I’ve been going to wrestling practice to stay in shape, and I just competed in my first meet on Saturday. Check out the video link at the end of this entry. I’m not in the first match, you’ll have to skip to time marker 3:59 to watch me.
The gentleman I wrestled with first is in his mid 30s. This match lasted 2 or 3 times longer than what was caught on film, but the person doing the taping wasn’t familiar with my camcorder. Anyway, I was rather inspired by my opponents technique, stamina, and strength. He intimidated me by doing a couple things that had never happened to me before in my 5 year wrestling career in junior high and high school. When we tied up he did it in such a way that I felt like I had been hit on the neck with a baseball bat. This disoriented and scared me. Second, he nearly killed me with his pinning combination :p I don’t think of myself as a wuss. I’ve been in pinning combinations before where it was hard to breath because my neck was being torqued or because some body part was betwixt my mouth and the delicious air. But I’ve fought out and dealt with it. This guy had me such that I couldn’t breathe AND I was fairly confident that my windpipe was about to break. So I am mildly ashamed to say that I tapped. Tapping is considered the ultimate in wussiness in wrestling, but I swear to goodness that I honestly believed that if I didn’t tap I would die. As evidence that his hold was damaging, I could barely swallow for the rest of Saturday, Sunday I felt like I had a sore throat, and today I feel pretty decent, just a nagging little wince when I swallow. That doesn’t happen in a normal pinning combination, no matter how tight.
I was also inspired by my second opponent. A 27 year old ex marine who was shot once in the leg and once in the chest in December! There he was less than 3 months later competing in a wrestling match, for which he praises God. What drive.
The only person I’m uninspired by is myself. It was never my object to start wrestling to win, so that’s not what bothers me. What bothers me is that I look sloppy and slow. I’m hunched over, I cross my legs, etc., etc. Physically I’m unhappy with my lack of… anything noteworthy. I’m not buff, nor am I cut. No definition in the quadriceps, no definition in the biceps, no definition in the shoulders. Combined with my poor technique, it just makes for bad viewing. However, I am motivated to fix those things. A few videos down the road and, hopefully, I’ll feel like all the time I spend wrestling is translating into something I can be proud of viewing.
Get the video here! (The video was taken down when I moved my site. Perhaps I’ll find it and repost it)
Note: This video was converted from DVD format to .wmv by Movavi Video Converter 5.0. It works as promised, offers conversions from and to a lot of file types, but takes quite a while to do it’s job (between 4 and 20 times the length of the files converted, depending on the quality of the source and conversion files).
Thanks for posting the video. Especially as you don’t count it among your bright shining moments.
I don’t know anything technical about wrestling. I had some old-fashioned rural uncles who watched the commercial variety as religiously as my aunt watched Oral Roberts. I have memories of some guy in a cape called The Sheik. Maybe you need to tart up your act a little with some flashier duds. Your get-up looks pretty conservative, navy shorts and black runners. At least you removed your black socks.
You’d look good in a fedora (tall, dark, and handsome), like a boxer in a 40s B-movie. Say, Robert Ryan in The Set-Up. A great movie, by the way. I realize it’s boxing, not wrestling, but it has something to say about winning. As per the title, Ryan is set up to lose, only his manager hasn’t told him, because he doesn’t want to share the bribe. So, unlike you, Ryan wins — for the first time in years, against the wishes of his wife, who’s sick of him getting his handsome face all battered. The gangster who paid for the set-up is furious, and has his thugs beat Ryan so badly he can never fight again. His wife finds him as he staggers out of the alley. He stammers, “Honey, I won….” Looking at his ruined hand, and realizing that he’ll never fight again (which was what she wanted), she answers, “No dear, we BOTH won….” THE END. A great RKO picture, which I hope I haven’t spoiled for you — you really should try to watch it, it’s so well done. It’s rightup there with Requiem for a Prize Fighter, starring Jackie Gleason and Tony Quinn.
So, to Lisa or whoever your polyamour of the moment is, you won (especially if you lost). You’re a winner and always will be….
There’s balm for your soar kneck…
P.S. I’m serious about the fedora!
I am just curious what has come between your wife and you since you last posted. How is the master suite working out for you, and does she have a blog. I find all of this interesting, and relates to home where my family is concerned.
My wife and I are still at it. The suite has been awesome for productivity, but doesn’t really have an effect on my extramarital libido. Lisa is a much more private person than I am, and hence she has no blog. If she did I don’t suppose she’d say much about this.
I hope my experiences and observations have been useful as you examing your own family situation.