Wrestling Beast's blog

I love wrestling, but there are times when wrestling is not enough. At those times, I will gladly reach for some leather and put my hands inside it. However, I do not like getting punched in the face. Full contact boxing, or more importantly the migranes it induces, is not for me.

Nonetheless, I will not be denied some of the joys of boxing. I like to throw gloved punches as much as the next guy, so I will happily entertain body boxing. The only difference between body and full contact boxing to me is that the target area is restricted to below the neck and above the belt line. Full force blows can be thrown. Unlike full-force boxing, many more people are willing go go barefist. Matches can start gloved and work their way down to bare fist or grappling gloves.

Body boxing is more than just gut punching. Gut punching assumes that one guy takes while another gives, or they take turns giving and receiving. Body boxing blows get thrown whenever a boxer wants to throw them. There is strategy involved, such as where to aim, what kind of punches and combinations to throw and when to clinch.

Assuming reasonably sized (16oz or less) gloves, body boxing is more than just punching at gloves and arms. While the guard has a tendency to go lower than full contact boxing, even with gloves it is hard to protect everywhere at once. Even in body boxing, there is a risk of getting hit in the head, and if your opponent scrunches up, he might just get his head knocked halfway off. I must admit that it can get a little frustrating at times. On the other hand, it is not static and repetitive like a gut or pec punching contest.

Ultimately, body boxing is a contest of endurance. Since there aren't likely to be any one punch KOs or bloody noses to stop the contest, it often comes down to how long the opponents want it to last. Rounds can pace the fighters or they can go until one is dropped or quits. Knockdowns are quite possible from hard blows or exhaustion. It is as competitive as the guys doing it want it to me and requires more than just the ability to absorb punches.

In the body boxing matches I have had, not a whole lot of effort is wasted maneuvering to get the best shots. Excess blocking and other defense is generally scorned. There is a lot of clinching, pushing and shoving. involved. Body boxing works best when your opponent is fully prepared to receive your shots as well as give his best. Its great for people who love gut punching because that will be the most frequently targeted area. Lovers of hard, sweaty clinches will also find enjoyment in the sensations experienced during a body boxing match.

Tonight I had a match with my favorite opponent, and I will be posting some video of it in the next few days. For the video portion of it, I was wearing a light blue wrestling mask, as I had for the video of my previous match with him. I don't post videos of my uncovered face, so its either masks or spending endless time with a blur box in a video editor. I used to use his white mask, but the white mask has a foam lining that gets very hot. The blue mask uses thin material and does the job of hiding facial features just fine. It does expose the nose and eyes a bit more than the heavier masks, but I am satisfied with it. I do not feel like wearing this mask slows me down or restricts my field of vision like the heavier masks.

Tonight my friend also offered to try on a wrestling singlet he had. It was a 1XL, and I knew I would fit better into a 2XL. It gave a bit too much definition in some places. However, I managed to fit inside it and was able to box and wrestle in it. It did not make me sweat as though I was wearing a trash bag or poncho as I feared it would do. I think I will seriously consider using a singlet in my future matches.

There is no real contest between my opponent and me. Whether boxing or wrestling, he knows and accepts that he is going to receive a beating. He does not constantly harp on me to tone it down, doesn't give up despite the overwhelming odds, and makes me earn my submissions or knockdowns. A lot of other guys would call it quits long before he does. Occasionally, I have become a bit too aggressive. Once I took down an opponent with a freestyle slam and he went down hard. His shoulder was in such pain that he was unable to wrestle much for that day thereafter.

Back to tonight's match. When we "box", I pound on my opponent hard. He takes a lot of punishment. To be fair, I allow him to get his shots into my gut. At times I get a little too aggressive, so he reminds me that I'd better not try for a knockdown every time he backs away if I expect the match to last long. After he signals me that he has had just about enough standup, I remove the gloves and we throw some bare fist shots. In earlier matches I let him punch my gut with his bare fists without punching back, but tonight he knew that those days were over. Still, we traded body shots without complaint for a minute or two until he was done. The last few minutes were spent wrestling, my first time in the singlet. Despite the heat, I barely noticed the tightness of the garment.

I look forward to meeting just about any opponent, but there is one in particular whom I esteem above all others. It is not because he has mad MMA-inspired submission skills. Nor because he is so strong that his adversaries shrink from the act of him flexing. Instead, its his character I admire. Two years ago or so, he came very tentatively and somewhat later in life to our sport. When I met him for the first time some six months later, I soon realized I had met a man dedicated to wrestling. I wish I could be so dedicated.

He hosts in his basement and is honest with his family about what he does. He has his boundaries, discloses them and respect for them is implicit. When it comes to spaces, size doesn't matter, its what the wrestlers bring to it. Boy does he bring it on!

He has wrestled many, many people. Sometimes he will have two matches in a day and five matches in a week. When I get to his age, I'd love to have the staying power to have anywhere near that number. He wrestles practically all-comers, including many dudes I wouldn't touch. He takes chances on craigslist personals, and the quality of the opponents from that source is sketchy, to be kind. The number of contacts he has made during his comparatively short wrestling career is astounding. This is a guy that if you live in the New England area and haven't wrestled with him, you really, really should.

