beaugeste's blog

WrestleFest July 2017 was a well organized, fun activity.    A roster is set up so you know who plans to attend. This helps you decide who you want to wrestle.  In my case there were only two or three guys in my weight class on the roster, but I still decided to participate.

 I initially thought of wrestling only opponents around my weight, since most of the 20 guys participating were 200 pounds and more.  Being relative unskilled, older, and weighing 165 pounds; I was concerned about wrestling heavier, younger and more skilled opponents.   As WrestleFest progressed, I felt more comfortable wrestling bigger and more skilled wrestlers; and was glad I did.

Fortunately for me, WrestleFest attracts a really nice group of guys.  The more skilled men will wrestle down, at least some, to your level and the big heavy guys did not fully use their weight advantage.  This does not mean they will throw a match and let you win. They all wrestled to win and pushed you to do your best.  I mostly had to tap out, but did win a couple of matches and enjoyed even the matches that I lost.  I hopefully learned from my mistakes and received coaching from a couple of the wrestlers.

Brawlmart, our host, was a very gracious in offering his home which provided great space for the matches.  Two nice mats, one in the house and another one, larger, in the garage.  Some guys were able to stay at Bralwmart's house and others in nearby motels. The hotel cost was not too high.

WrestleFest is a great guys weekend.  You wrestle, drink a little, probably eat too much, revisit with friends and make new ones. PERFECT!  Consider adding this event, held in Indiana, Pennsylvania, which is not too far from Pittsburgh, to your schedule if you can.  You should enjoy it as much as I did.