Wrestling Blogs - Rick Addante

I begin this blog with the reference to the inspiration for it, which was a blogged question of Pat Hitchens ( What Are College Wrestlers Supposed to Do After Graduation?), where he asked the following questions:

“I am a fan of a lot of sports, and I ask myself, what is the draw to be a really bad-ass wrestler. I mean, what is there to look forward to after college graduation for the country's best. Is it all MMA now? Or is there something else?”

Followed by a response by Alan Zorthian that included the following:

“I guess one tries to fit into society as best as one can but society is often a difficult fit for a wrestler. It may be similar to the alienation felt by some soldiers (excluding the phenomenon of post traumatic stress) who returned from war and find that there is nothing quite as stimulating as battle.

One is inexorably drawn further from the mat. Girlfriends and wives are rarely sympathetic with the need to train and wrestle on top of all the other qualities they seek in a partner. Yeah they say its cool but try telling them you can’t pick up the kids from school because you have to go to practice. Work is usually not compatible either.
In order to sustain my delusional addiction to wrestling, I find myself still having to go work out with the local college and high school wrestling teams but I am rarely able to make it more than once or twice a week. I keep telling myself that by next week I am going to get all my work done and spend 4 or 5 days wrestling but this never happens because there is always more work and more complications with my personal life.

Am I a typical ex wrestler who deludes him self that he is still a wrestler? “

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As a retired wrestler and coach, I also have noticed similar questions pop up from other people and in my own introspection along the way, and will try to respond by highlighting some of the main points that I have found helpful in understanding these issues along my own journey. (I am always searching for ways to fill the elite edge of physical, mental, and team aspects of the training/competition void that remains from wrestling, with some success thus far, but in truth it is a perpetual and daily effort to do so. It takes work, and is not easy many times, so take my post in that context).

First of all, the two people’s questions above are very different, and from very different perspectives. Hitchens’ questions seem to focus on motivation to wrestle, and what options may be available after collegiate competition careers are over; trying to understand the reason why people compete relative to the long term options of rewards for our training, while Zorthian’s response focuses on very different aspects of how to adjust to a wrestling life to a non-wrestling lifestyle of mainstream society, but in some ways they do converge on realizing the intrinsic reasons to do our sport of wrestling. If people are trained with the proper mindset, approach, and appreciative scope for the benefits of wrestling, not only may their training and career be better, but it can also help to place a life of meaning into balance both during and after competitive careers.

Hitchens first asks about What Is The Draw to Wrestling for Wrestlers (i.e.: Why do people wrestle?). The answer for this is obviously different for each man, but similarities emerge, I imagine. The primal competition, solitary contest of an honest match of cunning and strength, and to simply be the very best that you can be… there is a bunch of answers to this that are all great. I don’t think many good wrestlers' goals are to be a “bad-ass” wrestler, as Hitchens seemed to presume, but rather to be a State/National/World Champion, without caring about if others see you as “bad-ass”; in fact I think many of the best realize the degree of humility that is required for success at that level, and “bad-ass” motivations can be counterproductive in my experience.

Very simply, we are not an image or reputation based sport, that is MMA or WWF, etc. Our sport does not get prime time ESPN, commercials, mainstream magazines, major endorsements, primary newspaper coverage, the school band to play at the matches. We don’t do our sport as a prelude to what we can do with it later or future money. We do it for NOW, to train and compete Now, and ignorant of monetary reward because there usually is none except for the internal rewards you reap from proper training and competition success. There is no NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL contract waiting for us as a carrot at the end of the stick; nor do I think there should be or that many of us would want that aspect introduced to our sport and to our ethos.

With the amateur aspect intact, we can boldly claim that we are a pure sport that is not corrupted by the influence of major money, which introduces additional motivations to cheat, dope, drug, and stage. Personally, I am quite proud of this aspect of wrestling and how we remain a non-mainstream sport. It separates us from football and basketball, etc., that we can do our sport for the love or pursuit of it Now, instead of a pipedream of riches and fame later on in professional sports and big paydays later. That is not our ethos. I hope that MMA does not change this, and introduce it into the ethos of our younger generation, just as they are beginning to become excellent technicians at such younger ages.

Hitchens brought up the option of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA/UFC) fighting, which has grown immensely in mainstream popularity and funding levels. However, MMA is simply a very new development (~10-20 years) for career options in a sport that is over 2,000 years old; I think it is frankly too young to tell if it will remain viable or if it will continue to become over commercialized into the current boxing/WWF entertainment venues; but personally the trajectory does not look good to me for it to remain viable as a ‘pure’ sport (for example, look at the recent debacle of Kimbo Slice match, big hype for media and money against Shamrock, he bails, they plug a backup in, KO in 30 seconds… seems a bit too much like WWF/Boxing drama to me).

