The Benefits of Wrestling

Wrestling credited with Football Success

Wrestling Credited For Football Success

Ryan Holmes on Aug 04, 2015 | More Posts

Those two things are probably the most recognizable when it comes to football and wrestling. For Florida State University linebacker and leading tackler Reggie Northrup, it’s the art of the takedown that makes him a better tackler.

In this interview from last season, Northrup, his teammates and head coach Jimbo Fisher discuss how his wrestling background helps him be the defensive menace for the Seminole’s.

Some of the most incredible men of the gridiron, such as current Falcon’s wide receiver Roddy White (2x South Carolina State Champ), former Raven’s linebacker Ray Lewis (Florida State Champ) and former NFL fullback Lorenzo Neal (NCAA All-American), used to mix it up on the mat before playing in front of thousands on Sunday’s.

Recently, ESPN analyst and three-time Super Bowl Champ Mark Schlereth spoke about how wrestling was “the most challenging sport (he’s) ever been involved with.” Schlereth was a state champ in Alaska when he was in high school and gives plenty of credit to the sport for making him the competitor he was in the NFL.

He also believes strongly about the fundamentals that wrestling brings to the football field.

Schlereth had some other comments about the coorelation between wrestling and football in an article onUSA Wrestling.

We also just saw Schlereth’s words in montion in the Fargo finals where top-ranked heavyweight and future UCLA defensive end Osawaru Odighizuwa of Oregon dominated Ohio’s Kevin Vough.

Why Football Players Should Wrestle

Wrestling: A Defense Against ADHD

Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

Children with ADHD typically have high energy and low attention. Team sports don’t generally work well for them, since they require them to pay attention and know who is doing what, when and where, and they also often require the child to stand or sit in one place for extended periods, while still paying attention so they know what’s going on. That’s a lot to ask of these kids sometimes.

Individual sports tend to be better suited to kids with ADHD. Wrestling is one of those sports that can work very well for this child.

One of the great things about wrestling is how welcoming it is. While other sports may have weight requirements, or demand a certain amount of skill or talent in try outs in order to play, wrestlers can be any shape or size. Weight classes keeps fairness in the competition, making skill, strength, and the sheer will to win the deciding factors in who becomes the victor.

Another unique aspect to wrestling is that unlike other sports that require constant training and proper use of acquired skills in order to facilitate a win, an inexperienced and unskilled wrestler still has a shot at winning a match if he is tough and truly as the desire to win. While practice and learning the moves and skills is always a good idea, this means that your child could potentially experience the reward of a victory early in his wrestling life, which could lead to even greater enjoyment.

Wrestling is also different in the fact that it has both a team and individual aspect to it. Wrestlers are all on a team, practice together and cheer each other on at matches. Yet each wrestler can win on his own. As Dennis Kane, Head Coach of Ocala Wrestling, says, “They don’t have to be in sync with the rest of the team when they compete, because it is done on an individual basis (one match at a time).”

Coach Kane believes that wrestlers develop a quiet form of self confidence as they build their wrestling skills. When you consider that when you wrestle, you can only rely on yourself, it’s easy to see how this can happen. A wrestler must believe in their skill and ability to overpower their opponent in order to win, and that requires confidence.

Coach Kane has found that when wrestlers are initially learning the sport, it can be as foreign as learning new dance steps. However, once the moves are practiced repeatedly, they eventually are committed to muscle memory. This also increases confidence. The increased confidence also builds self esteem, which Coach Kane feels is the biggest benefits of wrestling. In the case of a child with ADHD, who may often feel inadequate because of teachers and others who don’t always understand the difficulties this child faces, this self esteem is definitely the biggest benefit.

Wrestling also instills discipline. According to Coach Kane, those who work hard will have the benefits of conditioning, developing balance and when needed, thinning down. Sometimes, a wrestler may have to do things that they don’t really want to – working out more or eating less to meet their weight requirement, getting up early to work out, spending hours practicing and improving their skills. By doing these things that they may not enjoy very much in order to achieve the satisfaction of a victory, they learn that applying themselves and working hard will get them what they want in life, whether it is a match win or a college education.

Wrestling also teaches sportsmanship in a way that other sports aren’t always able to manage. Opponents are always required to shake hands, before and after each match, and often they will embrace each other after the match, or the loser may raise the winner’s hand in victory. The sport is very taxing mentally and physically, and often outsiders don’t understand just how taxing it is. The understanding that wrestlers have of what they deal with in order to compete in this sport leads to an intense respect for each other, even admiration.

