Wrestling is known as mans oldest sport based on the 15,000 year old cave paintings found in Lascaux, France.But here in the US, it seems that the older the man (or woman) the harder it is to find a wrestling clubs for adults. Thanks to MMA events, wrestlers have been able to show how valuable their skill set is in an actual fight. There are few combat sports that can match wrestling when it comes to controlling the range of any fight. The ability to stay on your feet is critical to self defense and the ability to take someone off of their feet and restrain them, without breaking their bones, is important to law enforcement as well. The problem is there are not a lot of adult wrestling clubs available, so how do you to learn to wrestle after high school?
Depending on your personal motivation for learning wrestling as an adult, there are a few paths you can take. I know from experience, because I did not learn how to wrestle until after I graduated high school myself. While my situation may have been slightly different, I don’t see why you can’t try the same thing. All of these solutions I am presenting I have done myself. That being the case, I will mention the pro’s and con’s of each solution. But, if you want to learn wrestling, the first thing you need to learn is persistence and a “can do” attitude. Quitting is not allowed and you always look for a solution to your current problem.
Option One: Practice Wrestling at Home
This is the way that I started originally. I did have an advantage though, my younger brother, had just had his first season on the wrestling team. While he did not have much knowledge or training as a JV wrestler, he had some experience facing resisting opponents. Still, this is how I got my start. I just had graduated high school at the age of 17 but was still living at home. My brother, a sophomore, was wanting to get some additional experience and training but his school did not have a wrestling club.
What we did is use an old mattress, stuck it in the back “sunroom” or “Florida room” and we used to practice. You’re probably wondering how we worked on wrestling moves and holds without a coach at this point. We went down to the local library and checked out their only book on wrestling. The title was simply, “Wrestling” and it was written by E.C. Gallagher in 1939.The book had plenty of wrestling holds and moves from any position and it gave a couple of newbies the chance to work on things at home.
Pros of Practicing Wrestling at Home
The advantage of home wrestling training is convenience. You can practice any time, day or night, as long as you are in the mood. You also can work on whatever you like, without a coach directing what the current techniques of the day are. If you have the internet and an Amazon account, you will have access to excellent resources that are put together but top notch competitors and coaches. A VHS series we got a year later was made by Carl Adams, who was a very successful wrestler and a head wrestling coach at Boston University.
I can honestly say that there was measurable improvement in my brothers wrestling between his sophomore and junior year. The proof came when it was time for wrestle offs when he defeated two more experienced wrestlers to earn his starting spot. Further proof of his progress was that he went from a JV wrestler one season, to a varsity wrestler on a 14-2 team. He also notched around 20 individual wins of his own that year.
I learned also, even without the day to day grind of being on the wrestling team. The reason I know that is that because I was just 17 when I graduated, I was still eligible to compete in the “Junior” division at off season tournaments. Of course I took my lumps, but I gave a few out as well. Where there is a will, there is a way.
Cons of Learning to Wrestle at Home
The most glaring problem with home training is that you need another body available to get the most out of it. It is also preferable to have someone around that has at least a little grappling under their belt too. Without an actual live body to wrestle you are stuck with other options like a grappling dummy. The problem with grappling dummies is that they are meant to supplement the training you are already doing. What I like about wrestling is that you are pressure tested. You find out pretty quickly in live situations what works for you and what does not. Live partners are necessary to get that pressure testing you need.
The other problem with home wrestling training is the wrestling area itself. In my situation an old mattress did not give us the surface or the room to work on common wrestling takedowns. We were stuck with upper body takedowns, which don’t really require a ton of room, and ground wrestling. We could also work situational counters to common attacks. But this meant already putting ourselves in the takedown position without having worked on setups or motion. For example, one of us would start by holding on to one leg, then we would try to defend or finish from that position.
Even if you have the room and money to get a wrestling mat, make sure it is big enough to work takedowns. When my son wrestled, I purchased a 10×10 wrestling mat and even that was too small to work takedowns. By the way, we still have it today more than 10 years later. You can check out our garage gym here.
Option Two: Join a Wrestling Club
My situation is probably different than most. As I mentioned, my brother was on the wrestling team and even though I graduated I still could show up at practice. The two years he was a starter on the team, I probably attended 50-75% of his practices. Since I was there already, I practiced too. That made it pretty easy for me to learn to wrestle after high school.
Pros of Joining a Wrestling Club
This should be obvious, but at an actual club or team practice you have coaching and live competition. This is where you make the most progress in your development as a wrestler. You learn how to properly execute wrestling techniques, you learn setups for the holds and takedowns and you get to try it on various people. Nothing increases your learning curve like actually trying your techniques against a resisting opponent. This experience shows you where you are strong, where you are weak and how you do versus different body types and styles.
Another advantage of joining a wresting club is that they are usually pretty cheap. Many times these practices are held at rec centers or off campus and the club charges just enough to keep the lights on. For the most part, these coaches have full time jobs as teachers so they aren’t necessarily trying to feed their families doing this. A small monthly fee, a USA wrestling card and potentially a background check, if you are training with a local high school team is all you will need to pay. Also, some colleges offer a club wrestling program. If you are a student of that college you are probably going to be allowed to train with the team.
