If you’re looking for a sport to do or put your child in that will teach him/her great life skills and get them physically fit – then wrestling may be just the sport for you! There are many youth clubs, middle school and high school programs around the country.
Here are the top tips from Health Fitness Revolution and author of the book ReSYNC Your Life Samir Becic that one can receive from wrestling:
- Anyone can do it! Wrestling has different age groups and weight classes to make it fair for everyone involved. The sport does not discriminate against how old someone is or their weight. There is an age division and a weight class for everyone!
- Mental skills: With wrestling one can learn how to overcome many obstacles and challenges that will make them mentally stronger and prepared to take on the world. Some of the skills one can acquire from wrestling include: self-reliance, self-confidence and self-discipline. A wrestler will also learn to develop sportsmanship and respect for their opponent. Every wrestler will lose at least once (if not many times!) in their career and this teaches them to always be respectful and be a good sport. Losing will also teach the wrestler to always remain humble.
- Total Body Workout: In wrestling, a person works out their entire body all at once. The constant pushing and pulling motions work the entire upper body, and since many motions are in a squatted position, the legs get worked as well. Wrestling also requires a great deal of core strength for balance and short, explosive movements when trying to secure a takedown and a great deal of flexibility when fighting off an opponent’s takedown and turn attempts.
- Cardiovascular: A wrestling match is six minutes of non stop action, so a wrestler needs be in excellent cardiovascular shape. During a practice and in matches, wrestlers use all of the major muscle groups in the body – making wrestling is a great way to get physically fit.
- Increased Cardiovascular Endurance: The more a person wrestles, the more they develop both functional strength and cardiovascular endurance. Many wrestlers do not just stop after practice, they will often get in an extra run early in the morning or later on in the evening to get in even shape and help them make a certain weight class. Since wrestling employs all of the major muscle groups in the body, the heart will have to pump blood to all these muscles at a fast rate. Lung capacity will also greatly increase due to having to make so many short, explosive movements and being in high intensity, non-stop action for six straight minutes.
- Proper Nutrition: Proper nutrition is a very important aspect of wrestling since there are weight classes. A wrestler must eat healthy all the time and drink enough water throughout the day to properly manage their weight. Eating healthy and staying hydrated also helps the body recover from the long grueling practices and high intensity matches.
- Burns A LOT of Calories: One six-minute match of wrestling is said to burn around 400 calories. A wrestler can expect to wrestle no less than two matches a day at a tournament so they will burn around 800 calories in just 12 minutes! An average wrestling practice will last between one and a half and two hours, in that time frame an athlete will lose an average of 1,000 calories!
