Wrestling (and Football)

[gatorman-uf]

Do coaches encourage football players to be wrestlers anymore? Or is it weightlifting and track only? With an occasional basketball/baseball player? One of the things I like about small schools (private or public) is that numerous kids play multiple sports, maybe it makes it less overall quality because the kids aren't specializing in one sport year round, but there is something cool to see a kid truly dominate in 3 sports throughout the year.

I bring up wrestling because the NCAA Championships are on and I went to wikipedia to look up the nearest D-1 wrestling program, the nearest one is in South Carolina. Does the South hate Olympic-style wrestling that much? No programs in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, or Florida.

Florida should add a men's and women's wrestling program, I am sure the state of Florida produces enough talent to feed a program like UF. Some kids would probably like to stay a little closer to home.

[ColumbiaHighFan2017class]

11 minutes ago, gatorman-uf said:

Do coaches encourage football players to be wrestlers anymore? Or is it weightlifting and track only? With an occasional basketball/baseball player? One of the things I like about small schools (private or public) is that numerous kids play multiple sports, maybe it makes it less overall quality because the kids aren't specializing in one sport year round, but there is something cool to see a kid truly dominate in 3 sports throughout the year.

I bring up wrestling because the NCAA Championships are on and I went to wikipedia to look up the nearest D-1 wrestling program, the nearest one is in South Carolina. Does the South hate Olympic-style wrestling that much? No programs in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, or Florida.

Florida should add a men's and women's wrestling program, I am sure the state of Florida produces enough talent to feed a program like UF. Some kids would probably like to stay a little closer to home.

We had a lineman last year who was on the wrestling team but it does seem like weightlifting/track and basketball/baseball is the go to sports for football players looking for a 2nd or 3rd sport

 

There were a few other sport correlations I noticed but it would divert the topic so I'll wait to break this down at a later time 

[Ray Icaza]

42 minutes ago, gatorman-uf said:

Do coaches encourage football players to be wrestlers anymore? Or is it weightlifting and track only? With an occasional basketball/baseball player? One of the things I like about small schools (private or public) is that numerous kids play multiple sports, maybe it makes it less overall quality because the kids aren't specializing in one sport year round, but there is something cool to see a kid truly dominate in 3 sports throughout the year.

I bring up wrestling because the NCAA Championships are on and I went to wikipedia to look up the nearest D-1 wrestling program, the nearest one is in South Carolina. Does the South hate Olympic-style wrestling that much? No programs in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, or Florida.

Florida should add a men's and women's wrestling program, I am sure the state of Florida produces enough talent to feed a program like UF. Some kids would probably like to stay a little closer to home.

To some extent wrestling for football players has a limitation due to weight.  Most are over 170 lbs. so that eliminates over half of the weight divisions in wrestling.  We did have 2 football players on our wrestling team this year and both went to state finals.  Gunner Holland our back up QB as a sophomore just won his second championship in a row at like 160 lbs.   We have several other football players running track, 3 others played basketball and another 3 or so on the baseball team.   I agree it is cool to watch them excel in other sports as well. 

[h8r]

some FB coaches push it, some dont.  

fb coaches are greedy about their kids, for whatever reason.  they should push them to do everything possible.

wrestling by far is the best sport for any big kid or small kid for that matter. 

want to learn how to move someone with force?  it aint moving a weight bar thats gonna get that done in real life, 

learn how to take ownership and compete, cant blame anyone if you got your tail whipped on the mat.  

and run track.....with a good track coach, who knows how to teach you how to run.

[THAT S--T WAS FUNNY]

16 hours ago, h8r said:

learn how to take ownership and compete, cant blame anyone if you got your tail whipped on the mat.  

Booooooom!!

Well said. 

[PinellasFB]

On 3/18/2022 at 10:49 PM, gatorman-uf said:

I bring up wrestling because the NCAA Championships are on and I went to wikipedia to look up the nearest D-1 wrestling program, the nearest one is in South Carolina. Does the South hate Olympic-style wrestling that much? No programs in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, or Florida.

Florida should add a men's and women's wrestling program, I am sure the state of Florida produces enough talent to feed a program like UF. Some kids would probably like to stay a little closer to home.

Wrestling is a continually contracting olympic sport.  It is dropped from D1 colleges annually and has been threatened to removed from the olympics many times.  It's a wonderful sport but not great for TV audiences, thus it's limited revenue generation.  Recent international wrestling rules changes to make it more entertaining on TV helped its olympic cause.  Wrestling is not in the SEC/south and will not get added despite being one of the lowest operating costs olympic sports a university would have to support.  Stanford dropped wrestling two years ago despite only a $100k operating budget but changed its mind when there was substantial alumni backlash.  Wrestling has been a major target due to being a boys only sport but girls wrestling is a fast growing sport and could reverse this contraction trend if colleges could create men and women wrestling teams for Title IX compliance.

As far as its translation to football, it is THE second sport for any lineman.  You will dominate in hand fighting and never get knocked off your feet, even by bigger stronger guys.  Leverage, balance and close combat reflexes are a direct translation to anything taught to both offensive and defensive lineman.  If you go to any HS wrestling match, 190+ lb weight classes are dominated by football players doing it as a second sport.

[Beek]

I require all my players to do something in the off season. By that I mean another sport. We have players participate in wrestling, track, weightlifting and baseball all the time. A very few play basketball, mainly because the basketball players think they are too good to play football so there is not much crossover at our school. The ones who do not participate in another sport must do work outs with the football team. We usually do not have many who do not participate in another sport. Most of our coaches coach other sports as well so getting the kids to play is a bit easier.

For wrestling in particular, I feel football players gain many benefits from wrestling. leverage, additional strength training and stamina are the largest. It also uses different muscle groups which is also beneficial. 

[Cat_Scratch]

On 3/23/2022 at 7:46 AM, PinellasFB said:

 

As far as its translation to football, it is THE second sport for any lineman.  You will dominate in hand fighting and never get knocked off your feet, even by bigger stronger guys.  Leverage, balance and close combat reflexes are a direct translation to anything taught to both offensive and defensive lineman.  If you go to any HS wrestling match, 190+ lb weight classes are dominated by football players doing it as a second sport.

I agree with 190 plus being dominated by football players, but some all year wrestlers beat football/wrestlers often. 4 year wrestlers are very dominating athletes no matter what they weigh.

Swimming and wrestling are very good sports for creating endurance in athletes. 

This year at state both Girls and Boys were in the same arena. 2 mats for the girls and 6 for the boys.  

My grandson wrestles for Palm Bay and my granddaughter wrestled for Cocoa a few years back.