Even though wrestling teaches sportsmanship, it also teaches a unique form of competitiveness. Wrestlers are members of a team. However, to train for matches, the team wrestles each other. In a sense, your teammate becomes your competitor. You have to work harder: you have to beat your teammate in practice to stay on the team. You have to be better than all those in your weight class on your team in order to compete for the team. You have to train more than your opponent in a match if you want to beat them. Yet, for all that you do in order to beat those you are up against, you still respect and admire them when they beat you, because you know how hard they must have worked in order to do so, and you might even forge a few friendships.

One of the other benefits of wrestling for the ADHD child is the fact that it doesn’t require a whole lot of thought. While football, soccer, or baseball all require players to consider what others might do, where others are, and what they need to do in response to anything others might do, wrestling is more instinctive. There is some thought, as you size up your opponent and try to figure out the best way to take them down, but for the most part, a good wrestler simply reacts to any situation that arises so that they can gain the advantage. This ability can help your child in other areas.

Your child will also gain knowledge of nutrition, proper dieting and weight maintenance, which will benefit them throughout their lives. Many parents find that their child’s diet can either ease or increase their child’s ADHD symptoms, yet they can’t always pinpoint what specific foods or ingredients are doing it. The dieting knowledge they will get from wrestling will naturally lead to eating a healthier diet, one lacking the preservatives, artificial ingredients and dyes that are often the instigator of increased symptoms.

Wrestling also leads to increased speed, better balance and coordination, reflexes, strength, endurance and agility.

One last benefit that isn’t often thought of is the self defense benefit. The moves learned in wrestling are moves that your child can use to keep themselves safe in the event of physical attack by a bully or other person who intends to do physical harm. This not only adds to their confidence and self esteem, but can help to ease your mind as a parent, knowing that your child has the skills to be able to defend and protect himself.

Wrestling has some huge benefits, for anyone, but especially for a child with ADHD. Coach Kane has worked with children with ADHD, so if you’re looking for more information, consider contacting him. Contact information for Ocala Wrestling is:

(352) 572-7721
dpk0327@aol.com
5000 S.E. Maricamp Road
Ocala, FL 34480

The Benefits of Wrestling: Why You Should Wrestle

There are plenty of benefits awarded to the wrestlers who dedicate themselves to the sport. It’s obvious that wrestling develops a physically strong base, but it also teaches lessons that can be translated into other aspects of life once a wrestler’s career is over. If you’re uncertain about whether or not you or your child should wrestle, this guide offers a few reasons that should help you make your final decision.

It’s Universally Understood

Wrestling is one of the only sports that everyone in the world can understand. There probably aren’t many people in the world who haven’t wrestled around or roughhoused with siblings and friends. The desire to test one’s strength and physical ability is innate — kids everywhere do it for fun! Competitive wrestling, in a formal setting, is a sport understood at its most primal level.

Anybody Can Wrestle

Wrestling doesn’t discriminate. No matter your body type — height or weight — there is a place for you in wrestling. In some sports, only certain body types are able to succeed. In wrestling, as long as you are tough and have the desire to win, nothing else matters. Weight classes ensure fairness amongst the competitors, so you’re never too small or too big to participate.

Most wrestling teams don’t even cut their athletes from participating for lack of skill or talent. Rather, it’s more common for a wrestler to get cut from a team for not meeting academic, citizenship, or other (nonphysical) requirements. As long as you have the desire to be a member of the team, that’s where you belong.

Hot Tip: Female Grapplers

The popularity of women’s wrestling has grown exponentially in the last decade. Today, women compete against other women at every level from youth competition to the Olympic Games. Because of the recent laws put into place to ensure equality between male and female athletes, women may now choose to practice and compete on men’s wrestling teams if a separate women’s program does not exist

Personal Growth & Development

Sports are a great way to establish and reinforce positive personality traits and characteristics. Wrestling, in particular, embraces and teaches an array of life lessons that may not be as strongly promoted in other sports:

Self-confidence

When you wrestle, you can’t rely on anyone but yourself. You have to be accountable for your own successes and failures. For this reason, wrestlers must be confident. Without a positive attitude, there will be no success. From the onset, wrestlers learn to count on themselves, gaining confidence on and off the wrestling mats.

