11 reasons why everyone should wrestle, the sequel

Note: John Klessinger, who is a teacher and wrestling coach at South River High School in Maryland, wrote “A Coach’s Manual: Everything You Need to Be a Successful Coach”.

By John Klessinger

Almost five years ago to the day, I wrote my first article for WIN magazine. The article was entitled “11 Reasons Why Everyone Should Wrestle.” Plenty of things have changed in my life since then. At the time, my daughter was a sophomore in high school. Now, she is a junior in college. My son was in middle school and now he is only a few months away from graduating high school.

The team I coach won its first state dual championship in 2022, which we repeated in 2023. Last year, we lost in the state dual final 33-30. The dual came down to the last match. We were down 33-27. We needed a fall to tie. A fall would give us the win by criteria. My kid pushed around his opponent for six minutes. His opponent did his job. He fought and stayed off his back, securing the match and state title for his team.

This column appeared in the late-November issue of WIN Magazine. Click on the latest cover or call 888-305-0606 to subscribe to WIN Magazine.

I wrote a book, “A Coach’s Manual: Everything You Need to Be a Successful Coach”,  which was published by Championship Productions. Last fall, I was inducted into the Maryland Chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame.

On a different level, while things were going well professionally as a teacher and coach, both of my kids blew out their knees. In 2020, my daughter tore her ACL. Then, in 2022, my son tore his ACL. That left a few years of constant encouragement and attempts at optimism for them both. Ironically, I ruptured my quad tendon in 2023. The doctor said it was the “old man’s version of a torn ACL.” Subconsciously, I guess I wanted to know what it was like.

On a personal level, the past five years have been very challenging. Beyond injuries, things have been difficult at times. It is a part of life. We go through difficult times. I do. You do. We all do. Which brings me back to the first article I had written for WIN, “Why Everyone Should Wrestle.”

If it wasn’t for wrestling, I am certain the last five years would have been much more difficult. Wrestling has been my anchor. It has and continues to teach me the mental toughness to deal with the challenges and continue to keep getting up over and over.

To commemorate our great sport and to celebrate my five-year anniversary writing for WIN, here is part II of 11 Reasons Why Everyone Should Wrestle.

1. Friendships and Community
Once you’ve wrestled, you become part of a special group of people. All wrestlers know the difficulty of the sport. When you meet a wrestler, you become instant friends. You share similar experiences. It is tough to explain, but wrestlers are good people. Hardworking people. Honest people. The sport teaches you the value of struggling and sacrifice. That is why most walk around with humility.

2. Physical Toughness
In some ways, this reason was in the first article — not explicitly stated but implied. However, I don’t know many wrestlers who shy away from things due to bumps and bruises. Wrestlers are physically tough. We don’t sit out because we aren’t feeling great. We do things when we are hurt and sick. Most people I know who aren’t wrestlers are quick to “find a soft place to land.” 

3. Accountability and Life Lessons
It is unfortunate so many people lack personal accountability. It is a problem in schools and in the workforce. Wrestling teaches you accountability. It is you and your opponent. You could blame the referee, but that is fruitless. At some point, all wrestlers see that the responsibility is their own. They learn that making excuses is a detriment to their development. And in a weird way, that attitude follows them to other areas of their life.

4. Once you’ve wrestled, everything in life is easier
Dan Gable famously said this quote. He was misquoted as saying “easy,” not “easier.” Life can be hard, as I said earlier. But as Gable said, the experience of wrestling makes other things not as difficult. It teaches you how to persevere. It has helped me get through difficult situations.

5. You become calloused
I love how David Goggins says doing hard things “callous the mind.” Call it mental toughness or what you want. There is no denying that wrestling hardens you mentally, physically and emotionally. When I say harden, I don’t mean emotionless or numb to adversity. It develops resiliency and teaches you to get back up after failure.

6. Volition
This is defined as the power of one’s will. Most people give up long before their will runs out. Your will is deep if you keep trying and trying and trying. Wrestling demonstrates that to its participants. Wrestlers find out they can keep going despite pain and suffering. In some ways, it is the opposite of motivation. Most people use motivation as the determining factor for effort. Motivation is random to a certain extent. There are not a lot of days I feel “motivated.” But I do it anyway. When the conditions are ideal, people are motivated. Yet, we all know conditions are not usually ideal. The weather doesn’t always cooperate. We have to do things when we are tired or sore.

7. Courage
This is doing things despite fear, not the absence of it. Wrestling builds courage. It requires a great deal of courage to go out on the mat against a tough opponent. An opponent who may have beaten you in the past. The sport tests your resolve. Wrestling has shown me I can do things even if I am afraid, apprehensive, or fearful.

8. Transformative
Running with my team the other day in our preseason workouts, I looked around at the kids. My first thought was, I need to get up there. I am close to the back. My stiff and achy knee doesn’t allow me to run as fast as before. But I love doing workouts with them. So, I decided to drop my ego. Looking around, I noticed kids who couldn’t finish workouts a year ago were now close to the front. Other kids who couldn’t do 10 push-ups are now ripped and muscular. I remembered one wrestler we routinely had to “talk off a ledge,” who is now a team leader and one of our hardest workers. Wrestling changes people. It is such a cool thing to see.

9. You get what you earn
I am on the Gable train, I guess. “You don’t get what you deserve; you get what you earn.” We live in an entitled society. People expect things with minimal effort. Not only kids, but plenty of adults feel they deserve a reward for showing up. That’s not reality. Most things in life require blood, sweat and tears; certainly wrestling. 

10. Employment
In 2012, Forbes wrote an article stating that wrestlers are the best employees. It is a well-known fact wrestlers are good workers. In Angela Duckworth’s book “Grit”, she says grit is more important than talent to be successful. Wrestling develops those skills that make you an employable and valued member of the workforce

11. You are a wrestler
I wear it like a badge of honor. It makes me part of an elite community. Wrestlers are elite people compared to most. It is almost like a military special-forces label. “Civilians” (nonwrestlers) look at us as being tough. People immediately give me respect or assume I am tough just because I tell them I am a coach. I know quite a few people in the military who put wrestlers on a pedestal for our work ethic and toughness. Now, I believe I am tough. I owe it all to wrestling. It developed me into a person who, despite challenging times, keeps going. I will make mistakes. I will not always succeed. I will struggle. I am a wrestler. It has prepared me to deal with whatever comes. 

(John Klessinger is a teacher and wrestling coach at South River High School in Maryland. You can follow him on Instagram @coachkless and like his Facebook page “Coach Kless”.)