Herpes Forces Wrestling Tournament Ban

[Ang50]

Cauliflower ear???? :waitasec: I am sooo googling that right now.

Ha, ha!! Hubby was asking if I found that unattractive - I don't (he always wore headgear, so doesn't have it.) The pic on wikipedia is an extreme case... but the ears do get permanently deformed.

However, most wrestlers have so many amazing *advertiser censored*(ets) on display, that somehow I never notice their ears. AND - I used to use my knowledge to pick up wrestlers - I'd spot the ears, ask them about wrestling, and when they said "how did you guess?" i'd just tell them it was their biceps, *advertiser censored**, legs, etc. No one ever caught on, but they're not known for being the sharpest tacks...

 

[Ang50]

My dh wrestled in the 70's. he said there was just occasional ringworm. he was amazed at the amount of we see today.
I agree about it being misunderstood. It is such a great character builder and like I said the camaraderie is like none I have ever seen in any sport.

All due respect to your hubby. That was the time to wrestle - it was a pure sport!

Nowadays so many teams travel so far to compete, and travel often, and tournaments are really big. That's why anything spreads faster and is more widespread.

The Clash was 32 teams from 13 states, say about 20 guys on a team (13 wrestle w/ 7 backups), wrestle 3 matches a day for 2 days, plus whoever you roll around with at warmups. If just one guy has a rash - he could infect at minimum 6 other guys. Those guys wrestle other guys and infect 5 more each at minimum, and so on. Then they go back to their schools and infect the JV, their other conference schools, etc. It's like all those STD videos we watched in sex ed!!

 

[kidzndogznme]

I owe my friend an apology. Well I need to think an apology in my head anyway since I never actually told her my suspicions. She showed up at work a while back with the worst cold sore outbreak I have ever seen. She said it was because her husband coached wrestling and she got it from him. I thought she was being delusional and that her husband was obviously cheating since wrestling did not give one herpes. I guess I was wrong. Also, her husband has cauliflower ear really bad. I heard it is from being slammed repeatedly onto the mats but that doesn't make sense to me.

 

[SewingDeb]

I owe my friend an apology. Well I need to think an apology in my head anyway since I never actually told her my suspicions. She showed up at work a while back with the worst cold sore outbreak I have ever seen. She said it was because her husband coached wrestling and she got it from him. I thought she was being delusional and that her husband was obviously cheating since wrestling did not give one herpes. I guess I was wrong. Also, her husband has cauliflower ear really bad. I heard it is from being slammed repeatedly onto the mats but that doesn't make sense to me.

This explains about cauliflower ear:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cauliflower_ear

I don't think I want my son to wrestle. Between the herpes and the cauliflower ear, it doesn't seem worth it to me. Good thing he has not shown a desire...lol.

 

[JBean]

All due respect to your hubby. That was the time to wrestle - it was a pure sport!

Nowadays so many teams travel so far to compete, and travel often, and tournaments are really big. That's why anything spreads faster and is more widespread.

The Clash was 32 teams from 13 states, say about 20 guys on a team (13 wrestle w/ 7 backups), wrestle 3 matches a day for 2 days, plus whoever you roll around with at warmups. If just one guy has a rash - he could infect at minimum 6 other guys. Those guys wrestle other guys and infect 5 more each at minimum, and so on. Then they go back to their schools and infect the JV, their other conference schools, etc. It's like all those STD videos we watched in sex ed!!

My son went to many of those tournaments and we had a ball. We traveled all over and we had a lot of good times together. As a mom, I developed a bond with the whole team. You have reminded me of what a great time that was.
Do they Camp of Champs where you are? or is that a local thing here? It was a great wrestling expereince for my son , held at one of our colleges. I think it is national? Cannot remember.
Question for you Ang, or any othere wrestling folk,
How do you feel about the boys wrestling the girls?
My son had to wrestle several girls in his career. The pressure was really on the boys to win because none of them wanted to be whooped by a girl lol.
I know it was awkward because of the intense , close, physical contact in all the intimate places. But the girls always hold their own and wrestle with the boys all the time. There are certain social rules the boys have to get over in order to win, ie don;t hurt a girl, cannot touch a girl, and it is kind of tricky for them IMO.
Do any of you have a feeling one way or another?

