... on Wrestling and Humility
"Wrestlers--the humble warriors!"
Confidence from within is the name of the game in the mat sport. You'll find very few scholastic or collegiate wrestlers displaying the "We're No. 1" gesture, or publicly bragging about what they are going to do to their opponents. Note, the quiet "champions of the mats" do not find it necessary to tell you how good they are. They show you, and what more needs to be said? Furthermore, winners in wrestling have a very good reason for their lack of pompous actions or verbalizations. Now listen carefully.
The mat sport, for the most part, is an individual competition that stresses self-control. Moreover, it is an activity that involves countless hours of skill training, conditioning, running, and in some cases, weight watching. And still, after all these dedicated efforts, the participants occasionally or often (as is usually the plight of the neophytes) fall short of victory.
The champion wrestler has also experienced "losing" during the initial stages of his athletic career. Thus, he has learned to be less vocal nad more understanding of his adversaries' valiant performances in defeat. In essence, the old saying, "actions speak louder than words," is truly a reality in wrestling, and by no means a cliche.
Updated September 30, 1998