Damn Wrestling Coach

Off Topic
21

[quote]KombatAthlete wrote:
This is a long story, so I’ll give you some background first.

I am currently a high school wrestler. There is another kid in my weight class on my team, who I handily dispose of whenever we go live, which is pretty often. If we go live for a total of 40 minutes, he scores like 6 points on me, and I get him solidly to his back a number of times and score once or twice on him almost every minute.

The first tournament I did decently well, going 2-2, losing to two pretty tough kids. The next tournament I didn’t do as well, went 0-2, but it was the toughest tournament they have in my section (county) besides the post-season, and my section is pretty tough. I gassed out in my first match pretty badly, but I think that was at least in part due to a bad cold I had at the same. When I finished wrestling, I wasn’t really ‘cough up a lung’ dead, my throat was just as dry as its ever been because I was breathing so heavily through my mouth.

Granted, I wasn’t in the best shape and was in somewhat of a mental rut at the time, but everyone is entitled to a bad day once in a while. Also, the kid was a scrub last year, but is currently ranked highly in my section, but my coach still told me I lost to a scrub. The rankings weren’t out then. My second match I was winning but in the third period got caught in a bear-hug and taken to my back.

But now the coach is starting the other kid on my team in a dual meet on Friday. Keep in mind that he is the coach’s favorite, and always gives it his all and wrestles with heart despite being very unathletic. He did well in the damn JV tournaments, but I’ve never really held JV superstars in high regard, and I can’t imagine how a respectable coach would. I never even wrestled off with him for the spot, as is customary in the wrestling world and on my team.

I don’t know what else to do but beat the other kid whenever we go live, but that doesn’t seem to change the coach’s mind. I talked to the coach today and he said if I kept working hard, focusing on speed and creating movement, then I MIGHT get a shot at a wrestle-off NEXT WEEK. There was no wrestle off for me to lose the spot to a kid I beat consistently during live, but there has to be for me re-claim it? And I’m not even guaranteed a shot at it?

I understand him taking me off Varsity temporarily in order to increase my work ethic, but this feels oppressive and ridiculous now. Favoritism at its finest.

I always thought wrestling was one of the more objective sports out there. You can show whose better by facing off one-on-one, and didn’t have to deal with the coach’s opinions as much. But I guess my coach has other ways of doing things, and somehow the people he is fond of always seem to benefit from his mysterious algorithm, even if they aren’t really that good.

I was a hair away from having a rant at him (the coach) today but I knew that wouldn’t solve anything. He compliments me during practice then puts someone I wreck during live ahead of me for the dual meet. WTF should I do? Am I seeing things in a distorted way, or are things as fucking ridiculous as I think they are?

Also, I’m not the only on my team that thinks my coach is being a major d-bag this year. About 1/4 of the team, a lot of them returning Varsity, has quit this year.[/quote]

You have a losing record and make excuses and admit you weren’t in good shape and were in a “mental rut”. You accuse the coach of favoritism as it is a fact. Why would a coach reward such an attitude?

If in the end the other kid wins at a better rate than you did then the coach made the right decision, no?

It is hard to be sympathetic to your situation when you make many excuses.

22

[quote]aikigreg wrote:
Though that would be after I took you to the circle and put you through 30 minutes of live wrestling with me - at which point you’d puke.

CaliforniaLaw wrote:
Wow - you sound like a really tough guy! You would smoke a high school kid? I am in awe.[/quote]

^

23

[quote]otoko wrote:

You have a losing record and make excuses and admit you weren’t in good shape and were in a “mental rut”. You accuse the coach of favoritism as it is a fact. Why would a coach reward such an attitude?

If in the end the other kid wins at a better rate than you did then the coach made the right decision, no?

It is hard to be sympathetic to your situation when you make many excuses.[/quote]

Agreed, if he was 6-0 he wouldn’t lose his spot. This is a sport, not social welfare.

24

Maybe you should stick to writing and being the smartest man alive and give up on wrestling.

25

this thread is great.

26

[quote]CaliforniaLaw wrote:
aikigreg wrote:
Though that would be after I took you to the circle and put you through 30 minutes of live wrestling with me - at which point you’d puke.

Wow - you sound like a really tough guy! You would smoke a high school kid? I am in awe.[/quote]

You obviously don’t know wrestling. You want to help a kid get better you wrestle him and show him what to do. It’s not like all the fat football coaches who stand around eating doughnuts while their kids workout. Wrestling coaches WRESTLE.

If my kids are late, it’s 10 mins on the mat with me. If they miss practice, it’s 20. Going live with their coach is both a teaching tool, hardcore conditioning, and a reminder to do their best.

It’s not about smoking the kid. It’s a life lesson. Maybe you don’t know anything about that, though.

27

You’re 2-4 on the season. If you were 4-2, then I’d say you have a pretty good beef, but fess up, you’re not coming through when the lights are on. Your coach is either trying to get some points from someone else, or he’s trying to motivate you to do better. When you’re the coach, you can make the decisions. Until then, work your ass off and go balls out when you get your chance.

DB

28

By the way, for those of you who are obviously not wrestlers or coaches, wrestle offs sometimes don’t mean JACK.

Two years ago I had a senior heavy who would win every single wrestle-off against his freshman teammate and then when we went to a tourney he’d go 1-2-bbq every damn time.

I got fed up with it and took him out and put the freshman into competition anyway, even though he lost every wrestle off. First time out 1-2-bbq. Second time, 1-2, third time he placed second in the tournament, 4-0.

