The Preparation

I officiated Texas USAW tournament this weekend. I called some amazing matches. One unfortunate thing about the nature of the sport, is that many coaches don’t know how act. Most will yell what they want you to call from the corner and negatively influence the match. Sometimes both coaches will bicker across the mat. It is not uncommon for them to get billigerant. Fortunately, in the rule book, there are rules in place that penalize this behavior. The treat to them is being kicked out. By the rules they are allowed two Coaches Misconcuct (when they question the refferees judgement during discussion) and one unsportsmanlike conduct before they are kicked out. The system works well when enforced, however, because many of the officials are younger than the coaches, the power dynamic between the most officials and coaches causes ref not to penalize them.

While frustrating tonofficials, the real harm is to the kids. Naturally, they mimic the behavior of those around them, especially those who they are around often. So when their coach is acting a fool in the corner, they follow suit.

Although many coaches treat officials poorly, they treat their wrestler even worse. Wrestling, win or lose is tough. So it is about a 75 percent chance that during the match at least one of the kids will start crying if they are little. This is to be expected. However After a match, so many coaches will chastise and verbally harass their wrestler which just torments them. Wrestlers work so hard just to walk of the mat and be reprimanded. They make a tough, but satisfying sport, just tough. There a great coaches out there, many in fact. It’s just the loud ones that are heard.

I yearn to grapple again. I want to compete. Once I recover from my injures I’m going to get back into it. I have been very sedentary recently and I just know I have lost all of my conditioning.

I am getting through Dune Messiah well. Though the part of book I am on now is verbose and hard to understand. I’m going to rewatch the movies once I am done.

My piano teacher and I are striving to get me ready for a gig before he leaves for college. I am happy that he is accepted to Baylor Music School but I will miss him. On the bright side, that just brings me an opportunity to learn from a new teacher and perspective.

I have a little bit more than two weeks until EMT school starts. This week I plan on dealing with my speeding citation, visiting a hand doctor for my wrist, going to wrestling practice, and continuing to grow stronger and more flexible.

It’s always a good day to be great.