Mental Health

Cutting weight can be the hardest part of wrestling. My senior year in high school my walking around weight was 135 pounds and my high school coaches advised me that if I wanted to be a state champion I should cut to the 120 pound weight class. This wasn't easy at first, I had to eat clean, removing all sugars and most carbs, and to be honest somedays I was so scared to eat or drink because I didn't want to gain any weight. I felt as if I developed an eating disorder. It was the worst when I was at my state championship, the night before I wrestled I was so terrified of my weight that I didn't eat or drink anything for at least 12 hours. The fear was so real to the point that when I stepped onto the scale, I was 118 pounds which means I was a whole 2 pounds under weight. I definitely could have ate something small or even had a bottle of water. This mental state is actually very common for wrestlers to choose not to eat the night before weigh-ins to ensure they are on weight. When I was in youth wrestling this idea of kids cutting weight was starting to become apparent. My older brother ended up stunting his growth because he felt this pressure from his friends. However it's not always the kids fault, but it's often the parents and how the parents are influenced by what they see and hear about older kids that are cutting weight. In the end, they also feel the pressure to make their own kids do the same. Luckily, my parents never pressured us and have worked hard to make sure our younger family members do not cut weight at a young age. My out outcome was that I became a state champion and an All-American but at what cost?