Football coaches against wrestling?

[Numchuck Skills]

Anyone on here have football coaches not wanting their football players to wrestle? 

[rrschott]

I've seen it more from the position they don't want them competing, especially cutting weight.  I've also seen a downright prohibition on QBs getting in the wrestling room, but most of the coaches I've seen are all for lineman, linebackers, and even RBs being in the wrestling room for a few months.  

[takemtothemat]

I hope football coaches educate themselves about the art of wrestling. Especially if they are not familiar with it. Before blindly judging the sport. My perspective is that it builds your core position which is involved in football and baseball. Tackling stance batting stance = wrestling stance. Dare I say defensive basketball stance. Hopefully the sports learn to work together. 

[MattM]

Always love the rhetoric (from coaches or from athletes) of we need to lift to get bigger during the winter so can’t wrestle.  Yet they don’t pull that logic with the basketball coach or dedicated BB players and those guys aren’t gaining any real muscle strength in their season. Then see 90% or more of those same athletes not in an organized constant lifting routine over winter.

 

The athletes have the spring and summer to lift and get bigger.   Most football guys having a chance to using winter to be in a secondary sport to help work on other athletic aspects and just get a break from solely a football focused mindeset.  I feel like football coaches should want to see their guys in something even if it’s basketball or swimming, rather than them wasting away most of the winter doing little with the  occasional weight room visit mostly to be social.    

 

Sure some of it’s are the football guys using lifting as an excuse because they don’t want to put in the work wrestling required but for the football coaches to not encourage it worse discourage it seems ridiculous.   Most football guys could substitute sitting around most of winter and occasionally lifting, especially as a lineman,  with working on balance, footwork, hand fighting, and mental toughness through wrestling.  

 

Sure they may lose a little weight but it’s mostly needed body fat and have plenty of time to add that weight back on as solid muscle through a consistent lifting routine Spring through Fall.  Be nice if many football coaches could recognize this or at least have an open mind to engage the wrestling coaches is a useful dialogue to try to work through some of their hesitations/concerns.  

Edited January 14 by MattM

[takemtothemat]

5 hours ago, takemtothemat said:

I hope football coaches educate themselves about the art of wrestling. Especially if they are not familiar with it. Before blindly judging the sport. My perspective is that it builds your core position which is involved in football and baseball. Tackling stance batting stance = wrestling stance. Dare I say defensive basketball stance. Hopefully the sports learn to work together. 

 

4 hours ago, MattM said:

Always love the rhetoric (from coaches or from athletes) of we need to lift to get bigger during the winter so can’t wrestle.  Yet they don’t pull that logic with the basketball coach or dedicated BB players and those guys aren’t gaining any real muscle strength in their season. Then see 90% or more of those same athletes not in an organized constant lifting routine over winter.

 

The athletes have the spring and summer to lift and get bigger.   Most football guys having a chance to using winter to be in a secondary sport to help work on other athletic aspects and just get a break from solely a football focused mindeset.  I feel like football coaches should want to see their guys in something even if it’s basketball or swimming, rather than them wasting away most of the winter doing little with the  occasional weight room visit mostly to be social.    

 

Sure some of it’s are the football guys using lifting as an excuse because they don’t want to put in the work wrestling required but for the football coaches to not encourage it worse discourage it seems ridiculous.   Most football guys could substitute sitting around most of winter and occasionally lifting, especially as a lineman,  with working on balance, footwork, hand fighting, and mental toughness through wrestling.  

 

Sure they may lose a little weight but it’s mostly needed body fat and have plenty of time to add that weight back on as solid muscle through a consistent lifting routine Spring through Fall.  Be nice if many football coaches could recognize this or at least have an open mind to engage the wrestling coaches is a useful dialogue to try to work through some of their hesitations/concerns.  

4 hours ago, MattM said:

Always love the rhetoric (from coaches or from athletes) of we need to lift to get bigger during the winter so can’t wrestle.  Yet they don’t pull that logic with the basketball coach or dedicated BB players and those guys aren’t gaining any real muscle strength in their season. Then see 90% or more of those same athletes not in an organized constant lifting routine over winter.

 

The athletes have the spring and summer to lift and get bigger.   Most football guys having a chance to using winter to be in a secondary sport to help work on other athletic aspects and just get a break from solely a football focused mindeset.  I feel like football coaches should want to see their guys in something even if it’s basketball or swimming, rather than them wasting away most of the winter doing little with the  occasional weight room visit mostly to be social.    

 

Sure some of it’s are the football guys using lifting as an excuse because they don’t want to put in the work wrestling required but for the football coaches to not encourage it worse discourage it seems ridiculous.   Most football guys could substitute sitting around most of winter and occasionally lifting, especially as a lineman,  with working on balance, footwork, hand fighting, and mental toughness through wrestling.  

 

Sure they may lose a little weight but it’s mostly needed body fat and have plenty of time to add that weight back on as solid muscle through a consistent lifting routine Spring through Fall.  Be nice if many football coaches could recognize this or at least have an open mind to engage the wrestling coaches is a useful dialogue to try to work through some of their hesitations/concerns.  

