Wrestlers are stubborn.

This is not new information whatsoever. So when a wrestler has an injury, the toughest thing for him to do is take it easy. A prime example of this would be Jimmy Kennedy.

“It’s wrestling,” said Kennedy. “It’s such a competitive sport that you forget you’re injured. I had it happen to me once already where I forgot and I just kept wrestling and then I tweaked it again and it was another week that it set me back. I had to be patient this time and really trust my coaches. It’s been a little different, but I’m excited and I’m at the point where I’m ready to get on the mat.”



Kennedy learned quickly, that if he was going to be able to compete at his best, that he was going to have to give his body the rest it needed.

“The past few months training has been a little slower than what I would have liked, but I’ve gotten in a lot of good workouts and I’m starting to feel back to where I was previously,” Kennedy said. “But I’m looking forward to wrestling in front of everyone again.”

A knee injury had sidelined the returning World Team member for quite some time, but he’s back to being his old self again. It just took him a bit to take a step back and realize that in order to be ready for World Team Trials he had to take better care of his body.

With his recovery came a rejuvenated attitude as well. Being away from the mat allowed him the time to become more comfortable at 65kg too.

“It’s nice. It’s making wrestling fun again not having to worry about my weight as much,” he said. “Over the last two years I don’t think I let my body grow to what it can actually be at. So that jump to 65 came extremely naturally to me and now I feel like I’m where I should be. I feel just as strong, if not stronger, per pound basis at 65 than I did at 61.”

Although he felt like himself on the mat at 61kg he wouldn’t trade his newfound levels of strength and technique for anything.

               

“Last year training was so much more for me with making 61 kilos,” said Kennedy. “It was like a seven-day job for me 35 weeks out of the year. So not having to worry about my weight as much has really relaxed me, it’s making training a lot more enjoyable and I can focus on my wrestling again. The past few weeks went by real quick and the training was great.”

While he was away from competition de admits that he paid attention to his 65kg counterparts, but he didn’t invest much time worrying about what they bring to the mat.

“I’ve never been the type of person who spent a lot of time studying other guys or worrying about what they were going to do,” he said. “I would rather focus my energy on what I can do to better my cause. I just want to focus on me and focus on getting my offense going and scoring and not really worrying about what they’re going to do too much.”

He’s ready to make another world team and he doesn’t see anyone standing in the way of that.



“Obviously, I’ve seen a lot of these guys over the last eight or nine years so it’s pretty easy to know what the tendencies are for certain opponents going into it,” Kennedy mentioned. “I paid attention to the (U.S Open) and guys looked good, but there was nothing that I saw that really worried me.”

Kennedy is at the top of his game and when the first whistle blows at the World Team Trials, we are sure to see some fireworks.

“I feel like I’m finally reaching back to that high level,” he admitted. “I took some time off after worlds and now everything is starting to click again right at the perfect time.”