For most wrestlers, life is about training, injury prevention, cutting weight, competition and everything that involves wrestling. Hopes and dreams of becoming a state, NCAA, world and Olympic champion drive their every move on and off the mat. Regardless of what titles you have won or lost the day will come when you have stepped on the mat for the last time as a competitor. Do you have a plan for life after wrestling?
People of all ages wrestle but there are three critical stages a wrestler competes in until a transition must occur. Those stages are through: high school graduation, college graduation and international competition in search of world and Olympic success.
The majority of wrestlers will never wrestle past high school.
About 10% of high school seniors transition to a college wrestling program; the rest of the 90% transition to life without wrestling. This is perhaps the easier of the transitions as this is what I would say, “the rest of the world does.” Whether you attend some form of college, start a career, start a family etc”¦ this is the most common progression.
The wrestler that wants to wrestle for a college or university has to plan ahead in order to meet the requirements of eligibility, admissions, financial aid and scholarship deadlines and procedures. These processes can be very tedious and time consuming but are very necessary and begin to teach you a little more about planning and deadlines in the “real world.”
Once in college an athlete has requirements to meet academically just as in high school in order to stay eligible to practice and compete. The workload in both school and sports increase dramatically in college. Keeping your nose in the books and your butt on the mat will seem overwhelming at first but will get easier after a slight transition period. For the next four to five years you will be in pursuit of a conference and national championship, your life will be consumed with wrestling like it never has before.
This time will fly by and before you know it you will have your cap and gown on with a diploma in your hand thinking, “Man”¦I remember moving in my dorm room as a freshman like it was yesterday.” Another thing you may be thinking is, “Man”¦ what am I going to do now?”
Well, I can tell you the 3 choices that you have: train for the Olympics, move home with your mom or dad and live the life or get a J-O-B.
Only a handful of graduating college seniors will continue into international competition. The ones that do usually put another 5-10 years into their quest of becoming an Olympic or world champion. Most of the athletes that choose to continue competing at this level defer their career path and have to make up lost time in the so-called real world once their competition days are finished.
Many athletes reach the end of their career having done little or no planning for their future life. Most posses many attributes important to becoming very successful in their future employment: talent, commitment, confidence, teamwork, problem solving and a strong desire to succeed but lacked the time for internships and hands-on experience.
Because of the demands of college athletics, or should I say the order of importance put on the demands of college wrestling; a college wrestler will often tailor his schedule around courses that will keep him eligible for his team. Majors and courses within a major are chosen solely to fill gaps not to prepare for the future. Many college athletes start their day at five in the morning and do not finish their day until 10:30 at night. Going to bed often ranks above studying.
Even when athletes have graduated college and continued training, their degrees have little relevance after their careers are over. To a retired wrestler getting into the workforce for the first time after five to ten years of training is tough. The education they received in college is blurrier than their vision after being thrown on their head. An athletic career not only renders an athlete’s classroom education hazy, but it also sets the athlete back because they have been removed from a normal professional setting to which they could apply what they learned in college.
The wrestler’s world has to extend beyond the arena, allowing the wrestler to familiarize them self with the tools that they can use to build a successful post athletic career. If a wrestler only exists as a wrestler, the transition time will be much greater and the hurdles that much taller.
The two awards to strive for in college would be:
1) Academic All-American
2) Athletic All-American
Make sure you are always focused on both and you will give yourself an exponentially better chance at accomplishing your hopes and dreams, in and out of wrestling.
Wrestling Gear
