Damn Wrestling Coach

Off Topic
1

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.

2

In my opinion you shouldn’t lose your spot unless your beat in a wrestle off or your causing some type of trouble within the team. I don’t really understand the concept of pulling the varsity kid out to wrestle jv kids in order to boost confidence. I believe thats the wrong way to go. I don’t see any reason why you should of been removed from your varsity spot that you EARNED.

3

[quote]KombatAthlete wrote:
Keep in mind that he is the coach’s favorite, and always gives it his all and wrestles with heart despite being very unathletic.[/quote]

Holy crap… Rudy is on your team??

4

That sounds a little odd.

When I wrestled, there was one other kid in my weight class, and we would scrimmage each week to see who wrestled varsity that week.

That was that. Who ever won got the spot. Who ever lost got the j.v. match.

One thing that strikes me as a possability though, is that if the coach can’t count on you to give it all you have, he may just be giving your spot away to someone who wants it more.

The only thing to do is to show him by taking your spot. Annhialate the next match you have, and do the same in next weeks scrimmage.

Also, do you mean live drills, or all out, live wrestling?

5

I’m a wrestling coach. Suck it up. I hear a lot of justifying and if you brought that whining up to me at practice I’d bench you for a week for sure. 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.

Man up, show the coach you’re a sportsman, and you’ll get your dues if you deserve them.

6

[quote]aikigreg wrote:
I’m a wrestling coach. Suck it up. I hear a lot of justifying and if you brought that whining up to me at practice I’d bench you for a week for sure. 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.

Man up, show the coach you’re a sportsman, and you’ll get your dues if you deserve them.[/quote]

I haven’t said a word to him about it, I just let my actions speak for themselves but I’m frustrated becasue they don’t seem to be loud enough.

7

[quote]SkyzykS wrote:
Also, do you mean live drills, or all out, live wrestling?
[/quote]

All out, live wrestling.

8

One job of a coach is to get as many wins for his team as possible. If he thinks this other guy can do that, maybe that’s why he’s giving him the meet. If he’s a worse wrestler than you, he may just be giving him a chance to step up his game.

On the other hand, the other job of a coach is to make his athletes the best they can be. If he thinks you are better than the other guy, but you aren’t working your hardest or living up to your full potential, pulling you may just be his way of telling you to get to work.

So… quit complaining and get to work!

9

Look man I understand your anger because I’ve been in similar situations.

But coming on here isn’t going to make things better. There’s no answer anyone can give you here that you don’t already have. You already know that you have to prove that you can beat the guy, and if that happens, then you deserve the spot.

There are some fucked up people in this world. Things are rarely fair. Your coach might be one of those fucked up people or he may see something in you that he honestly does not like and that he feels makes you undeserving of the spot.

Whatever the case, nobody can help you here.

Use it for motivation. In the time it took you to post this thread, you could’ve hit 200 pushups.

10

[quote]Cunnivore wrote:
One job of a coach is to get as many wins for his team as possible. If he thinks this other guy can do that, maybe that’s why he’s giving him the meet. If he’s a worse wrestler than you, he may just be giving him a chance to step up his game.

On the other hand, the other job of a coach is to make his athletes the best they can be. If he thinks you are better than the other guy, but you aren’t working your hardest or living up to your full potential, pulling you may just be his way of telling you to get to work.

So… quit complaining and get to work![/quote]

Cunnivor makes a good point. Even if you’re beating the kid silly in practice, the coach may be trying to motivate you to work to your potential.

11

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.

12

You have a losing record and you are complaining because the coach is giving someone else a shot?

WTF?

13

Typical politics. There’s nothing you can do about it.

During h.s. football, I was required to rotate in with some scrub for noseguard. Of course, the defensive coach disagreed and no one on the team thought the decision made sense. but there were political decisions at play.

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.

some will say politics is everything. to some extent, that’s true. but if you’re talented and hard-working, you can make your own destiny and politics will matter much less.

14

[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.[/quote]

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

15

1.) Stop making excuses. You’re 2-4, and nobody on the entire planet gives a damn that you had a cold at the last meet. Maybe the other wrestlers did too.

2.) The coach might feel that the guy behind you matches up better with your opponents than you do. It may be the case that the guy behind you matched up poorly with yourself, but you matchup poorly with your opponents and the guy behind you does not.

Just because you can beat the fire out of your backup does not always mean that the backup will fare worse against your opponents than you do.

