You Get What You Earn
“Up up up you got it push push!!!” Roy yells. I get the bar up and rerack it. “Ahhhh,” I exclaim in joy. I finally hit a new PR. It took 2 whole weeks to hit that 245- pound bench from my previous max of 235 pounds. Roy and I high five and leave the gym.
It’s August first, and it’s the off season. Wrestling doesn’t start for another 4 months. School doesn’t start for another month either. Everyone out there is sitting on their butts playing video games and eating candy and drinking pop. Except for me, I have aspirations. Big ones at that. I am going to compete at the state tournament and win the tournament, but I’m not just going to win. I’m going to dominate. So while everyone is being lazy, I’m going to be putting in work. Until nothing can stop me on that mat. Except myself when I feel like it.
I plan to work my tail off all the way up till wrestling season. Lifting weights five days a week and cardio twice a week. Also six days a week since I know the coach I will be going to college wrestling practices at the local college. I won't have much time for much but my preparation and training for wrestling, but that's ok because once I win that title of state champion, it’ll be all worth it.
It’s August second, a Friday, and it’s five in the morning. Right about this time most people are sleeping, but not me. I’m on the way to the gym to get in some cardio. I don’t really care for cardio, and I don’t have anybody to do it with, but I have to do it. When I make it to the gym, I drop off all my stuff in the locker room except for a sweatshirt, a bottle of water, and my IPod(for music of course) which is absolutely indispensable. Then I walk to the treadmills. I get on the one on the end and set it to a jog. I jog for about fifteen minutes and then I stretch. After I stretch it’s time to get serious. I get back on the treadmill and set it so I can sprint for thirty seconds, and jog for thirty seconds for an allotted time of thirty minutes. I haven’t done any serious cardio since last wrestling season. I’m still very strong, but I’m kind of out of wrestling shape. For the first five or so minutes I’m confident that I’ll make it through this, but at about seven minutes I start to realize that it’s going to be a long half an hour. At the end of the thirty minutes I am swimming in sweat and my legs are like jelly. The only thing I can think of is water. As I’m walking to the water fountain a guy comes over to me. He looks about my age, around 16-17 years old.
“Hello my name is Roy,” he says.
“Hi i’m Allan,.” I say, wondering why this guy just came up and started talking to me for no reason, But I am too tired to really care.
“Do you wrestle,.” Roy asks with curiosity.
“Yeah I do how’d you know,?” I ask surprised that he could guess that without knowing me.
“I figured that since you’re running in a sweatshirt and it’s like 90 degrees outside, and nobody but a wrestler would have a sweatshirt out let alone one with them at the gym,”  Roy says.
I’m pretty surprised that he would be able to make that inference from just a sweatshirt. I figured he must wrestle too. So I ask with curiosity, “So do you wrestle as well.”
“Yeah,” Roy exclaims.
Since I was at the gym alone, and I had no one to work out with I ask Roy, “Hey you want to work out together,.” he says yeah. As we get into the workout we start to talk, and turns out Roy has the same goals as me. We’re both the same age, 16, and were both sophomores in high school. After we get done with the workout Roy and I swap numbers and go home.
The next day after supper I go to the local college. It was a big complex of buildings spread all over the place.The Building I’m going to was the sports complex. That's where the wrestling room is. When I get in the wrestling room I see a bunch of sweaty guys walking off  the mat to get some water. I walk over to the coach to inform him that I’m here. He’s an average sized guy with a beard and arms the size of my head. With his stern voice he tells me, “Get dressed and get on the mat!” He exclaims this with a little edge in his voice. I was a little late so that justifies him being a little angry. When I get on the mat I search for a guy who was about my weight class. I was surprised to see Roy is here. So I go over and ask him if he has a partner and he says no. So Roy and I end up being drill partners for the whole practice.
Normally wrestling practice is hard. I mean it’s the hardest sport in the world, but when you step into the wrestling room for a college team it gos to a whole new level. By the end of practice, Roy and I are dead. We sit against the wall and pack our stuff up. On the way to the shower room, we talk about school and wrestling and just random stuff. This guy is pretty cool I had a pretty good feeling we’re going to be friends.
Since I don’t have a car Roy offers to drive me home. I take him up on this offer. On the way we talk and I ask, “How often do you come to practice at the college.”
“Every Tuesday and Thursday today was an exception,” Roy says.
“Ha! Me too,.” I say kinda surprised, “ So do you want to be training partners?”
“Yeah” Roy says excitedly.
“Sweet, so can you make it to the gym monday through friday,.” I ask.
“Yeah what time,.” Roy asks.
“6 am till whenever the workout ends,.” I say
“Hell yeah,.” Roy exclaims. I kinda feel like he excited to have a training partner. I mean I’m kinda excited as well. We get to my house and he drops me off. Before I walk into my house I say, “See you Monday.”
“Yep see you Monday.” he says and drives away. I get into the house find something to eat real fast and go to bed.
Sunday goes by fast all I did was a little lift at the gym and watched some TV. The next day on Monday, Roy and I lifted and drilled some on the mats. Roy is a really good training partner we push each other to the limit.
Roy and I keep with our routine of lifting Monday to Friday at 6 in the morning, wrestling at the college Tuesday and Thursday, and running on Saturday. All the way till school starts.
September, 4 it's the first day of school and for me school has never been a big deal, but this year I'm a little nervous cause since I have been working hard I've gotten kind of a rep. Since I have gotten a rep this year I'm a little about living up to it.
November 10th it's the first day of practice. When I get into the wrestling room coach comes over to me and we talk about preseason prep and other wrestling stuff. I get dressed for practice and coach blows the whistle and that means it's time for practice to start. We start with a warm up and then we get into wrestling practice. The whole time during practice coach keeps telling you get what you earn. After a while it gets annoying, but at the end of the day it's true you do get what you earn.
Since school has started my training schedule with Roy has changed we only go to the college and have a second practice on certain days. We still stay intact though.
Over half the season has gone by now and it's January. I'm currently undefeated 20 and 0 the season has been pretty easy so far, but the state tournament is coming up in a few months that's where I plan on the hard work to come in play.
I was talking to Roy the other day and found out he's undefeated as well. I have seen him at a few tournaments, but he's a weight class higher than me so we haven't had to wrestle each other yet.
It's the end of the season now and the state tournament is a week away. I ended the season undefeated and ranked 4th in the state which I feel is a little under ranked but it's whatever. Roy also got ranked in the state and is going to the tournament. Roy recently dropped to the same weight class as me so we might have to wrestle each other. We talked about this and decided if it happened there would be no hard feelings.
It's the day of the tournament. This is what I have been working for the last half a year. My first match is against a guy who looks like he hasn't wrestled a day in his life. When we start wrestling though it becomes apparent that he has wrestled before though. We scramble a lot and then I catch him out of position. I put him in a half nelson and pinned him.
The second match I have a bye. My third match is against the guy who is ranked first in the state. We start to wrestle and I immediately am on my back. I told over and fight to my feet. I end up getting to my feet. We tie up and I get him out of position and cement mix him. A JV move but somehow it worked. I get him to his back and pin him.
My last match of the tournament is against Roy. I was so focused on my matches I didn't even notice Roy was my opponent. When we got on the mat we shook hands and the match started. During the match we go back and forth. The match ends up going to overtime. I choose bottom and when the ref blew the whistle I shot up as fast as I could. I got the escape and won the match.
When I got to stand on the podium it was the best feeling of my life. The best part was that what coach said was right you get what you earn. I definitely earned this title.