Damn, thanks for lifting the curtain a bit...it's so curious how seemingly reasonable rules create an intrinsic incentive for this kind of slippery slope to happen almost automatically. And I don't really have a good answer for how this can be fixed: You can't just do away with weight classes because they're there for a reason.
Same! We ran events (US Grappling) where we had weight categories. Clearly, we thought we needed them back then, and... well, we were certainly right.
I felt like I rushed this today, but the story took on a life of its own and I realized I had better quit while I was (mostly) ahead! There's just so much to telling even a simple story - you have to have that context or it's just not interesting or noteworthy.
i dated a wrestler briefly in high school and was thrilled when we broke up so i would never have to hear another horrifying story about making weight.
I was friends with the wrestling team in high school. Great bunch of guys! (I was one of the few cheerleaders—okay, the only cheerleader—that went to their matches, often dragging my booster club officer friend with me. I even had a cheer specific to wrestling 😂) Riding the bus with them was WAY different than a bus full of football or basketball players!
They were actually appreciative of have supporters in the stands. They certainly goofed around in the bus but always treated me with respect. A wrestling never tried to flip my skirt or made “dumb cheerleader” jokes (quite ironic given my GPA in comparison to numerous f-ball/b-ball players on academic probation). They weren’t gorging on food on the way to a meet, so the bus was always cleaner. They still comment on my “showing up” at class reunions (and I bet they will say something again at this summer’s 35th celebration😂).
Excellent observation about a lack of support. We were stoked whenever anyone gave us words of encouragement! There were a couple of cheerleader-types (I don't remember any actual cheerleaders from the school's varsity team, but very enthusiastic family members of wrestlers, EG).
There were some really smart cookies on that wrestling team with me.
What was different about the wrestlers? I never did any other organized high school sports (though my friends and I played them all in our back yards nonstop).
I mean, he almost certainly died from dehydration, so it's a cousin.. but maybe I could have made that more clear. I was burning a candle trying to get this one done!
I've always heard the weight-cutting can be brutal. I've heard of several boxers dying in the ring because of this, one being Jimmy Garcia who was stopped by Gabriel Ruelas in the 1990s in the eleventh round. Garcia went into a coma and never came out, but he'd lost a huge amount of weight in a short time. All that dehydration cannot be good for a person who doesn't even fight, much less one who does. I know in the old days of boxing, guys bounced around divisions more than they do now and they also had same-day weigh-ins. I'm not sure what the answer is. Maybe if there was some test to see how dehydrated a fighter is before stepping in the ring and if they're past that point, no go. And some guys are just weight bullies. They purposefully fight in divisions they are too big for just to have a big advantage but even that doesn't always work out, either. Great post, Andrew.
Yeah, that solution is pretty much what HS wrestling has evolved into, from what I gather. Those hydration tests are crucial!
And, I certainly know just what you mean about weight-cutters. I would routinely grapple against people who naturally walked around 20+ pounds bigger than me.
Damn, thanks for lifting the curtain a bit...it's so curious how seemingly reasonable rules create an intrinsic incentive for this kind of slippery slope to happen almost automatically. And I don't really have a good answer for how this can be fixed: You can't just do away with weight classes because they're there for a reason.
Same! We ran events (US Grappling) where we had weight categories. Clearly, we thought we needed them back then, and... well, we were certainly right.
I felt like I rushed this today, but the story took on a life of its own and I realized I had better quit while I was (mostly) ahead! There's just so much to telling even a simple story - you have to have that context or it's just not interesting or noteworthy.
i dated a wrestler briefly in high school and was thrilled when we broke up so i would never have to hear another horrifying story about making weight.
sports are gross. i said what i said.
No disagreement here, but OTOH, being a human is kinda gross.
Weight cutting is really awful, though, especially for kids who are still developing. Such a terrible idea.
I was friends with the wrestling team in high school. Great bunch of guys! (I was one of the few cheerleaders—okay, the only cheerleader—that went to their matches, often dragging my booster club officer friend with me. I even had a cheer specific to wrestling 😂) Riding the bus with them was WAY different than a bus full of football or basketball players!
They were actually appreciative of have supporters in the stands. They certainly goofed around in the bus but always treated me with respect. A wrestling never tried to flip my skirt or made “dumb cheerleader” jokes (quite ironic given my GPA in comparison to numerous f-ball/b-ball players on academic probation). They weren’t gorging on food on the way to a meet, so the bus was always cleaner. They still comment on my “showing up” at class reunions (and I bet they will say something again at this summer’s 35th celebration😂).
Excellent observation about a lack of support. We were stoked whenever anyone gave us words of encouragement! There were a couple of cheerleader-types (I don't remember any actual cheerleaders from the school's varsity team, but very enthusiastic family members of wrestlers, EG).
There were some really smart cookies on that wrestling team with me.
What was different about the wrestlers? I never did any other organized high school sports (though my friends and I played them all in our back yards nonstop).
At first read I thought Evan died from cutting weight!
I mean, he almost certainly died from dehydration, so it's a cousin.. but maybe I could have made that more clear. I was burning a candle trying to get this one done!
I've always heard the weight-cutting can be brutal. I've heard of several boxers dying in the ring because of this, one being Jimmy Garcia who was stopped by Gabriel Ruelas in the 1990s in the eleventh round. Garcia went into a coma and never came out, but he'd lost a huge amount of weight in a short time. All that dehydration cannot be good for a person who doesn't even fight, much less one who does. I know in the old days of boxing, guys bounced around divisions more than they do now and they also had same-day weigh-ins. I'm not sure what the answer is. Maybe if there was some test to see how dehydrated a fighter is before stepping in the ring and if they're past that point, no go. And some guys are just weight bullies. They purposefully fight in divisions they are too big for just to have a big advantage but even that doesn't always work out, either. Great post, Andrew.
Yeah, that solution is pretty much what HS wrestling has evolved into, from what I gather. Those hydration tests are crucial!
And, I certainly know just what you mean about weight-cutters. I would routinely grapple against people who naturally walked around 20+ pounds bigger than me.
I wrestled one time against the team’s star. The number of seconds it took him to pin me was certainly less than 5.
Was this in a wrestling room or otherwise matted area? Sounds like a good story!