“There’s more practice time in wrestling than a lifetime of matches. Repetition is what wrestlers do — what you do best, you have to keep redoing. That’s what all the drilling is for — to make difficult moves look easy, to make learned responses look natural.”—John Irving
I have learned some of life’s greatest lessons for wrestling. Legendary wrestler and coach, Dan Gable, has said “once you’ve wrested, everything else in life is easy.” John Irving (a wrestler himself, by the way) is right in saying that “what you do best, you keep doing”. We succeed by trying and trying again (and again) until we get it right. Life is repetition and drilling until we get it right (assuming we ever do).
Irving is quoted in saying that “If I have more stamina for revision than a lot of writers, I give the credit for that to wrestling. Every wrestler understands rewriting — they do it every practice.” That’s a great thing about life. We rewrite ourselves every day, if we choose to do so. We shoot, we miss. We shoot again. Keep shooting and, eventually, we score.
Life and wrestling is about stamina. One of my favorite Gable quotes is: “The 1st period is won by the best technician. The 2nd period is won by the kid in the best shape. The 3rd period is won by the kid with the biggest heart.” Life is won by gaining knowledge, hard work, and desire. Travis Bradberry wrote: “Grit is that ‘extra something’ that separates the most successful people from the rest. It’s the passion, perseverance, and stamina that we must channel in order to stick with our dreams until they become a reality.” The wrestler knows this.
Life is not easy, but it is worth every challenging moment. Keep working. Make the difficult look easy.
Be your best today; be better tomorrow!
Carpe momento!