arizona state sun devil anthony robles just won the ncaa national wrestling championship in the 125 pound weight class. it's a huge story right now because he was born with only one leg. i think my mom might read this and get irritated, so i want to preemptively say that i am not discrediting his accomplishment, or making any judgments about what he may have had to overcome. but from a strictly wrestling standpoint, i'm fairly certain he has a competitive advantage. you could argue that his opponents might have a harder time grabbing hold of him, or that he might have a disproportionate amount of upper body strength and weight for someone who stands 5'8" and weighs only 125 pounds. but no, i'm just going to go with simple logic and probability. out of every wrestler in the country, if there is no one else like him, and he is the best, it just stands to reason that what makes him different plays a role in what makes him better. i know this is inexact, but here's the best analogy i can come up with: if every driver in a race drove the same car, except for the champion who drove another, wouldn't we obviously credit the car?
Monday, March 21, 2011
my take on the one legged wrestler
arizona state sun devil anthony robles just won the ncaa national wrestling championship in the 125 pound weight class. it's a huge story right now because he was born with only one leg. i think my mom might read this and get irritated, so i want to preemptively say that i am not discrediting his accomplishment, or making any judgments about what he may have had to overcome. but from a strictly wrestling standpoint, i'm fairly certain he has a competitive advantage. you could argue that his opponents might have a harder time grabbing hold of him, or that he might have a disproportionate amount of upper body strength and weight for someone who stands 5'8" and weighs only 125 pounds. but no, i'm just going to go with simple logic and probability. out of every wrestler in the country, if there is no one else like him, and he is the best, it just stands to reason that what makes him different plays a role in what makes him better. i know this is inexact, but here's the best analogy i can come up with: if every driver in a race drove the same car, except for the champion who drove another, wouldn't we obviously credit the car?
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I follow your logic, just to taking a different argument on it...
ReplyDeleteWrestling is obviously a sport where mental toughness is paramount. If you had any wrestler friends in HS and College you'd know that those guys really do work the hardest in practice day in and day out compared to other sports.
That said, I believe being born with such a condition very well could breed a tremendous amount of mental toughness in day to day life. I think that this aspect of his condition might be an even more of a reason for his success than just the physical portion of it.
Just my two sense
HWB