Men’s Gymnastics

[BuckyBadger]

Those dudes have an insane combination of strength, flexibility, balance and grit. They are very impressive to watch.

I have to think many of these guys would make great wrestlers.

Edited August 1 by BuckyBadger

[scribers]

I always think of mark schultz on this moment. I think he was the gymnast 

[1032004]

Yeah and we think NCAA wrestling has it bad.  There are only 12 D1 schools with men’s gymnastics

[ionel]

2 hours ago, 1032004 said:

Yeah and we think NCAA wrestling has it bad.  There are only 12 D1 schools with men’s gymnastics

How many high schools have boys gymnastics? 

[billyhoyle]

There's no doubt that they would be great wrestlers. Same for the women's gymnasts as well. It takes elite athleticism and incredible work ethic to be a great gymnast.  

[jchapman]

No doubt they have many physical attributes that could lead to wrestling success.  What they are doing is essentially drilling technique by themselves.  

[BuckyBadger]

1 hour ago, jchapman said:

No doubt they have many physical attributes that could lead to wrestling success.  What they are doing is essentially drilling technique by themselves.  

What’s interesting about gymnastics is technique has to be as close to perfect as possible. Your legs are bent or not parallel you get points off.

I remember how much my wrestling coaches used to emphasize technique over strength at a young age when you are building your muscle memory. If you drill it wrong at first it’s much harder to relearn the right way.
 

But obviously there are still guys that can reach a pretty high level in the sport relying more on strength and making technical mistakes. I think gymnastics is much less forgiving in that respect.

Edited August 1 by BuckyBadger

[alex1fly]

13 hours ago, BuckyBadger said:

Those dudes have an insane combination of strength, flexibility, balance and grit. They are very impressive to watch.

I have to think many of these guys would make great wrestlers.

I thought the exact same thing watching the other day! Strong, impeccable technique, doing things normal humans cannot. Really impressive what they can do.

[maligned]

Many top Crossfit athletes are ex-gymnasts. Their ability to move, spatial awareness, mobility, and speed/power convert so well to learning the Olympic lifts and other movements and becoming super strong and super fit by Crossfit standards. Zero doubt they'd do the same in wrestling.

[jross]

My daughter quit gymnastics at 15.  Strong as an ox.  Level 2 of 10 technical skill and 10 of 10 strength.  Conditioning maybe 5 of 10.  She went about 20 - 10 each of her first two years without having a clue what to do.  

Went from practicing 20 hours to 25 hours weekly for gymnastics to about 5 hours weekly for wresting.

She can frustrate the heck out of kids with better skill that can't navigate her strength.

In high school, I had two former men gymnasts on my wrestling team.  Both boys were mini Greek statues.  One made top 8 at state with little technical skill.  The other had youth wrestling experience and medaled multiple times.

[BuckyBadger]

4 minutes ago, jross said:

My daughter quit gymnastics at 15.  Strong as an ox.  Level 2 of 10 technical skill and 10 of 10 strength.  Conditioning maybe 5 of 10.  She went about 20 - 10 each of her first two years without having a clue what to do.  

Went from practicing 20 hours to 25 hours weekly for gymnastics to about 5 hours weekly for wresting.

She can frustrate the heck out of kids with better skill that can't navigate her strength.

In high school, I had two former men gymnasts on my wrestling team.  Both boys were mini Greek statues.  One made top 8 at state with little technical skill.  The other had youth wrestling experience and medaled multiple times.

My son is about to turn 5 and loves doing gymnastics. I swore to myself I’m not going to be a crazy wrestling Dad that puts pressure on him to do wrestling. He’ll pursue what he wants. But part of me hopes he develops all that core strength, flexibility etc in gymnastics and then starts wrestling. I can’t think of a better base foundation for wrestling.

Edited August 1 by BuckyBadger

[Ched64]

On 7/31/2024 at 9:48 PM, BuckyBadger said:

Those dudes have an insane combination of strength, flexibility, balance and grit. They are very impressive to watch.

I have to think many of these guys would make great wrestlers.

 

On 7/31/2024 at 9:48 PM, BuckyBadger said:

Those dudes have an insane combination of strength, flexibility, balance and grit. They are very impressive to watch.

I have to think many of these guys would make great wrestlers.

And Tiger Woods thought he would be a great Navy Seal…

[Rassling]

On 7/31/2024 at 9:48 PM, BuckyBadger said:

Those dudes have an insane combination of strength, flexibility, balance and grit. They are very impressive to watch.

I have to think many of these guys would make great wrestlers.

Agreed!

