Why your teenager should wrestle (that has nothing to do with learning how to wrestle)

Wrestling season is just around the corner.  In our quaint community of River Falls, Wisconsin, our middle school wrestling season starts Monday.  The high school season will begin November 17th.  I spent the last two lunch hours in the high school commons enjoying teenage banter and looking for potential wrestling prospects.  I'll be the first to admit that wrestling is not for everyone, however, it's for far more than are represented in the yearly numbers put out by the National Federation of High Schools.

Last year, over 269,000 boys participated in high school wrestling in the United States from nearly 11,000 school-sponsored teams.  Additionally, close to 10,000 females participated in high school wrestling.  Of the many sports your son/daughter can participate in, wrestling is perhaps the most misrepresented, misunderstood and underrated.  The ratio of participation to public awareness is remarkably lopsided.  Each year hundreds of thousands of kids participate in the the sport, yet the average person knows very little about it.

Why would someone choose to wrestle?  For those entrenched in the sport, it's obvious.  The personal gains after the personal struggles gives a sense of achievement that is unparalleled in any other athletic endeavor.  It's less obvious to those who do not see the great strides an individual makes in confidence, self-awareness, work ethic, etc. because they don't witness or take part in that struggle, or as we like to say, the grind.

Why wrestle?

1. Overall Athletic Development

A very general, all encompassing argument to consider wrestling is the benefit of overall athletic development.  Every individual will become a better athlete by participating in wrestling.

Sports offer opportunities for children to improve strength, flexibility, coordination and provide a competitive and physical outlet while having fun.  They can be the catalyst to promoting an active and healthy lifestyle.  Most sports activities rely heavily on certain muscle groups and less on others.  Many focus primarily on pushing motions (leg/arm extension) such as throwing, hitting, kicking, jumping and running.  Sports science experts suggest that unilateral physical development (equal emphasis on all muscle groups) is especially important in young athletes.  Isolated movements over a long period of time increase the risk of injury and limits long-term foundational growth.

Wrestling is among the few sports that engage both pulling and pushing muscle groups.  It's the best sport for overall physical development because of the inter-relationship of biomotor abilities and flexibility coordination.  Individuals build many physical attributes simultaneously.  Wrestling improves strength, balance, speed and agility and does not specialize in specific movement patterns or biomotor abilities giving wrestlers significant gains in overall athletic development.  This inevitably makes kids better baseball, football, soccer players because of the increase in athleticism and body awareness.

Currently, there's a trend sweeping across high school sports that has sparked the interest of coaches to develop "better athletes."  They're recognizing that learning skills is easier for individuals with a solid athletic base and strong body awareness.  Strength training programs are shifting towards general athletic preparation and less on sports-specific strength training.  The new emphasis is on what an athlete can do with his/her own body and how quickly can he/she get from one point to the other by incorporating popular wellness activities like yoga and innovative strength training exercises using things like kettle bells, TRX, etc.  This philosophy has been common place in wrestling training for decades.   Today, successful strength training programs look more like a version of CrossFit than power lifting.  It's a significant paradigm shift and wrestling is ahead of the trend.

Not only should parents consider wrestling for their children because of the athletic benefits, coaches who desire to see better athletes should recommend it during their off-season.  Unfortunately, many well-intended athletes are afraid of wrestling because of the physical demands because it does incorporate every muscle group and is both an aerobic and anaerobic exercise.  Overall athletic development isn't easy.

2. Wrestling develops leaders

In a society that is craving for quality leadership, coaches value the potential that sports have to develop leaders.  Every sport shapes and molds leaders, however, studies show that former athletes who competed in individual sports exhibit increased levels of discipline, communication and accomplished-based skills.  Other studies show that these athletes also have higher levels of emotional intelligence, higher levels of self-esteem and self-respect and are better at managing other people.  These attributes of great leadership can be acquired by participating in wrestling.  Over 25% of all U.S. Presidents have wrestled.  Numerous CEO's, Fortune 500 founders and business leaders have also wrestled.  There are several articles and references that highlight the positive impact high school wrestlers have in the work place.

The River Falls wrestling program is built on what we've coined the "Four Pillars."  We create an environment that is intentional about teaching student-athletes how to reject passivity, accept responsibility, lead courageously and expect the greater reward/have a transcendent cause.  These four components applied directly to the sport of wrestling result in on-the-mat success.  What's more important is that our student-athletes leave RFHS ready to change the world for good.  Wrestling is the ultimate metaphor of life.  Life has the ability to put you on your back and wrestling teaches you how to get off your back.

River Falls Wrestling's core values of humility, accountability, self-respect, leadership, citizenship, discipline, sportsmanship and integrity shine in our sport brighter than any other athletic opportunity.  As a one-on-one combative sport, the athlete stands alone in the circle left to his/her own devices.  He/she must figure it out.  Not only is that an experience that is both humbling and empowering at the same time, it's accountability at its best in the sports world.  Being a successful leader requires this confident humility (humility without confidence is weakness; confidence without humility is arrogance).  Great leaders must be willing stand alone and make important decisions on the principles of right and wrong.  Wrestling reveals strengths and weaknesses and it takes a focused discipline to make improvements.  To be successful one must know exactly who they are.  When you know who you are, you know what to do.

3. Wrestling teaches you how to see the "big picture."

Scientists have proven that there is no center of the universe, therefore, you cannot be it.  The world actually revolves around the sun, not you.  This can be a difficult realization for young students.  Through their developing lenses, it appears as if much of life does indeed start and stop on their watch.  It's part of the human condition.

It's important that student-athletes are able to recognize that they're a tiny, finite speck on this planet, and being very ordinary, they have an extraordinary capacity for greatness and the opportunity to positively impact those around them.  Becoming the man or woman you were created to be can be a daunting task if you're unable to take the necessary steps on the correct path.

Sports provide several teachable moments in goal setting and working fervently towards accomplishing them, however, studies show that 80% of the population does not have goals.  This is particularly troubling considering over half of the high school students in the US play sports (7.6 million in 2010-11).   Which sports are actually teaching student-athletes how to set goals?  Wrestling has an uncanny sense of developing intrinsically motivated individuals.  Wrestling is far from a glamour sport.  It's not popular.  There's no professional league and very few outside the sport understand it.  The fan following is considerably lower than other fan-friendly sports, and on top of all of it, it's difficult to do casually.  One can put a basketball hoop in their driveway, kick a soccer ball against a garage door or go swimming at the hotel.  Outside of organized team practices, it's difficult to wrestle on a whim, not to mention the need for a partner.  These are definitely hurdles to becoming a top-tier revenue producing sport, but they're also the secret ingredient that allows for individuals to be intentional about their involvement and motivation.  Extrinsically motivating an athlete with fame and fortune just isn't an option in wrestling.  Attention to the internal drive and self-improvement is our biggest selling point.  It's difficult to motivate unmotivated people.  You can fan their fire, but you can't give them your spark.  Wrestlers are motivated individuals who know how to set goals.

I hope I was able to shed some light on what happens inside the wrestling world.  There are a lot of individuals outside the community who make decisions about what wrestling has to offer based on misconceptions.  Wrestling is for EVERYONE and wrestlers come in all shapes and sizes.  It's one of the most widely represented sports in the world comprised of nearly every single people group from hundreds of countries.  Yet, many parents and student-athletes are afraid of the sport because it's mysteriously unfamiliar.  Come check us out and see the benefits beyond learning how to wrestle that this great sport has to offer.

"More enduringly that any other sport, wrestling teaches self-control and pride.  Some have wrestled without great skill - none have wrestled without pride." - Dan Gable