Ten Reasons your Child should Wrestle : Wrestling in Toronto
If you’re looking for a sport to do or put your child in that will teach him/her great life skills and get them physically fit – then wrestling may be just the sport for you! Did we mention it’s inexpensive too. Relative to other sports Wrestling fees tend to be on the lower side often ranging from free to $1000 per season and tournament cost averaging $20 per tournament. Also wrestling gear is very affordable your most expensive item being your children wrestling shoes and children wrestling singlets both ranging anywhere from $30-$120 on average. If you are familiar with organized sports you can understand that is quite low. The following is a list of Ten reasons why it’s a great idea for your child to wrestle!
Anyone can do it! Wrestling has different age groups and weight classes to make it fair for everyone involved. The sport does not discriminate against how old someone is or their weight. There is an age division and a weight class for everyone!
Mental skills: With wrestling one can learn how to overcome many obstacles and challenges that will make them mentally stronger and prepared to take on the world. Some of the skills one can acquire from wrestling include: self-reliance, self-confidence and self-discipline. At Beat the Streets Toronto we use the practices of Angela Duckworth’s GRIT model of developing mental toughness which is developed through the power of Passion and Perseverance. Teaching children and young people to push through the resistance until they succeed.
Total Body Workout: Wrestling is a very dynamic sport that uses and taxes the entire body some point during a wrestling match. Wrestlers develop strong legs from their stance work, strong hips and core from all the lifting and arching of the body while throwing. Wrestlers also develop strong a strong upper body from pushing and pulling their opponents or lifting a leg or the body during an attack or defensive position. Even the neck muscles are taxed during what is called hand fighting as your opponent snaps your head or a wrestler has to bridge as she fights off a pinning position from her back.
Cardiovascular: a wrestling match fits mostly in the anaerobic lactic threshold of exercise but to properly prepare for a wrestling tournament where one has multiple wrestling matches one has to train their cardiovascular system. Many university and high level wrestlers spend weeks building a solid fitness base by running long distances and when training in a wrestling practice prior to the competition part of the season most of the sessions are geared towards cardiovascular workouts.
Increased Cardiovascular Endurance: Wrestling puts extreme demands on the body and it is important for wrestlers to have the muscle endurance to hold up from the beginning of a match to the end. The goal when training should be to develop the muscle endurance to perform their skills for long periods of time.
Proper Nutrition: Dieting is a part of wrestling as mentioned previously wrestling is a sport with weight classes thus good wrestlers often maintain a vigilante watch over what they consume during the competitive season. Smart wrestlers manage their weight through eating a healthy diet.
Burns A LOT of Calories: One six-minute match of wrestling is said to burn around 400 calories. A wrestler can expect to wrestle no less than two matches a day at a tournament so they will burn around 800 calories in just 12 minutes! An average wrestling practice will last between one and a half and two hours, in that time frame an athlete will lose an average of 1,000 calories!
Builds Character: Wrestling builds character, teaches kids how to overcome obstacles, handle their emotions, respect authority, the importance of being a good teammate, and that success has to be earned through hard work and determination.
Helps Social Development: In fact, participating in and having a positive experience in sports can have a major impact on a young athlete’s social development, says Greg Bach, Senior Director, Communications and Content, for the National Alliance for Youth Sports. When wrestlers aren’t competing they are cheering on their teammates, and getting a sense of just how powerful a collective group of people united in shouting words of encouragement can be.
Its Universally Understood: Wrestling is one of the only sports that everyone in the world can understand. There probably aren’t many people in the world who haven’t wrestled around or roughhoused with siblings and friends. The desire to test one’s strength and physical ability is innate — kids everywhere do it for fun! Competitive wrestling, in a formal setting, is a sport understood at its most primal level.
Sourced from Health Fitness Revolution and author of the book ReSYNC Your Life Samir Becic that one can receive from wrestling : Social Benefits of Wrestling, MATT KRUMRIE