After that, the freshman had so much confidence and worked so hard the senior, who was SUPPOSEDLY the better wrestler, never saw anymore varsity mat time, never won another wrestle-off, and the freshman won state the next year.

to the Original Poster - your coach knows a lot more than you. He knows more about YOU than you do as well, assuming he’s a halfway decent coach. Work harder, work smarter, and show some growth and things will likely change.

29

what the hell does 1-2-bbq mean? and yes, i know tourneys are double elim.

30

[quote]BJJRaver wrote:
what the hell does 1-2-bbq mean? and yes, i know tourneys are double elim.[/quote]

Wrestling lingo. Most tourneys are double elimination - if you lose once you go to the consolation round and try to wrestle back for third place. You can lose once and keep on winning and stay in the tourney. Lose twice and you are cooked/done/barbecued/finished/toast.

Thus 1 loss, 2 loss and you are BBQ’d.

31

[quote]t3h_Squirr3l wrote:
Sounds like you think you’re a superstar and deserve everything because you’re naturally a better athlete. Guess what, you don’t. Instead of you learning from this, you sound like you are making excuses to justify your lack of heart and work ethic. This is evidenced in your reasoning for losing your recent matches. Also, this ‘favouritsm’ bullshit.

Kids like you might make a college team but never make it past because you lack the willpower and the mental fortitude to deal with adversity. Go find another sport, buttercup. You’re not a wrestler, you’re a pussy wannabe.

Kids like the one who took your spot may never even wrestle past high school, but they’re true wrestlers; they wrestle because they love it.

Wrestling is sweating your balls off and getting pasted into the mat time and time again and getting up. It’s fighting from underneath the sprawl, it’s being down a number of points in the last peroid with a minute to go and being exhausted but having no other thought than that of fighting back and winning.

You dont’ seem to get that, but I do because I am just like that kid who you constatly beat. I may have never gone past club or high school but I am more of a man and more of a wrestler than you and so is that guy who took that spot. [/quote]

Shut the fuck up.

All you do is stomp around on these boards and act like youre a badass.

It sounds like youre awfully fucking idealistic. Stop reading that dramatic bullshit on the Animal Pak ads and go spend half the time you spend bitching at people on message boards working in the gym.

32

Is the kid who took your spot younger than you? I coach high school football and if two kids are equal in terms of talent you always start the younger kid.

Sometimes we will even start the younger kid if he isn’t as good as a senior but he is a very hard worker and has a lot of physical potential.

Nice blanket statement aikigreg. I’ve seen my share of fat wrestling coaches that eat doughnuts. I consistently run sprints and agilities with my team and lead the weightroom workouts.

33

[quote]BJJRaver wrote:
what the hell does 1-2-bbq mean? and yes, i know tourneys are double elim.[/quote]

We used to say lose two and barbecue at rugby tournys.

34

When your conditioning is in question many coaches will do this. Bring up your conditioning and then get your wrestle off. He’s trying to light a fire in you and it looks like it worked. You will make the whole program look bad by going out there and gassing out.

You didn’t get caught in a bear hug, you got bear hugged because you were gassed and you go pinned because you were gassed. NO ONE should get bear hugged anyway, you were obviously off your game and it was likely because you were tired.

I’ve seen it happen and have benched STAR wrestlers because they are lazy in practice. If he didn’t do this now how would your conditioning been when you get to the tougher part of your schedule when it really matters?

35

[quote]tpa wrote:
Is the kid who took your spot younger than you? I coach high school football and if two kids are equal in terms of talent you always start the younger kid.

Sometimes we will even start the younger kid if he isn’t as good as a senior but he is a very hard worker and has a lot of physical potential.

aikigreg wrote:
It’s not like all the fat football coaches who stand around eating doughnuts while their kids workout. Wrestling coaches WRESTLE.

Nice blanket statement aikigreg. I’ve seen my share of fat wrestling coaches that eat doughnuts. I consistently run sprints and agilities with my team and lead the weightroom workouts.

[/quote]

Whoops! I’m so sorry. I specifically meant the coaches in my area. Somehow that didn’t make it to the post - I’m a doofus. Most coaches of any sport are pretty hard workers.

Here a “football coach” is a term used very loosely. Its definition: a way for the district’s athletic director to pay his friend an extra ten grand a year.

I didn’t mean to generalize.

36

[quote]pushpulljunkie wrote:
When your conditioning is in question many coaches will do this. Bring up your conditioning and then get your wrestle off. He’s trying to light a fire in you and it looks like it worked. You will make the whole program look bad by going out there and gassing out.

You didn’t get caught in a bear hug, you got bear hugged because you were gassed and you go pinned because you were gassed. NO ONE should get bear hugged anyway, you were obviously off your game and it was likely because you were tired.

I’ve seen it happen and have benched STAR wrestlers because they are lazy in practice. If he didn’t do this now how would your conditioning been when you get to the tougher part of your schedule when it really matters?[/quote]

I think/hope that’s it.

37

[quote]CaliforniaLaw wrote:

you can’t do anything about it. look at it this way: in a few years you you’ll be doing much bigger and better things.

i laugh out loud thinking about what a loser my head coach is. at 29 i am more successful than he is at double my age. to think: at one point he controlled a small part of my destiny.
[/quote]

I laugh out loud at the fact that you seem to have held a grudge over splitting time in hs football for the last 11 years

38

have you all seen the first marcelo garcia arm drag series dvd? something about this thread made me want to ask.

39

What’s the matter, Fighting Tiger; you just like our excuse-making friend here too ? Do you like to make excuses as to why you never made it in sports or in life at what you wanted ? Did that hit home too much for you ? You’re sad, following me around like your stupid little reply suggests and analyzing everything I write.

40

A bear-hug man, just throw the bastard.
You could always injure scrubby, but that’ll get on your conscience.
And karma will come in bite you on the ass.