While part of this thread belongs in the BBQ thread, there is enough back story I thought it better not to pollute that thread. I have broken out three sections and, as a guide to the reader, identified each section in bold, so one can easily skip to the part that may be of interest.

Wrestling: For those that may not be familiar with the ins and outs of modern sport wrestling here is a snippet of relevant information. There are 3 main styles of wrestling: folkstyle, freestyle, and Greco-Roman. Folkstyle is mainly competed in high school and college. Freestyle and Greco-Roman are international, and are the styles wrestled in the Olympics. When I say folkstyle is for high school, I mean state tournaments and official high school athletic competitions are in this style. Younger athletes can, and do, wrestle the other styles, just not in a high school tournaments. Thus, most wrestlers that learn wrestling by joining a middle school or high school wrestling team, learn folkstyle. The difference between the styles are the rules, which then drive different techniques and approaches. For athletes hoping to compete in the Olympics, there are a series of tournaments they compete in to qualify for a slot. The highest level tournament in the US is called Final X, and was held this year in Newark, NJ the end of June. While all states have wrestling programs, in some states wrestling seems to be a bigger deal than in others. Pennsylvania is one of the big time wrestling states producing many champions, and having high participation in their wrestling programs. Of course, there are other states, but I mention PA because it is relevant for this post.

Parental bragging: My son, who is 15 and just completed his freshman year in HS, which also was his first year wrestling. He did have several years of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu training behind him, so grappling was not completely new. He made the varsity team immediately, and ended his season with a 9-13 record. To set the scale, most first time wrestlers often win only 1 or 2 matches at the JV level, many win no matches at all. At the varsity level, for a first year wrestler to win 9 matches, all by pin, BTW, is pretty darn good. Anyway, the head coach of my son's team (I am an assist. coach), is well connected with the wrestling community in PA, primarily in the Philadelphia area. Many wrestlers train throughout the off season, and summer is typically a time when wrestlers go to training camps and clinics to improve their skills and knowledge. At the beginning of the summer, Coach called me and asked if my son would like to attend a special opportunity in PA over the summer. He said it would be a really good training. Of course, we accepted. Coach also suggested we attend Final X, he said it would be a good experience.

I mean no insult to our members who live in NJ, but I really did not want to go to NJ. The things parents do for their kids. The family bought tickets, made reservations and drove to Newark. It wasn't as bad as I thought, we didn't get mugged, and there was some great food. Final X was fantastic. Even better, my son was invited to a wrestling clinic held in Philly where he was heading later in the summer. It was a PITA to tack that on to our trip, but we thought it would be good for us to meet the people and see the training gym ahead of his big trip. As I mentioned, I am helping coach the wrestlers, so I have been in a bunch of wrestling rooms, seen a bunch of clinics and training, including some I thought were really good. Holy crap, I was like a small town boy heading into the big city for the first time. These people are serious. The wrestlers were indescribably good, and the coaches unbelievably good. We left that training very comfortable with my son heading there for 2 weeks.

To say that it was "really good training," does not convey the magnitude of the experience. As it turns out, the training was hosted by a wrestling club that is invitation only. There are no public flyers or advertisements for the club, nor any list of coaches and staff. The training consisted of 1 week of training, a week off, and then a second week of training. The training was intense. Define tense, you say? They trained 9-11 hours every day. Some days, they would complete their day training, eat dinner, and then head across town to spend 5 hours wrestling against another club. I thought 4 hour wrestling sessions were long and intense - this was psychotic. The outside coaches were fabulous. At least one is a trainer at one of the US Olympic regional training centers; another one's name shows up on the Wikipedia page for "world champion freestyle wrestlers." I found out the reason there was a one week break between training was because most of the participants had to head to Fargo ND for the USMC 16U & Junior National championships. This is essentially the Final X for high school age wrestlers. Not only did they go to wrestle, 8 of them came back as gold medal champions. Several of them are heading off to wrestle in the world championships. Literally, my son got to train with Olympic coaches, and national champion wrestlers for 2 week! Now I know why it is invite only, and there is no public information about them. Even the names of the coaches are kept out of public. Even better, my son did well enough, he has been invited back, and another top wrestling club from another state has invited my son to come to their training camps, and he has an open invitation to train with them anytime.

