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.

Sexual Harassment and Wrestling Practice

How's that for a headline? By the way, they aren't related events.

Yesterday our youngest was sick, he still is. He is kind of croupy, and didn't sleep well. This means that when I finally got out of bed I was tired, I hadn't gone to the gym in an attempt to get more sleep, and I had a slight headache.

As the day progressed, I had to go to our bi-yearly sexual harassment training. We have the head of the U of U's Office of Equal Opportunity come in, and she's an ex-detective. She is fairly entertaining, but not nearly as entertaining as sitting by my colleagues from UHEAA. Now the entire training goes over more than just sexual harassment, we also discuss the American with Disabilities Act. At one point the presenter mentioned that there is some Supreme Court case law that would suggest that erectile dysfunction could be considered a disability. At which point someone piped up with, "What kind of job does he do for the University?" That got a good laugh. Needless to say, the rest of the day was spent thinking about ways that we could be better at sexually harassing people.

I got a new computer at work, which is great. I got a computer with an Intel i7 3.4 GHz processor, 8 GB of RAM, and a graphics card with 512 MB of DDR3 dedicated RAM. This replaces my old Pentium 4 processor that sounded like a prop plane taking off every time I did anything. Sometimes just navigating to a new webpage would put such a strain on the system it would shut down. I was also updated to Windows 7 64 bit Enterprise edition. I like Windows 7.

By the time I got home, I had a headache. My wife commented to me that our mood-swings are offset. When she's in a good mood, I feel down. When I'm happy, she isn't. This proved prophetic. I took some medicine and helped make dinner (I put rice in the rice cooker.) I started to feel better, then my wife was made aware that one of our children had forgotten her homework at school, and another had left somewhere without telling anyone. She got upset. Weird.

I had to take the oldest to wrestling practice. It sounds weird, but there really isn't anything more manly than wrestling practice. On one hand, you have a bunch of guys basically hugging, and getting all sweaty. Doesn't sound to manly. On the other hand, these guys are trying to rip each other's heads off, and laughing about it. Very manly.

When we show up, the younger kids (K-4) are still practicing. I think there are roughly 8,000 of them in the Bountiful High Wrestling Room. At least that is how it sounds. I think that nuclear physicists should come study young child wrestling practice to get some ideas on how nuclear fission might work.

After the younger kids left, we started the boys running around the room to warm up. They did their stretching. Then we started on double-leg takedowns. This is a pretty easy technique, but one of the best. Basically you pull against your opponent, whether their arms, or shoulders, and when they try to back away you drop to your knees, drive your head to the side of your opponents side, and wrap your arms around both of their legs. Then you just drive with your legs, and take them to the ground. It is very much like a football tackle. We practiced singles and doubles for a while. When the coach tried to get the kids to gather up, my oldest and his training partner where in the middle of double-leg takedowns, and finished before running back in. Because they took so long, the kids had to do push-ups. My oldest looks horrible doing push-ups. His hands are way above his head, and it makes it too hard to do it from his feat, so he ends up on his knees with his but way up in the air.

Now we moved on to a request from one of the wrestlers, the Fireman's Throw. This is fun, because you shoot the leg, kind of like a single-leg takedown, but keep holding on to one of your opponent's arms. You then hook your other arm through their legs, sit on your feet, and throw your opponent to the side. Watch the video above, it's short, and a good throw. This one kind of confused many of the team.

It's fun to walk around and put different moves on the kids to show them how they work. My oldest was having a hard time throwing his training partner, who outweighs him by about 10 pounds, and is very good at defensive moves. So he adapted, and rolled him off of his head to get on top of him. The coach later showed them this as an alternative.

After this, we moved on to the Cross Face Cradle. This is pretty simple, but some of the boys had some problems. You lay your opponent out, and straighten their arm out. You then take your opposite hand, and put it across your opponents face and grab the arm you straightened out. You then basically pick their head up with the arm under their face (this doesn't feel great.) You bend them backwards until you can hook your other arm under their knee, and then grab the wrist that is under their face. Basically their head is touching their knee. This makes it easy to roll them onto their back for a pin.

We then practiced some counters to the Cross Face Cradle. One of which was when they had you on your back. Basically you would work your elbow free, and push against your opponents face with your elbow. You then put both of your hands on the knee in the cradle, and push to break their grip. Then you can escape. My oldest would get pushed in the cradle, and could just stretch his body out without having to use the technique. I had to explain that at sometime he would wrestle against someone who was stronger than himself, or had better technique, so he needed to learn it. His opponent on the other hand, usually couldn't get his elbow free because my son's grip was too tight. I think he has a natural talent for this.

We then had some actual wrestling. We did a minute of upright, then a minute with one kid starting on the bottom, a minute with the other kid starting on the bottom, then one more minute of upright. My oldest handled himself pretty well. He actually used a Fireman's Throw, and a Cross Face Cradle. By the last minute the other kid was wiped out, and just tried to run away from my son. This gave him an ideal time to use his Double-Leg takedown. It was cool to see him use the things he had just learned, and use them effectively.

We finished with a game of Sharks and Minnows, this is actual video from the game. For my family, this game will be familiar from the pool. The coach had everyone line up against the wall. He had them hold their hand above their heads, and hold up any number of fingers, as long as it was between 1 and 4. (Editorial comment: I'm not sure why I said the last sentence that way, but it seemed funny. Upon reflection it just seems kind of weird, but I still grin when I read it, so I'm leaving it.) He choose one group of kids, and they came out with him. They were the sharks. Everyone has to stay on their knees, and the goal for the minnows is to get by the sharks without them rolling them onto their backs. (When you play in the pool, the sharks have to touch the minnows when part of their body is above water.) This is pretty fun to watch, and is chaos.

My boy had a good time, even though he did complain about maybe bruising a rib or two, and having sore arms. His first statement was, "I'm going to go home, take an ibuprofen, take a shower, and go to bed." He then added, "Maybe I'll take my ibuprofen with the Dr. Pepper I bought earlier, then go to bed." I had to explain why drinking caffeine right before bed, especially for someone who rarely has it, was not a good idea. He then wanted to drink it for breakfast.

Oh to be young and dumb again.

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.