Life After College Wrestling
Can you imagine how boring it might have been in the Stone Age? There was no television, no cars, no modern conveniences. So what are two Neanderthals to do but wrestle each other to see who was the strongest? Then we fast forward to the first Olympics, and we can see that there was a huge growing interest for the sport of wrestling all over the world.
You may associate wrestling with the colorful commentators on television and those fast, high flying acrobat guys and gals that get by running in to ropes. Sorry to burst your bubble but that’s not wrestling, that’s entertainment. Most of the moves aren’t really technical. I mean, what’s the thrill in putting someone through a table? If you want to see real wrestling you need to go beyond your TV set.
Real wrestling will mean that you will need to be extremely enduring, strong, and you will need to be focused at all times. If you’re really good, you could go pro.
Most college and universities that do practice this sport follow the rules that are set out. One type of wrestling done in schools is known as folk style. This is just one style of wrestling but there are major differences from other styles. They don’t score the same way during a competition for one thing. The focus also is not put in the same place. In college, the technical aspect of wrestling is extremely important. In the other instances, it’s more of brute force kind of wrestling. There is also a lot of difference between college wrestling compared to the type being done in high school.
A lot of the actual ‘real’ wrestlers that practice this sport while in college will be trained to make sure that they are in control of their bodies and the safety aspect is highly observed. It’s a big contrast if you compare it to those entertainers in the WWE.
Sure this might discourage kids from practicing this sport because not everyone has the ability to jump five feet high. But what they have to learn is that these wrestlers do this for entertainment. They know that every time they perform, a fatal injury can occur. They should know that old style wrestling is all about control on the mat.
The other difference is what they fight on. For college wrestling a mat is good enough but in pro wrestling, they fight in the ring for obvious reasons.
The way real wrestling goes is that wrestlers fight for 3 periods (3 min, 2 min, 2 min). Depending on what maneuvers they use, they have points awarded to them. For example a guy standing on the other guy’s back for 1 minute is worth 1 point.
High school wrestlers will concentrate on their grades, but college students will go for better skills to get recruited to make it to the big leagues like pro wrestling.
The wrestling world is tough. Even if they are highly skilled in college, it doesn’t mean, they will make it to the pros (but some do however) The best example is Kurt Angle who won an Olympic gold medal for the USA. For those not so lucky ones it is not uncommon for them to become wrestling coaches.
