Storm brewing for Little Rock (and 174 lbs bracket)

[MSU158]

You may have been bamboozled for your teammates entertainment.

I admittedly did it along with a ton of others. It may have only had some type of spiritual placebo affect, but it seemed to work, since nearly everyone I knew swore by it.

Still, the best one was shaving your head and all body hair at the last minute…

 

[Bones Malone]

A few tricks from our HS back in the day for home n home morning weigh-ins ahead of a night meet.
Used to be able to lean back on our scale to get a lb or two. Folks had to be discreet about it. Inevitably, some freshman gets too obvious and “found out”.
Could get a teammate behind you to lift a butt cheek. Again, tough to get away with but not impossible if coach wasn’t paying close attention. Lastly, we found placing a very small piece of magnet on back of the scale weight could get our entire team 1-2 lbs.
Lots of great memories.
Miss the old clubhouse feel of our locker room during the wrestling season.

 

[Bhabbaganoosh]

I didn’t realize this. So basically wrestlers have to weigh in “under” weight to account for the mandatory garments.

On a side note, I recall standing on my head a time or two immediately before weigh in because it could take off up to a couple tenths by some mysterious science. Somehow it worked.

Sadly the National Institutes of Health did a study on this.

You may think it made a difference, but from a scientific perspective it made zero difference.

Rapid Changes of Body Weight after a Headstand: A Metrological Analysis - PMC

Despite recent rules from amateur wrestling sport-governing bodies intended to discourage extreme weight loss measures, wrestling culture still includes varied methods to make weight, including holding a headstand position immediately before ...

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

 

[AFHawk86]

Sadly the National Institutes of Health did a study on this.

You may think it made a difference, but from a scientific perspective it made zero difference.

Rapid Changes of Body Weight after a Headstand: A Metrological Analysis - PMC

Despite recent rules from amateur wrestling sport-governing bodies intended to discourage extreme weight loss measures, wrestling culture still includes varied methods to make weight, including holding a headstand position immediately before ...

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Maybe I burned two tenths of a pound standing on my head; I was cutting a lot of weight for my body size and fat percentage. Or we had a magic scale. All I know is that it worked.

 

[MAGAman]

A few tricks from our HS back in the day for home n home morning weigh-ins ahead of a night meet.
Used to be able to lean back on our scale to get a lb or two. Folks had to be discreet about it. Inevitably, some freshman gets too obvious and “found out”.
Could get a teammate behind you to lift a butt cheek. Again, tough to get away with but not impossible if coach wasn’t paying close attention. Lastly, we found placing a very small piece of magnet on back of the scale weight could get our entire team 1-2 lbs.
Lots of great memories.
Miss the old clubhouse feel of our locker room during the wrestling season.

Bones, great stories! I have to ask, did you go to a HS in quad cities(dont want to mention which one for obvious reasons) those techniques sound very familiar!😂😂

 

[Bones Malone]

Bones, great stories! I have to ask, did you go to a HS in quad cities(dont want to mention which one for obvious reasons) those techniques sound very familiar!😂😂

Nah. Lakes Conference guy from NW Iowa. I lived in Moline for eight years tho…

 

[el dub]

Nah. Lakes Conference guy from NW Iowa. I lived in Moline for eight years tho…

Lakes Conference, eh?

 

[Bones Malone]

Lakes Conference, eh?

👍
Sadly, it’s going the way of the dinosaur…

 

[sdvike]

All I know is it worked, but only on the electronic scales IIRC. I made weight that way multiple times after being over moments before standing on my head.

Just having fun, likely is some results with it. Myself, I could be 5 or 6 pounds over the night before and would end up at the local Y wearing plastic sweats, doing jumping jacks in the sauna. But I did have a good teamate who would join me in support and also laugh at me. He weighed about 90lbs and wrestled 98 (this probably ages me).

 

[12tdsaw]

had a buddy whose mother had water pills, in a bad situation he would give one. pee all night make weight no problem

 

[AFHawk86]

Just having fun, likely is some results with it. Myself, I could be 5 or 6 pounds over the night before and would end up at the local Y wearing plastic sweats, doing jumping jacks in the sauna. But I did have a good teamate who would join me in support and also laugh at me. He weighed about 90lbs and wrestled 98 (this probably ages me).

I wrestled 98 my freshman and sophomore years. Started off weighing 90 then had to cut the second year. So yeah, we’re both aged.

