Wrestling unit in Phys Ed?

ptown · April 04, 2013, 02:00:03 PM

I'm wondering how many schools have a wrestling section in their Phys Ed classes?

Ty Clark · April 04, 2013, 04:25:53 PM

My alma mater ditched their one-week unit in jr. high around 1995, just before I was in middle school. They used to have an after school thing for a month for grades 3-5, but that's gone as well. Another thing was a wrestling session at the eighth grade lock-in that kid's could sign up for... there were some awesom cat-fights andi know a couple kids in my class came out for wrestling in HS because of that hour on the mat. I think a lot of it all going away had to do with the rise of skin disease (or knowledge of them). On the bright side, there is now an established club that my dad started about six years ago that went from 30 kids in one group to well over 100 split in three groups. I guess parents like the idea of $25 to wrestle is better than $2000 to just sign up for hockey.

whatever · April 04, 2013, 05:42:52 PM

Not sure why or other pertinent details but our middle schools haven't had a wrestling unit for at least 15 years now.

It does make recruiting a touch more difficult when kids can't even get a small taste of wrestling in middle school phy ed.

imnofish · April 04, 2013, 06:30:50 PM

When I started coaching wrestling at our middle school, our P.E. teacher (who was also the basketball coach) asked me to educate him about the sport and help him plan a wrestling unit. We spent time after school getting ready for awhile, before he started teaching a basic introduction to the sport. He even encouraged the basketball players to try wrestling, since the sports were scheduled at different parts of the year. Of course, I reciprocated. We both believed that the kids should explore all of the sports during middle school, then make an educated decision when they started high school. It turned out to be a good arrangement for both programs and it also generated more fan interest. After the guy retired, the unit died out, unfortunately. Now, we have co-ed P.E. classes, so I don't anticipate it reappearing.

bigG · April 04, 2013, 07:11:02 PM

Just to comprehend how long a few minutes of live wrestling really is. I remember our wrestling unit , and the karate kid who smoked just thought he'd whoop us rasslers. I thought they'd have to bust out the defibrillator after he went a minute. I was lucky enough to be his first "victim" gave him a good taste of the front headlock. Let him back up after my 2, then he was mad like bull and charged right into my over/under toss. Was a fun day to school the cock of the walk.

imnofish · April 04, 2013, 08:52:55 PM

Quote from: bigG on April 04, 2013, 07:11:02 PM
Just to comprehend how long a few minutes of live wrestling really is. I remember our wrestling unit , and the karate kid who smoked just thought he'd whoop us rasslers. I thought they'd have to bust out the defibrillator after he went a minute. I was lucky enough to be his first "victim" gave him a good taste of the front headlock. Let him back up after my 2, then he was mad like bull and charged right into my over/under toss. Was a fun day to school the cock of the walk.

When I was in high school, I had the same experience with the schoolyard bully/boxer, who was reportedly the Caucasian version of Ali. Yes, that wrestling unit was a great format for social justice!

Kjohnson · April 05, 2013, 07:02:03 AM

Back in the 80

ptown · April 05, 2013, 08:23:26 AM

I appreciate the feed back and also some of the laughs. I've asked our Phys Ed teacher about doing a short unit and he laughs, some of our middle school kids have asked and the comment is "so you guys can beat on the other kids" and their very honest and tell him no it will help our team!. We are being told that our sport is slowly going to disappear and I feel we need to make it somewhat more main stream or least understood by more people even if it's only a few.

Handles II · April 05, 2013, 08:33:11 AM

I'm working very hard to get one going, problem is both our elementary and middle school PE teachers are baskeball coaches, and H.S. is the head hockey. I've offerd to give up my prep period next year for at least a few weeks to work with the 5th/6th grade. They are combined classes so about 80 kids in the gym at one time. Hopefully they will let me take 10-20 out for a few days at a time and rotate through them all so at least they get some type of exposure to the sport.

I know that in PdS, at least until a few years ago, the middle school PE program was designed so that every varsity sport in the district was focused on for a 2-3 week unit to add exposure. I kind of like that idea, good for all sports and can create some mutual respect among the sports.

ramjet · April 05, 2013, 08:51:51 AM

This is probably the single best idea to seek out and increase participation in wrestling.

Handles I applaud your efforts to get this back in the phys ed at your school. I am sure it will not be easy.

We had this in Phys ed and it was pretty crazy when we had two very good basketball players quit the BB team and join wrestling after our session in Phy ed.

Some kids will never know what wrestling is like or what they can do in it till they try and maybe f they are force feed just one experience they might see they are pretty good at it. The again it may have an opposite effect on others.

imnofish · April 05, 2013, 10:02:02 AM

When my son was in kindergarten, he and a teammate gave a wrestling lesson for show and tell. They brought in a few fold-up gym mats, explained objectives and scoring, demonstrated a few moves, etc. Freaked out the old gal who was their teacher, but it generated a lot of interest and resulted in the addition of several new wrestlers.

WrestleFun · April 05, 2013, 10:10:30 AM

Until this year, I coached middle school wrestling for 6 seasons. I'm not a teacher in the school so it was always harder to recruit kids without being around them. The gym teacher asked me about 5 years ago if I would come in for two days the first semester and two days the second semester to teach wrestling to grades 6-12 seen as our school the middle school and high school are combined. It has always been a success for getting kids out, we even got some basketball players out when they seen they had a better chance of making varsity in wrestling then they ever had playing varsity basketball. It was hard for me because I worked nights (9pm-5am), but I would rather give up sleep to help get kids out.

Handles II · April 05, 2013, 10:29:49 AM

As a tip to high school coaches (or youth coaches), at one of my former schools I set up an "Assembly" at the elementary school one afternoon for the last 1/2 hr of school. We brought in two sections of mat and 8 varsity guys to demonstrate wrestling moves (of course lots of "wow" moves). Then I passed out flyers for our youth program. Probably our biggest jump in participation numbers.
I hope to organize that once again here at my new school.
In the end it's all about exposure. Wrestling is one of our most natural sports and the original "play". Put two kids on the livingroom floor and eventually they will start to wrestle. And it's always the same, being on your back, on the bottom isn't good. All the "hunter" land mammals and the primates do this very thing. It's in our genetic code, just have to stir it up a bit.

thequad · April 06, 2013, 03:04:26 PM

I agree exposure is a very important part of getting kids out on the mat. I would sure like to see a program where we could get former wrestlers to come to at least 1 match or better yet 1 match a year, and take their kids alone to. I can't imagine how surprised these guys that haven't seen a match in 20 years would be. How do you get old wrestlers to support your program?

bigoil · April 06, 2013, 03:14:29 PM

I know Myself and other wrestlers always helped coach the unit when I was in school. I don't recall what females did during this unit in our school but I'm almost certain it wasn't wrestling.