My wrestling kids...

Starting off on a side note I have to say that I am very proud to announce that I have survived another business trip week with just myself and the kids.  The house is (relatively) clean and the kids have successfully made it to all their after school activities.

And I only forgot to do ONE MAJOR thing!!!!!  But I digress.....I'll save that for a future post.

Once again, I am in absolute awe and have the utmost respect for single parents.  I have no clue how they do it all and manage to stay sane.  (And I'm only working part time....I can't imagine juggling two active kids with a full time job.)


When baseball and fall softball ended I was thinking that I was going to get to gear down and really enjoy having an off season.  Toby would play football, followed by wrestling, and Tera would have Girls On The Run; none of which I coach.  All I would have to do is pick them up after practice (which are all less then a mile from my house) and go to the games/races.  I could just feel myself unwinding.

The we added pitching lessons (out of town) on top of Toby's wrestling.  Not a big deal; it's just one night a week.

But then Tera did something that I did not expect.......She, too, went out for wrestling.

Big brother had talked her into trying out a wrestling camp and Tera bit into it hook, line and sinker ---  which caught me a little off guard.  In retrospect, Tera has never been a girlie girl so I shouldn't have been surprised.  But more on that later.

So.....NO.......I do not really have an off season and the family sports expenses got a little more expensive than Karla and I had budgeted for.

But, life is like that.  Since when has anything in life ever gone according to plan?  All you can do is make plans, watch life blow those plans up, and then troubleshoot......and do it all with a smile on your face.  Well, at least Karla does it with a smile on her face.  I prefer to drop a few F bombs and rant.

Karla: "Did that make you feel better?"

Me: "HELL YES IT DID....AAARRGGHH!!!!"

Anyway.......Moving on.


TOBY....

Toby didn't get into wrestling until he hit the seventh grade and to say that he is behind is a little bit of an understatement.

That's not me being mean.  That's just how it is.  There are a lot of things that he is learning even now as a freshman that comes second nature to kids who have been wrestling since the second grade.  And while Toby has managed to notch a few wins on his belt his lack of experience has placed him squarely on the wrong side of some quick and rough beatings.

He's had his shoulder wrenched (but not dislocated....I saw that happen to a kid.....Yikes...I squirmed a little....), he's come up with a swollen knee and he's had to fight through vocal cord spasms, or, vocal cord dysfunction if you prefer the technical term.

Wrestling is the most physically demanding sport Toby has ever participated in.  Football, you say?  NO.....Not even close.

In eighth grade Toby started losing matches because he was unable to breathe.  At first we thought that maybe it was asthma but that didn't really make a whole lot of sense to me.  He's never had asthma growing up so why would he have it now?

Regardless of what the problem may have been, it was tough to watch.  At the start of every match I would break out into a sweat just knowing that if Toby couldn't finish the match early that he was going to end up on the mat flopping like a fish out of water.  I was more than ready to pull him out of wrestling altogether.

But Toby wouldn't have it and he wouldn't have forgiven me had I made him quit. He would have used my own words against me, quickly reminding me that I had always told him that he has to finish what he starts.

Ok, kid.....Wrestle on.....

So after the third wrestling meet that found him light headed, gasping, and puffing on an inhaler, I took him to the doctor.  As soon as I told the doctor that Toby only had this problem when he wrestled he smiled and said, "I bet he's having vocal cord spasms.  I'm going to refer you to a specialist."

A trip to the specialist resulted in breathing lessons.  The specialist told Toby that it is a natural reaction to hold your breath when you shoot or, in football, brace for impact as you make a tackle.

"No matter what happens," she told him, "Do not hold your breath.  That can cause your vocal cords to slam shut and cut off your air."

Scary, scary stuff.  But now Toby knows what to minimize the likelihood of having a vocal cord spasm.  But if he does have a spasm he's been trained how to combat the problem.  It doesn't sound like much fun too me.

And it's not at if he needed any other challenges with wrestling.

But I have to give him credit; at this point he refuses to quit ------- even if he did leave a ton of blood on the mat at his last meet.

