[Jimmy Cinnabon 170]

It's not too late but unless you are some phenom expect to get your butt handed to you for a long long time by guys who are much smaller than you.

[WillieBoy 653]

A wrestler for you to check out.

Mark Schultz.

Started wrestling his Junior year in High School.  His story is far from normal and his Gymnastics background helped him a lot. That and his combative spirit pushed him to the top at every level.

From Wikipedia: Mark Schultz attended Palo Alto High, where he was coached by Ed Hart.^[6] He competed first in gymnastics, winning the Northern California All-Around Gymnastics Championships for his age group. During his junior year in high school, he moved to Ashland, Oregon and switched to wrestling. After one semester he transferred back to Palo Alto, but was declared ineligible, ending the year with a 4–6 record. As a senior he did not win any tournaments until the state qualifiers where Schultz won the league, region, section, and the state. He is the only California High School state champion wrestler never to win a regular season tournament.

[NJDan 458]

My avatar, Henry Wittenberg, did not start wrestling until college and he became Olympic champ. Of course that was 70 years ago and your mileage may vary. 

[russelscout 1,142]

9 hours ago, ergo189 said:

I'm 17 yrs old and I want to learn wrestling. I have never done any sport seriously. But I've been lifting weights for 1 1/2 years.  Is it too late for me to start? I'm starting training this saturday. (My friend invited me). He said that they usually don't accept newbies at this stage because their tournament is soon but he say I can still join but I'm gonna have to adapt to their workouts. Should I join now or wait until the tournament is finished?  Also any tips for a beginner? Thank you.

For a beginner I recommend really focussing on a good sprawl, go around and a stand up. Learning to avoid takedowns and not get held down on bottom is critical. A good solid takedown is going to take awhile to get to. I would focus on a good single leg to one side you feel comfortable and build on it from there. Be patient and focus on good technique!

Edited November 7, 2019 by russelscout

[yonz_g 59]

1 hour ago, WillieBoy said:

A wrestler for you to check out.

Mark Schultz.

Started wrestling his Junior year in High School.  His story is far from normal and his Gymnastics background helped him a lot. That and his combative spirit pushed him to the top at every level.

From Wikipedia: Mark Schultz attended Palo Alto High, where he was coached by Ed Hart.^[6] He competed first in gymnastics, winning the Northern California All-Around Gymnastics Championships for his age group. During his junior year in high school, he moved to Ashland, Oregon and switched to wrestling. After one semester he transferred back to Palo Alto, but was declared ineligible, ending the year with a 4–6 record. As a senior he did not win any tournaments until the state qualifiers where Schultz won the league, region, section, and the state. He is the only California High School state champion wrestler never to win a regular season tournament.

Someone needs to edit that Wiki page; Colt Doyle has since been added to the list of CA state champs that didn't win an in-season tournament the same year they won their titles. Nevertheless, Mark Schultz is the perfect example for a late start, especially considering his success in college and the international stage.

[manyak 184]

Aslanbek Khushtov switched from weightlifting to Greco Roman at 18 and won the Olympics at 28.

I didn’t have any notable results but I didn’t start wrestling until my early 20s, was able to join a junior college team and compete a lot. I even trained in Russia several times and made life long friends there. It’s worth it to me.

Unless you’re a heavyweight athletic phenom you won’t be winning at the national or international level, so just set realistic expectations. I did medal at some state level tournaments but it took years of training and losing first.

[jchapman 779]

59 minutes ago, manyak said:

Aslanbek Khushtov switched from weightlifting to Greco Roman at 18 and won the Olympics at 28.

I didn’t have any notable results but I didn’t start wrestling until my early 20s, was able to join a junior college team and compete a lot. I even trained in Russia several times and made life long friends there. It’s worth it to me.

Unless you’re a heavyweight athletic phenom you won’t be winning at the national or international level, so just set realistic expectations. I did medal at some state level tournaments but it took years of training and losing first.

Which heavyweights have won at the national and international level without much experience?

[Cradle1 184]

5 hours ago, spladle08 said:

Yeah I think thats one of those unsubstantiated legends.
However... they did say Ngannou could wrestle competitively against the top French heavyweights after a few months of ever wrestling...

I do believe that one
A competitive heavyweight match with an unequalled freak of athleticism vs a more experienced guy in a country not known for wrestling, seems more likely than.
An average middle weight kid beating everyone on your team and never even testing the waters of a tournament showing.
 

