by Michael David, photos by Holly Flom
Hidden down a short hallway, located in the Regional Training Center, you can find the mat room. The place is hot, courtesy of the heaters lining the walls, which are always turned to full blast before a practice.
Why would anyone work out in this stifling heat? Because they are part of one of, if not the, most dominant, sports programs at RCTC, the wrestling team.
To an outside perspective, wrestling is often considered a touchy and sweaty sport with eccentric athletes and self-destructive weight-cutting. I was that outsider for most of my life, until my first day on the mat. In the chase of greatness, I ended up here.
Since many of you reading likely occupy this outsider perspective, allow me to bring you into the mat room as I paint a picture of the day preceding a competition.
6:00 a.m. I’m awake and immediately check my weight and mentally prepare. 170. Only five pounds above my weight class. Not terrible, but not good. I layer on my long and short-sleeve shirts, sweater, shorts, and sweatpants. After my stretches, I head over to the sports center and begin the process of expelling as much water from my body as possible.
As I run, bike, walk, and shadow wrestle, I feel the dehydration and hunger. It’s a wall that’s constantly closing in on me, telling me I can’t, telling me I won’t, and telling me I don’t want it.
7:30 a.m. After my workout, I peel the drenched clothes from my body and check my weight. 167, almost there. I shower and dress for a full day of classes and tutoring in the Writing Center.
9:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. I leave the water bottle and lunch at home and force myself to concentrate on my instructors and the students I tutor, but my mind is currently dining at a restaurant with a tall glass of water.
2:30 p.m. I nap until practice, it is the only way to escape dehydration and hunger.
4:00 p.m. Final practice before the competition. The mood in the wrestling room is stifled, and the air is hot. Wrestlers are checking the scale and layering on their sweats, preparing for the acrobatic and exhausting movements of wrestling. My goal for the practice is 3 pounds, so that I can have water before bed.
We practice on our own for the most part, my partner and I both feeling that wall closing in, making us slower, telling us we don’t want it. But we all want it. We choose to do this, and we revel in the pain and suffering. I barely lost two pounds; no water tonight.
9:00 p.m. I have an early bedtime, and just manage to fall asleep by crunching on ice cubes, paired with tiny scoops of peanut butter.
8:30 a.m. Everyone is back to their old selves after the weigh-ins. Now is the time to do what we came here to do, the reason we suffer, the reason we practice.
This tournament is difficult. There’s every level and division, even a few D1 teams…
My first match, a D2 wrestler from Colorado. Their team doesn’t matter, their rank doesn’t matter, and their division doesn’t matter. Anyone can beat anyone on any given day. That’s the beauty of wrestling. On the mat, nothing else matters. It is the ultimate battle of wills. Can you hold somebody down? Are you going to stay down?
The whistle blows. We both swing, clubbing each other on the side of the head. The pushes and pulls take everything I have. Each club chips away at my stores of energy, but every tie-up and every fake feeds me data. I’m feeling the reactions and building my confidence.
I fake the club, lower my level, and shoot for the single leg. I manage to get both hands to the leg, but my opponent sprawls, shoving his hips into the back of my head.. Here is the real battle. I steel myself, pull the leg in, raise my chest, and build up into the shot. My will prevails. His defense crumbles into scrambling movements of attempted escape, and I get the first takedown. My lungs are burning, my muscles are screaming. I look to the clock and see that it’s only halfway through the first period…
This is wrestling. This is what we sacrifice our bodies for, what we train our minds to handle. Those who see the sport through an awkward lens have simply never felt those feelings. The battle of wills. The battle against yourself. It is the ultimate teacher and character builder. A common saying among wrestlers is “Once you’ve wrestled, everything else is easier.”
So when you question the motivations behind wrestling, just know it’s a simple answer. We want it.