Toby has always had problems with nose bleeds; so much so that he has had his nose cauterized not once but twice.  Yet, if he get's popped in the nose just right......We have a gusher.

I was sick the day of the incident so I'm going off of what I've been told. Apparently Toby wrestled a kid who kept reaching across Toby's face to grab his arm.  As this kid reached across he would pop Toby in the face.....Over and over and over again.

Finally the kid got in the shot that finally got Toby's nose to bleed ---- and he bled everywhere.  Down the side of his face and onto his shoulder and uniform ---- all over the mat.

Throughout all this the ref never called time.  Mama was NOT happy.

"That kid was a dirty wrestler," Karla ranted, "He just kept hitting Toby in the face over and over again."

After the match was over I guess it took some time to get all of the blood off of the mat.  I asked Karla why she didn't get a picture ----- that was not a good question to ask......Oops....

So when I got Toby away from mad Mama I asked him, "So was what that kid doing illegal?"

"Technically, no," he said, "As long as you have an open hand you're ok,"

"What did your coach say?" I asked.

"He says I'm too nice."

You know what?  I can believe that.

But I bet he'll be a little meaner by the time wrestling season is over.

 I'm not being critical at all -- far from it..... He's taking his lumps and, with dogged determination, he just keeps on trying -- for that I am very proud of him.



TERA.....MUSCLE AND NAIL POLISH......

I don't know why I was surprised when Tera went out for wrestling.  I'm still trying to wrap my head around the idea of my little princess rough housing on the mat and, I won't lie, it makes me a little nervous.

Tera practices with the team twice a week; but she practices at least two, maybe three days, with Toby and myself.  I want her to be as ready to wrestle as we can possibly get her.

Toby and I both preach to her that wrestling is not a "nice" sport.  Aches, pains, bumps, and bruises are just part of the gig.  The sooner she accepts that the better off she will be.

But after asking Tera what she likes about wrestling, I started to wonder why I'm worried.

Me: "So what do you like about wrestling?"

Tera: "I GET TO TACKLE PEOPLE!!!!"

Oh....

Yeah, I shouldn't have been surprised.  This is the same girl that wanted to go out for football, but a conflict with fall softball wouldn't allow for it.  Hell, she may be pretty good at it.

I had never actually watched a wrestling practice before Tera joined up.  But, because I'm worried I've been going to her practices and taking notes; trying to learn all that I can in order to help Tera improve at a quicker pace.

It only took one practice to understand why coaches in other sports love wrestlers.

From a conditioning standpoint, I don't think I've seen anything as physically demanding as wrestling practice.  Even if you end up sucking as a wrestler, you'll still walk away at the end of the year in the best shape of your life.

Running leads into stretches.  Stretches into line drills, into planks, into crab walks, into bear crawls. After warm up the coach may talk for a few minutes about what they are going to work on --- that's the longest he talks the entire practice.  From there, whether they are working on sit outs, or takedowns, or tie ups, it's repetition, repetition, repetition.  All the while, the coach is walking in between wrestlers an checking on their technique.  If he does stop them to explain something he never talks for more than a minute before the kids are right back at it.

As I look at the notes on my phone, it boggles the mind how much they have learned in so little time.

One solid hour of almost non stop movement.  And what's really cool about it is the coach is so good at keeping them busy that they don't even think about a bathroom or water break.  Before you know it practice is over and I sit there, head spinning and thinking, "Shit, and they haven't even scratched the surface yet."

As a wrestler not only are you in great shape but you become quicker and stronger. You learn about leverage and that not everything you do involves brute strength.

And.......You either learn to be tough or, I'm guessing, you don't last.

Yeah, I'm nervous.  I guess I'll just have to wait and see how Tera handles the first time she gets popped. (Actually, she has taken a shot to the mouth already ---- it didn't appear to phase her.)

Deep down, however, I just know she's going to be fine.  She may not win very much.....but she'll be fine.

It's Dad that's going to have a hard time adjusting.......

MUSCLE AND NAIL POLISH........YOU GOTTA PROBLEM WITH THAT?

No Ma'am.....