Youth Wrestling

[hobiecat]

I wrestled from youth through HS, and in the Army. Did pretty good. So, I've always been anxious for my son to start wrestling. We had talked about it in previous years but he just didn't show a whole lot of interest, so we held off. This year for some reason, he was as excited as all hell about it... so, daddy RAN down to sign him up. He started his first season of wrestling November 15th at age 8.

He had his first tournament up at Moberly on December 19th. He got his arse handed to him. He didn't win a single match. After the last match he came over to me and said, "Are you disappointed in me?"
"Heck no, you wrestled hard" I said.
"But I lost?!" he replied.
"I knew you were gonna lose when we signed up for the tournament" I told him.
He looked at me dumbfounded.
"Look, are any of those kids bigger than you?"
"No"
"Were they stronger than you?"
"No"
"Well why did they beat you?"
"Because they've wrestled longer," he replied.
"Because they KNOW more than you do" I countered. "I wanted you to come away from this knowing how important it is to really practice hard and LEARN."

Well, we didn't have a tournament through the holidays, but we were faithful with making practices, going three times a week and not missing a single practice. We talked everyday about focusing in practice and that the way you practice is the way you will wrestle in a match. My son really seemed to focus and practiced hard at each practice.

At practice last Wed, the coach asked the boys to write down two goals that they wanted to accomplish this wrestling season. We went home and Asher immediately pulled out a piece of paper and wrote...
"1. Win a Medal at a tournament."
"2. Become a tournament champion."
We put the goals on his dresser mirror where he could see them everyday.

On Saturday we wrestled at the Fulton Wrestling Classic. He pinned the first kid he wrestled. He went on to take 3rd place (3-2), and was only a couple of mistakes from taking first. He took the tournament champion, who pinned every other kid he wrestled in a matter of seconds, 3 rounds and lost by decision(9-5). At one point in that match my boy had the champ on his back, and just about had him pinned. What I was most amazed with is that every kid in his bracket had at least 2 years of experience on my son.

When he walked off the mat from winning his final match, beaming because he knew that he had placed... I'd never been more proud of him.

When we got home after the tournament, he immediately walked into his room, grabbed the paper that listed his goals off the dresser mirror, brought them to me, and said, "We need to change my goals." We crossed off the first goal, and he wrote, "3. Qualify for State." I told him how proud I was of him... not only because he won, but also because he had wrestled as hard as he possibly could that day, and because he had been so diligent in practice.

He wore/carried that darn medal all weekend long.

Last night on the news, they were talking about the snow we are supposed to get. "You don't think they'll cancel practice, do you?" he asked me.

When he woke up this morning, the first thing is did is look out the window to see if we had snow. When he saw that there wasn't any the first words out his mouth were, "Cool, wrestling isn't canceled!"

I'll tell ya, I think I've got a wrestler on my hands! I can't wait for the tournament this weekend. I think we just may get to cross another goal off the list!

[Triton X2]

Good HC. It is always a good deal when a kid finds out he enjoys something and seems to be self motivated. This thread looks very similar to one I read earlier in the day though.

Where the crap has Bandito been lately. He has a swift kick in the gash coming from PS.

[Tigerhaze]

Don't know about similiar threads, but is a good motivational story otherwise. One thing about wrestling at a young age- he is less likely to get in confrontations by others at school after the first pinning.