Toby's wrestling meet (way back in February) was packed with kids and family members excited to try out the skills that they learned over the course of the 2-month wrestling clinic. Each wrestler on Toby's team was paired up with an opponent (hopefully of similar size) from the other clinic and each pairing met on the mat for 3 30-second periods, starting with the lightest kids and proceeding to the heaviest. Unfortunately I think few kids were prepared for the amount of time it would take to give 60 wrestlers their time (all 90 seconds of it) on the mat. (And they went through the lineup twice.)
Toby, being at the bigger end of the team, did a pretty good job of cheering on the 20+ wrestlers that came before him in the roster. Yet I think he was still a little unprepared for his first match, and it was over before he could get his rhythm with his opponent. So by the time the wrestlers had all gone through the lineup the second time Toby had a pretty good idea of a few things: 1) not that many people are watching him, 2) he could remember what he learned in practice and make it work on the mat, and 3) the team uniform is very big!
(I started the video about 3 seconds late on this, his second match, so you miss them starting in neutral position in the center of the mat. There are 3 rounds, each lasting 30 seconds. A guy tosses a towel onto the mat at the end of each period so the ref can blow the whistle. At the end of the match both wrestlers get their hands raised in victory.)
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