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I can just picture it, one of today's
current wrestlers reading about how the mats in the early days of wrestling
were commonly made of horsehair! I picture them saying,
"What?!!"
For you tough wrestlers out there
competing on state-of-the-art mats, the old-timers may actually consider you
"sissy-boys" as they not only had to compete in combat against an
opponent, but more often than not, their most frequent and serious injuries
came from the mat itself.
In researching this topic, I reviewed the
bio's of many of the early great wrestlers. A common theme became
apparent. A significant number of these bio's mention the
"horsehair mats" as often as their most prestigious wrestling
honors and accomplishments.
Wrestling has never needed much in the
way of equipment. It is basically the mat, headgear, shoes, and a
singlet. However, technological advances in any of those few items was
very slow, to say the least. For instance, many early wrestlers wore a
bathing suit for practice.
Early wrestling mats were made from a
combination of horsehair and burlap. Straw was also used for many
mats. The material was "smashed-down" into a thick, course
canvas. Shock absorbency? Little to none. Just slightly
better than the concrete or hardwood floor that the mat covered.
Mat burns were atrocious, to the point
that boils could develop over a significant portion of your body.
Infections from mat wounds were common and serious in some instances.
For many, it required that one's body tolerance had to become "adjusted
to the mat."
It wasn't until 1957, when Warren
Tischler, a former 1939 National Prep Champion from nearby Wyoming Seminary,
sold his restaurant business and began selling mats. In 1959, Tischler
founded Resilte Sports Products, Inc., in Sunbury, PA, and later moved his
company to adjacent Northumberland, PA, in 1963. Through Tischler's
dedication and innovation, the modern wrestling mat was born.
Today's wrestling mat is such a standard
fixture that I doubt many of us give much thought about it. After all,
it is just a mat. It is just "only a mat" unless you
had to wrestle on one of the old fearsome horsehair mats.
Most importantly, and the point I want to
stress here is this. It took a champion wrestler in the man named
Warren Tischler, who possessed a champion mindset that carried over to all
aspects of his life, to make one of the biggest and far-reaching
technological contributions to ever impact the sport of wrestling.
Want to be a "Champion?"
Want to be "The Best You Can Be?" Then make it a lifestyle
choice.
Is your goal to become a "Champion
Wrestler?" Great. But that is simply not good enough.
Do not let anybody tell you that it is.
Instead, dedicate yourself, your entire
being and work ethic, to be a champion in all that you do. In doing
this, you will not only achieve your greatest accomplishments in the sport
of wrestling, you will also achieve your greatest accomplishments in life.
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