I am a junior wrestling at 215. My record after a meet tonight (I got my ass kicked) is 14-9. We have an extremely tough tournament on Saturday, and the meet next week I will wrestle the defending Conference champion. I won't really "quit" wrestling, but I don't see why I should come back out my senior year. Every year it's been, "next year, next year, I'll do this...etc, etc."

I feel horrible and depressed when I lose, and I when I win, I don't even feel good, I only feel relieved that I don't have that horrible feeling of losing inside of me. I'm not having any fun. I dread practices and competitions. I would rather eat a stinky poop than go to practice. I'm not having any fun at all but I respect my teammates and coaches too much to quit on them. I don't even know why I'm posting this but I just felt like it. I guess I'm looking for any reason at all to keep going. Wrestling my senior year and going 14-9 would be a total waste of time and energy. Obviously I would love to make state next year, but going from a .500 wrestler to a state qualifier is a bit unrealistic to me.

Set some goals and work your butt off to achieve them.

I set a goal to make it down state my Senior year. I was 20-20-2 my Junior year (so you have me beat now).

Made it down state and came within 2 points of placing. Finished something like 35-7 (I lost to the champ, 4th, 5th, 6th - twice, and two other guys that could have placed but were state qualifiers).

You have to want it and you have to be willing to work at it in season and out of season. This season is not over...see how far you can get this season. Plenty of time left to work on conditioning, nutrition, and pre-match warmup routine. These are things anyone can work on...

Let me know next year what your name is when you make to the big dance. It is incredible wrestling in Champaign...it is worth all the work...

-Jeff

Take it from me. I didn't do crap in high school. However, I never gave up. All 4 years, I never touched the varsity mat. Call me a loser if you must, but I stuck with the program. I messed it up myself. I was ineligible my junior year and that messed a lot of chances up for me. Your story and mine are quite different. But the big picture is this: What are you going to be saying next year if you don't wrestle? What if? That could be me! Why didn't I finish? Those questions will be sitting with you the whole wrestling season while your friends are out on the mat finishing what they started. Winning and losing, it's part of the sport. It's something that everybody has to deal with. From the number one ranked kid, down to the Joe Schmoe no name.

14-9? Most kids would kill to have that record right now. Your wrestling the defending conference champ next week, and your worried about it today? Its a week away!! So what if he's the "defending Conf. Champ" thats LAST year! This is now! Every single match, you have to take it one by one and give each one 110%. If it's against Beebe, the conference champ or your twin brother. The only person your losing to right now is yourself.

Obviously the ultimate choice is yours. But its something that you seriously have to think about. If you have wrestled forever, why quit now on yourself, your teammates? Stick it out...You'll be glad you did in the long run.

Drop me an email...

In a way, I know what you mean .. The thing is, I know I could never quit .. I'll never get sick of wrestling .. Never, but right now wrestling is REALLY not fun .. I was excited at the begining of the year, was having fun, won a couple big matches, and now I'm wrestling like crap .. I've lost a couple of matches I should of killed at .. Now everything's routine .. I'm just ready for the season to end ... The offseason is so much more fun, but no matter what man, "It takes alot of pain to get to Champaign" .. and even if you don't get to this year .. Nothing in your life will take the spot wrestling can .. Just make sure you get out of this bind before the time you need to prove yourself .. If it's this year or next year for state .. Just keep it in your mind .. If you take this sport seriously, it's VERY mentally exhausting .. You know it's tough right now, but you also know what you got to do .. Don't let it get you down yet .. Get out of the routine, practice hard, and get excited .. I'll be having to do this too .. Wrestling takes up a huge part of any true wrestler's life .. You know you're not going to quit .. You know next year the seniors will be moving out, you will be getting better, and things will look up for you .. Everyone goes through rough spots, but it takes those rough spots to get to the memorable ones .. Keep your head up!

Everything you just said is EXACTLY what I'm talking about. I was SO jacked up at the beginning of the year, I started off hot, and now I've lost 3 in a row, 4 of last 5. Even before that, even when I was winning a lot, I was ready for all of this to be over. I'm counting down days until I'm done. I'm so sick of this sport...I'm just in high school, sometimes I just wanna sit at home on the couch and do nothing, but I always show up to practice and it gets more and more depressing each day. I see no reason to keep going, the only consistent thing about wrestling is its ability to make me miserable.

Depressing? Miserable? What made you want to be a wrestler in the first place? If you can't answer that question, maybe you should just quit now. NOW is NOT the time to worry about whether the outcome will be worth the sacrifice. You're only 2 weeks away from regionals. NOW IS the time to push yourself harder in the wrestling room and on your running course. You need to quit feeling sorry for yourself, snap out of your psychological meltdown and start competing. Worry about whether you'll go out for wrestling next season AFTER this season ends. Jeff Pape has given you an example of how you can have a crappy junior year and a great senior year. Another example I can think of is Kevin Rogers of Oregon - from something like 15-11 as junior to 43-4 as a senior. But before you work toward that, you need to take care of the rest of THIS season. If you need hope, look at Michael McIntyre from Savanna last year. He was 16-8 going into one of the toughest weight classes in any sectional. No one that I know of gave him any chance to make it out. But he did, and he took 4th in Champaign. Oh, and by the way, those 9 losses of yours mean nothing. To you they should be learning experiences and a motivators. The only loss that REALLY counts is the one that eliminates you from the state series. Go out and kick some butt in your next match. BE A WARRIOR! Any man's finest hour, his greatest fulfillment to all he holds dear, is the moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle victorious.

Boy,

Every year I see wrestlers, bot good and bad, who go through what you are going through. Not one kid ever quit though and talking to them later on I know that they are thankful for that. It seems to me that you may need to adjust your approach to the sport if you want to be more succesful. In orderr to be a champion or excell at anything the desire to be great must be more powerful than the fear of failure. People who train and work so that they won't lose do not end up excelling in the long run and often times fall short of their goals because they are not training to get better, but are trainging so that they don't do worse. I suggest you rethink your approach and then things might just turn around for you. Wrestling, like all sports, does not just build character it also shows it. By not quiting when things are going poor shows that you have alot of character and the traits that it takes in order to be succesful. Good luck in whatever you do.

do what ya gotta do

I'm not a wrestling coach but I a a big fan of the sport. I am always impressed with the young men who go out there each night and put it all on the line. I can absolutely understand why you are feeling the way you do...it's tough to go out there and face the prospect of losing and having no excuses other than "the other guy wrestled better." From experience I can tell you quiting is a much tougher thing to deal with in the long run. I quit wrestling my Sophmore year and I always wonder what I could have done. At 14 - 9 it sounds like you've got a shot to be pretty good. It also means there's 14 people out there that you have beaten this year. Someone earlier suggested setting some goals so you know what you are working toward. This sounds like a good idea. I really hope you stay with it and continue to do well.