I knew nothing of wrestling when I first arrived at F&M. My small high school of just over 300 kids didn’t have enough interest to support a wrestling program. As far as I knew, the sport was more or less what my best friend and I did on “play dates” when we were six and seven years old. Any strategy, planning, or training that went into the preparation for a wrestling match was lost on me. It was a sport I would oftentimes hear about, but could never see.As the end of the semester slowly approaches and the beginning of winter break creeps closer, I decided to take a moment and reflect on five things I've learned about this sport. Even though this is not the half way point of the season for the wrestling team, last week's match against Navy was more or less my half way point. I will miss several matches over the break, and will have the opportunity to see seven more when I return.
Although I went to many wrestling matches last year, I never picked up the nuances of the sport. It wasn't until this season that I truly began to pick up all the details. When Matt Latessa and the coaching staff approached me about the opportunity to write about the wrestling team over the course of the season, I figured I could use my writing skills to get by and learn the sport on the fly. So far, this season has gone just like I thought it would.
Below are the five biggest things about wrestling I have learned thus far. I have also included my reflections on each point.
1. Wrestling is a thinking man's game.
It's pretty easy to tell I had little appreciation for the intricacies of the sport when I first started this job just by reading the excerpt above. If you had asked me four or five months ago what the objective of a wrestling match was, I probably would have responded by saying, "To get your opponent to the ground and to keep him there." I would have said it with little understanding or knowledge of the sport.
In a way, that's right. After all, when two wrestlers square off, the goal is to pin the opponent or to keep him on the ground. The difference is that I had no appreciation of the process and I did not possess the understanding to truly comprehend what was happening before my eyes every time I watched a match unfold.
Wrestling is indeed a thinking man's game. A good wrestler will have just about every move thought out in advance and he will take every single one of his opponent's moves into account. Even those wrestlers who tend to be a bit more cavalier in their style are constantly thinking. At the division one level, wrestlers can't just expect to walk on to a mat and pummel their opponents into submission.
That's the crucial difference between freshmen and a seasoned veteran like Matt Fullowan. At the end of the day, a freshman could very well be more physically gifted than he, but, chances are, Fullowan has the mental edge. As a senior, he's seen it all. He knows all the tricks in the book. I'd be willing to bet Fullowan will win several matches this season because of his intelligence and his experience.
There are many other sports people tend to associate with intelligence and thinking. Wrestling is too often left out of the mix.
2. I finally know what a pin is
Believe it or not, I had not idea what constituted a pin when I first started this job. Now I know. Two shoulder blades to the mat. If I only got one thing out of this experience of writing about the F&M wrestling program for an entire season, this was it. After all, not knowing what a pin is would be like asking a football fan what a touchdown is, or a baseball player what it means to hit a home run.
In other words, it's a little embarrassing not to know, particularly when your with other wrestlers or fans of the sport. What is also a little tough to swallow is to go to an F&M-Campbell meet (like I did last year) as the sports editor of a college newspaper at a school with a wrestling team and have a five-year-old kid lecture you on the art of the pin.
Granted, that was the first wrestling match I had ever been to, so I am willing to cut myself a little slack. But regardless, I put learning the rules of the sport at the top of my list of things to accomplish. After all, wrestling is not just simply slugging it out with an opponent until one falls down. It's a far more intricate and complicated sport than many people realize (hence the little "thinking man's piece above). There are so many nuances to appreciate, and I'd like to learn as many as possible by the time this season concludes.
3. I can't imagine being in that good of shape.
I've played football, basketball, baseball, ice hockey, and have run marathons. Some of the greatest athletes in the world play these sports. However, after watching wrestling closely since the season began, I'm not sure there is a group of athletes that are collectively in better shape than wrestlers.
Could some of the athletes jump from their sport to wrestling? Possibly. The truly elite athletes in any sport can cross the boundaries between sports with relative ease. That is, after all, what makes them truly special. But collectively, from top to bottom, I'm not sure there is a sport that has more athletes who are in as close to perfect shape as they can humanly be. It's awfully impressive and is a fact that too often gets lost on people when they talk about the greatest athletes in the world.
4. Is there anything more exciting than good wrestling?
Admittedly, I am a football guy. When the New England Patriots won Super Bowl XXXVI on Adam Vinatieri's now famous field goal, I think that was the most excited I have ever been for a sports moment. But that was the championship game. The kick was for all the marbles. It was the biggest kick in franchise history.
Would I have as been excited about that field goal had it happened, say, in week 10 of the NFL regular season? I doubt it.
Now, thinking back to F&M's match with Navy last Friday. Watching Matt Fullowan's long drawn out affair with his opponent and then Colin Ely's impressive pin of his opponent was the most excited I have been at a sporting event in quite some time. Maybe this excitement comes from the fact that a wrestler has only a few minutes before he runs out of time, so there really is no "I'll get him during the next play" moments. It's now or never, and every move counts.
(Side note: This is another reason why wrestling is a thinking man's game. There is no such thing as a meaningless move in a wrestling match. If a wrestler screws up, he could get pinned. If he falls into a 4-0 hole, good luck digging out of it in the short amount of time he has. I'm not saying it's impossible to come back from such a deficit, but being down 4-0 or 4-1 midway through the second period with your opponent on your back makes it awfully hard to come back. On the flip side of the coin, the guy ahead can't stop thinking either. If he falls asleep and his opponent gets in one good move, he could be pinned. And then it's all over, no matter what the score is. For as much as wrestling demands of its athletes from a physical standpoint, a case can be made that it demands just as much mentally.)
5. Wrestlers are some of the most genuine, humble athletes I have ever met.
I will preface this observation by saying that this is not meant to be any kind of insult towards the athletes of any other sport. Nor am I saying that every single wrestler in the world is humble, down to earth, and approachable. But, on the whole, I do not think I have ever met a group of athletes more humble than wrestlers.
Maybe it's because they know this is the end of the road. Perhaps it is because they don't get all the media and fan attention and hype. It also may be that they know they'll never make millions wrestling no matter how good they are, so they simply wrestle because they love the sport that much.
The bottom line is this: I have yet to speak to a collegiate wrestler, at F&M or somewhere else, where I have left the conversation thinking he was pretentious, arrogant, full of himself, or all of the above. I genuinely believe that because division one wrestling is the pinnacle of the sport and that there aren't million of dollars waiting for them after college that wrestlers simply wrestle for the love of the sport. After all, is there another reason to work so hard and to get pummeled repeatedly? I certainly can't think of one.
In many other sports, kids see it as a get rich quick scheme or as a way to rocket themselves to fame. That option is not there for wrestlers. At the end of the day, division one wrestlers wrestle for the love of the sport. This makes them appreciative of the little time they do have to wrestle, and they are thankful for it.
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