The last bit of bragging to lead up to the BBQ. I hope I could convey, in some small measure, how fabulous this experience was. What did it cost? Five thousand dollars? Ten thousand dollars? No, my son was gifted the training absolutely free. They fed him, housed him, drove him around. For the intervening week between camps, one person drove him to visit his brother in Maryland. I tried to pay for food, gas, something. Nope, they wouldn't have it. So, now....

BBQ: When we dropped off my son with his host, we chatted a bit, and I came to find out he loves brisket. So, the bright idea hit me that, while they wouldn't take money from me, I could give them something they probably can't get there (at least easily). So, I smoked 3 briskets and 25lbs of chicken wings to give as gifts to the various people that were so kind to my son. Here are the pictures.

Trimmed and ready to cook:


The bottom rack:


All 3 briskets:


Ready to wrap:


Briskets done:


Chicken wings:


All the meat.

Absolutely outstanding! So glad to hear that he is doing well.

Your brisket is legendary, and is a truly worthy gift.

Congratulations to you, DrNatasha, and The Young Master.

quote:

Originally posted by ArtieS:

Congratulations to you, DrNatasha, and The Young Master.

Thanks, Artie.

What a great experience for both you and your son. May he continue to improve!

Came for the wrestling, stayed for the BBQ.

Congrats across the board, sounds like your son is quite the grappler. Wresting can teach you a lot about life, just be sure he wears his headgear...
What weight class is he competing in?

Food looks fantastic.

quote:

Originally posted by MikeGLI:

What weight class is he competing in?

Thanks for the kind words.

My son wrestled 132 this past year, but he has started to bulk up. We expect he will wrestle 150 this coming season.

BBQ : The wings and Brisket look Amazing!

Wrestling : 50 years ago / 50 lbs. ago I wrestled @ 155 in high school. I was a lousy wrestler. but was in the best physical condition of my life.
Best of luck to you and your son for the upcoming season!

This sounds like an amazing experience. Not to hijack but a little quip from my life.

I grew up in RI and my dad was from western PA. He and his brother were both all state wrestling champs in PA in the 60's. So when my brother wanted to wrestle in RI at our little private school, dad was all about it. We knew the coach who was a math teacher and he asked my dad if he knew some moves. Outside the classroom, this is in like October, the techer starts basically going through slow moves with my dad. Dad leaves a good impression and is asked to come to pre-season to help the kids.
So on a saturday dad takes me to watch and be a dummy and my older brother to wrestling pre-season.

We are in the wrestling room and there is my dad at 6'2 about 200lbs late 40's looking like something out of a rocky movie, bad sneakers some weird gray sweatsuit, and then he pulls out of his bag 2 rubber kitchen gloves, one yellow the other green.

All the kids are laughing at him. He squares up the biggest one, pins him in about 4 seconds. Asks who is the best on the team, this kiKelly speaks up, he is pinned in about 10 seconds. Kelley went on to be a state champ in RI.

It seems those PA guys are taught a brand of wrestling the other guys just don't know. I was the frequent dummy and that got old fast. He just did moves in a way to inflict pain and contortion and just snapped your soul, not just pin you.

Dad passed about 2 years ago and I miss him dearly, thanks for bringing this memory back up to me.

Congratulations to your son. That’s pretty fantastic to be competing at that level at his age. Good job being a good parent!

quote:

from another state has invited my son to come to their training camps, and he has an open invitation to train with them

Congratulations to both you and your son, he's at the beginning of a long journey if he sticks with it.

quote:

While all states have wrestling programs, in some states wrestling seems to be a bigger deal than in others. Pennsylvania is one of the big time wrestling states producing many champions, and having high participation in their wrestling programs.

At one time wrestling was MUCH more common, almost every school had a program, but certain states just seem to take it more seriously. Between the fact it's generally a non-revenue sport and Title IX, it's generally been on the decline for several decades, but it's a persistent and popular sport.

I'm amazed they have tried/are still trying to drop it from the Olympics.

That's some fine looking chicken and brisket too!