That being said, MMA does present perhaps the only financial incentive for a professional career that has otherwise been lacking in our sport. A remaining question as a correlate of that is This: Will That Change The 'Pureness Pursuit' of Wrestling for our next generation, and make them more pro-career driven instead of simply for the previous pureness of our sport. (I say pureness as a relative term... we all know instances of corruption even in wrestling...). To be fair, there also remains wildly rewarding and beneficial service careers of coaching youth, junior high, high school, college, and club teams as a profession, and many supplement income levels by working the summer camp circuit).

Yet, I empathize with Alan Zorthian’s response indicating an insatiable taste for continued competition and training that is only rarely available in mainstream society life. It is a challenge to quench this thirst, and only rarely do comparable opportunities exist for those of us who have spent 10-15 of their formative years on this endeavor we call wrestling. However, I think it is important to emphasize to kids and to others that a big strength of the sport of wrestling is how it can and should be applied to Life. Not many 'jobs' may compare, but we can certainly continue to live our principles, work ethic, and values in other walks of life, and in so doing represent our sport well to the rest of society; thus giving back via growing it. I have found that in approaching my regular work with the same dedication to excellence and training/practice, success can be found that draws upon the wrestling instinct, and I encourage others to explore to find the same effects.? In fact, even Neuroscience has led me to integrate my wrestling background towards discovering how the brain processes the complexities of memory, attention, focus, "the zone", cognitive strategies for success and peak performances in wrestling and other sports- which I think has been an unexpectedly cool integration of stuff.

Hitchens also asked about what there is to look forward to after graduation and collegiate retirement for most wrestlers, and the answer requires a shift in perspective to an appreciation of the more simpler things in life.

A few examples of things that wrestlers may look forward to after graduation:

1. Eating food and drinking water regularly. People who have not walked our walk may not completely understand the true value of simply eating and drinking regularly and healthily. I know many wrestlers eagerly look forward to this almost exclusively, and it can be the most satisfying thing to which other things pale in comparison.

2. Pursuing the same challenging goals in other interests of a career. This can come in many different forms. Some find good correlates in switching to coaching careers, teaching others as they were taught, and getting as close as they can to the action. Several o my teammates find financial work in stock markets/day trading, etc. to be well suited to fast paced, pressure decisions involving boldness, and ability to succeed under stress both individually and collectively contributing to the success of a team goal. Others have found physical satisfaction in fire fighting or military pursuits; I know that many of the skill sets, attitudes, and training ability of wrestlers are highly sought by special operations recruiters, however, I have also noticed many wrestlers not interested in doing many of the same repetitive things (running/push-ups/sit-ups/pull-ups etc.) that they have mastered already in grueling years of collegiate training, but are instead eager to move on to greener pastures. Much of that military/special operations work requires a sense of “proving yourself”, and I have noticed many college wrestlers graduating with the sense that they have already proven themselves in the kiln of college competition, and are simply not interested in the same process again in military pursuits. Other people become teachers, or find fulfillment in the challenge of advanced degrees such as medical or graduate school, which require discipline, commitment, and personal dedication.

3. Perhaps a New Sport. Lets face it, sometimes after a few decades, some people get bored of wrestling, and realize that there is more to life than just wrestling. Yet, wrestlers are highly competitive, very athletic, and used to elite levels of training challenges. In fact, it can be a very beneficial thing for wrestlers to broaden their horizons and expand into new endeavors as time moves on. Personally, I first spent a year channeling my energy drive into coaching a NJ high school team, and once finished, trained to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro. Head Coaching Robbinsville High School (NJ) will go down as one of the best experiences of my life, and though an African adventure sounds cooler and with better pictures, I would trade it for the coaching experiences of making significant difference in the lives of great kids.