 

[slushhead]

Used to be able to weigh in naked or just in your underwear or in a singlet with no underwear or in whatever you wanted. That changed to having to weigh in in a competition singlet and undergarment.

I didn’t realize this. So basically wrestlers have to weigh in “under” weight to account for the mandatory garments.

On a side note, I recall standing on my head a time or two immediately before weigh in because it could take off up to a couple tenths by some mysterious science. Somehow it worked.

This waistband undergarment thing had me scratching my head, too. Back in my day, guys were weighing-in naked if it was that close.

And our “data” showed that the head stand worked only if you got on the scale immediately. No time to drop the skivvies between the head stand and the scale . . . so we had naked head stands just feet away from the scale.

 

[tigerhawk2015]

had a buddy whose mother had water pills, in a bad situation he would give one. pee all night make weight no problem

I would take exlax, sleep in the plastic suit and stick my finger down my throat to make 155 by ounces!! Good times!🤣🤣

 

[ChiPackHawk]

I truly hope he is ok. It is often hard to gauge how serious people are on here when repping a "persona". But, it sure seemed to me, that he became VERY unstable at the end. This is especially true if he was also the short-ran poster that went scorched earth dropping every negative news outlet piece on Trump shortly after his main account disappeared..

I actually enjoyed a lot of his posts, but it seemed he was WAAAAY too vested in some of the topics discussed...

“vested” is an interesting way to put it.

 

[AFHawk86]

And our “data” showed that the head stand worked only if you got on the scale immediately. No time to drop the skivvies between the head stand and the scale . . . so we had naked head stands just feet away from the scale.

Yep, thank goodness there was no such thing as cell phones back then.

 

[MitchLL]

Regarding the Big12 controversy, and I haven't read this entire thread, but why didn't the rest of the Big12 HCs raise holy hell when these shenanigans were happening?

 

[chuck285]

had a buddy whose mother had water pills, in a bad situation he would give one. pee all night make weight no problem

I took one of my dads water pills once and ended up in the hospital. I just cramped up on every part of my body. Every muscle in my body and anything that moved. Took me by amb. and had to stay the night. Really a great time.

 

[MSU158]

I took one of my dads water pills once and ended up in the hospital. I just cramped up on every part of my body. Every muscle in my body and anything that moved. Took me by amb. and had to stay the night. Really a great time.

I definitely did my fair share of dumb weight cutting, but I always stayed away from the "medicinals". Laxatives, water pills, amphetamines, etc. were all stuff known to be used, but the side effects scared me way too much to ever go down that road...now turning the space heater on high in my room wearing plastics under hooded sweat suits and tube socks with everything tucked in and then going to sleep.......how I would wake up in the middle of the night should have been enough to scare me out of it.......

 

[MSU158]

I would take exlax, sleep in the plastic suit and stick my finger down my throat to make 155 by ounces!! Good times!🤣🤣

I was lucky enough to never go down the laxative or bulimia road, but plastics and I were very well acquainted...

 

[Trapper85]

Well, if we ever colonize the moon, weigh-ins should be easier and funner. No naked guys standing on their heads with their junk dangling about, no guys with stuff coming out both ends, no shaved hair scattered about, no stealing old people's water pills, and no bad BO. Just some guys in line grabbing Big Mac meals to make weight.

 

[Bones Malone]

My sister had a membership at the racquetball club which had a sauna but when you’re sucked down & dehydrated and unable to sweat, there’s nothing more miserable than a hot sauna.

Had a teammate who talked about taking his mom’s water pills. I never really knew “what they were” and didn’t want to…He also slept in plastics under a heating blanket. Inevitably, he’d still need to run in the morning!
I always went to bed one pound over and never had to run.

 

[Bones Malone]

My dad coached and some of my best memories are spending time with him at the HS. He’d say “wanna go earn a pop”.

Another pleasant memory of weight cutting for me, was laying under a wall mat after practice. Very serene & relaxing…

 

[AFHawk86]

Regarding the Big12 controversy, and I haven't read this entire thread, but why didn't the rest of the Big12 HCs raise holy hell when these shenanigans were happening?

Great question!

 

[sstark46]

A "favorite" weight cutting technique used by my team in high school was to carry around some jolly ranchers and an empty milk jug; throughout the day just pop a jolly rancher in your mouth (be careful not to swallow it!) and suck on it while spitting into the jug. The jolly rancher would produce a lot of spit but also somewhat satiate food cravings. At the end of the day the jug would be filled with very colorful, gross liquid and you'd be out that weight.

