There\u2019s a danger using \u201csports analogies\u201d about life. They often treat life too simplistically, as if scoring a goal or committing a foul tells all about \u201creal life\u201d experiences. Life is so much more complex than points on a scoreboard, or a yellow flag on the field. And as a long time high school coach, I try to be very aware that the nuance of sport is my former profession, but not an innate part of everyone else\u2019s life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So with those caveats, let me try to draw an analogy between sport and life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I was a high school track and cross country coach, but what many people don\u2019t know is that I was also a high school and middle school wrestling coach. Wrestling is a profoundly different sport than the others. In cross country, you are in a race with hundreds of others each time. Only a few have the talent and have put in the effort to run at the front of the race, the rest are working to improve \u201cin the pack\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And track is seldom \u201cjust you\u201d, though it happens in the field events occasionally. But in wrestling, every time, it\u2019s one on one. There\u2019s no \u201cfield\u201d to disappear in, no eight runners leaning at the line. It\u2019s just two athletes trying to best each other in the most physical, elemental way possible. It\u2019s about one imposing physical control on the other, against their will. The coaches yell, and the team cheers, and parents literally mirror every move in the stands. But on the mat, no one is blocking, no one passing the ball, no one is pacing. Out there on the mat it\u2019s just you, and the other guy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wrestling and distance running are similar in one respect. While talent is important, the willingness to sacrifice yourself to work is paramount. Want to be a good runner? Start running, then run more and more and more. Want to be a good wrestler? You have to literally \u201clive the life\u201d. How many sports require teenage boys to restrict how much they eat? A good wrestler puts in seemingly unending hours of drills, exercises, conditioning every part of their body; their \u201cpractice\u201d never really ends. And it\u2019s all for those moments one on one on the mat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wrestling, essentially, is all about the wrestler.\u00a0\u00a0It is an all-consuming, often lonely quest to push your body to new levels of suffering, in order to conquer that opponent one on one at the center of the gym.\u00a0\u00a0The phrase goes that “there is no ‘I’ in team”, but in wrestling, there often is no \u201cteam\u201d in \u201cI\u201d either.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s been a long time since I\u2019ve read the \u201cessential\u201d book of conservatism \u2013 Ayn Rand\u2019s\u00a0The Fountainhead.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>But top level wrestlers remind me of her characters, succeeding or failing all on their own, without regard for who they literally have to pin to get to the top, and what damage they leave along the way.\u00a0\u00a0They are \u201cHoward Roarks\u201d; unbent and unyielding, convinced of their own individual superiority.\u00a0\u00a0And they have the record to prove it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A good soccer team, or football team, or cross country team is just that \u2013 a team. Each member has a role, and should they fail in that role, the team fails. Sure a cross country team might have the \u201cbest\u201d individual. But if five runners don\u2019t cross the finish line, the team fails to score, fails to be a team. The fifth runner\u2019s score is just as important as the first. A quarterback without linemen, or a soccer team without a goalie, all will ultimately fail. Cooperation is a key element in success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wrestling does keep a team score. But, much like track, that score is a compilation of individual results. The main impact of \u201cteam\u201d on wrestling, is the level of competition in the practice room. Good wrestlers get better by wrestling better wrestlers. So the level of competition \u201cin the room\u201d determines the success of the \u201croom\u2019s\u201d members. <\/p>\n\n\n\n A National Champion or Olympic qualifying wrestler is a huge asset to any wrestling team, even if that individual doesn\u2019t actually compete for the team. Their presence in \u201cthe room\u201d raises the level of practice competition, making those team members who practice with them better. But it\u2019s a tough \u201capprenticeship\u201d; and often frustrating for the apprentice. Goals are marked in small increments: score a point, counter a move, don\u2019t end up on your back. Winning isn\u2019t really a possibility, at least at first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A sport that places so much emphasis on the individual might well create a \u201cmindset\u201d for life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Jim Jordan, now a United States Congressman, and former National Collegiate wrestling champion, was hired into the Ohio State wrestling room as an assistant coach.\u00a0\u00a0His role was to raise the level of competition \u201cin the room\u201d, first as he trained for the Olympics, and then simply to aid the college athletes.\u00a0\u00a0The fact that the wrestling team physician was molesting those athletes wasn\u2019t really his concern, I suppose.\u00a0\u00a0If Dr. Strauss touched Jordan inappropriately, he\u2019d kick his ass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But the athletes on the team didn\u2019t have that option. Sure, they were Division I college wrestlers, and all of them were perfectly capable of defending themselves. But Dr. Strauss was the \u201cinstitution\u2019s\u201d doctor. Strauss had control over who could wrestle and who could not. So while Assistant Coach Jim Jordan might consider resisting the doctor, for the members of the team, it was a totally different case. They essentially didn\u2019t have a choice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some went to Jordan and head coach Russ Hellickson, to let them know they were being molested. They were taking the only course of action available to remedy the situation.\u00a0\u00a0Their only other choices were:\u00a0\u00a0be molested or quit.\u00a0\u00a0And when they were ignored, it fit right into the model of life Jim Jordan now stands for:\u00a0\u00a0you are on your own.\u00a0\u00a0You rise on your own abilities, and fail on the same.\u00a0\u00a0It is not the \u201cinstitution\u2019s\u201d duty to protect you, even from the institution itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Doesn\u2019t that sound just like his view of our government?\u00a0\u00a0Ayn Rand, the intellectual mother of modern conservatism, would be proud.\u00a0\u00a0The individual is totally responsible for their own fate. The institution, whether it\u2019s a university or the national government or the coaching staff; doesn\u2019t have much of a role.\u00a0\u00a0The fact that those being mis-treated don\u2019t have a choice, that the institution doesn\u2019t allow them any way out; well, that\u2019s too bad.\u00a0\u00a0The individuals should have somehow been better to overcome the mis-treatment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019m not saying that all conservatives would allow sexual abuse of those under their authority.\u00a0\u00a0In fact, the coaches I know would absolutely stand up against such abuse, conservative or not.\u00a0\u00a0But I am saying that, for some at least, it fits their model of life, the same model they bring to governing America.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n You\u2019re on your own.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cooperation isn\u2019t Important<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
In the Room<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Institutions<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Model for Life<\/h3>\n\n\n\n