Tell me about wrestling

[Anonymous]

My freshman has decided to quit his club sport and just play jv/varsity next year. He will play soccer keeper and lacrosse goalie, but is torn about what to try out for in the winter. He loves basketball but is thinking about trying something different, both because he is a kid who loves novelty and the challenge of catching up and because he has had some overuse injuries and wonders if a sport that isn’t running and jumping would be good for cross training.

So, he’s wondering about wrestling which is no cut at his school.

He is on track to be very tall, and is very quick with a lot strength and explosive power, and has that gk combination of fearlessness and able get back in the game quickly.

Does wrestling seem like a potential fit? I hear a lot about how great it is for smaller kids which he is not.

[Anonymous]

Probably not. The best wrestlers are compact (not particularly tall), because a low center of gravity is a competitive advantage. It is an extremely tough sport in terms of the conditioning and the potential for injury.

[Anonymous]

It's hard for tall kids because of the weight classes. I dated a short wrestler in HS, but one of my friends was a basketball player that decided to join the wrestling team in the off season. He got classed in with some really BIG kids that were like 8 inches shorter but the same weight, so just stacked on muscle and low center of gravity.
Also, there's a huge problem with eating disorders in boys wrestling because of the weight classes. One of my son's friends from ES wrestles in HS, and I was shocked to hear his wrestling weight class (which might be about 5 pounds less than his actual weight, because they all sweat/purge before weigh in).
But if your son isn't that serious about it, he might avoid that stuff and just have fun with it -- totally depends on the team. My HS team was terrible, so my boyfriend didn't take it that seriously -- he would skip lunch/breakfast on a meet day and run around the track in heavy sweats to lose water weight, then gorge himself after weigh-in, and eat normally every other day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Probably not. The best wrestlers are compact (not particularly tall), because a low center of gravity is a competitive advantage. It is an extremely tough sport in terms of the conditioning and the potential for injury.

Obviously you NEVER saw Andre the Giant. Great wrestler and very tall.

[Anonymous]

Wrestling is for all body types- but the practices are intense and not for the weak. It usually has a group of very welcoming folks. Try it!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wrestling is for all body types- but the practices are intense and not for the weak. It usually has a group of very welcoming folks. Try it!

This. There are lots of excellent tall wrestlers. In VA, wrestling is a sport kids can start in high school and still find success.
It’s a tough sport but special!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Probably not. The best wrestlers are compact (not particularly tall), because a low center of gravity is a competitive advantage. It is an extremely tough sport in terms of the conditioning and the potential for injury.

Obviously you NEVER saw Andre the Giant. Great wrestler and very tall.

Isn’t that a totally different type of wrestling?

— OP

[Anonymous]

My kid is in MS but also a club soccer GK and wrestles in the winter. I think that fearlessness is helpful and quick reaction times to figure out how to respond and restrategize based on the opponent also maps to GK traits. I don’t think of it as a low-injury sport particularly though. My sense is that a lot more kids are likely to be newer to wrestling than other winter sports so that is a plus. As far as height I’ve seen some tall wrestlers be able to really use their proportionally longer arms to really lock in to holds that seems effective.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid is in MS but also a club soccer GK and wrestles in the winter. I think that fearlessness is helpful and quick reaction times to figure out how to respond and restrategize based on the opponent also maps to GK traits. I don’t think of it as a low-injury sport particularly though. My sense is that a lot more kids are likely to be newer to wrestling than other winter sports so that is a plus. As far as height I’ve seen some tall wrestlers be able to really use their proportionally longer arms to really lock in to holds that seems effective.

I don’t think it’s less risk of acute injury, but what he’s been struggling with are overuse injuries, and we are hoping that changing for a few months to a sport that has different movement patterns will help.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Probably not. The best wrestlers are compact (not particularly tall), because a low center of gravity is a competitive advantage. It is an extremely tough sport in terms of the conditioning and the potential for injury.

Obviously you NEVER saw Andre the Giant. Great wrestler and very tall.

Also 425 pounds. Hard to move.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Probably not. The best wrestlers are compact (not particularly tall), because a low center of gravity is a competitive advantage. It is an extremely tough sport in terms of the conditioning and the potential for injury.

Obviously you NEVER saw Andre the Giant. Great wrestler and very tall.

Isn’t that a totally different type of wrestling?

— OP

Yes, if your kid could get into entertainment wrestling it would be quite lucrative and hopefully less worrisome as it's all choreographed. But I don't think it's a very likely career path.

[Anonymous]

A junior boy at my son’s high school just won the US Open national championship this year! He’s off to Greece in a few months to represent the US at the international level. So that’s pretty exciting.