Not sure how overall effective this was as thankfully I never had a huge enough cut that I had to resort to this myself, but I did have to do the garbage bag suit once or twice .

 

[MSU158]

A "favorite" weight cutting technique used by my team in high school was to carry around some jolly ranchers and an empty milk jug; throughout the day just pop a jolly rancher in your mouth (be careful not to swallow it!) and suck on it while spitting into the jug. The jolly rancher would produce a lot of spit but also somewhat satiate food cravings. At the end of the day the jug would be filled with very colorful, gross liquid and you'd be out that weight.

Not sure how overall effective this was as thankfully I never had a huge enough cut that I had to resort to this myself, but I did have to do the garbage bag suit once or twice .

substitute chewing tobacco and that was plenty of guys that I knew. Chewing gum worked to a much lesser extent as the gum dried out really fast and the spit became non-existent...

 

[MitchLL]

My dad coached and some of my best memories are spending time with him at the HS. He’d say “wanna go earn a pop”.

Another pleasant memory of weight cutting for me, was laying under a wall mat after practice. Very serene & relaxing…

A few years ago, the HC at Wisconsin Platteville lost his job over how his wrestlers were cutting weight.
Not sure how it was brought to the attention of school administrators.

 

[Inthecircle]

I wrestled 98 my freshman and sophomore years. Started off weighing 90 then had to cut the second year. So yeah, we’re both aged.

Same here. 98, 98, 105, 112.
Bath water as hot as I could stand, regular sweats and plastics over the top, add hot water about every 10-15 minutes. An hour regimen would get me about 1/2 pound the night before a weigh in.
Our wrestling room was square and I’d sprint to the corners for seven minutes. Then cover up with 3 blue gymnastics mats. 3 sets 2nd period study hall.
It yielded 2 1/4 pounds.
I am surprised nobody has brought up quench gum for spitting. I knew a guy who would go to his attack, sit naked, and shiver it off. It worked for him.

 

[acuhawk]

it's really not.

you can't work out when skin checks start.

and you can't alter your underwear.

it's black and white and everyone in the weigh in area knew it. the head ref literally DQ'd them.

between this and the Brennan thing it's no rule season. so ridiculous.

I heard 4 athletes total shouldn't have been allowed to compete. And that John Smith and company was able to persuade the Conference to draw the guys back in the bracket because not allowing them would hurt the Big 12's performance. It sounds like the conference can do whatever they want so why wrestle that tournament. Just pick the order they want guys to finish and submit the results.

 

[MSU158]

Same here. 98, 98, 105, 112.
Bath water as hot as I could stand, regular sweats and plastics over the top, add hot water about every 10-15 minutes. An hour regimen would get me about 1/2 pound the night before a weigh in.
Our wrestling room was square and I’d sprint to the corners for seven minutes. Then cover up with 3 blue gymnastics mats. 3 sets 2nd period study hall.
It yielded 2 1/4 pounds.
I am surprised nobody has brought up quench gum for spitting. I knew a guy who would go to his attack, sit naked, and shiver it off. It worked for him.

Look above, I brought up chewing gum along with chewing tobacco(snuff). Just the gum never really worked well for me. gum and spit dried up really fast and my stomach couldn't handle the chew, it always made me nauseous.

 

[AFHawk86]

Same here. 98, 98, 105, 112.
Bath water as hot as I could stand, regular sweats and plastics over the top, add hot water about every 10-15 minutes. An hour regimen would get me about 1/2 pound the night before a weigh in.
Our wrestling room was square and I’d sprint to the corners for seven minutes. Then cover up with 3 blue gymnastics mats. 3 sets 2nd period study hall.
It yielded 2 1/4 pounds.
I am surprised nobody has brought up quench gum for spitting. I knew a guy who would go to his attack, sit naked, and shiver it off. It worked for him.

Same, except my coach asked me to cut back down to 105 mid senior year “for the team.” That sucked.

 

[LIV4GOD]

I am surprised nobody has brought up quench gum for spitting.

I used it. It worked.

 

[TarpHawk]

I heard 4 athletes total shouldn't have been allowed to compete. And that John Smith and company was able to persuade the Conference to draw the guys back in the bracket because not allowing them would hurt the Big 12's performance. It sounds like the conference can do whatever they want so why wrestle that tournament. Just pick the order they want guys to finish and submit the results.

