Photo by skeeze on Pixabay.com

All sports have good aspects to them and can be good for kids to get involved in, but some of them rise above others for different reasons. Sports are good for teaching kids about working on teams, giving them self confidence, exercise and all of that normal stuff people know about but wrestling is the one that I feel rises all the others in terms of being the most beneficial kids to get into.

I started wrestling in 6th grade and both of my older brothers wrestled as well. I played football, also did track and field, but wrestling was my bread and butter. When the wrestling season started, all other sports stopped for me. I was invited to play for the All-Star football team when I lived in Korea and fly out of the country for the games, but their practices and the games extended into wrestling season and I needed to train, so I told them no.  

Photo from Pixabay.com (unknown photographer)

Here are some reasons why I think that wrestling is the best sport for kids to get into:

  1. Teaches Toughness - A lot of kids don't know what pain is when they are young or how to deal with it. Wrestlers learn how to deal with pain, stay focused and work through the pain in a controlled manner. A lot of kids never get bloody noses when they are young and if they do, they usually freak out. In wrestling, you get head butted, cross faced, and your face smashed into the mat, and it can split your lip or cause your nose to bleed. The match doesn't end, it just pauses and "blood time" starts while the ref tries to stop the bleeding by shoving a tampon up your nose, then the match continues. Intestinal fortitude is something that all wrestlers know about and have.
  2. Teaches self-reliance -  One of my favorite things about wrestling is the that while it is a "team sport", in the fact that you travel with your team for matches and your school wrestles against the other school and each win gets points for your school and the school with the most points wins in the end, it is more of an individual sport.

    YOU     get on that mat by yourself. YOU trained for that match. If you win, it is because YOU earned it. If you lose, YOU need to train harder for the next match. YOU win or YOU lose on your own.
  3. Teaches Discipline - I had my first real Thanksgiving meal when I was in Basic Training for the Army. Prior to that, I was always cutting weight because of wrestling. I knew that I needed to make weight and that meant being disciplined with what I ate. Being disciplined also comes into play with how often wrestlers train and how hard they train. There are a lot of schools that practice before and after school for about 4-6 hours a day. Everything in wrestling is about practice and making your moves happen without any real thought. It is a lot like a chess game. I had my coach tell me a few times that I wrestled some of my matches with my eyes closed and I told him it was because there was too much distraction with the audience and everything else going on, but I knew what my opponent was going to do based on my movements and I could feel where his body was gonna be. With enough practice and discipline you should be able to plan your moves and expect their movements in advance.
  4. It is fun - This is what got me into it and kept me coming back. There really is no future in wrestling, so wrestlers don't wrestle for fame and fortune, even though we did get the girls, we did it because it was a blast. I got into wrestling before MMA was really a thing and this was the closest thing to a fight I could do without getting into trouble. Wrestlers endure the torturous practice sessions for those few minutes where we can step out on the mat and face off against another person and feel alive. There really isn't much that can compare to that feeling.