Beaten by a girl - in the New York Times

Weighing in late, and didn't get all the way through the thread, but my niece is a high school wrestler and it's cool to see her showing her skills, which are actually pretty good.

 

And to add to the debate regarding women in traditional male sports...

In 1987/88 we debuted soccer at our high school, which was better known for its play on the football field, not soccer. We formed a team but only one player had any soccer experience at all, and that was a female. In fact, despite being the only female on the team, she was by far our best player. And though we went 0-20 and never scored a goal that season, she came closer than any of us.

 

Hey Moon, you don't have to agree with me, I'm just thankful to see a wrestler finally chime in on this thread ...

As for the pain part, it's not like I went to the Cobra Kai school of wrestling ... early on I wasn't the strongest guy so my teammates, much more than my coach, worked with me on how to work the legs hard ... stick your chin in the shoulder ... throw a hard crossbar ... make it sting ... so it would be easier for me to turn the opponent over ... I'm curious how you coach your weaker but faster guys how to do it ...

I'm glad you teach the boys to consider the girls to be just another wrestler. I think that's how they should be taught .. I'd just be surprised if they all respond to it right off the bat ... I'm sure your story above wasn't the only awkward moment you've experienced in that situation...

Something that's been lost in this thread is these are boys, just like I was when I wrestled more than a decade ago. Maybe the atmosphere has changed that now more girls are wrestling but back then, everytime you had a boy go against a girl they had some reservations or they're more nervous than usual, if only because their teammates were putting more pressure on them. Hopefully they wrestled the same. All I've said on here is that I would have been uncomfortable with it but would have done it anyway ...