Almost every college wrestler now is hardly cutting any weight. Ask most D1 wrestlers and they will say the same thing. I know there’s still a lot of bad coaches out there convincing kids to cut a lot and it’s just not neccecary and hurts. An hour is not enough time to rehydrate and the gas it takes doesn’t help much with strength. Spencer Lee who is arguably the most dominant 125 of all time was underweight in high school and most his college career.

My son is 11 and this is his 5th season wrestling with a local rec club. Now when we started the club was run on a time basis- your first years you were part of one group, after 2-3 years experience you moved to another group with more detailed instruction. Until about 2 years ago… when a wrestling “dynasty” family took over and it became elite level for coach’s kids and their best friends, or general team for everyone else. The problem is the general team is kind of a giant catch all and my son learned nothing last year because it’s crowded and the coaches seem more focused on the new, little kids.

So here is my question- my son had a record last year equal to or slightly better than a group of boys in his grade, they’ve all wrestled together since the beginning. They all did some extra training at a local gym in the off season, but he was busy playing football. Now they were all moved to the elite team and he wasn’t, leaving him not a single person his weight class or age on the general team. We talked to the coach who agreed to move him to the elite team but implied he didn’t think he’d be able to keep up, and he reserves the right to bump him back down if he feels like it. One of his friends decided they were sick of the toxic mess of the elite team and quit. While my son has LOVED wrestling and intended on wrestling through middle and high school, he is now wondering whether he should just quit too (this is his last year to be in the rec program as they don’t do middle school).

Just to clarify, he’s happy doing lots of extra work, he is always the kid that sits next to the coach at everyone’s matches learning, while he does fine during the season he gets nervous at tournaments and doesn’t perform well there. However, he’s one of the very few “big kids” (linebacker for football)- so has trouble even finding anyone to practice with (the other boys he knows are all the short tiny string bean type) and he says he loves football more so far.

He seems pretty flexible to what we think- should we encourage him to quit altogether? Miss his last year with the rec program and pick it back up next year when he can be on the middle school team knowing it will be the same group of boys? Just push through and accept whatever happens with this elite program?

I was never athletic growing up but I started working out and joined wrestling my sophomore year of highschool. My first year I had 1 win the entire year and people that started the same year as me started winning medals. I thought it was just cause it was my first year and I joined a club outside of school. My dream was to make it to Offsa(Ontario highschool championship)

3 years later in gr12 I still couldn’t qualify for jt. Idk what’s wrong with me or I’m just born to be bad. It’s my fourth year now.I joined my unis wrestling team and everyone else there is an Offsa champion except for me and every scrimmage we do I always lose no matter who I wrestle. Someone asked me today like if it was my first year wrestling like bro no I just suck. I thought it didn’t matter if I win or lose cause I love wrestling so much but this constant failure just makes me depressed all the time now.

My son has been wrestling for about the last 11 months or so almost a year now. Hes 6 years old and doing great he’s gearing up for his first competition this weekend… my only question is does anyone else have problems with terrible parents in wrestling gyms. He cross trains at two gyms and both of them I’ve dealt with parents cussing loudly at their 4-7 year old kids til they are in absolute tears, whooping their kids simply for losing their attention span once in an hour long practice.

Most of this is done by dads who many times when I talk to them I discover they have zero wrestling experience or any time in any martial art. I have been on a mat for years whether it’s mma, jiu jitsu or wrestling and I find most times it’s counterproductive to when parents act like this. Last week during practice another dad looked over at me and stated his son “doesn’t get his A— whooped hardly enough” and “maybe if I whoop his A— tonight he will get tougher”. I tried to tell him to just be patient and encourage him but he just laughed at the thought and wrote me off.

Does anyone else have this experience with parents? I did not start wrestling til I was 20 so I didn’t deal either much wrestling in my younger years this is the first time I’m really dealing with parents. If so have you ever said anything to them?

Hope this is ok

I’ve been working on the over tie slide by, elbow control slide by, look at the watch slide by, and the snake your hand through slide by. I’m curious which ones you guys prefer and which ones get the most takedowns in live wrestling. What’s been working best for you guys?

Hey guys, I’m a high school wrestler at 175 lbs, likely wrestling JV this year. I’ve been practicing with two guys: one about 5 inches taller than me and another who’s only slightly taller.
I’m not as lean as the taller guy, but I can compete with him in hand fighting. My biggest weakness right now is my cardio. Both guys have better gas tanks than me, and I tend to get tired much quicker during practice.
I feel like if I could improve my conditioning, I’d be much more competitive against them and my opponents.
What are some tips or training methods you guys recommend for improving wrestling cardio and being able to maintain a high pace throughout a match?
I’d really appreciate any advice!