 

[Ang50]

I owe my friend an apology. Well I need to think an apology in my head anyway since I never actually told her my suspicions. She showed up at work a while back with the worst cold sore outbreak I have ever seen. She said it was because her husband coached wrestling and she got it from him. I thought she was being delusional and that her husband was obviously cheating since wrestling did not give one herpes. I guess I was wrong. Also, her husband has cauliflower ear really bad. I heard it is from being slammed repeatedly onto the mats but that doesn't make sense to me. http://www.websleuths.com/forums/images/smilies/confused.gif

You don't get slammed like in the WWF. It's illegal to pick someone up and throw them down.

Cauliflower ear develops b/c wrestlers "lock up" - basically putting their arms and heads with each other. Then they proceed to leverage their arms, necks, etc. to gain advantage. This means that the ears are getting all ground against the hard skulls. Fluid then builds up, leading to the puffy appearance. Funnily - it's totally preventable w/ head gear, but b/c it's mostly guys wrestling, apparently it's manly to not wear head gear (esp. in practice if coaches don't mandate it). In competition, it is usually universally required, but I don't believe Olympic wrestlers wear it.

I've known a number of Olympic-caliber wrestlers (including a bronze medalist with PERFECT ears...) and on down. Basically getting Cauliflower ear totally depends on how much wrestling you do and whether you do it w/ head gear.

 

[Ang50]

My son went to many of those tournaments and we had a ball. We traveled all over and we had a lot of good times together. As a mom, I developed a bond with the whole team. You have reminded me of what a great time that was.
Do they Camp of Champs where you are? or is that a local thing here? It was a great wrestling expereince for my son , held at one of our colleges. I think it is national? Cannot remember.
Question for you Ang, or any othere wrestling folk,
How do you feel about the boys wrestling the girls?
My son had to wrestle several girls in his career. The pressure was really on the boys to win because none of them wanted to be whooped by a girl lol.
I know it was awkward because of the intense , close, physical contact in all the intimate places. But the girls always hold their own and wrestle with the boys all the time. There are certain social rules the boys have to get over in order to win, ie don;t hurt a girl, cannot touch a girl, and it is kind of tricky for them IMO.
Do any of you have a feeling one way or another?

Yeah, I have a strong opinion although I'm nervous about opening a can of worms. I am STRONGLY in support of girl's wrestling. STRONGLY. If the current situation is that girls have to wrestle boys in order to wrestle at all, then that is better than girls not being able to compete ever in wrestling. Most preferable - at least in the future - would be girl's teams, but right now, it's just unlikely.

I recognize the arguments against it, but for me, it doesn't override a girl's right to participate in wrestling. On the contrary, I think it teaches wrestlers that their sport is good enough to allow all to compete, and the only distinction between all of them should be their weight.

BTW - it's AMAZING the change even since I was in high school (90-94) how many more girls are participating and the RESPECT they are getting. WI had a girl in the state finals last year - she lost, but not by much. Hubby's team had a JV wrestler that lost to a girl - our coach had to say "Listen - she's really good - you got beat by a good wrestler..." Meanwhile, I was quietly pointing her out to my daughter, who didn't get that she was a girl until she took off her headgear. Then my 3 year old got REALLY excited and went over and sat by her. That girl had a lot of support from her team and fans, something we wouldn't have seen 10 years ago. I'm jealous, frankly, that these girls are doing something I never had the courage to do. (and was not athletic enough to excel at).

Now I also have a son, and when he wrestles (after wrassling his sister and getting whooped for many years) I expect that he will go out there and do his best. I expect he will wrestle her just like he would a guy - no harder, no easier and with no more at stake. And as much as I love him, I will admire her greatly.

IMHO, we would ensure the survival of the sport by getting more women into, and if anyone should be excluded, it should be those d*mn wrestling cheerleaders.... don't get me started...

