UnderGround Forum >> What makes wrestlers so tough?

nowaydo - Wrestlers start training to be a fighter before or whether or not they ever fight.
Many wrestling coaches don't know a lot of technique, but they figure out "raw" conditioning by just doing "more, more and more" and by having athletes do "more" under harsh conditions.
Plus...imagine being a kid, one on one with another wrestler in front of your family and school peers and truly getting your butt kick! Getting your butt kicked, not because some "team" scored more touchdowns or goals or because some "team" ran around the bases more than you...but because someone actually "kick your butt"!

Then, you go back to practice and the coached drills you and runs you ragged because of your loss. And other older, bigger and better wrestlers in practice kicks your butt some more.

You either quit or get tougher.

After years of wrestling, I went to Army basic training and thought it was a joke.

Yet, boxing in the Army gave me a wake up call. Wrestling wasn't the only tough sport. I got the same wake up call in Muay thai and competitive judo.

BJJ training was a vacation compared to those.


One big difference is that sometimes only the top athletes in other sports train with the intensity that every wrestler, whether he's the among the top or bottom, trains every practice.

I may be a little bias.

Twister Trent -

GriffinQ - If you've ever wrestled... You'd know. It's the grind. You're performing in a sport that requires you to go full blast for minutes at a time without rest, without being allowed to take a step back, and against an opponent just as mean and strong as you who is trying to break your spirit and your body.
You're constantly dehydrated and under fed yet you have practice six days a week in a sport that won't get you a lot of public accolades. You have to be both strong and explosive, but you must also be durable and have cardio for days. You put your body through hell in preparation for every match, but there's no genuine downtime. If you want to be the best, or even be "good," you have to work every single day. Wrestling is a sport where there are no shortcuts... Even if you're the most athletic guy on the mat, you can still be broken by a mean sonova bitch who knows how to outwork you.

Voted up when I get to a PC! Well said!

WrestlingSucks - to those saying boxing and thaiboxibg are just as hard as wrestling, consider this..

wrestlers have a team comp once a week and a tourny every weekend. that means youre cutting weight tuesday to wrestle wednesday and win or lose youre cutting again thursday for a tourny on fri and sat. this continues for months.

once youre done with that you get to spend the spring doing free and greco every weekend before nationals. after that you cantake a month off or take a trip to a top college camp for technique. when its all said and done ypur summer is two weeks long. this is what is expected of highschool kids. ive trained at top bpxing and thai gyms that didnt compare to one week of national wrestling camps.

Twister Trent -

GriffinQ - If you've ever wrestled... You'd know. It's the grind. You're performing in a sport that requires you to go full blast for minutes at a time without rest, without being allowed to take a step back, and against an opponent just as mean and strong as you who is trying to break your spirit and your body.
You're constantly dehydrated and under fed yet you have practice six days a week in a sport that won't get you a lot of public accolades. You have to be both strong and explosive, but you must also be durable and have cardio for days. You put your body through hell in preparation for every match, but there's no genuine downtime. If you want to be the best, or even be "good," you have to work every single day. Wrestling is a sport where there are no shortcuts... Even if you're the most athletic guy on the mat, you can still be broken by a mean sonova bitch who knows how to outwork you.

Voted up when I get to a PC! Well said!

Moist Gracie - 

GriffinQ -  If you've ever wrestled... You'd know. It's the grind. You're performing in a sport that requires you to go full blast for minutes at a time without rest, without being allowed to take a step back, and against an opponent just as mean and strong as you who is trying to break your spirit and your body.
You're constantly dehydrated and under fed yet you have practice six days a week in a sport that won't get you a lot of public accolades. You have to be both strong and explosive, but you must also be durable and have cardio for days. You put your body through hell in preparation for every match, but there's no genuine downtime. If you want to be the best, or even be "good," you have to work every single day. Wrestling is a sport where there are no shortcuts... Even if you're the most athletic guy on the mat, you can still be broken by a mean sonova bitch who knows how to outwork you.

This.

And in addition, I want to add that wrestling gives you a flat out dog-eat-dog mentality. One thing you learn early on is that either you're going to be the one giving the beating or taking it, and either you quit or do everything in your power to dominate as much as possible.

My freshman year in hs I was a 152 lber on varsity and I got my dick knocked into the dirt on a daily basis. We'd do these things called a "combat drill" which was basically a live match with no scoring: the whole point was to physically punish your partner as much as possible while staying in good position. We would throw down and there were even a few fistfights because of it. We were like dogs. No one wanted to lose or be embarrassed.

WrestlingSucks - to those saying boxing and thaiboxibg are just as hard as wrestling, consider this..

wrestlers have a team comp once a week and a tourny every weekend. that means youre cutting weight tuesday to wrestle wednesday and win or lose youre cutting again thursday for a tourny on fri and sat. this continues for months.

once youre done with that you get to spend the spring doing free and greco every weekend before nationals. after that you cantake a month off or take a trip to a top college camp for technique. when its all said and done ypur summer is two weeks long. this is what is expected of highschool kids. ive trained at top bpxing and thai gyms that didnt compare to one week of national wrestling camps.

LikeThis - short answer is they arent

striking combat sports are all a lot tougher

wrestlers are usually athletic but often big pussies, even the ones who make it to the ufc. nothing in wrestling compares to the physical pain of a striking battle.

its clear this is a grappler-heavy forum though

Cool thread, always enjoy this topic when it comes up.  Summed up pretty well already, bunch of animals in a room battling for survival for months at a time over the course of several years.  That will toughen you up and seperate the ones who can from the ones who can't .   Most difficult thing I've ever done is my college frosh season where I had to get down t o 118lbs after wlaking into the room weighing 149, and I had to hold the weight all season long.  When i was done with my wrestling career and I got invited to go down to train with some guys who were doing pro MMA, I thought it might be fun so I gave it a go.  I was busy running a business and juggling numerous women.  A grueling, fight career was the last thing i needed.  But what i found out is that MMA training was so easy relative to wreslting trainning that i went ahead and signed up, took some fights, did all the team asked of me, and basically had a pretty cool hobby to transition to now that wreslting was behind me .  Success came easy, (granted the competitoion back then was a step below where it is today) so easy in fact that I was able to get by without ever really pushing myself to my limits.  And at the time, I was in one the the better camps in the world.  2 UFC champions, a couple of future UFC champions, Pride stars, etc.  

In one word, the answer to the OP's question would be:

 Culture

Theres almost no glory in wrestling either. In my experience wrestling was always a second tier sport. Our high school didn't have a wrestling room. We tore apart the caeteria everyday then put it back together. Sometimes we'd use the middle school gym but we'd get bumped by girls JV basketball. There was just no respect.

Not every school had this problem. Even in college the wrestling team got dumped on. It was just guys going out there and giving everything they had and barely anyone outside of your wrestling bubble gave a fuck. So you bust your ass HARD day in and day out and why? Because you fuckin can, that's why.