Weight and diet aspects of wrestling

Weight and diet are an important aspect of athletics, especially in wrestling. Weight and diet can either make or break a wrestler's success. So it is important to make and maintain weight, according to Norwich's assistant wrestling coach.

"It's extremely important, I mean they can't wrestle if they are a tenth off of the weight," said Alex Whitney. "They can't wrestle 165 if they weigh 165.1; they either don't wrestle for the day or wrestle at 174."

Wrestlers are very conscious about their weight and what they eat. They make sure they work out regularly and stay away from fatty and unhealthy foods. They keep their diet healthy with pasta, vegetables and protein.

"Working out and eating healthy is pretty much how you do it," said Chris Schenk, 18, a freshman studies in war and peace major from Newton, Ga. "If you work out and keep a healthy diet full of fruits, pasta, and protein, you are set."

Keeping weight is one of the hardest things for a wrestler do. Simple things like drinking too much water can send a wrestler over the weight limit.

"You have to think about what you are intaking. If you know you can only gain a pound you're only going to drink enough water to keep you hydrated," said John Dasilva, 21, a senior business management major from Canton, Mass. "You are not going to go out and buy a gallon of Gatorade and a soda. You just have to be smart."

Wrestlers also have to make sure they eat enough to keep their bodies healthy and strong. Fasting will hurt a wrestler more than help.

"If you have a strong diet and you can manage your weight well, it's going to keep you at the top of your game," Schenk said. "If you go out there and try and cut all your weight at the very end you are going to be gassed out, sucked out and weak right before your match."

There are 10 weight classes in wrestling, ranging from 125 to the heavy weight class of 285. Each class is separated at about 8 pounds and the wrestlers want to be at the closest weight to the max they can be.

"Everybody comes in really close," said John Hartupee, head wrestling coach at Norwich. "You get a feeling for it after a while too, knowing about where you are at."

"You don't want to be underweight that much," Dasilva said. "It gets to the point that you're not going to be underweight that much but you want to be within a couple tenths of the max."

Generally there are three wrestlers within each weight class and they are the starters at Norwich. 

"If you don't make your weight either you don't wrestle that day or we (coaches) decide to wrestle you up a weight class," Whitney said. "But a lot of the times coaches won't because it not fun wrestling up a weight class because you're going up against someone a lot bigger than you."

According to Schenk, "Everybody typically weighs in before and after practice to keep track of their weight." So not making weight is rare because the wrestlers are constantly weighing in to make sure they are where they want to be. It is just a matter of taking care of business and being responsible.

 "I haven't seen anybody not make weight this year," Schenk said.