There is a saying in sports: “Embrace the grind.” However, athletes do not truly know the meaning of it until they endure a full wrestling season, wrestling coach Roberto Clemente said.
There are no requirements to join the team, but perseverance is key, Clemente said. Many kids have joined and decided that wrestling is unsuitable for them, he added.
“If you want to come out, you have to survive,” Clemente said. “Outside of water polo, I think wrestling is the toughest sport there is.”
The wrestling program practices from Monday through Saturday, Clemente said. On competition days, weigh-ins, where the wrestlers’ weight are measured in order to qualify for competitions, begin at 7 a.m. Wrestling competitions end approximately at 8 p.m., so wrestlers have to take on twelve-hour wrestling days, he added.
“In order for you to go to that Saturday competition, you have to be the number one in our room for that weight class,” Clemente said. “Sometimes you have to wrestle off.”
Wrestling is not a sport where being on the team automatically means athletes are participating in competitions, Clemente said. If a student can’t beat one of their fellow teammates of the same weight class, they do not deserve to go to a competition, he added.
“It’s brutal, definitely not for the faint of heart,” senior Noel Hwang said. “We had literal steam coming off of our bodies (during practice).”
Wrestling culture is special because it is a fight against themselves, Hwang said. Wrestlers have to be strong and disciplined, not just when wrestling, but every day when it comes to watching their weight, he added.
“Recently, I lost seven pounds in two days,” Hwang said. “Some guys on our team cut twelve pounds in a week.”
Being a wrestler is especially hard when you are also taking rigorous courses, Hwang stated.
“I’ll be losing my mind because I’m so hungry, but I have to do this test,” Hwang said.
In order to lose weight, wrestlers should drink lots of water so they can easily sweat it out during practice, former wrestling coach Kent Mitchell said. What is most important is to consume complex carbohydrates because they are slowly digested and are more filling, he said.
“Because you may be limiting how much you’re eating, you want the stuff that you eat to take care of you as far as you can,” Mitchell said. “You want all the weight of that food to count and help you.”
The process of weight management is complicated, and requires the cooperative effort of both wrestler and coach, Mitchell stated.
“It’s an ongoing conversation with your coach,” Mitchell said. “You talk and share with each other what it is you’re eating and what’s happening; then you can adjust things.”
Losing water weight is another method wrestlers employ to cut weight, junior Tovie Pascual said. It consists of putting on several layers of clothes during their cardio and practices to sweat out as much as possible and lose weight, he stated.
During the offseason, Pascual weight lifts, works on his cardio, and practices his wrestling technique, he said.
“(Wrestling) really does take a toll on the body,” Pascual said. “You have to take care of it (and) ice up your muscles when you need to. I’m sore almost every day.”
Wrestling might be tough, but the feeling after every practice is indescribable, Hwang said. Anyone who can last a full season as a wrestler deserves respect, he said.
“It changes you in so many ways, discipline-wise and physical-health-wise,” Hwang said. “I’ve never seen someone not change.”
Wrestling teaches athletes about delayed gratification, Hwang said. If wrestlers are able to overcome the hard physical and mental work, they’ll reap the benefits from it, he added.
“Wrestling has taught me that when you suffer together, you create a strong bond with those who you suffer with,” Pascual said.
Mitchell agreed with Clemente’s statement that wrestling is one of the toughest sports there is, based on the fact that the sport is centered around hurting your opponents, an idea that is not prevalent in other sports, he said.