Participating in any high school sport can be a difficult road. Practice, keeping up grades, injuries, and conduct can be too demanding for many. Adding to these pressures is weight loss. Proper dieting and nutrition are very important aspects of training for all athletes. Wrestling, however, has taken a bad rap and sometimes rightly so. In the past more extreme measures have been taken. Athletes would lose weight through wearing rubber suits, or garbage bags, and before anorexia and bulimia became popular within Hollywood, high school wrestlers would purge themselves daily. Coaches were not at fault, wrestlers simply discovered a simple, quick way to drop weight. Another method, even more dangerous, was dehydration. Spitting, sweating, and drinking less water was a guarantee to lose weight.

Today it may be even more difficult to diet.  Many parents are both working, and with the increased availability of fast foods, home cooked meals are being replaced by pizza and prepared meals. Or some come home to have dinner waiting for them and to their parent’s dismay, choose not to eat.  A wrestler has it tough enough with practice, wrestle offs, and an opponent wanting them not to make weight. Dealing with food issues makes it that much harder.

So how is today different from past years and how can the same mistakes be prevented?  First, in the beginning of the season a weight certification is done.   This is regulated by the NYSPHAA.  The certification establishes the lowest allowed weight class for the season.  These tests are done by an Assessor.  In Section Three, Mike Letcher is a Wrestling Official and registered Weight Certification Assessor.

He says, “The biggest difference between now and twenty-five years ago is that we have a concrete medical formula that you must adhere to. The hydration test puts the wrestler on the right track and the seven percent body fat sets the standard for the wrestler.”

The first test is the hydration or urine test. This proves the proper amount of water is in the body, making sure no one starts off dehydrated. If they pass this, the Certifier continues by weighing the wrestler and then using a series of calipers that pinch the skin at certain points. It then places the figures into a computer and the mathematical minimum of body fat is established. For boys the figure is seven percent. For girls, it’s twelve percent. The coach and the school are given documents with the lowest allowable weight class they may compete in. Parents don’t freak out when your son weighed 175 and it says they may compete at 140. This is what they would weigh at the seven percent. Finally, a monitored weight loss drop will soon be established, and remember all wrestlers must weigh in at fifty percent of their final competitive weight class during the season. .

Thus, 145 with twenty weigh-ins, works out to ten times weighing in at that class. An example of a modern athlete with seven percent or less would be Lance Armstrong. Our wrestlers are not professional athletes. For them to achieve or strive for seven percent body fat, takes physical and mental effort

It is best in today’s training to use all resources available. Just about every school has an Athletic Trainer on staff. Take advantage of them. Terri Sherman, Athletic Trainer at Fayetteville-Manlius High School says, “We have taken courses and have continuing education in nutrition. Our door is always open to all athletes and can refer them to the proper channels if their need requires a nutritional specialist.”

The days of poor weight management are hopefully behind us. From athletes to coaches, people are now aware of the dangers of crash dieting. Today, thanks to science, education, and higher standards wrestlers can participate in a safe and healthy sport.

Remember, it’s not a game, Its wrestling