Does anyone else feel bad...

[WrestlingRash]

for the kids who are pictured on the right hand side of this forum, who have just signed up to be miserable and malnourished for the next 4-5 years of their lives? I was young and dumb and thought I would win NCAAs and got smacked down by reality, just as most of these guys will. Poor guys. Don't tell em. 

[Hammerlock3]

[nhs67]

I don't know... I came up in a time where weight cutting was extremely bad, unhealthy, and rampant.  I was one of the few cutting a lot of weight and even to this day as a man closer to 60 than 50 my weight isn't much more than my walk around weight was then.

Good genetics, better food, and a lot of rum.

These guys on the right?  Hopefully they have had their expectations tempered and don't cause themselves too much bodily harm on the way.  Student comes before athlete.  For ~99% of these guys mind, body, and soul health leads to success more so than pain and suffering does.

[npope]

The self-denial associated with weight loss is a complicated personality trait and (thankfully) many people simply are not emotionally ready to buy-into it. I was one of the extreme weight cutters n HS and college; it wore me out by the time I was done with the sport. But I do remember guys on my teams who couldn't (or wouldn't) engage in significant weight loss and at the time, I felt as though they simply didn't have the "commitment" to the sport or the team that I had; I thought less of them as a competitor/teammate. 

With the benefit of time and perspective I can now better see the error of my thinking. The absolute worst thing about our sport is (excessive) weight loss.

[Wildcat92]

I had opportunities to continue my career after HS at some D3 schools, but by the time HS ended I was done.  The weight cutting was certainly a factor.  I knew a few guys that went to wrestle for those same D3 schools that weren't as successful in HS as I was and they had some moderate success, so looking back I could have been somewhat successful at that level, but my heart was no longer in it and I moved on.

[KCMO2]

13 hours ago, WrestlingRash said:

for the kids who are pictured on the right hand side of this forum, who have just signed up to be miserable and malnourished for the next 4-5 years of their lives? I was young and dumb and thought I would win NCAAs and got smacked down by reality, just as most of these guys will. Poor guys. Don't tell em. 

Just because you had a miserable time doesn't mean everybody else will.  Weight cutting wasn't fun, but otherwise I enjoyed my college experience, and I wasn't that great.  If everyone thought like you then college wrestling would be history.