alpinisto's blog

After having had the successful hotel wrestle in February I soon updated my return to wrestling after my knee surgery in October and soon I had a good plan, in which I was to begin in Berlin in March and moving on to Bremen and Brussels in April. So that I in May could have a real wrestling holiday in London, where I could wrestle five different guys. But this good plan came to nought because I couldn't even begin the plan when the corona pandemic struck. And to add insult to injury my gym was now closed so that I neither could finish my rehabilitation after the surgery, nor do just a little bit of physical exercise, which the fight I had had in February showed me that my body was in need of.

Thus after the initial four months of rehabilitation I had another three months of non-activity because of the closed gyms. And as I still could not run, which previously had been my primary mean of workout, I had decided that I at least could do some long walks. Which certainly was better than nothing, but it clearly lacked the unexpected and surprising element, which is a vital part in wrestling. So I was happy when our gyms opened again on June 8th, and even more so when our borders opened to a small number of European countries (three) a week later. So now I could return to planning my return to wrestling.

Luckily Germany was one of the three countries we were allowed to travel to, but due to local restriction it wasn't practical to go to Berlin as I initially had planned. But I had another potential adversary in Frankfurt am Main, who luckily had planned his summer holiday a few weeks later, and as the airlines were beginning to fly again I pretty soon had booked a long weekend in Frankfurt.

Three guys I could wrestle in Frankfurt, and on Saturday it was planned that I could wrestle a big guy, which I had had three rounds with last year. He was from the area near Kassel and was looking for a revenge with me. But unfortunately he had a work accident while I was on my way down to Frankfurt, so respectably he sent me a message about what had happened and that he now was unable to wrestle. The other guy I was to wrestle in Frankfurt was a local guy, who previously had challenged me for a match, and him I should wrestle on Sunday. But even before I had arrived in Frankfurt he stopped replying to my messages, so I never heard from him. Thus a veritable no-show and thus he was the first guy I had put an abuse flag for, as he had plenty of possibility to tell me if he couldn't wrestle.

The third guy, Gerd Uwe, aka HardfightFfm, was not any of that kind. Some time earlier he had taken over one of my leotards, which had been too small for me and I was not only happy that he could make good use of my leotard now I was too big for it, but also I was happy that I now could wrestle him. Also he had offered me that I could stay the night with him and I could make use of his mats while I was there - though the two other potential wrestling opponents never showed up. But Gerd Uwe was here and I was happy that I finally could wrestle him.

Gerd Uwe was a lightweight guy, and given our weight difference I knew that I should not make too much use of my weight advantage, which is what I usually don't do when wrestling much lighter opponents. On the other hand I had not been wrestling for close to half a year and also had not had much workout in the same time because of the pandemic, but I expected that it would be about the same for Gerd Uwe. Though I could not cover the fact that I weighed about a half time more than him, so when I wanted to move he could hardly stop me from doing so, even though his body was built of strong bones and with muscles as steel.

I could have squashed him if I wanted, but I didn't feel like putting my full weight on him, as this would be unfair to do, so I had quite some fun in letting him put me in some hold and then try to break free from them, which mostly was successful. After all this could give me the muscular workout I had lacked for too many months.

We rolled around for quite some time and it felt good being back in wrestling again, even if I still was unable to run in a decent way. In was good that I had tried wrestling again, even though the doctors had told me that I should not expect to wrestle until three months after I had picked up running again. Towards the end I decided to put him in a good solid bearhug, and I wondered if I could make his bones creak like I had experienced it in the old days. But this was unsuccessful, as there was not a sound to be heard. Obviously I had not so much strength in my body as I had had in the old days, so this I would have to change when I was back home in the gym again.

I wondered if this match could become a return to my old routine of wrestling every month, though this probably was out of my control as the virus was still among us, and in other places and countries spreading faster than it had done before. Personally I had not been affected by the virus, even though thousands of people had died from it and millions had been infected. So I think I've done best in only traveling to the countries where our health authorities do not advice against traveling, and at the moment this meant that London and Great Britain was still out of bound. But Belgium was now open, so maybe Brussels could be the place for my next wrestling match if our health authorities still do not advice against traveling there.