[AgaveMaria]

On 8/1/2024 at 11:31 PM, Ched64 said:

 

And Tiger Woods thought he would be a great Navy Seal…

This - a guy who got beat up by his wife.

After she beat him Phil Mickelson asked "what club did she use"?

 

[GrandOlm]

I'd guess it takes way too much time to develop the agility, dexterity, skill repetition to pull off the choreography that olympic level gymnasts perform to be useful for something like wrestling. 

Some level of gymnastics is good, probably. There is a trope that Olympic wresting winners do backflips. 

Hypothetical versions of these people would have made great wrestlers if they had done wrestling instead? Well then they wouldn't have developed their gymnastic attributes. Also gymnastics is an opponent less activity, you only face people indirectly.  Quite different mentality from something like wrestling or tennis. It's also not that similar holistically. Judo or sumo, the overlap is obvious - to even something like football lineman. Gymnastics clusters much more with dancing, parkour, maybe rock climbing. 

 

[scourge165]

On 8/1/2024 at 1:26 PM, BuckyBadger said:

My son is about to turn 5 and loves doing gymnastics. I swore to myself I’m not going to be a crazy wrestling Dad that puts pressure on him to do wrestling. He’ll pursue what he wants. But part of me hopes he develops all that core strength, flexibility etc in gymnastics and then starts wrestling. I can’t think of a better base foundation for wrestling.

There's literally nothing better for a kid to learn basic motor skills than do those tumbling classes.

My Sister was a very good Gymnast. She won some...big tournaments on the National Level, but it was a little confusing for me because she was at a lower level and she trained with a future Olympian who was younger and MUCH better...freakishly talented as a very young girl. 

She's still strong as hell. 

But on top of that, several Wrestlers I came up with were Gymnasts and they just had different athletic ability, muscle. They felt stronger without being bulkier. 

 

Those are the best athletes in the world IMO. Just balance, explosion, strength, coordination obviously. It's mind-blowing. 

And getting a kid into gymnastics at a younger age and then, IF they want to start Wrestling around 4th grade, that's the cheat code to me! LOL...they have that body control, they can learn good technique. I don't think you need to or should start getting too intense with your training until maybe 5th-6th grade anyway. 

 

But yeah, no better base than Gymnastics. Totally agree with that. 

[scourge165]

On 8/1/2024 at 11:31 PM, Ched64 said:

 

And Tiger Woods thought he would be a great Navy Seal…

Pretty sure he's not saying you can just become a great Wrestler simply because you're an Olympic Gymnast, but rather those Olympic Gymnast, had they chosen to switch it up or move over to Wrestling, they likely would have had a lot of success...at a younger age. Not by the time they're in the Olympics. 

[npope]

On 7/31/2024 at 8:57 PM, 1032004 said:

Yeah and we think NCAA wrestling has it bad.  There are only 12 D1 schools with men’s gymnastics

Give us a little more time - we'll get there 

[Wrestleknownothing]

I personally know three accomplished wrestlers who trained in gymnastics in their youth as a part of their wrestling training. The spacial awareness, body control, and strength developed in gymnastics is invaluable to wrestling. 

[Zahnarzt]

If Spencer, Zain and Dake challenged 3 guys on the Men’s Gymnastics team to a pull-up contest, who would win?

[WrestlingRasta]

I’d have to go with the gymnast. They’ll do them one handed and let go and flip then catch hold again in between every other one. 

[GrandOlm]

4 hours ago, Zahnarzt said:

If Spencer, Zain and Dake challenged 3 guys on the Men’s Gymnastics team to a pull-up contest, who would win?

Rings is an olympic event. Seems like using the same muscles to do much harder motions. I'd take the specialist or even an all round competitor over a wrestler.  

[BuckyBadger]

4 hours ago, GrandOlm said:

Rings is an olympic event. Seems like using the same muscles to do much harder motions. I'd take the specialist or even an all round competitor over a wrestler.  

Easily the gymnast.

[Zahnarzt]

David Goggins vs a member of the US Men’s gymnastics team…who wins a pull-up contest?

[Ched64]

On 8/4/2024 at 4:54 AM, scourge165 said:

Pretty sure he's not saying you can just become a great Wrestler simply because you're an Olympic Gymnast, but rather those Olympic Gymnast, had they chosen to switch it up or move over to Wrestling, they likely would have had a lot of success...at a younger age. Not by the time they're in the Olympics. 

I was just kidding…I get his point…it is just hard to make those “what if’s”…i wrestled a kid in hs who was a state champ in both…and, there a quite a few ex Navy wrestlers in the Seal!