Conrad McKoy Dr.

Sally Griffin English 1102 14 March 2014 The Ultimate Sacrifice

Wrestling, an individual sport where one person is put against another in a test of strength to see who has the greatest will to win. Within wrestling there are eighteen different weight classes at the recreational level and as you go from middle school, high school, college, and professional wrestling; there are less weight classes the more you move up. The wrestling community is comprised of very diverse backgrounds and does not exclude anyone based on sex, gender, age or religion. Wrestling regulations are set up with a board of directors who oversee everything that coaches, athletes, and athletic directors are doing to make sure they are not breaking any laws. Unbeknownst to the board illegal activity happens every day in the wrestling world that flows under the radar but once in a while these illegal activities catch media attention but no one is punished even when there is a death. Why is there no one to taking the blame for these crimes and are the wrestlers being informed of the danger that they could be in by putting their bodies through strenuous weight loss tactics? Knowledge is power and can also prevent people from hurting themselves, are the right procedures being placed to properly educate every in the wrestling community? When a kid decides to join the wrestling community they join with the intentions that they are going to have the time of their life while building a connection with others who share the same interest. Wrestling is meant to train a young boy or girl into a tough adult while teaching values of sportsmanship and hard work. These kids are not prepared for the truth behind

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the glitz and glamour they see portrayed on Television and at wrestling matches. Wrestling takes a lot of gut wrenching practice and if you are one of the majority of people who has to cut weight, the pain intensifies tenfold. There are few wrestlers that wrestle at their natural weight because cutting weight gives an edge on an opponent because that wrestler will outsize them. The lengths that an athlete will go in order to lose weight is a dark subject in wrestling for the reason that, if it were mentioned to the public, wrestling would be shunned for their taboo and sometimes deadly tactics. Wrestlers will do anything to lose weight from dehydration tactics which is the most popular to dietary supplements and starvation. In 1997 journalist Frank Litsky, a writer for the New York Times had the gruesome task of reporting and interviewing people on the death of three college wrestler who had died after intense wrestling practices. No one was absolutely sure what led to these boys death all by different reasons but many have speculated that cutting substantial amounts of weight and excruciated diets led to the boys deaths by cardiac arrest from over exhaustion, heart stroke from the same thing, and kidney failure from extreme dehydration. This incident came at a tough time for the wrestling world that was already facing budget cuts across the U.S. These incidents were also within six weeks of each other so Federal and local law enforcement were looking very closely at all other wrestling institutions to make sure there would not be a fourth. Lars Jensen, a coach at San Francisco State University was quoted for saying In 25 years in college wrestling, I never heard until now of deaths from cutting weight. This was a true fact because before this there were no reported deaths in amateur wrestling but since this incident wrestler deaths and illness have been on the rise and although still rare are a more occurring case.

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Eating disorders are also on the rise in the wrestling community; everyday wrestlers and former wrestlers live with anorexia, bulimia, and a vast amount of body disorders from cutting weight and being accustom to a certain size and eating style. Wrestlers and coaches may not be aware of the true hazards of extreme rapid weight loss. The most worrisome dangers are hyperthermia, dehydration and development of eating disorders. (Berg) These are only some of the many thing wrestlers have to worry about when they are cutting weight trying to achieve their targeted weight. Are wrestlers and coaches not informed of these dangers that can come from putting their bodies through these conditions and that they can cause long lasting effects? As a well-organized system of intellectuals the wrestling community cannot let their future be ruined by uninformed coaches and wrestlers. Susan Berg an experienced nurse who knows a lot about the human body, goes on to inform the reader about the effects of losing weight rapidly and that after 3 pounds a week a person will start to go through dehydration. Direct information was never given to wrestlers about the dangers of cutting weight or any down side of the techniques practiced and everything that people learned came from their own investigations into the subject. Walls have been created to prevent rapid loss of weight by monitoring wrestlers weight and only allowing them to lose a certain amount of weight each week. Coaches and wrestlers were not informed of why this was implemented just that they needed to uphold this rule. Most coaches and wrestlers do not see the benefit of this rule but after the 1997 death of three wrestlers the NCAA pushed for this rule to make sure no one would lose large amounts of weight. Current uninformed coaches and wrestlers see this rule as holding people back from being in the weight class that they desire. Wrestlers will not worry about their weight until the beginning of the season then when it is time for them to be a certain size they will not compete