I faced this issue for years. The state runner up in football had 16 wrestlers on the team. I was told good football players turn out to be good wrestlers. HMMMM

 

[MUSKEEWRESTLER]

As far as quarterbacks go.  I'm going back a lot of years, but Brad Traviola quarterbacked a state runner-up and won a state wrestling title in the same year.  It can be done

[takemtothemat]

4 hours ago, MUSKEEWRESTLER said:

As far as quarterbacks go.  I'm going back a lot of years, but Brad Traviola quarterbacked a state runner-up and won a state wrestling title in the same year.  It can be done

It certainly can be done. Theres just so many that doesn’t want it.

[Justin Ratliff]

Asher Ratliff and Jet Goldsberry are two QBs who are wrestlers also.

[Justdo^it135]

I am more inclined to side with the Wrestling Coaches against Football.

[Y2CJ41]

First off, no football coach will directly say they don't want their kids wrestling. That would cause quite a big fiasco in a school if a coach was telling kids not to wrestle or play any other sport.

 

Football coaches do not like to hear about kids cutting weight. Most are old fogies who remember the days when they were in high school of crazy weight cuts. The best thing to do is EDUCATE them about the new policies about cutting weight. Football coaches also want kids lifting weights. The best way to solve that is to lift during the season. Make sure your kids are in strength class and/or take time a couple times a week to actually lift. This won't hurt their wrestling and will also appease those coaches to a degree.

 

Some other things that might discourage coaches from having their athletes wrestle is flat out culture, expectations, and leadership. This can go for any coach encouraging kids to partake in any sport to be honest. For instance if you are at a program that holds kids out if they miss practice, then another sport lets them get away with that then those sports will not mesh well. If one sport has a leader that is very detail oriented with practice plans and goals for the team and another just shows up at practice with nothing, those programs will not mesh well.

 

As a coach I know there were some issues with a sport that was at the club level. There were no expectations for the kids, no structure, and on top of that the kids were not held accountable. Of course every kid wanted to do it for those reasons. In the end, many did not stick with it due to the lack of structure, expectations, etc. If done right that sport was a great compliment to wrestling and football, however none of the coaches truly supported the kids partaking in the sport.

[nkraus]

Wasn't Tonte a quarterback also?

[The Professor Morgan]

Tristen was QB at Perry but moved to RB at Warren and Marian University 

[AndyStJ]

14 hours ago, Y2CJ41 said:

First off, no football coach will directly say they don't want their kids wrestling. 

 

This exact thing happened at a Northern Indiana HS a few years ago. I don't know if it is still happening. Their wrestling team remains extremely bad.

[Slop Drop and Roll]

Aleks Tatum QB at Hobart

[casualwrestlingfan]

Nope. If I was a high school football staffer, I'd want them to do anything in the winter, spring, & summer. Whether it was wrestling, basketball, hockey, swimming, or etc in the winter time. Same with baseball, track, lacrosse, freestyle & Greco-Roman, & etc in spring/summer. Use different muscles & skill sets! Add in some weight lifting in the weight room as well as outside the weight room. Handle those small square hay & straw bales on the wagon & in the hay mow/loft. Work with stubborn steers, heifers, calves, pigs, sheep, goats, horses, and etc. Just make sure they take some down time in between to be kids. Fishing, mushroom hunting, and night crawler hunting can sharpen skills too.

[AlaskanMountie]

They’re out there but like Joe said, they won’t openly admit it. I had more than one experience with a coach who would not advise his football guys to join wrestling. He offered “lifting” in the winter which was an easy excuse for guys not to wrestle. Luckily I had an AD who wouldn’t let them “lift” until after 5pm but that didn’t help my numbers in the room. 

[greco165]

I just don't understand the logic. 20+ years ago we had a top 5 overall team with <30 kids and half were football players. The two sports definitely exist synergistically. 

Edited January 18 by greco165

[casualwrestlingfan]

5 hours ago, greco165 said:

I just don't understand the logic. 20+ years ago we had a top 5 overall team with <30 kids and half were football players. The two sports definitely exist synergistically. 

Some of it is the specialization success in wrestling. Unfortunately some would be multi-sport athletes get discouraged they will just see wrestling only kids all year. They get the preconceived notion that they'll just go out & get whipped  the whole time. ONCE AGAIN THIS IS SOME NOT ALL! It also goes the other way where athletes mistakenly think just focusing on football or baseball for example, will make them elite at that sport. That it will be their ticket to a scholarship & maybe more. That sentiment has created a lot of the problems we see in participation, fan behavior, and officials getting abuse. We lost that it's a game and not a step to achieve fame & fortune.

[Hornet Coach]

Coming from someone who coaches both sports, there is no better off-season training for football than wrestling.  I encourage my athletes to compete in anything in the off-season.  On the other hand, I have also seen wrestling coaches encourage their wrestlers to not play other sports and specialize in wrestling.  The life lessons learned through the sport of wrestling, can not be matched.  Self-discipline, sacrifice, work-ethic, humility, teamwork, and courage are not only going to make you a better athlete, they are more importantly, going to make you a better person and that should be the ultimate goal for all of us.  My answer to my football players that say they aren't going to wrestle because they are going to hit the weights is, "Weights don't hit back".