Wrestling is tremendously weighted towards endurance
Depends on what kind of endurance. Speed-strength (and strength speed) endurance yes, but the traditional cardiovascular endurance, not so much (does play a role, but not major).
wrestling taps both the aerobic and anaerobic systems. this is especially true during tournaments. limiting it to speed-strength endurance is inaccurate.
The oxidative energy system does contribute to the activities of wrestling, but it is a majority of anaerobic activity. The longest period for any level of wrestling (freestyle, Greco, or folkstyle) is 3 minutes. Within the 3 minutes you are not going full speed. Each period is spread with all out bouts (or scrammbles) to finish a move. Between scrammbles a wrestler will actively rest while setting up the next move. Wresling requires more anaerobic energy for speed-strength endurance, strength- speed endurance, isometric endurance, motor ability endurance, and so forth, than cardiovascular endurance. Also, I never limited it to speed-strength endurance, just counted it as the major type of endurance needed.
80-85% anaerobic, 15-20% aerobic…give or take. mat work is obviously irreplaceable.
Thanks for the figures ccardill. I knew it was about that, but hadn’t looked it up.
could you clarify this Charlie after the latest posts? towards what kind of endurance?
just curious…
thanks!
Yes, please. I am kind of curious as to your expertise in wrestling!
My combat experience would be limited to the seven forms of Oriental running and hiding, but based on your post above this one sounds like you think there’s a lot of muscular endurance there too, though I don’t know how you define the terms, speed-strength endurance and strength-speed endurance (what is the duration of each?). No matter how you slice it, 3 min is a long time. Muscular end is in conflict with pure speed while lower intensity aerobic end might not be.
My experience with wrestling has been very educational. While there is a lot of muscular endurance involved, we found that explosive work and max. strength work was very useful for off-mat training, with a lot of aerobic work (tempo runs of high vol). Much of the muscular endurance was taken care of by the wrestling coaches through partner drills (lifts, throws, grappling) and through the wrestling itself. It seemed to be a good combination.
The biggest problem I’ve found with wrestling is the high incidence of injuries (shoulders, necks, backs, ankles, knees) because of all the combat time. I was trying to get Val Nasedkin in to do some Omega Wave testing on the athletes this week (but the team was away) to determine whether or not they were overtraining. I’m sure that the injuries could be cut through more precise planning (duration, intensity, frequency) of on-mat activities.
How would you time all this? Is there a period of your training before the actual wrestling commences? If so how long? Once the actual wrestling gets going, how much by percentage is your work, vs the total amount .
Kramer did some work with wrestlers several years ago where he found these fellas produced some outrageous amounts of lactic acid during a match. He drew blood immediately after the match was over and tested it. Off the top of my head I don’t remember where they compared to sprinters (400 meters?), sprint cyclists, speed skaters. But the amount of lactic acid was very high. I’ll look through my archives to find the exact numbers.
Charlie, remember in some matches you don’t wrestle 2 minutes straight. There may be short breaks, (out of bounds, stalling, cautions, resetting). There are times in a match were an effort of max strength or explosiveness must be applied. Although the effort may be there the intensity may not be.
Muscular end is in conflict with pure speed while lower intensity aerobic end might not be.
Charlie could you expand some on this. You lost me or I’m having a brain cramp tonight.
As far as injuries go Number Two, overtraining usually isn’t the case. Most injuries are acute and are a result of the nature of the sport.
I don’t even think at the top tier of athletes you could get a wrestler not to drill live and focus just on the physical properties of the sport. Wrestling is one of those sports that you have to drill and drill and wrestle live to get better at it. Also, like other sports, going against faster, stronger athletes makes you better. It also creates more injuries.
Thomas
High intensity elements are always a balancing act within finite physical abilities and if you work the special endurance aspects beyond a certain point your results will drop in the pure speed and explosive areas. As you mention efforts can be all-out and explosive for the athlete relative to his developed abilities but may not be at an extremely high level.
The lactic levels you describe would be well outside those found in the short sprints. Soft tissue Injuries can result from overtraining.
Yes, I understand now great teacher.
(Head bowed, eyes closed, praying hands, finger tips lightly touching my forehead.)
Thank you
Your welcome Grasshopper
With regards to physiological demands, wrestling is overwhelmingly demanding metabolically. Hence the high lactic acid production. Accordingly, this is a huge factor in determing the ‘global’ motor requirement. Now within this parameter we can now consider the motor skills which most favorably optimize an athletes performance.
as has been stated, varioius components of the isometric regime are a major factor as well as limit, relative, explosive strength, and various components of dynamic strength endurance.
A high degree of variables to consider and manage.
I have read that Alexander Karelin performed sets of 10 repetitions with over 180kgs in the zercher deadlift. STRONG!
Perhaps this is one sport where nearly every physical component is needed except perhaps high end aerobic. The most hybrid sport there is?
Thomas
Add the component of striking and submissions and now you have a good case for the most hybrid sport, no holds barred fighting.
Three minutes is a long time, if you where going all out for the full three minutes. Many people see elite wrestling matches and think that they are boring, because not much is happening. The fact of the matter is that most of the time is spent setting up moves. Wrestling is comprised of many SHORT bouts (or scrammbles lasting at most 6- 10 seconds each) of repeated explosive efforts of various motions. This is why wrestling is weighted so heavily towards the anaerobic energy system.
You should really read “Supertraining” sometime (or reread it). There are more components of edurance than just cardiovascular edurance. Speed- strength endurance would be the ability to resist fatigue while performing repeated speed- strength activities at optimal intensity. The single motion is short, but the combined work requires special endurance.
Great info Thomas.Couldn’t have said it better myself. Where did you find that study?