​ I believe in being strong
When everything seems
To be going wrong.
Audrey Hepburn

There reaches a point in every wrestling practice where you will convince yourself that you have reached your mental and physical limit.

So, you look around for confirmation, to see if anyone else is at that limit with you.

To your amazement, your teammates are not stopping.

Instead, they are doing more, giving more, taking more pain.

By seeing this you un-convince yourself that your limit has been reached.

You get back to work.

You do more.

You go further.

You absorb more pain.

Why?

Because the guy next to you is.

And if the guy next to you is, then so can you.

On this day, the guy next to you set the bar.

On another day you will set the bar.

That is what being a teammate is all about.

****

At the NCAA’s a few years back, Barry Davis, the then head coach of the Wisconsin Badgers, was asked how wrestling prepares a young man for life, and he responded,

“Your phone is going to ring someday. 
It will. 
And on the other end, you’re going to hear something that you don’t like, but you must deal with it. 
When that phone rings, you can’t run away. 
You must answer it, and whatever it is, you must deal with it.
The sport of wrestling facilitates that.
The sacrifices and sufferings in wrestling help prepare young men for when that phone rings.
I believe that.”

Undoubtedly, there will reach a time in your life, after wrestling, when your new teammates, your family, will face adversity and someone within your family will be convinced that they can’t go on anymore.

That they have reached their limit.

They have convinced themselves that they can’t do anymore, give any more, or take any more pain.

They will look around for confirmation, to see if anyone else is at their limit also.

Here is where the wrestler in you must take over.

Be the guy to raise the bar.

Decide not to be a product of your environment, commit to having your environment to be a product of you.

When your family looks around for confirmation that you are also at your limit, they need to be amazed that you are not stopping.

You are doing more.

You are going further.

You are absorbing more pain.

Your actions will convince your family that they have more to give.

And they will give more.

Because they see you doing so.

And one day they will do so for you.

And that is what being a family is all about.

“Be the Guy Who Sets the Bar”

Is an excerpt from

“Wrestling Rules for Life.”