Thoughts from Afik Ocak, BTST Student

Wrestling is part of my life, I love wrestling and I love to wrestle with my friends. Wrestling is ingrained into my lifestyle, I can say wrestling has given me a lot and I am grateful. Being a refugee from Turkey it has been hard to adjust to the Canadian Lifestyle. This is especially hard because I am on my own in Canada and my family is all back in Turkey.  Wrestling and my mentor Mr. Sanchez have really helped me feel like I am part of a family which is important to me. It makes me feel like home when I am with my fellow Beat the Streets wrestlers. 

Beat the Street Toronto is great. They teach you technique that is at a very high level. Sometimes it is hard to keep up but it is part of the fun to learn new things from some very great coaches. It is also a place where I have made a lot of new friends not from my community. I have friends here from all over the world at Beat the Streets Toronto.

One thing that stood out to me was the Wrestle the North event ran at Nathan Phillips Square. It was an amazing event to see downtown and have people walk by and enjoy wrestling. It was like the events in Turkey when they run them outside. The Wrestle the North event made me want to train hard and participate next year.

Thank you so much Beat the Streets Toronto, 

Akif Ocak
BTST Student