He's a pain in the neck

UPDATED WITH PHOTOS

I mean he had a pain in his neck. So the wrestling coach called the wife at about 4:15 on Friday afternoon. He said my oldest had hit his head and couldn't wrestle until he was cleared by a doctor.

My wife went to pick him up, and took him over to the doctor. Once there, it was clear he had a concussion. He had slow responses to questions, but then he said he had a pain in his neck. The doctor immediately put a brace on his neck, and wouldn't let him move.

They called an ambulance to transport him to a nearby hospital for images of his neck. This is about when I got there. I barely beat the ambulance there. I waited for the in-laws to show up and take my youngest. Then I was off to the hospital.

I got to the hospital before they had the oldest off of the backboard. He was complaining that his back hurt, mainly because he had spent half an hour strapped to a board. He was responding well to everything, except his blood sugar was a bit low. He hadn't eaten lunch, he thought the enchiladas were nasty. I secretly think he is trying to drop to a lower weight-class.



This is when I finally learned what happened to him, from the horses mouth, so to speak. The varsity wrestler at his weight-class had gotten a double (where his arms are wrapped around both of my son's legs.) He was picking him up to take him to the mat, and fell himself. The other wrestler hit the mat, and my son hit his head.



We spent a few hours in the hospital, had x-rays and spoke to people. The oldest even took part in a study on concussions and sports. One of the x-ray technicians made a comment about having done something very similar himself, and I believe one of the EMT's did too.



Long story short, everything checked out. They pronounced him having a case of whiplash, and a concussion. He has to be checked out by his primary care physician at the end of this week, and has to wear a neck brace until then. He gets to wear it while sleeping, and even while bathing. It was fun to get a tie on him for church yesterday.

He seems to be doing great, and isn't experiencing any pain (except in his teeth because the brace forces his jaw together at night.)



In better news, the oldest daughter got her cast off on Friday. I'll come back in an update this post with some photos when I have time.

Wrestling Night Two

We had wrestling practice night two. It was a good time. We started with a game of knee tag, you just have to touch your partner's knee, then they're it. The kid my son had practiced with wasn't there yet, he has football before wrestling, so my son got with another kid his size. It turns out the new training partner has been wrestling for 10 years. I could tell that my son was a bit nervous when they started playing knee tag, this kid was good.

We started the actual practice with a review of the things we had learned the night before. My son did okay, but it was great because this new partner took the time to explain everything to him, and exactly why the little things were important. The picture above is my son practicing his sprawl. The kid must of thought that my son was okay, he would let him try the moves a couple of times with no pressure, then started actually wrestling him.

We finally started some new moves. First we started with talking about the referee positions. This took all of two minutes. Basically the lower position is kneeling on top of your feet, with both hands on the ground. It is a very solid position to be in. To get in the upper position, you walk up behind your opponent, and place one foot perpendicular to his feet (one of the coaches said you could actually stand on their feet.) You kneel with your other leg to the side of your opponents body, and on that side you hold his elbow with your hand. The other hand is wrapped around, and placed on your opponents waist. You then lay your head down on his back.

We then moved onto our first escape from the lower referee position, the sit out. This looks complicated, but it's not to bad. First you kick your feet out from under you. At the same time, you bend your elbow that is being held, and grab the had around your waist with your other hand. Now the trickery. You throw your knee across your body as far as you can, toward the elbow that is being held. You roll on your shoulder and knee, then to your other knee and throw your trailing hand between you and your opponent to make sure they don't follow you. You'll have to watch the video if you haven't wrestled.

My son's new partner patiently walked him through it, although it only took a few times. By this time, his former partner has showed up, and doesn't have anybody to work with, so my son and his training partner started taking turns. This kid was great, very patient and smart. After a little while, one of the high school wrestlers showed up, and helped with the other kid. My son was very proud that the experienced kid let him do it a few times, then focused on the other kid as he was having trouble picturing it.

I went and helped a few other kids, one who had played on our soccer team for a few years. I would listen to my son's training partner for the little tips, and pass them on. It was fun, because I had to actually show the kids how to do the move, then let them try it on me. Then they would try it on each other.

Next we moved to a simple move to hold your opponent down if you are in the upper position. I don't know the name of it, but you switch the hand on the elbow onto your opponents waist. The hand already on the waist grabs your opponents ankle, and pulls. You lean into your opponent, and drive with your feet until he is flat on his stomach.

This led to the first pin technique, the arm bar. Although the way we learned it was slightly different. Once you get on your opponents back, you thread an arm over the top of your opponents arm, then drag it back and put your hand on his back. It looks like your opponent has a chicken wing. On the other side, you slide your hand under their arm, and grab their wrist. You then swing your hips over to the side, and walk towards your opponents head. This twists them around, and flips them. In the video above the coach lets go of the under hook, but we were taught to hold on, and sit by there head. This results in them being halfway through a somersault. Their shoulders are pinned. Again, my son ran through it a couple of times, then they focused on his partner. When the coaches asked if someone would demonstrate what they had learned, the experienced guy told my son to volunteer. He did a great job.

This practice went so fast, it was great. As I was getting my shoes back on, my son's original training partner was close to me getting his stuff. His dad walked in, and asked him which coach had been helping him the night before, and he pointed to me. His dad introduced himself to me, and told me how much his son had enjoyed working with me, because he had been a bit nervous about starting out. I felt pretty good about that.

