Kristie Marano: The Ups and Downs of Wrestling

When I started wrestling 12 years ago I never would have imagined how much I was going to learn nor realize the person I would become. I have learned so much and it wasn’t just wrestling, it involved life and the world we live in. I have been able to experience the ups and downs to this sport, but I always seem to come out with a better outlook on life.

At 17 when I made my first World Team I was in my own little world, being the youngest on the team I was very quiet and shy. Not knowing what to expect I just went with the flow. Even though I was the young one on the team I got along with all the girls. From then on I learned to be more of an outgoing person because that is how I was going to make friends and find ways to get things done for myself. Ever since then I have made tons of friends all over the U.S. and the world.

Traveling all over the world has made me open my eyes to many different things as well. I think that the first time traveling overseas was a bit scary for me, but the best time ever. You get to explore a different cultures, which is much more then just learning about it in school. It forced me to try new foods which can be scary but at least I can say I tried something new, and don’t worry, in most countries you can somehow find a McDonald’s.

The biggest thing I have learned from my travels is to appreciated all that I have! Going to these other countries I realize that not everybody has what we have. It’s the little things we get to do everyday that some will never get to do in a lifetime! I have learned to not take for granted what I have, and what I love and am able to do everyday which is wrestle.

As an athlete, with sports come injuries. Some big and some small. I have stumbled across some injuries over the years (it’s going to happen, it’s a contact sport). I have had four surgeries, both knees (one was done twice) and my shoulder. The hardest thing for me is not being able to wrestle. Sitting on the sidelines watching everybody else enjoy the sport when you are not able to kind of hurts you. During this time I have learned to focus on things that I can do off the mat to make me a better wrestler such as, lifting weights to make me stronger, watching video on myself and my competitors so I can see what is going on in matches, and conditioning which is easier said then done. Being off he mat for me during surgery has made me work on mental toughness. I have had to work on being strong off the mat so I could be strong when I got back to the mats.

The biggest thing I have had to learn when being off the mat is patience. Your body takes time to heal and sometimes you have no control over it. You should make good judgements as far as not forcing your body to come back faster then it should. You might end up getting hurt more or re-injury the same thing. Just let your body heal!

The most important thing I want to mention is for the young girls out there to not get discouraged! I know there are girls out there that have to overcome many obstacles. I like some of you had to wrestle on a guys team in High School. Trust me, it was not the easiest thing to do, and I could have quit real easy, but I would have missed out and all the good times I have had! I know it can be hard and there will be days you want to be done with everything, the one thing I would stress is STAY STRONG! Being able to deal with adversity is what is going to make you different then everyone else. IT’S OK TO BE DIFFERENT. If it was easy, everyone would do it.

Women’s wrestling has come a long way just in the 12 years that I have been in it. I hope to see a continuing success in years to come. I wish everyone the best of luck and hope you can find just as much fun if not more, through your experiences with wrestling. Remember, don’t give up and strive for what you .

Katie Downing: Are you Hurt or Injured?

Getting hurt is an inherent part of wrestling. No one gets through a season on the mat without getting banged up, bruised, sore, exhausted, pulled too far, or jammed too hard. It takes a certain amount of mental and physical toughness to deal with pain during training. Unfortunately, injury is also a part of the sport for many wrestlers. Injuries may permanently leave their mark on a body, take a wrestler off of the mat, or end a wrestling career. It takes a different kind of toughness and perseverance to work through an injury.

When something’s giving you trouble during practice, you must determine if it’s an injury or something that’s hurt. If you’re injured, your job is to heal and to follow the plans set out by trainers and doctors. If you’re hurt, you’ve got to find a way to deal with it so that it does not hinder your wrestling. We’ve all had those days where it seemed like everything hurt, and it feels like you can barely move. There are days when the whole team is going to feel that way, and if pain, soreness, or discomfort gets in the way of practices, we’d never make any progress in our sport. We’ve all had those partners who whine and complain, take forever to get up after each takedown, and stop for recovery breaks every other minute during practice. Don’t be that wrestler. If you’re hurt, but it’s not something that is going to take you off of the mat, then no matter how badly it burns, it does no good to let it slow you down in practice. A coach may have told you to never let your opponent know when you’re tired. The same goes for soreness and hurts. If there is something you can’t turn or pull in certain areas, let your partner know. Other than that, no one should ever be able to tell if something is hurting on you. Talk about it, stretch it, ice it, or massage it after practice. You can’t fix something that hurts during practice, so there’s nothing you can do about it but deal with it and stop it from taking away from your practice.

