Quote:
Originally Posted by Iowanian
I probably will. 2 of the boys I've been helping made it.
I didn't expect my kid to make it through, his district was a buzz saw at his weight and he was young side of bracket. That said, we are still hitting tournaments and he is 10-3 since the week before districts with 2 wins over kids that had beaten him this year. He loves rematches vs kids that have beaten him and I like that he likes that. Enjoying the grind but we will be done for the season after next weekend.
Short story about one of the reasons wrestling is good for kids.
As mentioned, my boy keeps a mental list of the kids that have beaten him and wants to find rematches. We look at tournament schedules and sometimes decide based on the chances that one or another will be there. One boy has beaten him twice this year, pinning him the second time. My kid was pretty upset about that and brooding about it. He had mentioned both weeks we saw him that this boy was nice, and had said if they went to the same school they would probably be friends. He does seem like a nice kid. Anyway we were going to take the weekend off 3 weeks ago because I thought he was getting burned out. He starts lobbying the night before to go to xyz because that is this boys town and he'd be there. I decided to go and we took a handful of boys over last minute...in a snow storm hour and a half trip. The boy is there, in my kids bracket....they do bullpen style where age group is called and paired up and sat in bleachers before their round. I look over and my kid is chumming and chatting and laughing with this kid bforst two rounds. I take him asside and say "look, it's great you like the kid, it's ok to be friends, but you came over here to kick his butt...get your mind right and tell him you can talk after the match is over...... great, hard fought match...my kid wins 5-3. Other kid is devestated. My kid consoles him.... the kid needs 10 minutes to regroup, they get medals and then he and my boy are back to chatting and he even sat with him on the edge of the mat to cheer a couple of our kids who were still going. That's the stuff that makes kids wrestling fun.a
When you're 40, very few people care if you were a national champ, state champ or .500. It's the lessons you learn and embracing the grind that pay off long term.
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I had a ton of experiences like that growing up in wrestling. Some of my best friends to this day are guys I competed against and became friends with off the mat.
I was never really the guy who hunted people who had beaten me...we just kind of wrestled wherever... but I had a TON that hunted me after I had beaten them. They would write on their entry form, "my boy would like to wrestle rico." Haha, it always used to stress me out because I didn't want to lose to a person I had beaten before who obviously prioritized beating me... didn't want to show any potential regression... I don't think I ever lost one of those, but they always stressed me out.