Wednesday February 13th 2019
So it’s the middle of the month and I have nothing to speak about in my blog. Granted I’m not under any deadline and I seriously doubt that there’s a slew of people waiting to read my latest article so why put any sort of pressure on myself? It’s just that from a personal perspective, I made it my goal to have a blog at the beginning of the month and at the end of the month and here we are, and I have nothing to write about. Granted, I’m not a trained writer and as such, can’t create things from scratch as a trained writer may be able to do. So therefore I can say that not having a topic to write about was distressing from a personal point of view.
However, it was speaking with my Mom at my weekly family dinner that I was inspired to write. I spoke about the involvement of parents in a somewhat negative way in my previous blog. Reading it again, I wouldn’t change anything that I wrote (if anything, I think I have more to say), but I think i definitely did a disservice to the blog by leaving something out. I spoke about parents and their involvement in sports and pointed out the more negative aspect of parents that we sometimes see. However, in all fairness I think I left out one of the most important figures in a wrestlers life, and that’s the support that they get from their mothers.
To be fair, in our society we often think that our fathers will support us in things that concern sports and that our mothers will not interfere, instead choosing to focus on things that are “normally” associated with mothers (which usually are more emotional in nature) and that they virtually have no involvement in our athletic careers. This of course is a generalization as mothers more and more, are an integral part of an athletes development and their contribution should not be overlooked.
In the modern context of the 21st centrury, I realize that what I’m saying is not revolutionary and may come across as somewht gender biased. And yet, in recent months, I’ve come to realize that while traditionally the fathers have always been the one’s to encourage their kids to go and do sports, without the silent support of the mothers, the success of the athlete would not be possible. It’s with that in mind that I want to talk about Wrestling Moms in this blog.
Now all mothers have a difficult time watching their children do sports. After all, they want their child to be successful and be the best that they can be. I think that this is universal for all parents. However, where the mothers are different is when they watch their child wrestle. I remember speaking to my own mother about her experiences in watching my matches. At the beginning, I think the best word to describe her emotions were anxious to say the least, and terrified at the worst. She used to tell me that everytime I used to step on the mat, it took all of her control to not run out and beat my opponent so that he would stop hurting her child. She later confided that she sometimes would scout my opponents and hope that they would have an accident on the way there just so that I wouldnt have to face them. After hearing these stories, I started to think. Was this reaction just at the beginnig of my wrestling career, or did this persist even till the end? Was she just as nervous watching her son in his early teenage years, who probably wasn’t that well equipped to handle some tougher matches? Or was she just as nervous watching her older, more self-assured son wrestle university tournaments, and subsequently was better prepared for the rigours of a match? I guess I’ll never know for sure but one thing is pretty clear. It was definitely tough on her even though she never showed it when she came to my tournaments.
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I guess it’s safe to say that all mothers have an emotional reaction to watching their children wrestle. It’s tough due to the physical nature of the sport and as such, isn’t for everyone. Sometimes I think that some of reasons some wrestlers leave the sport is due to parental pressures, sometimes initiated by the mothers. However, the mothers that not only support their child’s desire to wrestle but encourage them, are the true heroes. It’s hard but in the end, I believe that these mothers help to contribute to the development of their children for the better. So essentially, I say Thank You to all the wrestling moms out there and Thank You to my Mom as well. Your support was essential to my success and I will always be thankful for it.