Wrestling Training: Part 3

My body is sore. I haven’t gotten a lot of sleep the past few nights because I have two kids sick with the flu. That’s probably not it though. I think it has more to do with the fact that I started my professional wrestling training yesterday and threw myself on to the mat close to a hundred times. Yea, that’s it.

The training center was pretty cool. It’s called the Cleveland Dungeon. The head trainer, Lamont, told us it was partially a reference to Stu Hart’s famous wrestling “dungeon” in Calgary where many wrestling legends were trained, and also in part for his first training center  that actually looked like a literal dungeon. He got a new training center, but kept the name Cleveland Dungeon. Lamont was cool. I think he is a good teacher. He said he has wrestled 15 matches for WWE over the years, but they did not offer him a contract because he just wasn’t big enough. That sucks. But that’s the business. So now he runs a hole in the wall training center in Cleveland, Ohio. I like it… the place has character.

Lamont had two guys helping him with the training: Manny and Chris. Manny usually works as a manager, but he definitely knows his way around the ring, and Chris has only been training with Lamont for three months now, but I think he’s good. This is going to sound weird, but I was surprised with how helpful and nice the trainers were. I guess I expected them to be bigger jerks. You know, the stereotypical macho muscle heads. But they were cool.

There were 5 of us starting our training there for the first time. I’m not going to say much about the other students, except this: about halfway through the training all 5 of us students started cheering for each other after every exercise. It was cool. We were all struggling with one aspect of the training or another. The extra encouragement was great. I think it brought us together a little bit. It was a small way of letting me know I wasn’t alone in this.

We worked on basics, like how to fall correctly without getting hurt and how to move across the mat quickly while keeping low. We didn’t learn any holds, moves, or even run across the ring in to the ropes. Seeing what this training will look like, I am glad that we won’t be rushing in to anything more advanced. I know it sounds obvious, but I really want to get these basics down before we keep moving on. I don’t just want a general overview of wrestling, I really want to build a good foundation of skills, giving myself the best chance to succeed that I can.

I skinned up my knees and elbows; my back, arms, stomach, and neck are all sore; and can’t wait to go back next week. In the meantime, I will take care of sick kids and continue to clean up bodily fluids.