Discipline

Waking up before the sun rises for early morning runs, fasting to meet a desired weight, sacrificing a social life in order to train and compete —these are only a few of a wrestler’s duties. One of the most beneficial lessons a wrestler will learn is that this sport requires an insane work ethic. Sometimes, you have to do things that aren’t that “fun” to reach your goals.

Mental Toughness

Wrestlers learn to be both physically and mentally tough. It takes a tremendous amount of toughness to pick yourself up off of the mat when you’re losing, and it takes incredible will power to lose that last pound before a weigh-in. You’ll never be able to name a successful wrestler with a weak mind because, well, there isn’t one.

Sportsmanship

People who have never wrestled have a hard time understanding how mentally and physically taxing it is on competitors. Because of this, wrestlers develop more than just a sense of respect for each other — they develop an admiration. They know how difficult it is to win.

Opponents are always required to shake hands before and after each match. Nevertheless, it’s not uncommon to see foes turn into friends after the final whistle blows. Matches often end with embraces, and sometimes the loser will even raise the winner’s hand!

Competitiveness

Every sport teaches its athletes to be competitive. However, wrestling is different because your team essentially becomes your opponent. In order to stay on the team, you must survive the practices. In order to compete for the team, you’ll need to beat everyone on your team who is in your weight class. To win in competition, you need to train harder than your opponent. You need to want it more. No matter how you look at it, the odds are going to be stacked against you. Relax! You’ll soon thrive on good competition.

Faces of Wrestling …

Alexander Karelin

Style: Greco-Roman

Place of Birth: Novosibirsk, Russia

Status: Retired

Title: Deputy of Stavropol Krai

Getting to know Alexander: Alexander Karelin is regarded as the best wrestler in world history, having garnered three Olympic Gold medals in Greco-Roman wrestling while on a 13-year winning streak. Since his retirement, he has channeled all that he’s learned from wrestling into becoming an influential member in Russian politics, serving as a representative of the State Duma.

Physical Fitness

The degree of athleticism it takes to succeed in wrestling is second to none. Although many wrestlers don’t start out as “natural athletes,” wrestling improves balance, reflexes, strength, endurance, and agility. Wrestlers are often very lean and strong for their body weight. A wrestler’s physique is further reinforced by the body fat and hydration tests that are enforced at the scholastic and collegiate level.

The knowledge they’ll gain about proper dieting and weight maintenance will benefit wrestlers long after their competitive careers are over. Wrestling will undoubtedly improve an athlete’s capabilities in other sports as well.

Self-Defense

Wrestling teaches the basic skills about how to protect yourself on the event of a physical altercation:

Body positioning
How to control an opponent
How to defend against different types of attacks
Toughness

If anything, basic wrestling skills will help you better understand how to keep yourself safe in some of the most undesirable situations.

Making It Count

You are going to be faced with many decisions in your life and getting involved with wrestling is, perhaps, one of the best decisions you could make! What you learn in wrestling can be translated into nearly any endeavor. Keep in mind that, like anything, what you’ll get out of wrestling is determined by how much effort you’re willing to put in. In order to grasp its maximum benefit, be prepared to put forth 110 percent in training and competitions. Now, get on the mat and make it count!

The Benefits of Wrestling: 15 Reasons Why Kids Should Wrestle

The Benefits of Wrestling – 15 reasons why kids should wrestle!

Why kids should wrestle?

If you’re pondering this interesting question, you’ve come to the right place! The benefits of wrestling are numerous and plenty, and applied to the subject of kids wrestling, I can tell you without hesitation that if your child does commit to wrestling classes it will be one of the best decisions they ever make.

Kids Wrestling has provided below, the 15 best reasons of why kids should wrestle:

1. To make friends and build real, meaningful relationships

Kids wrestling classes are a great place for children to make friends and become more sociable, this is especially true for combat sports like wrestling, the close contact and physical demands of the sport ensure that building special friendships is an unavoidable and most beneficial aspect wrestling

2. To build confidence

any physically demanding sport will inevitable build a more a confident child, but this is especially true for the sport of wrestling. Regular attendance at kids wrestling classes will most certainly increase a child’s: physical ability, mental ability, social independence, health and fitness, and friendship circle, all of which will build a child’s confidence as a direct result.

3. To get fit or maintain physical fitness

Wrestling classes are a great way for any one, child or adult to maintain and even supercharge their fitness. Regular attendance at a kids wrestling class will 100% improve a child’s fitness because wrestling is a very physically demanding sport which uses multiple muscles groups and multiple energy systems to perform. Due to the fast paced and physically exhausting nature of the sport even drilling techniques will build muscular endurance, aerobic and anaerobic fitness, strength, speed, agility and co-ordination. Wrestlers are some of the most well rounded and fittest athletes on earth.

