The Weight Of Real Wrestlers Essays - Sports Rules And Regulations

The Weight Of Real Wrestlers Essays - Sports Rules And Regulations The Weight Of Real Wrestlers High School Wrestling has always been thought of as the hardest and most enduring sport that takes place in high school. Only the toughest Jocks try out, and the weak are quickly discarded. Young women showing school spirit come to watch as the arms of young men in spandex are mingled about. During matches, coaches yell and scream at their young apprentices while they desperately battle to pin their opponent of equal weight. But, how equally are the two enemies matched? How much weight did one person have to lose, and how fast did he have to do it to be able to wrestle in that weight class? Once the wrestler makes his weight does he really have any physical energy left to wrestle? Losing an extraordinary amount of weight in a short amount of time is dangerous and unhealthy, and should be regulated for the safety of the athletes. Coach James Derek Donoho is now in his third year of being head coach at Don Lugo High School. He says wrestling is a very dangerous contact sport that always has the risk of injuries, and people get hurt everyday. He believes it's a good experience for young men and he is glad he went through it when he was in high school. Physical injuries come with the turf, and every person knows it when they join wrestling or any other sport. It's the un-implied risks that are not seen until commitments are made, that are the most dangerous to young athletes. Donoho is pro losing weight and says its good to loose weight and move to a lighter weight class, because it's a little easier on the wrestler. It feels to them that they are wrestling someone lighter then they are. That is a tactical advantage, however people also move up to wrestle in higher weight levels to fill spots. That makes it unnecessary for teens to lose weight because they are already wrestling someone lighter then they are. We don't pressure our players to lose a lot of weight, says Donoho, they chose which weight class they want to wrestle in. If that's true, then there are a lot of young athletes who are willing to lose a tremendous amount of weight in a short amount of time just to make Varsity. Do people really put themselves in such danger to achieve the pride of being on a varsity team? Brandon Frescas, a third year wrestler on the team, says coaches just flat out ask us if we could get down to a certain weight by a certain time to fill spots. Sometimes it's moving up a weight class, sometimes it's losing a little weight, and sometimes it's a lot of weight. Losing 10 to 15 pounds in a week is a lot of weight to lose. 10 to 15 pounds in a week is an absurd amount of weight to lose. On T.V advertisements say their diet can help people lose 10 to 15 pounds in a month, but never does it say one week. 15 pounds is about the size of a medium dog. Could anyone imagine stuff about the size of a dog leaving ones body in only one week? Michael Nava, also a third year wrestler, says coach asked me what weight I thought I could get down to, and I told him 135 pounds. I weighed about 137 pounds and he asked me if he could count on me to get down to 130 pounds. I thought about it and told him yes because I didn't want to let him down. Pressure from the coaches exists and every pl ayer knows its there. Although the coaches won't admit it, Michael Nava says, it's dangerous if you have to lose a lot of weight. Losing an enormous amount of weight such as 10 to 15 pounds in one week seems impossible to an everyday person. But, according to the wrestlers it's only almost impossible. There is an entire process wrestlers go through and it's different depending upon how much weight needs to be lost. The secrets are passed down and taught to the younger wrestlers by the more experienced ones. The first thing taught is