 

[Ang50]

One more quick thing -

I am for the inclusion of women in most men's sports. For example, in golf at all levels, I think that men and women should compete together. Archery, swimming, lots of sports could allow co-ed teams. Wrestling, however, because of the extensive physical contact, makes people uncomfortable, and I understand. But I do find the discomfort mostly stems from people who don't know the sport as well b/c they see the moves and positions as vaguely sexual anyway. (Moving to freestyle (Olympic) instead of folkstyle (college and high school) would eliminate some of this, but it will never happen.) Once you know the sport well, you just yell "Get off your back" w/o thinking of those connotations, or of the gender of the wrestler.

Since hubby's also a football coach and my brother was a football and wrestling champ (hubby married me for my excellent genetics we are hoping that my daughter will compete in both football and wrestling. I'd like it if she'd kick, b/c I think it's the easiest entry for girls in that sport right now. I'd love her to QB, but I don't think she'll end up over 5'7".

 

[Ang50]

OK - one more - can you tell this is a favorite topic??

I don't think I was ever more in love with my husband than on this day.

He's a wrestling coach, and I attended a tournament. His wrestlers were in the stands, and I was sitting behind them. He wasn't around at the time. I'm involved, shouting comments, advice, encouragement, etc. Hubby comes back, but has to talk to a wrestler, so doesn't acknowledge me right away. He notices that the boys are sort of staring at me, they keep look back at me as I'm yelling, etc. Finally, one of them leaned to him and made a comment.

Hubby replies, "That's my wife. She knows more about wrestling than I do."

How can you not love him???

 

[JBean]

OK - one more - can you tell this is a favorite topic??

I don't think I was ever more in love with my husband than on this day.

He's a wrestling coach, and I attended a tournament. His wrestlers were in the stands, and I was sitting behind them. He wasn't around at the time. I'm involved, shouting comments, advice, encouragement, etc. Hubby comes back, but has to talk to a wrestler, so doesn't acknowledge me right away. He notices that the boys are sort of staring at me, they keep look back at me as I'm yelling, etc. Finally, one of them leaned to him and made a comment.

Hubby replies, "That's my wife. She knows more about wrestling than I do."

How can you not love him???

Ohh Ang, we would have had great fun at the tourneys. I always had the cooler full of food for after weigh in and during the meet. I was also pretty vocal from the stands:angel:
I have never been so involved in a sport where you get so close with each of the players. Picking them at at 5am for matches and talking and laughing. it was really a geat time.
We had some awesome girl wrestlers when my son wrestled. The boys totally respected them and thier abilities, but they still hated to get whooped by a girl. Just the way it is.
I put one of my other sons in a wrestling camp and a couple tourneys when he was pretty young. he had to wrestle a few girls and he hated it. but he was young. I think he hated it because he would get beat.

The wrestling coach at our school literally escaped Iran by wrestling his way out. Kind of an interesting story:
http://www.dhhs.net/teadepartments/abedi.htm

 

[Ang50]

Ohh Ang, we would have had great fun at the tourneys. I always had the cooler full of food for after weigh in and during the meet. I was also pretty vocal from the stands:angel:
I have never been so involved in a sport where you get so close with each of the players. Picking them at at 5am for matches and talking and laughing. it was really a geat time.
We had some awesome girl wrestlers when my son wrestled. The boys totally respected them and thier abilities, but they still hated to get whooped by a girl. Just the way it is.
I put one of my other sons in a wrestling camp and a couple tourneys when he was pretty young. he had to wrestle a few girls and he hated it. but he was young. I think he hated it because he would get beat.

The wrestling coach at our school literally escaped Iran by wrestling his way out. Kind of an interesting story:
http://www.dhhs.net/teadepartments/abedi.htm

This is an amazing story - I'm going to send to my hubby to forward to his wrestlers.

About coolers - we always used to joke that my brother would weigh in, then bury his head in the cooler for the next hour. (And he NEVER cut weight - he just liked to see what Mom had packed!)

I am SO hoping my daughter will decide to wrestle. She's strong and aggressive, and she'd be great. The only downsides are she tends to struggle w/ anything her dad wants her to do (i.e. he probably couldn't coach her) and we'd worry that she'd get mad and haul off and punch a kid instead of taking him. We do joke, though, that no one will say a darn thing about having to wrestle a "girl" b/c the sweet blonde curly-haired girl is coached by two 250-pound former college football players (her daddy and her uncle)!!