Wrestling: The Heart Breaks and Heroics.

Wrestling is not just a sport. Wrestling is not a "game." Wrestling is all about things much deeper. Day in and day out, wrestlers put their foot on the line and brace the chance of losing, of humiliation, and of exhaustion. They are out there, in front of the whole crowd. If you happen to be in another school's gym, this can be terrifying. The crowd is just there to try to motivate their school's wrestler and can quite possibly demoralize you in the process.

There are three main types of wrestling. Folkstyle, freestyle, and greco. Each has their own set of rules and regulations. For example, in both freestyle and folkstyle you are allowed to shoot on your opponent's legs, while in greco it is all upper body. On the contrary, in freestyle and greco you are allowed to lock your hands in order to turn your opponent after securing a takedown. However in Folkstyle you cannot and you will give up a point to your oppenent. Also, in folkstyle there are three two minute periods while in both freestyle and greco there is two three minute periods. Scoring points between the three are also slightly different.

There has been a controversy over the years asking one simple question. Which sport is the toughest? Is it football because of all of the hard hits? Basketball? Soccer? Or mma? Well, it's probably still wrestling. With the extreme conditioning, fast paced practices, tedious drilling, and having to make weight twice a week? People can try to argue boxing or mma, but anyone who has done both boxing and wrestling will tell you it is harder. On top of that, the hardest part of mma is the grappling portion. Of course, this is just a personal opinion and not a fact.

There's not really a special formula to become a great wrestler. You just have to work at it every day. Push yourself to your limits every practice. Listen to your coaches advice and understand the do's and don'ts.

Whether you love to watch wrestling or you think that it's the most boring thing on the planet, you should ask yourself one simple question. Could you do what wrestler's do on a day to day basis? Could you endure the blood, the sweat, and tears that go into every single match? Before you try judging someone for wrestling, I suggest you take a walk in their shoes first. Every trial and tribulation that a wrestler, or any athlete goes through crafts them and teaches them life lessons that will guide them and create future leaders of this country. Wrestling teaches hard work ethic, determination, motivation, along with good moral character. Now, would you want your kids to wrestle?