 Top French heavyweights is an oxymoron if I’ve ever heard one

[gutfirst 215]

Zach Rey started 15 year old. 2nd year 4th jersey states, placed fargo both styles. 3rd year 1st of 2 state titles and another fargo medal. Then ncaa champ, runner up and freestyle world team. Never too late to start.

[TripNSweep 356]

9 hours ago, WillieBoy said:

A wrestler for you to check out.

Mark Schultz.

Started wrestling his Junior year in High School.  His story is far from normal and his Gymnastics background helped him a lot. That and his combative spirit pushed him to the top at every level.

From Wikipedia: Mark Schultz attended Palo Alto High, where he was coached by Ed Hart.^[6] He competed first in gymnastics, winning the Northern California All-Around Gymnastics Championships for his age group. During his junior year in high school, he moved to Ashland, Oregon and switched to wrestling. After one semester he transferred back to Palo Alto, but was declared ineligible, ending the year with a 4–6 record. As a senior he did not win any tournaments until the state qualifiers where Schultz won the league, region, section, and the state. He is the only California High School state champion wrestler never to win a regular season tournament.

It's true Mark started late, but he was surrounded by talent and coaches who helped him.  Also the summer before his senior year he wrestled a lot of freestyle tournaments and of course had arguably one of, if not the most technical US wrestlers as his big brother pushing him the whole time.  The other thing that helped him was that he was a top level gymnast for his age.  He was already a freskishly good athlete to start with, Extremely strong in a functional way, flexible, fast and when he began taking wrestling seriously he had Dave and good coaches showing him technique and wrestling with him every day.  No doubt Mark was good, but he had a lot going for him when he began wrestling.  I'm not at all surprised he got to where he did because anyone was physically no match for him.  Watching Banach try to outmuscle him and realize he wasn't going to be able to was kind of funny.  

[77again 50]

Not to split hairs, but Mark Schultz started wrestling his sophomore year in HS. This was well known for many years by many people. When you are the younger brother of Dave Schultz, people take note of you entering the sport.

At some point during the 1990s the story changed to junior year. Makes a better story I guess.

One year is not a big deal but just for accuracy. 

[gimpeltf 999]

And I'm going to guess that even though he started formal wrestling relatively late on, his brother Dave didn't stay away from him before that.

[ergo189 1]

18 hours ago, 1032004 said:

OP are you in high school?   If so then I'm sure they'd welcome you and you can join now, but you probably don't want to wrestle in a tournament (assuming you'd even have a varsity spot) until you have a better idea of the rules and such

Yeah. I'm in my Seniors right now. I will. I'm thinking of training for atleast a year before my tournament. But I guess it'll depend on my coach tho. 

[mspart 162]

10 hours ago, gimpeltf said:

And I'm going to guess that even though he started formal wrestling relatively late on, his brother Dave didn't stay away from him before that.

I believe "that goes without saying".   Mark has stated that it ticked him off to no end having his brother beat up on him all the time.  Like the Brands brothers, steel sharpens steel.

I love wrestling and would encourage you to go ahead and dive in.  Wrestling is surely a very physical sport, but it is also 80-90% mental.  So get out there and be determined to improve everyday.  You might not, but constantly striving for improvement everday will help you keep your focus and strengthen the mental aspects of the sport for you.

mspart

[TripNSweep 356]

11 hours ago, ergo189 said:

Yeah. I'm in my Seniors right now. I will. I'm thinking of training for atleast a year before my tournament. But I guess it'll depend on my coach tho. 

Just learn all you can.  If you have good coaches just ask them to show you basic concepts and things.  If you have a solid position base in neutral then the rest will come.  

[GreatWhiteNorth 65]

Your coach may or may not feel like they should devote time to such a late starter - let's hope it's the former but, if not, find a wrestling partner (or two) ready to show you the ropes. Coaches sometimes are short of time, but don't let that stop you.

And as others have said, be ready to get whooped more than you would prefer. Swallow your pride and keep plugging away and your day will come.

Oh, and one last thing. If a wrestler gets a little too exuberant about showing you his long history of technique training to show you up - and you have no answer in the wrestling room. Don't hesitate to kick his butt (if you are inclined to such things) outside the wrestling room. I was a late starter who got tossed around pretty good by the experienced guys my first year or two. I had to have a 'discussion' outside the room with a couple guys who enjoyed whooping on me too much and pushed it too far. It only took a couple of these and that problem was resolved. (I may not have had wrestling experience yet, but I was tough as a $2 steak.)