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until they have reached it but since the average season is around 4 months long they must rapidly lose weight so they can get wins under their belt to be able to qualify for the local, state and national championship. A wrestlers weight can only be monitored if they have had an official weigh in and if they are not at their desired weight they will not weigh in until they reach it. The problem with every rule is that with every rule there is a loop hole and that is the one for this rule and as long as there are loop holes wrestlers will stay in danger. Implementations of rules such as the monitoring of a wrestlers weight have been made with the best intentions of the wrestlers but are also the cause of a plethora of other problems because wrestlers are trying their best to bypass this rule that would not let them be where they want weight wise. With every rule there are consequences to breaking those rules and if you break your weight limit by losing too much weight that wrestler will not be allowed to wrestle and banned for a couple weeks. No wrestler wants to be out of commission for fear that they will be replaced permanently or miss a big opportunity to compete. When an athlete loses too much weight on accident they must gain weight rapidly so they will not get banned but this causes a chain reaction that starts rapid weight loss and gain which can harm the wrestler. There is no way around this sequence of unfortunate events so it makes keeping wrestlers healthy hard for the board and nearly impossible to tell them what they can and cannot do because as long as they achieve their targeted weight they feel like they are doing nothing wrong and no one is hurt so they can do it again. In an average 2,000 calorie a day diet it highlights everything a normal person needs to maintain a healthy lifestyle and get threw a day. According to the calorie control council a person must have 250 grams of carbohydrates, 140 grams of protein, 41 grams of fat and 12 grams of saturated fat. When wrestlers cut weight they barely eat 500 calories a day relying on

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mostly nuts and chewing gum to get them through the day for up to a week sometimes more. They also do not drink enough water to replenish the water they lose when they work-out and do all their other methods of cutting weight. Most cutting tactics are water weight related allowing their bodies to go without to keep whatever they sweat out, out. Wrestlers also do not eat all the fruits, vegetables, and meats required in an everyday meal. People must eat a well-balanced breakfast, morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack, and dinner to be properly fed from day to day. The forfeiture of these essential carbs and proteins damage the immune system and the bodys natural regeneration process. Dieting is also wrong to do at such a young age, when a person is fully grown they can diet and do more to their body almost whatever they want to but while a child is going through puberty dieting can mess with their natural growing body systems. Much work has been done by the Canadian Pediatric Society on the effects of adolescence dieting and although there is a percentage that may go well in most cases that does not happen and diets do more bad than good. In their research they have conducted that there are physical and psychological consequences to dieting. Physical consequences can range from nutritional deficiencies, particularly of iron and calcium which are essential in a growing body that can have negative short and long term effects. Psychological consequences are usually long term effects that are mostly eating disorders that lead to physical problems. In all the Canadian Pediatric Society suggest that people going through puberty not diet until their body is completely mature but healthy living needs to encouraged and supported by everyone in childrens life. Not many wrestlers will take the extra effort to maintain their weight outside of wrestling season and afterwards their weight will skyrocket and they can gain upwards to 40 pounds. This rapid increase in weight can also be detrimental to a wrestlers body because of the risk of high

