LBHS Wrestling: Fan Experience

If you haven't attended a Lake Brantley wrestling meet or tournament, you're in for a treat. Wrestling matches are exciting whether you understand wrestling or not. In their efforts to pin their opponent, wrestlers throw, muscle, twist, leverage, outlast, outwill and outwit, all punctuated to the sound of wrestlers hitting the mat.

Unlike many sports, wrestling requires all around athleticism. The balance and flexibility of a gymnast, the strength of a football player, the courage of an extreme skateboarder, endurance almost to the level of a soccer player or cross country runner.

Unlike other sports, wrestlers come in all shapes and sizes. There are fat wrestlers, skinny wrestlers, buff wrestlers, tall wrestlers, short wrestlers, graceful wrestlers, musclebound wrestlers, male and female wrestlers. Each wrestler develops a set of skills optimized to his or her unique body type and athletic advantages. This makes each match a new and exciting experience.

You'll never see a 103 pound football player or a 275 pound gymnast, but you'll see wrestlers in both weight classifications. Like boxing, wrestling makes a place for all sizes by pairing off wrestlers by weight categories. If you're in the mood for lightning quick action, watch some bouts below 125 pounds. If brute force combined with 500 pounds of combined competitor hitting the mat is your thing, watch the matches at 189 and above. The middle weights feature a combination of these traits.

Don't become too complacent with these generalizations though. There are super strength lightweights and lightning quick heavyweights out there just waiting to fool any careless opponents.

Surprises abound at wrestling matches. A wrestler dominated by his opponent and fatally behind on points pins his opponent in the last 5 seconds of the final round. A one-legged wrestler hops into the ring and wins a tough match. A wrestler uses Muhammad Ali style footwork to baffle his opponent, getting him to the mat with minimal contact. Anything can and does happen.

Wrestling tournaments involve many schools (often six), typically lasting from 10am until 5pm on a Saturday. Dual meets involve only two schools and can happen on a Friday night or a Saturday. Tournements  and meets happen in a high school's main gym, so come in comfortable clothes, and you might want to bring a seating pad.

There's an admission fee for spectators to tournements and meets. That fee is often five dollars. The money goes toward the schools' wrestling programs.