The benefit low-income wrestlers have over their counterparts.
Yes, you read that correctly,
For too many low-income Americans there is a feeling that it's impossible to get ahead without outside assistance. Some would even go as far as believing they aren’t worth the same success as others because they weren’t afforded different experiences in their childhood that other kids received. It is understood there are well known disadvantages that come with less resources. However, there are always two sides to every coin. I’ve noticed no one talks about the benefits of harder lives. We forget for most of human history life could be difficult and unfair equally to Kings and peasants. So the rule of thumb was only the strong survive. So what changed? Many will argue technology has created a different culture and now resources matter more for your ability to be successful. We would argue that may put you on the yellow brick road but you still gotta walk it. We all know someone who is too spoiled for their own good and can’t appreciate the value of what they have. No amount of money will help them respect what they have. In fact, the only thing that will help them respect their blessings is by taking them away in many cases. Now I could sit on my soapbox and preach about poverty creating virtues and morals or tough skins or any one of those simple payoffs. However, I believe you can measure real world change in children that benefit low income athletes and not higher income athletes.
How are muscles developed in the body? Usually putting a muscle under tension, right? Lifting something heavy causes micro tears in the muscles and the muscle repairs itself to be stronger. So it should be common knowledge that you can lift really heavy to achieve that process in a short amount of time or you can lift kind of heavy to achieve that process over a longer period of time. High rep lifts versus low rep lifts. So here is the question I’m asking you guys is People, especially kids, are more prone to show stress in a physical way. Oftentimes this stress is expressed as tension in the body. So what would happen if a child was stressed their whole developmental years and had a pattern for holding tension in their body and in specifically in their muscles as flexed stress? They would be lifting their whole life and probably have incredible strength. What are low-income schools typically known for? I would say strength. Low-income schools tend to produce the stronger players in proportion to the highest income schools if not more so considering the time spent training versus outcome.
Next is an issue more common in low income homes. Mild to extreme neglect is a symptom more common in low-income households compared to other demographics. Sometimes out of necessity, parents aren’t available to provide an equal portion of nurture to contradict to the nature of their environment. Granted its more difficult considering they are using less resources to deal with more issues, we understand parents do their best. However, neglected children will become better at reading facial expressions and body language the more neglected they feel. As a social tool that will prove useful for survival and getting what they want from their environment, low-income kids are more likely to have a sixth sense for reading people. We usually call this street smarts. We all know the stereotype of a rich young adult venturing out into the world looking to make a noble change only to get swindled until they wisen up. There is a reason for that. They never needed to develop behavioral intelligence because they were only presented with safe options and financial support/direction. Behavioral analysis is a field of study and its what police use to find investigate murders suspects and physics use to read your future. These naive, rich stereotypes never learned fundamental to watch for consistencies in human behavior. If this seems abstract let me give you some examples: you're walking on the sidewalk and someone is walking towards you. You both step the same direction to avoid each other’s paths and you start the awkward shuffle step dance. How do you know which way your adversary will go? You communicate with micro expressions. Another one might be trying to get a feel for a dinner date. What signs are you looking for to know it went well? So the question we have for you is how would honing an ability to read micro expressions in body language, eyes, and facial expression affect your ability to wrestle? We believe that no amount of physical training can gift you this skill and it is fastest learned through personal experience. This isn't to say the benefits are exclusive to unfit homes simply the degree of benefit is likely to reflects the experiences gained. There is also a stereotype of the misunderstood prodigy shunned by their rich family until they proved their worth. The experiences don't have to meet a material standard just reflect the mental state of the child.
Lets have a thoughtful discussion on this topic as we at KKW are highly interested in your feedback. These are great topics of discussion but we at KKW can't take all the credit for all the idea explored here. Thank you to friends and coaches input. Thank you for the thought provoking discussion we've had and continue to foster.
What are your thoughts? What did we get right and what are some discussions you want this topic to five into. Comment below.
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