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blood pressure because your heart has to pump more blood to the extra tissue, back issues because a persons body has to carry around the extra weight, diabetes because of the decrease in insulin sensitivity, heart disease because more weight puts a strain on the heart causing it to work harder, and skin rips because weight gain cause the skin to stretch until it cracks and rips which can cause sores. (A.D.A.M)These after effects plague the wrestling community but maintaining their wrestling weight throughout the entire year is complicated as well, since they go through extremes to get there during the season and they cannot keep living while denying themselves essential nutrients. Wrestlers look at this time as a break were weight is the least of their problems. As an athlete wrestlers need to be aware that their sport requires a year round commitment and if they do decide to take short cuts to lose weight rather than maintain a stable weight year round that the repercussions of this can be their life. In order to stop and prevent the cycle of rapid weight loss and gain a wrestler must be constantly watched because weight goes hand and hand with a person health and can lead them down either a good or bad path. Most wrestlers are young and learn things the hard way, which is a main reason that until something bad happens they will not change anything they are doing up until it is too late. Most weight cutting tactics are painful to the person cutting weight but most do not have many instant negative effects and for that reason wrestlers feel like they are not harming their body and that everything is fine. Wrestlers do not fear anything that cannot happen to them immediately and if they can get away with cutting weight however they see fit they will do it. This false sense of invincibility can be caused by a numerous amount of circumstances from wining and thinking that what they are doing is working to being young and just not knowing any better.

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Wrestling is not the only sport with a bad history of causing future illness and body issues because in each sport there are parts of the body that get strained former athletes around the world suffer every day. One of the different factor is that wrestling is mostly weight orientated while putting stress on the body. A basketball player will have bad knees and baseball pitcher who has a bad elbow although these are long lasting effects that can hurt people for a range of amount of time few have a fatal outcome. Wrestling is not notable for having the most death in the athletic world because of the more dangerous sports like bull fighting where you must try and tame an angered male bull with horns that is charging at you with malicious intent but this community is not like others, it is built around morals and the thought that everyone participating will leave safe and sound. Not many if any wrestler has the intent of hurting another wrestler at the start of a match, just a strong focus on winning at any cost and there are no recorded deaths by wrestler on wrestler action only the actions they have taken to get to the match and that weight class have been the cause of problems. Weight problems would not be an issue if wrestlers were not obsessed with trying to gain any advantage over their opponent. At the start of a wrestlers competitive career they are taught that their natural weight is not good enough because most top ranked wrestlers in their weight class are cutting weight. They believe that if they do not cut they cannot win against their larger opponents so they need to cut weight to gain an advantage and go against people of the same muscle mass. Muscle is not the most deciding factor when it comes to wrestling but it is stressed by coaches that muscle is one the most deciding factors. If wrestlers were taught fundamentals and technical skills they would not need to rely on muscle to get them through matches. Older coaches grew up knowing the dangers of cutting weight but not the long lasting effects because science was not as advanced and these coaches having an old school mindset do not want to

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conform to the modern day thinking so cutting to them is not a major deal because they been through it they think whoever they coach good enough can do it as well. A great example of being taught technique over size is shown by local North Carolina high school wrestler Nicholas Kee a former wrestler for Scotland County High School. In my interview with Nick I learned that he started his career rough as a 135 pound wrestler but ended weighing 170 pounds and a national champion without having to cut weight. He started cutting weight at the beginning of the season but soon realized after going on a 30 win undefeated streak that there was no competition in his current weight class. Nick then goes on to jump up two weight classes to wrestle 170 and continues to dominate all the way through the North Carolina State Championship where he won by technical fall, which is a win by 15 points or more in the first round and won the National Championship by pin fall in the first round as well. This prime example of using technical skill shows that with hard work any wrestler can achieve their goals and because a wrestler cuts weight does not guarantee them they will win. The wrestling community is not all sickness and aches, there are bright sides of cutting weight to the people who do it right. Wrestling can teach wrestlers about proper diets and excise. If a wrestler were to follow a proper diet and not take any extra weight loss supplements, the risk of harmful things happening to a person while cutting weight will be decreased substantially. This happens in the wrestling world just as much as the bad practices to cut weight, not everyone goes through such outlandish measures. The choice of healthy living is up to the wrestler, discipline and hard work is the wrestling communities driving mottos with emphasizes on healthy living. These practices are starting to become more current as shown in the Pennsylvania State University (Penn State), the current national champions. Penn State has been noted for having the best wrestlers in the state and is one of the most prestigious wrestling organizations in

