The Crutch
I’ve wrestled many women. Heck, I’ve wrestled so many time that I’ve lost count. 99.9% of the time that I wrestle, my opponent confesses some sort of condition that is making them perform at anything less than 100% of their potential. I’ve heard every excuse in the book, heck, I’ve made every excuse in the book. I didn’t sleep well last night, I’m hungover, I did a work out yesterday and now I’m sore, I slept funny and my neck hurts, I was up all night cleaning up cat doodoo……you name it…it’s been used as an excuse to fail. I call this the crutch. Athleteswill go into a competition telling everyone about something that could possible cause them to lose. Their thinking is that if they tell everyone in advance about their problem then people will be able to look at their loss (if they lose) and not judge them as harshly. What the athletes are really doing is setting themselves up for failure. When your opponent hears that you are not coming into a fight 100% they should capitalize on this. Once you open your mouth and blab about what could go and might go wrong you are giving your opponent a psychological advantage. They now have it set in their mind that you have a weakness. You are also setting yourself up for a pyscological disadvantage. You are giving yourself a crutch to lean on and use as an excuse to fail. Once you have that crutch you will with out a doubt lean on that crutch to help you. It’s your safety net. If you lose you lose but at least now everyone knows why you lost…you were up late..you cat shit all over your hall way. If you win then everyone thinks you’re amazing for winning even after having such a horrible start to your day….this is hodgepodge…this isn’t reality. This is what losers do. Winners shut up about their ailments, even after they fight. A lose is a lose fair and square. You learn from it and move on and hopefully progress. In a future blog I am going to write about how failure can be a good thing for wrestlers. We learn from our mistakes, we learn from the feeling of a loss and we fight hard to never have that feeling again.
A few weeks ago I went into a match with an ear infection that was so bad I had vertigo and nausea. I wasn’t feeling well at all. I was weak, I was frail. There was NO way in hell I was going to tell my opponent about my problem. There was NO way I was going to lean on my crutch. I knew as soon as I let out any information about my problem my opponent would gain a huge advantage. So I did my match. I won and it felt sooo amazing. I know 100% that if I had said anything about my situation that I would have lost. I would have given up.
Ladies none of us go into a match feeling great. We all cramp, we all have good days and bad. When you’re on the mats you need to check your negative attitude at the door. No one wants to hear you whine or make excuses. A winner is a winner and a complainer is a loser!!
Very well said, Ariel, Very, Very, VERY well said.
(… and I bet a LOT of your readers–I KNOW they’re readin’ your posts– feel that way even if THEY don’t post.)
I just want to take issue about going into a match if you’re honestly ill. I don’t mean if you’re suffering from “I’m-just-havin’-a-bad-day”-itis. I mean like you said above: a real (ear) infection coupled with vertigo and nausea.
In that case, it would have been better to hold off and get BETTER, imho. Look, a couple of points here:
A) Infections could spread to your friends/competitors and THAT sucks …
B) Nausea could very well lead to actual barf-itis and THAT sucks … (Puking on the mats or hoping you’ll get to the bathroom on time; hey, it just ain’t worth it …)
C) Vertigo would only aggravate a nauseous condition and THAT sucks and then you’re REALLY gonna feel like you’re gonna die …
So, I STRONGLY admire your attitude, beauty, commitment and strength but STAY in good health so we don’t have to hear of bad consequences later.
It just ain’t worth it when tomorrow never dies.
Just my views …
Awesome post!
Ariel - you are just incredible girl!))))
I finally got the registration to work. I agree with Ariel’s post and Panther’s too. No one is at his or her best all the time, but if you are clearly under the weather, not only do you risk infecting your opponent, you are also not giving your opponent your very best–which was largely the point in Ariel’s orignal post in this thread about the Crutch.
Barry