Haven’t really been talking about this here even though I’d say this sport dominates the scene around this house right now.
At some point in the Fall we were talking about the exorbitant fee that the school district charges to play even one sport in middle school ($260). I guess the upside of that fee is that it is one of the main reasons the boys were encouraged to do cross country (I’d say about half this and about half that it would be good for general fitness) and it started discussions about doing wrestling. Matthew is busy enough that we never pushed it with him, but Christopher’s friend does it and seemingly, very easily, talked him into doing it.
And Cpher hates it. Every day after practice he comes home and rants and rants and rants about it. Would quit in a heartbeat if we would let him. We won’t…..he can stick it out. The season ends in three weeks.
But why am I forcing him to keep doing it? One is that he looks like he could be really good at it (and the coach agrees). The other is that Cpher has worked so hard at getting his body into this really good place that I’m reluctant to sign on for anything that will lower his physical activity…..because he isn’t going to voluntarily cut back on eating!
Anyway…..he’s only been in three competitions to date (he missed one sick and missed one for a snow day) so let’s talk about those.
Fowlerville Tournament: The first tournament of the year; there are about 16 schools here and Cpher will face three opponents. From the parenting side, we learned three things about wrestling. 1) A wrestling tournament is going to mean a warm gym with a lot of smelly boys 2) There is a long time between matches, and since Cpher is wrestling in the heavyweight division there is a long wait until he even starts and 3) you can wait a long time for not a lot of action.
Match 1: Against Owosso. Video by clicking the photo below
Cpher’s friend, and his Dad, both seemed to think that Cpher had some natural built-in advantages as he began his wrestling career. Cpher is ‘long’…tall and long arms, and his opponents are overwhelmingly shorter and pudgy. I don’t think Cpher has wrestled anyone with ten pounds of him yet. It will show up in all of these photos; these kids have big big arms and are ‘rounder’….Cpher has worked hard to shed pounds and hasn’t really done that….but he has stayed the same weight (he has bounced below and above 200 lbs for 8 months now) while he has grown several inches and I think he has changed a lot of his fat into muscle.
His coach has said that being tall and having long arms is a big technical advantage as well. And from the six matches I have seen, I believe it.
For the first tournament Dad has one goal….please please let us have one little hint of success. The worst thing that could happen would be getting pinned in the first period in each of these matches (and watching some of the early matches there were kids who were on the mat ten seconds before getting pinned and that’s that).
So this first match, against Owosso, gets started and Christopher makes the first move to take the guy down…and ends up for about 30 seconds in a position much like the one above….he has about half of a takedown. No points for this…..but he finally (right after this photo I think) pushes the guy onto his back….
gets his two points for the takedown and ends up pinning him!
Wish I had video of the smile on Cpher’s face when he came up later…..
Match 2: I had watched the other match between the other two guys Cpher is going to wrestle…the guy from Dansville pinned the guy from Jackson Catholic pretty quickly. I don’t tell Cpher this before the match….no sense in getting him nervous. In hindsight, I think it might have been better to tell him because maybe he wouldn’t have been aggressive like he was….and this begins a theme for the next few matches. Cpher would make a mistake, and the other guy would obligingly put his shoulders on the mat since Cpher helped put them there.
(click above for video). Cpher is trying something new this match, using his leg to try and get behind the other guy’s leg to take him down by tripping him. I haven’t seen him try this since, and that might be because this ended disastrously….
Where he got his leg around, and was tripping him, and lost his balance and the guy fell directly on top of him and that was that.
Match 3: Against Jackson Catholic. Click below for the video.
Another great example of height difference and arm difference. Does body fat store in the arms first? Have to look that up I guess. I don’t think these kids are all weight training (Cpher will start some weight training with the football team this spring…..I’m thinking he will look a lot different six months from now!)
This is the only match this evening that made it to the second period. Cpher took the guy down (shown here) for two points and seemed to be doing pretty well.
Ok, looking at the video I remember now that the guy was super aggressive; he took Cpher down but Cpher rolled him over while on the ground to get the points.
Cpher ‘rides him out’ to end the period and it’s 2-0 Cpher at the end of one…
Cpher had the choice of what position to be in to begin the second; his coach chose down. This was the assistant coach, and I don’t think it was a wise choice given the height and arm length advantage that Cpher has over most of his opponents. He gets another point because, of, well, I have no idea, he didn’t escape and they go back to the starting position. Cpher doesn’t escape again but ends up in some strange position where he is basically sitting on his butt and the guy has him from behind. And it is very obvious watching that Cpher had no idea what to do or where to go from the position he was in…and he basically stopped moving while trying to figure it out (Cpher said this later as well). The guy ends up pulling Cpher over and pinning him about ten seconds later….
I’ve never seen Cpher as, well, upset is too strong, but, disgusted might be right….disgusted by something as we drove away from an event. Repeatedly on the way home he says “I want that kid again!” “I had him!”
And he did……but he lost.
Fowlerville Dual: This dual, the first one of the middle school season, sucked. Because Fowlerville didn’t have a kid in Cpher’s weight class, and the Owosso kid injury defaulted, so Cpher and I waited two hours for him to wrestle the kid from Williamston…..and that ended in 45 seconds with Cpher getting pinned.
Again, I think this happens because Cpher doesn’t know what he is doing at some points; this time he tried to escape and essentially rolled over onto his back for the guy! Sigh.
Eaton Rapids Dual: Wrestled against Eaton Rapids and got pinned 57 seconds. The only mistake he made is that he let a much shorter kid get way too close to him…..was pretty impressed he fought off the pin for as long as he did.
Charlotte didn’t have anyone at this weight class.
Haslett did….Christopher dominated this kid (who was shorter and much heavier…right up against the middle school weight limit of 250 lbs); had a near fall at the end of the first period and ended up pinning the kid in the second period.
(click on the picture for the video)
So, he’s 2-4 so far. A big tournament on Saturday; we will be there all day (Christopher because he is ‘forced’ into it; me because I feel like I have to support him through these long long matches if I’m going to not let him quit). Hope he finds some success there.