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the collegiate wrestling community hailing greats like Kurt Angle and Lex Lugar. Penn state can blame some of their success on the change of operations to their obtaining a new coach in 2010 who brought in a new game plan. Coach Cael Sanderson brought in a brand new life for the unsuspecting wrestlers. They banded together and watched out for one another as the wrestling season and practices goes on, they would also help each other with their diets and get through the rigorous conditioning. This small team which is a community within a community is a great example of how positive reinforcements and team building by an experienced leader who has a great understanding of the dangers of cutting weight and then going on to put strains on your body can affect wrestlers in their personal and professional career, which is shown by his massive National Champion win streak. (Mackey) The wrestling community does not stop at the board of directors or the coach, it spreads all the way to everyone involved in the wrestlers life from spectators to parents. Many forums and books have been started for parents to help deal with a wrestler and how they can help them live a healthy life. Since extreme cutting is a taboo but widely practiced subject in the wrestling community parents are being warned and shown signs on how they on how they can point out if their child is cutting the wrong way. When a wrestler cuts too much weight to fast their personal life takes a hit and they become moody and hard to deal with. Wrestling takes the involvement of everyone in the wrestlers life and if they are not getting help their chances of doing things the right way diminishes. If a wrestler is not getting pointed in the right direction by his coach or fellow teammates it is the job of a concerned parent to take action and inform their child of a correct healthy way of living. This community takes involvement of everyone because in the wrestling community bonds are built as close as a family, so the involvement and interaction of

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one concerned parent or helpful spectators could stretch out to other wrestlers as well as coaches and even the board. A wrestlers health is everything to them because if they are not healthy they will not be able to perform to their fullest potential when the times comes. The main goal of the wrestling is to build a strong standing in the sports world and be honored to a point that kids will be interested and inspired to do and love wrestling like the former wrestlers before them. The over the top antics of wrestling is not completely public but what is done is no secret to the ones who search for them. The wrestling community needs better regulation and training to those who are going to be leaders in the future. If someone is not entirely onboard with the changes that the wrestling world needs to undergo to sustain the necessary safety of those involved, those changes that the wrestling world goes threw will retard and stay in a stasis with the intention of gaining support and people fascinated halted. In conclusion the wrestling world is built around doing whatever it takes to win but the way people get to that winning position differs from person to person and the question on why a wrestler will put their bodies through so much and if they know the consequences of their actions, cannot be answered by anyone except that wrestler; the risk of death can come from almost any sport by one way or another but gambling with something as serious as your health can be the ultimate sacrifice.

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Bibliography Berg, Susan. "Weight Loss Practices Among Wrestlers." Weight Loss Practices Among Blue, Jessica. "How Do Wrestlers Lose Weight So Fast?" LIVESTRONG.COM. LIVESTRONG.COM, 21 Oct. 2013. Web. 1 Mar. 2014. Brouns F. Essentials of Sports Nutrition. New York: Wiley, 2002. Print.. "Dieting in Adolescence." National Center for Biotechnology Information. Canadian Pediatric Society, 23 Feb. 0006. Web. 07 Mar. 2014. Kellen Interactive. "2000 Calories a Day The Healthy Way." The Calorie Control Council. Calorie Control Council, 2014. Web. 05 Apr. 2014. Litsky, Frank. "Collegiate Wrestling Deaths Raise Fears About Training." The New York Times. The New York Times, 18 Dec. 1997. Web. 16 Feb. 2014. "No Shortcuts." Personal interview. 15 Mar. 2014. "Weight Gain - Unintentional: MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia." U.S National Library of Medicine. Ed. A.D.A.M. U.S. National Library of Medicine, 26 Feb. 2014. Web. 01 Apr. 2014. Mackey, Jason. "Sanderson Leaving Quite a Legacy with Penn State Wrestling." TribLIVE.com. Trib Total Media, 23 Nov. 2013. Web. 14 Apr. 2014.