4. To Instill and encourage self discipline

Children who attend regular kids wrestling classes will undoubtedly develop more a disciplined approach to life as a direct consequence of their wrestling training. This can come from a multiplicity of sources including, physical fitness, diet and nutrition, assistant coaching and leading, technique drilling and even things such as wrestling student chores such as helping coaches maintain gym cleanliness (I used to stay behind to hover and mop the mats with my coach!).

5. To Improve knowledge of diet and nutrition

The competitive aspects of wrestling and many other combat sports always involve diet and weight management, especially if you or your children are competitive wrestlers. Because competitive wrestling involves being categorized into specific weight categories it is pivotal that you’re eating plan is maintained properly in order to make weight, not making weight can lead to you being overpowered and out matched. Weight management and nutrition is something always taught to wrestlers. This ensures your child’s diet will be exceptionally healthy.

6. To be able to defend yourself safely

Kids wrestling is a great way for a child to combat bullying safely and efficiently without anyone getting hurt, because the art of wrestling has no striking, a person can successfully and safely defend an aggressor with a technique, and safely keep the aggressor neutralized until help arrives (although this is a last resort, telling an adult or settling problems with words are always a preferable option).

7. To have a hobby that is positive

Wrestling is a very positive hobby for any person to have, child or adult. The benefits are almost innumerable! Kids wrestling classes that are attended regularly will provide any child with a much more positive and productive lifestyle as a consequence. A great reason why kids should wrestle!

8. to provide kids with the option of higher education

Not so much an option in England, but for our readers from the USA or Canada, committed wrestlers can gain a wrestling scholarship into colleges, scholarships that can eventually lead to very successful careers in such pursuits as: Olympic competition, wrestling coaching in schools, colleges and gyms, Mixed Martial Arts and much more. Practicing wrestling can also lead to jobs in promotion, regulation and judging (in both England and USA).

9. to provide an outlet to keep children and teenagers out of trouble

Wrestling is a great pursuit to provide focus and discipline in any person’s life, no matter their circumstances. The pursuit of excellent in any sporting hobby can be a life changing and even life saving staple in community.

10. Wrestling is a worldwide and culturally rich sport

Kids should wrestling because they will encounter children and people from all over the world and this is a great reason why kids should wrestle. They will learn about different wrestling styles, wrestling techniques and their country of origin. Kids who participate in wrestling competition will also wrestle against children from all over the globe. Wrestling is a sport that unquestionably crosses social boundaries and drives people to a new level of understand of different cultures.

11. Wrestling is fun

Wrestling is a great way to participate in sport and have a hell of a lot of fun doing so! Kids should wrestle because a well taught session is especially rich in wrestling games, fun drills, and purposeful play. Watching your technique improve and sparring ability progress is also a really fun aspect of wrestling, who doesn’t like winning medals right?

12. Wrestling skills can be applied to life

Wrestling is a very demanding but also very rewarding sport if you’re committed enough, all the things you will learn from wrestling will undoubtedly set you or your wrestling child up for life. As the popular quote by Dan Gable goes “once you’ve wrestled, everything else in life is easy!”

13. Anyone can wrestle

Anyone can wrestle, no matter your age, gender, weight, height, religion and sexual orientation. Wrestling is a universal sport, it does not discriminate or discourage any one to participate. As long you have the desire to participate all are welcome.

14. It develops mental both physical and mental toughness

Development of toughness is a great reason why kids should wrestle, due to the intense and physically exhausting nature of the sport, mental toughness is developed automatically as a result. This is especially true for competing wrestlers. Wrestling is a sport that pits one person against another in a one on one scenario. It is this kind of competition that develops mental toughness the most, as the only person you have to rely on is yourself, therefore a wrestler must work on their mental game as much as their technique and physicality to really excel.

15. Wrestling is cool, therefore you are cool.

Why kids should wrestle? Obviously because it’s super cool. No more explanation needed…

If you were unsure about whether your kids should wrestle, I hope after reading these 15 reasons, you realize that kids wrestling classes undoubtedly will improve all aspects of any person’s life. By allowing your child to wrestle I guarantee that you are arming your child with all the necessary tools they need to live a better life and one day take on the world.