Being involved in the sport of wrestling and maintaining a social life at the same time is no easy task. Some people are driven away from wrestling because of the time and dedication it takes to become successful. However, working hard and dedicating yourself to the sport should not get in the way of having a social life… as long as you manage your time correctly. You will need to make sacrifices, but this guide is designed to help wrestlers work through the issue of balancing friends with wrestling.
Consolidate Time
If you thought balancing wrestling and your social life was hard enough, don’t forget that school should be just as important, if not more. You’ll find that during wrestling season you will have little time outside of training and competing. You will often want to hang out with your friends. Instead, the time you have left after training should be spent completing school work and dealing with other responsibilities. Do what you can to also manage your schoolwork.
If you can avoid it, don’t save homework for the weekend. Complete projects on weekdays after practice to free up time on the weekends to spend with your friends and family. If your wrestling team has a study period, take full advantage of it. Get as much work done in the time given as possible. Even try to knock out required reading and other homework between your matches at a tournament to free up some social time later on.
Circles of Friends
Most wrestlers have a group of friends they hang out with aside of their teammates. Understand that the hours you spend on the mat and at competitions will create a strong bond between you and your teammates. Athletes in all sports form strong relationships, but wrestling is slightly different. Wrestling creates a much more intimate bond than you may expect, largely because of the grueling training and the intensity of competition.
You should take advantage of this. Most wrestlers make life-long friends with their teammates. Don’t look at all the time you spend in wrestling as time “away” from your usual circle of friends. Think of it as a period of time you get to spend with a group that knows you better than most people ever will. Traveling and competing will be much more fun when you consider yourself among close friends.
Wrestling should have a positive effect on your social life because there are many different personality types that get involved with the sport. You may meet a friend in wrestling that you may not have been able to come in contact with through other means.
Hot Tip: Friends vs. Fans
There will undoubtedly be times that you will not be able to make it to an event with your friends. Instead of trying to work your schedule around outside social events, make your matches the social event! Any good friend or family member would likely love a chance to watch you compete, so invite them along. This way you can make them a part of your life on the mat, and involve them in the sport that you love. This will likely make your relationship stronger in the long-run.
Don’t Forget About Summer
While you’re trapped in the cold and dark winter months of the wrestling season, it is easy to forget about the light at the end of the tunnel: Summer. Wrestling season is not always the most fun time of the year. It’s colder, darker, and most of your time is spent in the wrestling room. The melancholy feeling of the wrestling season is felt by all.
Try to remember that the season will go by faster than you can imagine. It will be spring in no time, and you will be able to fully enjoy your time… whether you continue to wrestle freestyle/Greco or not. Although the gloom of the winter months can be overwhelming at times, try to stay positive. You may not have all of the time you would like to devote to your friends, but in a few months you will. All of the sacrifices you make during wrestling season will be worth it.
Come summer, the weather will be warmer. You’ll get to do many more activities than you would have been able to do during the winter months of wrestling season, anyway!
Good Choices
You will face many decisions in your life that require you to make the most positive/beneficial choice. Not all of these choices will be spawned by positive situations, though. This applies to scholastic-age wrestlers, especially.
There are many social pressures such as drugs, alcohol, girlfriends/boyfriends, gangs, etc. that may put you in an uncomfortable place. Important decisions deserve to be well-thought-out. Make sure that you consider the consequences every choice presented to you by your friends. Often times the most negative choices you can make are done so with little-to-no thought behind them, and are justified by “peer pressure.” In short, peer pressure will only affect you when you let it.
Make sure that every choice you make in terms of your social life is right for you as an individual. Make sure your choices have a positive impact on your life in some way. Remember: You have to live with the choices you make and how they affect you. Often, the social pressures you will face are nothing more than distractions. These things can take your focus off of what you truly want in life. Here are a few questions you should ask yourself when faced with a tough decision that may involve your friends:
- Will this help me reach my goals in wrestling?
- Will it help me reach my goals in life?
- Could this negatively affect my life?
- What are the positive impacts of this decision?
Balance is Key
Time management is a tough skill to learn, but the sooner you learn to balance everything going on in your life, the better. Plan time for your friends, but never forget that if you want to succeed in wrestling, you will have to make some sacrifices. The amount of free time you have should never be an issue, as long as you’re proactive about planning and don’t waste your time off of the mat!