And in your case, it’s not like you’re lighting people up anyway.

3.) There is a very small chance that it is purely political bullshit, but if that’s the case then there’s nothing you can do about it. Life’s a bitch. However, I think it’s likely another reason.

From your posts, it sounds like you’re not working 100%. Start pulling your weight and busting your ass, or get comfy on the bench.

16

Regardless of what is going on. As long as your working hard and showing up to the practices I don’t see why there wouldn’t be a wrestle off. Record shouldn’t matter, skill shouldn’t matter. I could understand if you were slacking off and coach sent the other guy but im used to the whole wrestling off for the spot thing too…Where are you from anyways?

If it makes you feel any better im currently sick, and cutting weight for a huge tournament in a few days. :stuck_out_tongue:

17

[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]

Don’t jump to conclusions. I’m not a natural athlete by anyone’s standards. My first season in 7th grade I was 2-6, and this same person used to beat me during practice. I’ve worked damn hard to improve myself and was damn proud when I went All-County last year.

It is because I have worked hard to get where I am, which still isn’t that impressive by most standards, that I am pissed.

Someone’s quality as a wrestler isn’t judged by who has more heart, who loves the smell of sweaty balls more, or any of that crap that people who have brief love affairs with the sport seem to be so fond of. The better wrestler is the one that wins at that point in time- it is that simple. Leave it all on the mat.

I have no problem conceding defeat to somebody I lose to fairly and squarely- I may give reasons as to why I have lost, recount the move that got me taken to my back, but I 'will never pull that I got ‘stuck’, not ‘pinned’, or any of that crap. But I do have a problem when I beat someone fairly and squarely, leave it all on the mat, only have to it superceded by political bullshit.

It’s also funny when people that have only flirted with the sport on a club-level pass judgement on college wrestlers with regards to wrestling.

18

[quote]KombatAthlete wrote:
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. [/quote]

Work on your mental game man. You have to be thinking more positively about situations and make the best of them.

So you’re wrestling JV this weekend? Well think of something you need to work on and do it. Set high goals if you think you’re facing someone easy, go for the pin!

The bottom line is there are really no excuses that come from individuals who are determined to do something. If an NFL player can play his way through the playoffs with a leg fracture to get to the superbowl, a cold or something else minor should do little to impede you if you’re driven. You have to step your game up in situations like that and you CAN!

Don’t waste your time arguing with guys on this thread who are just criticizing or saying you have an attitude problem. Think bigger than them. You just gotta let it roll off your back. Certain posters can call you out for anything, but being the bigger man is realizing that it really doesn’t matter, and focusing on what you need to do. I think you need a minor adjustment and to refocus on what you want to accomplish, and that’s all that it takes.

Go at it hard, go at it with a positive attitude, and try having a brief conversation with your coach about why you’re not in the match at your weight class, and what you need to do to get there. Good luck.

19

“Someone’s quality as a wrestler isn’t judged by who has more heart”

umm, that is exactly what it is about. i am a high school wrestling coach and have been for the last six years. i would never leave the settled idea that varsity spots are earned in wrestle offs because i believe that it keeps athletes honest knowing that on any given day in the room a kid will take what you covet if he catches you slacking off.

i have never swayed from doing things that way but i cannot tell you the number of times i hoped that the weaker or less athletic kid would win a wrestle off because he seemed to care more and work harder. maybe your coach sees a kid with more desire and is trying a different method to get you to where he believes you should be.

going out cold or having bad days are not acceptable excuses for varsity athlets. you lead your team for crying out loud. being able to beat a kid in the room does not mean that you are working the hardest unfortunately. if you are really doing all that you should be then the coach will recognize it soon enough. you just need to be sure that you are.

20

What section are you in? Just out of curiosity (I used to wrestle in HS in NY).

I agree with what most everyone is saying. Just suck it up this week… It sucks, but deal with it. Work your ass off, whoop this kid in practice and show the coach you mean business.

Also, if you’re beating this kid so bad for 40 minutes in practice, you’re not getting any better for 40 minutes in practice. Stop wasting time with this kid and wrestle someone better than you on your team. If you’re the best on your team, wrestle the second best and third best guys. Wrestle heavier guys, faster guys, quicker guys, etc…

Whooping on someone for 40 minutes straight doesn’t impress me. Getting your ass whooped for 40 minutes straight and coming back for more and improving each time does.