To be a good wrestler, you have to work hard and try for everything. In practice, you have to pay attention to everything the coach says. You have to do everything as well. You cant slack off and mess around, or you wont know what is going on, and you will have trouble in meets.
In practice, if you think you can’t do something, you wont be able to do it. But if you keep thinking that you can, you can achieve anything. Like this time when I was in practice, we were learning this new move called the standing cradle, and I was horrible at doing it at first. But with hard work and practice, I remembered how to do the move, and could do it on anyone. All you need is practice and dedication to wrestle.
When you go to meets, it helps me to listen to music, because it helps me focus on the task I have to do. Which is wrestle and get my hand raised at the end of the match. When you get to the meet, it is best to warm up, by yourself, and then with a partner. You need to take it seriously, and you shouldn’t mess around. You would only mess around if you didn’t care about the sport, or you didn’t want to be there.
After you are done warming up. The referees line you up, and check your fingernails so you can’t scratch or cut your opponent while you are wrestling. They also check your hair, because your opponent could pull your hair, and you could get hurt.
After the referees check you and your teammates, you have to clear the mat, so the meet can get started. Usually, there would be two mats, and two matches going on at the same time. It always starts with the lightweights, this year, was like 90 lbs. So I had to wait a while till I got to wrestle, because I’m at 130 lbs.
So while you are waiting, you can either practice on the side, or watch your teammates wrestle their opponents. I usually watch my teammates till there are two matches left for my match to start, and then I warm up. When I warm up, I work on shots, form, and many other things. My dad comes down and helps me do things to.
Then they call my name. Everything gets quiet in my head, like everything is frozen in time. You just get that feeling, that you are the only one in the world. After I get my band, I put it on, and walk out onto the mat. It’s that same feeling again, like time has froze. Then I get in my position, and then the referee blows the whistle. It has started.
I lock up with my opponent, yanking hard on there head. I usually wait till they shoot, unless my opponent is really slow and tall, so I can easily shoot right into his legs. We are yanking and pulling on each other. Then finally he shoots into my legs. I sprawl and he has a hold of my leg and I have to break it free so I can get my two. I stuff his head down, and stretch my leg as far back as possible. He looses his grip on my leg and I spin around and get my two, now its time to get him on his back. I chop his arm in and get to the side of him. I get him in a cradle and turn him to his back. The referee gets down and counts “1, 2, 3, 4.” He broke free at the count of four. That means I get 3 back points for having him on his back.
We were both on our feet now, 5-1, with 30 seconds left in the 1st period. We lock up again and he gets to my side. I make a mistake and I try to head throw him. He gets me on my back with 20 seconds left, 5-3 now. I’m on my back, trying to get out of his grasp. 13 seconds left, I just have to hold out till the time runs out. 9 seconds left, I roll over and get on my stomach finally. I start to get up and right then is when I hear the buzzer. Signifying that the period is over.
I get up, and so does my opponent. The referee flips a chip in the air, one side green, and the other side red. My ankle band is red, so if it lands on red, it is my choice to pick up, down, neutral, or defer. It is in the air and flipping around and around. It lands on red, so I look at my coach and he tells me to defer. I cross my hands signifying that I defer to the referee. He nods his head and points to my opponent. My opponent picks top, so I have to start on bottom this period.
I get down onto the mat, and get into the down position. I wait there till the referee tells my opponent to cover. I watch the referee’s mouth so I can pinpoint exactly when he will blow the whistle for us to start wrestling. I see his neck start to tense up, so I know he is about to blow the whistle. I am already moving, milliseconds before he blows the whistle. He doesn’t call a caution on me because I was perfectly on time.
I’m almost out and it has only been 4 seconds. My opponent didn’t think I was this fast. He was slow to react to my moves I was doing on him. I was way quicker than him.
I finally get out and we are both on our feet. I remembered the move that we did in practice, the standing cradle. So I locked up with him, and started to yank on his head. I finally got into position, and executed the move perfectly. I had him on his back; there was no possible way he would get out of my hold. The ref counts “1, 2, 3, 4, 5.” I just had to get both of my opponent’s shoulders on the ground and he would be pinned. I inch back and back, and finally I get him with both of his shoulders on the mat. The ref smacks the mat, and blows the whistle. I let go of my opponent and we both get up. We shake hands and the referee raises my hand, this is the moment you feel the greatest in the world, because you don’t have a team with you like in other sports such as basketball and football. You are the only one, 1 versus 1, all by yourself. Then you take your ankle band off, walk over to the check-in and hand the ankle band to them.
I go up to my dad, and he tells me what I did wrong, and what I could improve on. He also shows me how to do some moves better. Then I go over to my teammates and they all give me high fives and say good job. Then I go to my coach and he tells me how to improve. Then I head back to the spot I was sitting, and drink lots of water and Gatorade, because my mouth and throat get dry from moving around and working hard for a while. Then I get my shorts back on and watch my teammates wrestle.
On the ride home, we have fun, everybody is happy, because everyone won their matches. I finally get home, and I shower and go straight to the couch so I can rest, because you get very tired after wrestling. The next few days, you will be soar, but feeling good and happy because you won your match.
A wrestler works hard and tries as hard as they could to accomplish a task. They never give up, even on the toughest tasks. So you have to dedicate yourself to wrestling if you are to be a good wrestler. All it takes is pride, dedication, and time to be a good wrestler.