Wrestling is
the sport for my boys. They can hardly keep their hands off each other. When they have wrestling practice three times a week for two hours a night, they are less likely to destroy my house jumping all over each other. Last night was their first meet after only once practice since Christmas break. IJ didn't work out on Wednesday because he hurt his back, so this was his first wrestling experience since before Christmas. I do not recommend wrestling matches for the weak of heart. It's nerve-wracking. I still don't know how a match works. I do know that there are three one-minute segments that they have to earn points by take downs and maneuvers. Once there is a pin, the match is over and the pinner wins. If they run out of time with no pin, whoever has the most points wins.
First we'll look at S's match:
The poor kid S wrestled spent most of the time trying to get S off his back. The match would have been over in 30 seconds if S would have remembered a pin is only a pin if your opponent is
on his back!
S takes time to watch how his teammate is doing in the other match. He should have been trying to flip the other boy onto his back, but you know S!
After the second one-minute segment starts, S is all excited to try out the new move his learned on Wednesday. Take down! Points!
I couldn't see the points from where I was sitting, so I had to wait until this moment to see that he won. He was so proud that he jumped up and down and waved to me!
IJ's match was so much harder for me to watch. My face was twisted with stress and agony watching. The main problem was he was wrestling someone whose gender wasn't obvious. Boy or girl? We still can't decide, even after we examined their style of dress and skeletal structure. I think it is a boy with long hair, based on his style of clothing and wide shoulders/narrow hips. IJ, unfortunately, decided it was a girl based on the long hair before the match even started.
He has been raised to not hit girls, unless they are in sparring gear at Taekwondo. And he is such a gentleman, that he really struggled with having to wrestle a girl. So he wasn't as aggressive as he could have been.
The match was fast-paced. First IJ had control, then she/he did.
People have asked if the boys' Taekwondo training has helped them with wrestling. I would say having a brother has been more valuable. In Taekwondo, you never turn your back to your opponent. IJ has this as an instinct, so when he is knocked down, he faces his opponent and ends up in the above situation. He should spin and evade.
The match ended in the final seconds of the third segment. IJ got pinned, but as you can see in the picture above, he never gave up. I've seen boys get in this position and give up. They just lie there like a dead slug. But IJ squirmed and rolled until the final slap of the referee's hand. IJ had the most points, but a pin wins the match. On the way home, I told IJ that if a girl signs up for wrestling, she doesn't want to be treated gently and he doesn't need to hold back. He felt better after that.
