Wrestling

When I started Wrestling I had no idea what to buy. I over-researched, bought the wrong things, and wasted money. Here's what I've learned: start with basic wrestling shoes. Don't spend serious money until you know you're committed and until a coach has watched you move. The premium version of ever…

I've been training Wrestling for 10 months and the moment hip toss finally clicked was a turning point. Before that I was going through the motions. After, the whole game opened up. My coach breaks things down well and has a good understanding of penetration step, which made the difference. The com…

I had zero athletic background when I started Wrestling. First class I was completely lost — everyone seemed to know the language of penetration step and I didn't. My front headlock was nonexistent. I nearly didn't go back. I did go back. And the first grading 7 months later was one of the proudest…

Around the 3-month mark in Wrestling I hit a wall. My progress with sprawl wasn't improving and I felt like I was spinning wheels. It's apparently common but that didn't make it less frustrating. What helped: going back to fundamentals with my coach, spending more time drilling mat returns slowly r…

I started Wrestling six months ago with zero background in the sport. The first few weeks were humbling — I couldn't do single-leg takedown properly and had no idea what mat returns even meant. My coach kept pulling me back to fundamentals, which was frustrating at the time but clearly the right cal…

Purely as a fitness tool, Wrestling is good but not exceptional. There are more efficient ways to get fit. Where Wrestling is genuinely underrated is everything else: the hip toss problem-solving, the level change depth, scrambles becoming instinctive. These aren't fitness outcomes — they're life ou…

A friend dragged me to a Wrestling trial class. I went to be polite. I was terrible. I went back because I couldn't stand being terrible at something. That was 9 months ago. The double-leg I stumbled through in that first class is now something I teach to newer beginners. mat returns has become a g…

I've been competing in Wrestling for three years now, training five days a week. I want to give an honest picture of what the competitive path looks like. The technical demands compound. double-leg at beginner level and at competition level are almost different skills. Understanding scrambles deepl…

I got into Wrestling after watching Kyle Snyder compete and thinking I wanted a piece of that. Reality check: what they make look effortless takes years of work. The double-leg I admired on screen took me 9 months just to do passably. But somewhere in that process I stopped caring about looking lik…

I track everything, so here are actual results after 6 months of Wrestling: significantly improved cardiovascular fitness, noticeable strength gains, and a flexibility improvement I didn't expect. None of that came from a gym program — it came from learning single-leg takedown and understanding ridi…