Finally, as part of a wrestling club you can compete in tournaments that have “open” divisions. These clubs often either host or travel to local and regional tournaments with their wrestlers. All you have to do is find out if the tournament has an open division and you are set.
Cons of Joining a Wrestling Club
The biggest problem of joining a wrestling club is finding a club that will let you join. These are not like martial arts schools where you just pay a fee and you are in. For the most part, they are set up to give other scholastic wrestlers a chance to wrestle during the off season. There are few “adult wrestling clubs” around, but they do exist. You will have to contact local wrestling clubs to ask if they accept adults and mind if you learn to wrestle. Most coaches would not mind an ex-wrestler dropping by, especially a good one. But that is not your situation.
Another problem with wrestling clubs is that availability may limited. There are some states that limit or ban club practices for scholastic wrestlers while the season is going on. This means that during the season, coaches are not really motivated or allowed to run a wrestling club. Even is states where these clubs are allowed, you may find participation limited. Remember, most of these wrestlers are kids and they are already practicing or competing 5 days a week or more. They may not be anxious to show up to yet another practice after the first one.
Speaking of availability, the teams have actual wrestling competitions to attend. There will not be any practice on those days, so that means your training opportunities diminish. In short, your wrestling training will be seasonal for the most part. In season it may be rare, off season you should have more opportunities.
Option Three: Join a Martial Arts School
As I got older, I attended the high school practices less and less. I had two other younger brothers that wrestled for the same team, so I still would pop in. But after the last one graduated I stopped going all together, The good news is, by this time a little thing called the Ultimate Fighting Championship happened! This new sport really shined a spotlight on grappling and before you know it Brazilians started moving to the US to teach Jiu Jitsu.
At the time I got involved there were still no mixed martial arts schools and no dedicated BJJ clubs either. So, I had to make phone calls. Remember, I said wrestlers are persistent earlier! Believe it or not it was a ninjitsu school in Tampa that gave me a name and phone number. It was the name of a Brazilian guy that was attending USF in Saint Petersburg, Florida.This Brazilian, was training people out of his garage when he was not in school. I did not know it at the time, but Sergio Monteiro was the coach who first introduced Pat Miletich to Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. This garage gym had a small but loyal group of guys that would show up and practice. I probably was one of the few that wasn’t a competitive fighter.
Things have come a long way since then and now you can find instruction in just about every city in the USA.
Pros of Joining a Martial Arts School
Joining a martial arts school is easy. Show up and pay the money and you are in. They also will be open on regular times and regular days, so no schedule conflicts. There will be live partners around with various skills and body types to work against. You will also usually get high level instruction if you join the right school.
Many of these schools bring in guest instructors that actually compete to run seminars and teach you things that you might not already be taught.This is a nice feature because coaches tend to have certain styles they prefer to teach and getting a different perspective really helps your game.
Cons of Joining a Martial Arts School
Some schools have contracts and some do not, so you have to be ready for that. Also, some schools charge a pretty penny to train, so it might become a budget issue. On top of that, you are really not learning wrestling in the context of wrestling as a sport of its own. You are learning wrestling moves as they apply to another sport. Or you are actually learning a different sport all together that you can apply to wrestling.
This is not necessarily a bad thing, but it is something to think about depending on what your motivation is for learning to wrestle after high school.
How to Learn to Wrestle After High School: Martial Arts Suggestions
I wanted o add this portion in so you make the right decision if you go this route. The following school types is what I suggest, keep in mind that some are readily available and some are rare.
My choices are Judo, Sambo and Mixed Martial Arts classes to help you learn wrestling.
Judo and Sambo will probably work on takedowns and groundwork in every class. Both styles can also win a match by a pin. On the other hand, a clean throw also ends the match in those styles, which is different from wrestling. Another difference is that these styles have joint locks and chokes, which makes it even more different from actual wrestling.
MMA classes may or may not have grappling at all in certain classes. But, they usually offer a grappling class or two every day. The focus of the grappling might vary however. For example, if you are doing a pure Jiu Jitsu class, there is a chance you do not work on your feet at all that day.The flip side of that is that most MMA gyms have some pretty tough and experienced grapplers in them that will definitely test your skills.
None of these options is pure Freestyle, Folkstyle or Greco Roman wrestling but there is plenty of crossover.Of course, if your only intention is to learn wrestling as an adult then your best bet is to find an adult wrestling club near you. If that is not an option, try to contact local clubs to get some work in.
Learning to Wrestle After High School is Worth It
Like I said in the beginning, wrestlers do not quit and they always look for a way. I never held a title and I never will, but I can say that I did everything I could to learn wrestling as an adult and improve. Also, my different experiences created an appreciation for all grappling styles. I came to enjoy Judo, Jiu Jitsu and MMA just as much as wrestling over time. It also became much easier to find places to train by opening my mind to other systems.
My wrestling training began at home. Using a book written in 1939. On an old mattress in our sunroom. What’s your excuse?
