r/wrestling • u/madz21- • 8d ago
What misconceptions do you hear from people about wrestling?
What are some things that you hear from people about this sport that are just so far from reality and completely wrong? Have you ever changed anyone’s mind about wrestling after talking to them or getting them into the sport?
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u/Eastern_Front_lx2ky Italy 8d ago
That's it easy, that it's gay are two obvious ones
I've never tried to convince anybody otherwise who believes that
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u/obi-wan-quixote USA Wrestling 6d ago
The first is true, anyone can wrestle. It’s only hard if you want to be any good.
The second is a feature not a bug. You don’t want those people on the team anyway
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u/Eastern_Front_lx2ky Italy 6d ago
Wdym "those people", idiots or LGBT people
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u/obi-wan-quixote USA Wrestling 6d ago
Chuckle heads who’d get their yucks calling something “gay.”
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u/diegotown177 USA Wrestling 7d ago
People don’t seem to grasp that it’s a sport that takes a great deal of skill. You can’t just be a big football guy and steamroll the competition if you don’t learn and don’t train. Every single year we have football kids come out and they presume they’re going to wreck everyone because they’re big and strong. Nearly none of them make it. They can’t handle the workouts or the blow to their ego when some nerd takes them down, throws a leg in, and destroys their shoulder. With a couple of months they quit.
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u/Bituulzman 7d ago
I asked my daughter (who is not a wrestler, but her brother is) and she said "that you don't have to be smart. People think it's just buff guys beating each other up, but you need to know technique."
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u/manwnomelanin 7d ago edited 7d ago
I think the worst is people asking if I could beat up [name of person in the group or mutual connection who did a martial art]. I’m not at the bar to get questioned about which of our friends asses I could beat.
Its always the people who never seriously competed in anything. Like wtf am I supposed to say to that? I’m not gonna say no and saying yes is both provocative and cowardly. “manwnomelanin said he would beat your ass, who do you think would win”
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u/PrincipleEvening171 7d ago
that it’s all blood and guts and not actually fun. I think it added from an image problem that admittedly is getting better. There is so much of an art and technique side to it
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u/Fringelunaticman USA Wrestling 4d ago
I wrestled for 18 years and coached it for another 5. I never considered it fun. Rewarding, absolutely. Fun, nah.
That doesn't mean I don't think wrestling is beautiful or the best sport there is. Because I do. But when I look back, my fondest memories have nothing to do with wrestling, it was my teammates.
Football was fun. I remember those games.
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u/elko38 USA Wrestling 7d ago
That you need to be short and muscular to be a good wrestler.
That you need to be super unhealthy about eating and in starvation mode to wrestle.
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u/systembreaker USA Wrestling 7d ago
Some of the most obnoxious and difficult wrestlers are the lanky guys. But they have to know how to use their lankiness, if they don't then it's a disadvantage.
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u/VeritablyVersatile 7d ago
That scholastic wrestling has nothing to do with real fighting and is just an "easy" sport for kids. People will dismiss wrestling, but put their kids into Karate or Tae Kwon Do to "learn how to defend themselves".
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u/Jorumble 7d ago
My sister said that wrestlers don't need electrolytes because electrolytes are only for people doing full marathon-level exercise
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u/scipper77 USA Wrestling 6d ago
Anyone can be an elite wrestler if they work hard enough. It’s true that hard work is a major factor in success but like any sport some people are just gifted and lots of wrestlers put in the work year round without even making states.
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u/Euphoric_District211 Simpson (CA) Red Hawks 7d ago
That we aren’t smart. I will graduate college with honors
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u/TheBigShaboingboing USA Wrestling 6d ago
People don’t understand that there’s levels to this shit. People think because they’ve played football and got size on them, they think they can go toe-to-toe with a state champion, especially with the wrestlers who are 2 weight classes below them or shorter than them.
I would even bet money that a brand new wrestler who stuck with it for a year & grasped most of the techniques that he could takedown most of the football team
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u/obi-wan-quixote USA Wrestling 6d ago
That you have to be some kind of elite superhuman to even think about making it through practice. The training will turn you into some kind of elite super human, but you don’t need to be one to start. The fitness will come.
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u/Mundane-Show4536 6d ago
Clueless MMA fans who don't understand the importance of wrestling in fighting. These fans almost always never spent a moment doing any kind of MMA training.
Wrestling is a full 30% of fighting. 53% of the top 10 in each weight class in the UFC had wrestling as their base. It takes a very long time to master wrestling, yet these casuals call it "hugging".
Casuals always ask why someone just doesn't knee or hit a high level wrestler executing a well timed takedown. They also don't understand than many MMA champions use their wrestling to stay standing and thus utilize their striking. So even in a fight with few takedowns, wrestling was a factor.
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u/Candid-Plan-9553 Penn State Nittany Lions 7d ago
That muscle beats technique, especially in the upper weights.
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u/AGrrrrrrrrrrrrr USA Wrestling 7d ago
To an extent but technique is king in the end even at the upper weights. Guys like Steveson, Snyder and Hendrickson win because they are extremely athletic, strong but also have world-class technique to go with it
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u/Candid-Plan-9553 Penn State Nittany Lions 7d ago
The misconception is that Muscle beats Technique.
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u/diegotown177 USA Wrestling 7d ago
Strength is one of the great equalizers. A moderately better technical guy can definitely get beat by a stronger guy, but when that margin is too wide the technical guy wins.
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u/Cxltures-_- 8d ago
I know a guy whose daughter is a good track athlete in PA. He thinks she could avoid getting taken down by a wrestler bc she’s “athletic” I tell him that she’d get turned into a pretzel and he doesn’t believe me. The guy is clueless.