Yet I still sought to expand horizons, so I took a job coaching a college team (Florida Atlantic University), and then decided to try something new, so learned competitive swimming and competed in triathlons for several years at the University of California-Davis (Note to former wrestlers: swimming/triathlons served as great therapy and rehab for banged up shoulders and knees J). I would really encourage any former wrestlers struggling with post-wrestling life to endeavor to do exactly as our coaching taught us to push beyond our comfort zone, and work hard to practice new ‘moves’ that are in this case any new athletic pursuits. As a wrestler, swimming was extremely difficult for me, but by employing a wrestler's diligence and persistence, it was very rewarding to improve to a competitive level, and this process can be helpful in adjusting to post-wrestling life. I have now set a few new career goals, and have decided to approach learning new challenges such as flying airplanes, spear-fishing, and SCUBA diving. The point is, There IS life after wrestling, though it is rarely the same, and often peripheral pursuits can be useful in moderating the boredom of otherwise everyday life at work. They may require you to be proactive in searching them out, and suffer through some humbling experiences of starting out, but that is required of most of the really rewarding experiences in life.

Some wrestlers simply move on with life. Like all things in Life, wrestling ends, and new chapters emerge, that is OK. If they put their time in right, they should have no regrets or ghosts which haunt them, and they will be allowed to move on; while if they did not give it their all, some others may maintain their ghosts and never fully “rest in peace” after wrestling. I would say that what college wrestlers are "Supposed" to do is simply represent our sport well, excel in everything they do based on the training they received in how to excel in the toughest sport at elite levels of competition- this should translate to using their skills learned through college to excellence in everything that they do.

Personally, I feel that after the high level of training and care we graciously receive rom our coaches for so many years, it is our obligation and a responsibility that is demanded of us to do exactly that. Do whatever you want to do in life, it should all be easy after 4 years of high level college wrestling; Do It Right, and Be The Best At It. It doest have to be MMA, or Olympics, or Coaching, or whatever. Simply, set your own path, make your own way based on interests, values, and ability, and use your training to best represent yourself, your coaches, team, and the sport that trained a big part of who you are.

I first learned this in a practical lesson of life while actually facing down several hurdles sent during wrestling in the form of major injuries. I had a high school football career ended on a major ankle injury, which threatened to almost do the same to wrestling season, but I gritted it through at less then full capacity all senior season. In college, I faced major problems in both rotator cuffs and lower back, compounded by a major knee injury when I was hit by a car in college, and then with several concussions that followed that year and senior year. In each of these very challenging instances, the gut-check message to me was clear: I had to prepare for life without wrestling, and that one day I would not be able to depend upon my physical body and skills, but instead had to rely upon TRANSFERRING these same skills, principles, and strategies for success that I was using in wrestling instead to apply towards pursuits of work and school which would not be affected by physical handicaps and injuries. In effect: one day I too would be old and with limited physical strength, so be sure to forge the mental, spiritual, and emotional strength of character that we can all now draw upon in life after wrestling to continued to be successful and fill the "wrestling void".

Since I was still active on my team during these times, and worked voraciously in the rehabilitation, I was still receiving all of the mental and cognitive strategies learned by our team from the outstanding coaches who were training us to win national championships; with a caveat though. I was unable to put them into action on the mat, but since still receiving this high caliber training, simply transferred it to using it in national championship-analogous success in academics while in school and work. Had it not been for those series of major injuries, I may not have truly learned this lesson that not only was I going to have to soon face life after wrestling, but that it was important to transfer the wrestling skills and strategies to life after wrestling, academics, work, and family, but moreover exactly HOW to do that in a practical sense.

You can take the man out of wrestling, but if trained properly, you can never take the wrestling out of a man. I was forced off the mat at times, but held true to the wrestling ethos to find success at equally high levels of outside pursuits. It works. I still use it every day while finishing a PhD in Neuroscience, and www.FloWrestling.com is actually an integral part to maintaining and strengthening that now through their great videos and interviews. I now draw upon the words of J. Robinson, Dan Gable, John Smith, Tom and Terry Brands, Cael Sanderson, etc. etc. in fine tuning mental toughness and cognitive strategies for success: they speak in terms of wrestling, but you can simply apply them to whatever other endeavor you are pursuing in Life, to find equivalent success. If you struggle with post-wrestling lifestyles in society, this can be a very useful supplement, and it does not necessitate going to MMA to make money, but can still guide you to just as successful of a life as these coaches on Flo aim to guide to success on the wrestling mat. So, I am indebted to them, and to the Flo Crew for the great work that they do down there in Austin, because they bring the world's best coaches right into your living room or office cubicle to offer advice on how to remain pushing to be the absolute best in Life.

I know that this got long, but I hope that it may be helpful to some of the guys who were posting on the earlier blog site that I listed as the motivation for writing this. It is just my personal perspective, but it has also seemed to work for others. Feel free to contact with questions, other views, or comments.

:)

-Rick