He learns from his repeat opponents. He knows what I like well and is happy to give me everything I want from a match. When I am with him, I can enjoy myself for hours. I give back but I don't feel compelled to do something simply because the other guy wants it.

As a wrestler, he is strong, has good stamina, a tolerance for pain and a mean headlock. He will make me work for a submission and he can punch hard. Yes, I kick his butt, but I never feel like I have allowed to dominate.

While I can list all his good qualities, the most important ones are that this person is a friendly, down-to-earth, genuine guy whom I can call friend. I can hang out with him and have a conversation on a subject other than wrestling, even if we are in our underwear. He is willing to bond and give of himself.

We are meeting again today and I can't wait to wrestle and embrace my special friend.

There are a few Wrestling Personals sites, and unfortunately this is not the largest site. By largest I mean the greatest number of active members. I would suggest that it is not as large as a certain site, which I will call "Site G", but larger than another site which I will label "Site B". Of course, people can hookup on craigslist and other places, but my rule is that if someone is not willing to at least post a profile on a wrestling personals site, they are probably not going to be a good match.

This site is the best organized of all three sites. Site B is a mess, and site G has a design and layout behind the times. It generally takes fewer clicks to do things. Uploading photos and videos is relatively easy. Descriptions can not only be as long as you like but you can also apply formatting to them. Not so with Site G.

This site has a clear sense of purpose. Site B is odd, it want to do everything with wrestling. Site G is mostly trying to peddle gay porn. This site's purpose is to make it as easy as possible for two or more people to meet and wrestle or box. It does have interest categories for people have interest in the erotic side.

This site does not always try to hit you up for money. To be fair, Site B does not either, but Site G wants to make it as inconvenient for you as possible to meet other guys without a paying membership. On this site, I can contact message any member and give as much detail as I want in my message. On Site G, unless you pay you can only send generic messages without any detail and hope you can meet someone in the chat room. If you do chat with someone and want to give them contact information using an email address, the system will try to censor it. "Gmail", "Yahoo" and "Hotmail" all get turned into *******. Of course it is absurdly easy to get by the censor, but still.

If I want to chat, I need not use the website engine. I can use any IRC chat program, and there are program available for just about any computing device that can display text. I don't need the site to be open. Site G requires you to use its cumbersome and decidedly mobile-unfriendly browser-based chat. Site B's chat room seems dead.

There are perks to being a donating member, and these perks are fair and reasonable. If I never gave this site a dollar, I would still find it just as useful for meeting wrestlers.

It is a sad fact of life that not all of us, in fact probably most of us, cannot host. The usual reasons include spouses, significant others, roommates, parents, children, lack of space or lack of privacy. This is an activity that requires privacy, you can't just go to a public park, playground, beach or gym and start fighting. Unless you can find some like-minded person who will give you access to space, the best solution is a hotel or motel room.

Back in the day, there was the no-tell motel. These cheap places would often be just off a highway and the amenities would be truly basic. In the cities, you could find less-than-reputable places that would rent by the hour. No one rents by the hour anymore and every motel and hotel checks for ID, if nothing else to guard against you trashing the room.

Rooms in the cheapest version of today's highway motels are small and not very convenient. All you can expect is a bed, a dresser, a nightstand and a tube TV. In some places, you may be walking sideways to get around the bed. Expect to have to dismantle the bed if you need space for your activity. Be careful of what you may find underneath it, those areas are not always cleaned. Bring some rubber gloves and watch out for sharps. Some places bolt the bedframe to the floor, so it is not worth it to remove the bed. Try for a king-size bed, because you will be wrestling on it.

Don't expect much from the el-cheapo-sleazo motel. You can have all sorts of extra "guests" in the room, mice, cockroaches, squirrels, and the worst of all, lice, ticks and bed bugs! Cleanliness is often surface deep, bring a black-light if you really want to see what goes on in your cheap room. The bathroom may be a pit. The toilet may be broken, the hot water may be off, and there may be mold on the sink.

In the Northeastern part of the United States, the cheaper motels may run you from $50-75. You should be splitting the cost with your opponent, but still expect to pay $40 and bring cash. Some areas may be cheaper, some more expensive. City places are the most expensive. Today, to have a good chance at avoiding most of these issues, be prepared to get a room in the three-figure range (and don't pay until you meet your opponent). Suites are nice because they offer more room to move around. A chain like Motel 6 or a Super 8 should be deemed the bare minimum, As a chain, they are supposed to have standards and trained personnel, so at least you have a decent chance of receiving attention if you make a reasonable complaint.

When you arrive, you should be prepared to meet your opponent outside and away from the entrance. Some places charge more for two people. One person should go in, get the room, go up to the room and make sure the key opens it, then invite the other person in via cell phone. If you were not planning to spend the evening, you may want to make an excuse to the desk clerk when you return your key only a few hours after checking in. Try not to make too much noise while you are wrestling, turn the TV on and up. You don't want a knock on the door from the manager, or worse yet, the police.