It's starting!

Last night we went to a "Wrestling Rules Clinic" held by CAJ's wrestling coaches. They explained the basics of freestyle wrestling and especially explained the new rules that have been introduced this year. I just read through the blog post I wrote about my first experience watching my son wrestle. Wow, I understand a lot more now and I'm glad about that. It makes watching these meets much more enjoyable and less confusing.

While we enjoyed the rule clinic our younger two wrestled on the mats at the side. They wished there were some others their size there, but still had fun in a padded area much larger than our lounge room!

The excitement is rising around here: wrestling season is here. There are three meets in the next couple of weeks. The new thing for us this year is the format, it is high school and, as I understand it, the school only can have one or two representatives per weight class (depending on the meet rules and how many wrestlers the other team has). So not everyone necessarily gets to compete every time. I'm not sure how that's going to pan out for our son. It depends, too, on the weights of the other wrestlers in the team.

So, we'll see how it all pans out. But nonetheless I'm glad of the opportunity. Watching wrestling is kind-of addictive. If you're interested in seeing some action, here is a link to a match at the Atlanta Olympics, won by a Japanese wrestler.

I was encouraged too, by one of the coaches encouraging us as spectators, saying how important it was for the team that we were there. I love it that I have the opportunity to encourage and support our son in this passion of his.

The funny phrase going around here is that our son knows he needs to work on his offensive wrestling. So he says, "I need to be more offensive." Which, of course, can be taken two ways!