My son seems to really be enjoying this, and I think he'll do well.

Wrestling

So the oldest started wrestling last night. He has not wrestled in the past, so this is a first. I'm pretty sure that his desire to wrestle goes back to his karate days. When he was in karate, we would watch some UFC together. I mentioned that the heavy-weight champion got his start by being a wrestler in college. He asked if it would make him a better martial artist, and I told him yes.

We showed up, and it's not the school season yet just a camp. His coaches had asked some of the parents to help, so I'm there even though I have virtually no experience.

The oldest looked pretty lonely for a few minutes, but during the warm-up run he saw one of the kids from our neighborhood who is a little younger than he is. We started off just practicing their stance. He has never been really good at being in a "ready" stance from soccer, and his wrestling stance is still too upright, but he is getting the idea.

They then moved on to the single-leg shot/take down. Basically you try to grab one of your opponents legs, then lift it up and trip them. We worked on this in two sections, the setup, and then the take down. The two kids I was helping, my oldest and another seventh grader, both latched onto the wrong part of the setup. Our coach likes to put his hand behind his opponents neck, and use that to pull him off balance to help get the leg. My two boys thought that was the most important, and spent five minutes trying to grab each others head. Once they did, they just danced around in a circle. I actually had to ask them if we were dancing or wrestling, mainly because that sounds like something a coach would say. I had to explain that this part didn't matter, and you needed to stay down. The key was to get the leg.

We then moved onto the important defensive move, the sprawl. Basically, when someone is trying to get your leg, you jump backwards with your feet, and put all of your weight on their back/head. Watch the video above for a good example of this. I picked up a few more kids at this time, and most of them got it. My oldest and his partner both wanted to wait until their opponent had their leg before they sprawled, I'm still working on getting them to do it early. After practicing each move, the coach would ask for volunteers to demonstrate what they had learned. My oldest volunteered, even though his partner didn't want to. My son shot the leg, and got it. His partner tried to sprawl, and kick his leg free. My son wouldn't let go, and ended up rolling the kid over onto his back. The coach laughed and told him that he had a super strong grip, which made him proud.

We then moved onto the finishing move for the sprawl. This is the famous half nelson. When you sprawl, you put a move called the whizzer on your opponent. This basically means that you put your arm over your opponent's shoulder, then move it under their armpit, then put your hand on the back of their head. Sounds complicated but it really isn't. You put your other hand on the back of their head, then grab that wrist with the arm that is in the whizzer. You then move your body away from their extended arm, and it rolls your opponent over onto their back for a point. I let the boys do this on me for practice, and my oldest could actually roll me. I was impressed.

The coach had everyone line up by height, and separate into groups of three. They then wrestled until someone had a take down. At that point, the winner would start wrestling the other person. Winner stands. My two boys where up against a ninth grader who has been wrestling. They got worked. My oldest held his own, he was stronger than the ninth grader, but that kid was fast and experienced. Finally he got my son's arm, and my son panicked. He stood straight up, and pulled to free his hand. When he let off pressure, the ninth grader threw him to the ground onto his shoulder, and it hurt. My son teared up, but recovered. After this game was over, they moved onto a game of knee tag. There was only two grouped together, and they just had to shoot the leg, and touch the knee, then the other person was it. This is meant to help them learn to sprawl and shoot a leg. This progressed to ankle tag, same game, you just had to touch the ankle.

We finished off with some ladder runs. As we went to the car, my son kept telling me his shoulders hurt, and he was exhausted. He actually said, "That was harder than I thought it'd be." I think he enjoyed it, and I think he'll be good at it. We'll see how tonight's practice goes.

A Tale of Two Games

It was the best of games, it was the worst of games, it was the game of hustle, it was the game of slothfulness, it was the game of hope, it was the game of despair.

Please allow me a little poetic license as I paraphrase Dickens, but we had two soccer games this past weekend, and they could not have been more different.

Friday night we played the best team in the league. Our team was ready. We went out and won every loose ball, played the long ball up to space (not just booming it over the top, but where our strikers could reach it), and dominated. We scored the first couple of goals. It was fabulous and a joy to watch. We ended up loosing, but it was close, and this was the best game we had ever played.

Saturday we played one of the worst teams in the league. We went out and didn't show a lot of hustle. We didn't win any loose balls, in fact we pulled up on our 50/50 challenges and just let them take the ball. They were big kids, and I think that psyched our team out. We lost this game, and it wasn't even fun to watch.

Well, there was one point where one of our teams players was in line to see that off sides wasn't called. The person who was the center referee was supposed to be an assistant, but the center referee didn't show up on time. This parent, who is way more knowledgeable about soccer than any of our coaching staff, yelled out to ask why it wasn't off side. The ref, who was a teenage girl wearing "John Stockton" style shorts, just turned and started screaming at the top of her lungs that the linesman should call off sides. He replied that he was inline, and that the assistant was out of position and didn't make the call. Then the ref screamed, "SHUT UP!!!!! LET ME REFEREE!!!!!" That was kind of funny.

All in all, the kids are doing much better. We have one final regular season game, and then a tournament in a week. We'll see how they go.