His opponents were-

• Ebrahim Khari (Iran), 7-1
• Akito Mukaida (Japan), 11-0
• Gabriel Whisenhunt (Romania), 10-0
• Iukhan Dokturbek Uulu (Kyrgyzstan), 4-1

Overall Ben outscored his 4 opponents 32-2.

Ben's 1st opponent, Khari, battled back and easily dispatched his opponents to win bronze.

In the 2nd round Ben faced the reigning U23 World Bronze medalist, Akito Mukaida, who lost to Jax Forrest last year in the semis (15-5).

Wisenhunt (who wrestles at Oregon State), representing Romania lost to Ben Davino 10-0 in the semis, and then in Wisenhunt's bronze medal match lost to Khari 12-0.

Dokturbek Uulu finished 9th in (2024) and as far as I can tell kinda came out of nowhere for this 2nd place finish, but I won't pretend to be very familiar with him prior to this weekend.

Not very many people were talking about the u23s and Davino had himself a great tournament. USA's future at 57-65kg is really bright. I think they'll end up being strong at other weights too obviously, but the young guys at those weights are really special imo.

What an insane run by Davino though. He lost in the finals to Blaze at US Open in April. At World Team Trials he went 1-2, losing to Jax Forrest 1-11 in his 2nd round match. He then lost to Arsen Harutyunyan (Armenian, 4x Euro champ, 4x World Bronze, 2x U23 World Champ), 5-6 at RAF 11 in July. At RAF 12 in late August Ben lost 0-4 to Masanosuke Ono.

There's no shame in any of those loses, but since May, Davino was 1-4 (really 1-3 as one match he forfeited at Finals X) in freestyle. Credit to him for locking in for (arguably) the most important tournament he's wrestled yet and absolutely smoking his opponents on the way to Gold.

Davino/Blaze/Forrest is a crazy group that we're pretty lucky to see wrestle against each other and for USA. You could send any of the 3 out and expect good results, and they're all 19-20 still. There's also reigning U20 World Champ, Aaron Seidel, who brought home gold in August after a dominate showing.

Who were you impressed by (at any weight)? Who do you think will transition well into a seniors career?

Looking into prescription sports eyewear. Has anyone here used them, or know people who have? Any particularly good brands that don’t fog up too badly and stay on the face during wrestling?

The ability to take prescription lenses is as important as the ability to prevent trauma to the eye.

Currently a College Heavyweight wrestler in the United States and was curious if picking up sumo would help me out with wrestling? If anyone has any knowledge on this please let me know!

I know people are gonna say "just focus on wrestling man" but holy shit I can't deal with this bad breathe. Brush your teeth if you had eaten something prior to wrestling. You should brush your teeth after everything you eat anyways. I gag whenever I'm wrestling someone with bad breathe.

As a person who loves his matches, I notice these people are saying he's gonna be a national champion at Penn State often. Don't get me wrong but if he's 133 lbs in folkstyle he's already got hella comp there. I can't see in beating Jax Forrest or Ben Davino in folkstyle however freestyle is a different story. Personally, I think the dude will become a 2x all American (he has 2 yeats of eligibility) however never a national champion. Feel free to debate or agree below.

This is a wrestling sub at the very least we should have a place to live chat during a big tournaments. Do your job properly mods.

Hey this was a video back to my 2nd year wrestling, a sophomore at the time. I wasn't a good wrestler but I was still able to pull some moves I saw on the Internet into real life. Does anyone know the name of the move I did. I'm the black guy btw.

Pretty confident this is just a one off bad night for the whole team. I’d be extremely surprised if we don’t place top 2 in team medals. Keep your hopes up guys they got this

Would yall say getting 5th place at sectionals is good??

Hey guys, I started grappling about a month ago, and I'm really enjoying it so far. At home, I try to work on new techniques or practice things we've covered in previous classes, as much as I can.

Since I have a striking background and still want to keep working on my stand-up game, I feel much more comfortable with my left leg forward, even though I'm right-handed.

After watching quite a few instructionals, I've noticed that pretty much everyone teaches the double-leg takedown from an orthodox stance (same-side stance). The only exceptions I've found are MMA instructionals, where the double leg is usually set up with striking before switching stance during the shot.

So I'm wondering: what changes when it comes to pure grappling? Is there a specific reason why the double leg is generally taught from a same-side stance, or can you effectively use a staggered stance with your left leg forward?

Hi guys, really looking to get into wrestling however I’m a uk16 shoe, does anyone know where I could source some boots of this size, I’d be super grateful

The subtle art of leveraging the vague rules. So easy.

Forget the wrestling part, which is not bad; just pay attention to the various ways the gassed wrestler, you guessed it, khaniev, can leverage the rules and/or get blessed by the incompetence or "incompetence" of the refs. Also, while you're at it, count how many points he lost for his lack of stamina (and sense of direction).

Here's another one, if you're interested.