I am curious to hear John Smith's side of the argument, as well as conference officials and other conference coaches. Is there a definitive article on this somewhere? (Spooner, thanks in advance for helpfully pointing me to Google.)

 

[vhsalum]

I am curious to hear John Smith's side of the argument, as well as conference officials and other conference coaches. Is there a definitive article on this somewhere? (Spooner, thanks in advance for helpfully pointing me to Google.)

LOL. what do you think his "side" of the argument is?

John loves OSU. Period. He was at the lead of getting DT hired over Coleman, if you can believe it. Him fighting to make sure Tagen wasn't disqualified is just vintage John. He would have done the same thing if he were still the coach. But him being retired and still fighting, definitely added some weight to the proceedings.

 

[AFHawk86]

I am curious to hear John Smith's side of the argument, as well as conference officials and other conference coaches. Is there a definitive article on this somewhere? (Spooner, thanks in advance for helpfully pointing me to Google.)

Rules? What rules?

 

[TNTwrestle]

I heard 4 athletes total shouldn't have been allowed to compete. And that John Smith and company was able to persuade the Conference to draw the guys back in the bracket because not allowing them would hurt the Big 12's performance. It sounds like the conference can do whatever they want so why wrestle that tournament. Just pick the order they want guys to finish and submit the results.

Back in the old days when it was the Big 8 (Big 5 actually) and they used the old allotment system they wrestled the whole conference tournament to eliminate two or three guys. That happened several years, if I remember correctly.

This thread has me thinking of dozens of stories I could tell; weight cutting methods (I had a couple that could have killed me, and did land me in the hospital once), finding ways to cheat the scale, shady deals between coaches at the Sectional meet. I could probably write a book.

 

[MSU158]

Back in the old days when it was the Big 8 (Big 5 actually) and they used the old allotment system they wrestled the whole conference tournament to eliminate two or three guys. That happened several years, if I remember correctly.

This thread has me thinking of dozens of stories I could tell; weight cutting methods (I had a couple that could have killed me, and did land me in the hospital once), finding ways to cheat the scale, shady deals between coaches at the Sectional meet. I could probably write a book.

Cheating scales really wasn't something I remember much of. Most of the scales I remember had the damn footprints right on them for where your feet went. Unless the monitor was intentionally ignorant, it was next to impossible to cheat those...I guess you could have still tried to cheat your weight to the heals and hope, but that never seemed to do anything form me!

 

[TNTwrestle]

Cheating scales really wasn't something I remember much of. Most of the scales I remember had the damn footprints right on them for where your feet went. Unless the monitor was intentionally ignorant, it was next to impossible to cheat those...I guess you could have still tried to cheat your weight to the heals and hope, but that never seemed to do anything form me!

I am much older than you. We weighed in for most dual meets on an old scale with a base to stand on and a huge (two and a half foot wide) round dial. when our AD would have his back to the back edge of the scale looking at the weight, a teammate would stick a toe under the edge and take a little weight off. This actually worked multiple times. Other than that it was the standing on your head, standing on the back edge, and blowing out all your air, and other stuff that probably didn't really work.

 

[TarpHawk]

FYI, I researched it as much as I'm going to.

Belton and Jamison went through skin checks, got out of line and sat on bikes waiting for weigh-ins. Apparently not riding/cutting weight, just sitting. That is against the rules, but Big-12 officials conferred with NCAA officials (with J Smith apparently also shouting in their ears) and decided not to DQ them.

There is an Intermat thread and a Reddit thread, plus a few Twitter threads. Dresser is disappointed in the decision. Schwab says he has many thoughts & concerns but his focus is on getting his team ready for NCAAs. Justin Basch says it seems frivolous. Pyles says if there is a path to let guys wrestle rather than end their season, find it.

 

[T8KUDWN]

Maybe I burned two tenths of a pound standing on my head; I was cutting a lot of weight for my body size and fat percentage. Or we had a magic scale. All I know is that it worked.

It definitely works. I've done it and seen it done.

 

[CropDuster507]

This might come out kinda soft in this crowd, but I'm glad a lot of these practices are dead.

As I talk with some athletes/families, some think little Johnny or Susie getting out to grab an extra workout or two in a sweatshirt throughout the week will send them to the hospital at 10% body fat. There is a looooooot of space between some of these "old school" unhealthy methods and circling the lowest possible weight on the certification sheet lol.