On the other hand, if you are injured, your job changes from working through practices to working off the mat to heal your injury as quickly and thoroughly as possible so you can get back to the mats. I’ve had two shoulder surgeries myself, and I’ve seen many other wrestlers go through major rehabilitation programs over the years. I know how painful, time-consuming, and mentally draining rehab can be. There are a few things I may have to offer for you to keep in mind as you deal with an injury. First I want to make it clear to young wrestlers that, unless you plan to quit wrestling because of your injury, then rehab is in no way time off from your training. Wrestlers have to be as dedicated to rehab as they are to wrestling practices, and still have to find ways to train with intensity even when they can’t be on the mats. There are always alternate workouts you can do on the side of the mat, on the bikes, or in the weight room to keep yourself in shape and in something close to wrestling condition.

Although having to spend time off of the mat may make you appreciate every moment of a wrestling practice, it may present bigger mental and emotional challenges than you’ve ever faced on the mat in practice. It’s easy to feel like you’re falling behind everyone else every moment you can’t be on the mat, but you can’t let yourself think that way for too long. It’s going to be hard, and it does not mean that you are weak because you have a hard time dealing with being off of the mat. Your job isn’t less challenging or intense or as important to your wrestling when you’re off the mat, it is only different. You have to stay focused on the things you can do to stay conditioned and to keep making progress in your rehab, not the things you can’t do or wish you could be doing on the mat. It won’t do you any good to get bogged down in the negatives. Instead, you can still train at full speed in a new direction that involves rehab.

Sometimes it will be really hard to be in the room watching practices when you can’t take part in them. Again, it’s all about what you choose to focus on during that time. You may feel better about being off of the mat if you challenge yourself on something every day off of the mat. You can work on quickness, strength, watching video, or endurance. When you’re on the sidelines during practice, you have a unique opportunity to learn technique from a more objective viewpoint. You can still watch coaches teach technique, and you can visualize in your mind exactly how it would feel for you to do the move yourself. I actually did a gut wrench better when I came back after my first surgery because I had spent four months doing the move in my head, and imagining exactly how it would feel to do it right, rather than feeling over and over again how it felt to do it wrong like I had done so many times on the mat. When you watch practices, you also have the chance to see how other people do moves a little differently than you. One little thing you see may be the key to a move that you’ve been missing and never seen before. You can also let everyone else learn things the hard way. You can see which motions or reactions cause trouble for other wrestlers. You can learn what not to do and changes to make in your own wrestling by watching your teammates make the mistakes. Usually in training, you get two points of view for each move you learn-your coach’s and your own. When you have to watch practice, you can see each move done dozens of different ways by your teammates. It’s a blessing in disguise to be off of the mat because you’d probably never get to see as wide a picture of each move if you weren’t forced to see it from the sidelines.

Another thought process that is not good to dwell in is the one that focuses on the negatives of other wrestlers. If you are really itching to be able to wrestle, but you can’t, it is hard to see other people slacking off or goofing around during practice. It’s easy to think, ‘how can they slack off when I’d love to be able to work twice as hard, but I can’t.’ Don’t go there, it doesn’t get you far. Shift your focus back to the things you need to work on. Visualize yourself as someone’s opponent whenever they go live, and imagine what moves you’d do according to how you see them move in practice. If it’s hard to stop thinking about the slackers, then start to cheer for your teammates who are working hard.

Finally, there will be days as rehab drags on and on that you just don’t want to do it at all. You don’t want to do the same old exercises, you don’t want to go to the training room, you don’t want to go watch practice, and you don’t want to see anyone. This is a mental game you never have to face when you’re wrestling on the mats, but it’s not too different from having to deal with those days when your body hurts and you don’t feel like practicing or going hard. Just like on the mat, you have to find a way to get your job done, and to tell your body and mind that you can do it. Remind yourself that each thing you endure during rehab gets you one step closer to the mat again. When you get back on the mat, keep your goals for each day small at first. Don’t feel like you have to make up for months of training in one practice. Your job in rehab isn’t over just as soon as you start to wrestle again. Your job isn’t to fix everything about your wrestling just because you’ve had a million things in your mind that you wanted to be able to do on the mat over the months. Your job is to make sure you stay strong where you were injured, to get your body back into wrestling condition, and to slowly get back your timing for all of your moves. Don’t think of it as a step back if your timing is off or if your moves don’t feel good at first. They will be a little rusty when you get back, but your body will remember what it feels like to wrestle quicker than it seems at first.

Wrestlers have to train their minds to deal with the daily grind. We have to deal with soreness and stiffness, burning and bruises, and jammed and pulled joints. And this is every day! Sometimes, wrestlers also have to face injury and rehabilitation. Injury presents a whole new set of challenges. Injured wrestlers have to deal with the pain and fatigue of rehab, while also dealing with the mental and emotional stress of being off the mats. Wrestlers in rehab have to dig deeper to find a way to stay positive and to keep focusing on the things that help them get closer to their goals. If wrestling causes injuries, it also develops qualities like mental toughness and tenacity that help wrestlers get through rehab.