Age 23 too late for College Wrestling?

[Dirty Holt]

You can get a degree in your 30's

You cannot keep pursuing athletics at that age for the most part.

People are brow beaten and brainwashed to get the degree first, when in all reality, it is the least logical thing to do. Your physical abilities degrade at a much quicker rate than your mental abilities. Your prime physical years are much more finite than your mental capacity to get a degree. Wasting time on the the one that escapes you fastest for the one that will always be there is completely illogical. The only reason why people do it is because it was what all of the other scared people who never went for it told them was the right way.

Worse comes to worst, you suck at fighting and wrestling and you get a degree in your mid to late 20's.

 

[SFCFighter]

You can get a degree in your 30's

You cannot keep pursuing athletics at that age for the most part.

People are brow beaten and brainwashed to get the degree first, when in all reality, it is the least logical thing to do. Your physical abilities degrade at a much quicker rate than your mental abilities. Your prime physical years are much more finite than your mental capacity to get a degree. Wasting time on the the one that escapes you fastest for the one that will always be there is completely illogical. The only reason why people do it is because it was what all of the other scared people who never went for it told them was the right way.

Worse comes to worst, you suck at fighting and wrestling and you get a degree in your mid to late 20's.

It's the same for traveling and making money. People are told to spend the best years of their life focused on getting a degree, getting a good career, and working their asses off to save for retirement so they can have money in the worst years of their life.

People justify working their 20s away so they can travel when they are 30 or 40 or 50.. by then travel will be much less fun when you have kids and a mortgage

Everyone's got it backwards

 

[MitsuyoMaeda]

Your best bet is to find an mma gym that has a good wrestling coach. You can learn how to wrestle and apply it to mma. If you want to actually compete in wrestling than look at club wrestling, jc's, NAIA, and NWCA schools. There are also DIII and DII schools. However at all of these schools (with the exception of outside club wrestling) academics are held up above all.

 

[Badger67]

One of the better wrestlers i know didn't start until his second year in university; national medalist x 3. But he was a farmer and had insane strength so he had a decent base to start with heading in in terms of physical conditioning.

 

[platfox]

Athletes are usually in their physical prime in their mid twenties right?

 

[Zankou]

I'll be 22 this year, I screwed up in school, so I'm trying to bring up my GPA and transfer to a new college with wrestling for a fresh start.

By the time I am able to do this I might be 23 (2016), will it be too late for me to join college wrestling? :icon_cry2

I will try working a job this year and joining a mma school with includes Judo and Wrestling. I am taking this MMA thing serious, but money is the problem, and my academics are horrible. I'd like to be able to make it UFC but is it too late now that I'm turning 22? I have only a few months of MMA training from last year, of course I had to leave due to money problems.

But like I said, is it too late for College Wrestling? Too late to think about the UFC?

Yeah, I'm not seeing this happening. UFC is not a legitimate backup alternative when college is going badly and you are running low on money.

Unless you are a superb athlete or have a great deal of combat sport experience, this is a profoundly terrible plan. You need to figure out a plan for acquiring a college degree in disciplined fashion or you are going to be making milk shakes.

By all means, pick up wrestling if your school allows walk ons. It would be a blast. But don't think of it as your main career.

 

[Zankou]

You can get a degree in your 30's

You cannot keep pursuing athletics at that age for the most part.

People are brow beaten and brainwashed to get the degree first, when in all reality, it is the least logical thing to do. Your physical abilities degrade at a much quicker rate than your mental abilities. Your prime physical years are much more finite than your mental capacity to get a degree. Wasting time on the the one that escapes you fastest for the one that will always be there is completely illogical. The only reason why people do it is because it was what all of the other scared people who never went for it told them was the right way.

Worse comes to worst, you suck at fighting and wrestling and you get a degree in your mid to late 20's.

It depends what you want to do. If you want to be a real estate agent or such, I agree. But if you want to place highly in one of the demanding and competitive occupations, it's relatively rare for older people to come in and be competitive. The young people who have been doing it 100% from an early age just have it too locked up, and can tolerate the grinding working conditions at the lowest levels of the job.

You say worst comes to worst he'll get is degree in mid to late 20's, but you'll see it 95 times out of 100, if the guy can't finish a degree even in the easiest and best case early 20s scenario, the chances of completing it in his late 20s drops precipitously. For most people, it only gets harder and harder.

Of course if you are a motivated, talented, and competent, sure you can do something else and then come back to get your degree later. But that's like 5% of the populace. Most people, if they don't hit it hard from the get-go, will never get back on the horse.

 

[Balto]

It depends what you want to do. If you want to be a real estate agent or such, I agree. But if you want to place highly in one of the demanding and competitive occupations, it's relatively rare for older people to come in and be competitive. The young people who have been doing it 100% from an early age just have it too locked up, and can tolerate the grinding working conditions at the lowest levels of the job.

You say worst comes to worst he'll get is degree in mid to late 20's, but you'll see it 95 times out of 100, if the guy can't finish a degree even in the easiest and best case early 20s scenario, the chances of completing it in his late 20s drops precipitously. For most people, it only gets harder and harder.

Of course if you are a motivated, talented, and competent, sure you can do something else and then come back to get your degree later. But that's like 5% of the populace. Most people, if they don't hit it hard from the get-go, will never get back on the horse.

There is a huge time value of money factor as well.

In my field, you need a college degree. 22 year old guy fresh out of college probably pulls down $50K a year.

Fast forward to when he's 32, and now he's pulling down $120-$150K a year. But he doesn't get that for being 32. He gets that because he has ten years of experience in the field and can take on big projects.

32 year old guy fresh out of college is going to pull down $50K a year. And truthfully his potential entry job options will be much more limited because his first level managers will be younger than him and won't know what to do with him exactly.

Pushing things back ten years is a tradeoff that will have a substantial financial impact. You will probably leave $1M on the table by pushing back ten years, maybe $2M if you make smart investment choices early on in your 20s with the money you have available.

 

[SFCFighter]

There is a huge time value of money factor as well.

In my field, you need a college degree. 22 year old guy fresh out of college probably pulls down $50K a year.

Fast forward to when he's 32, and now he's pulling down $120-$150K a year. But he doesn't get that for being 32. He gets that because he has ten years of experience in the field and can take on big projects.

32 year old guy fresh out of college is going to pull down $50K a year. And truthfully his potential entry job options will be much more limited because his first level managers will be younger than him and won't know what to do with him exactly.

Pushing things back ten years is a tradeoff that will have a substantial financial impact. You will probably leave $1M on the table by pushing back ten years, maybe $2M if you make smart investment choices early on in your 20s with the money you have available.

Dang 1 million dollars left on the table? You might have to live in a smaller house and just stick to a decent used car. How do these people live with themselves after screwing up this badly?

 

[Balto]

Dang 1 million dollars left on the table? You might have to live in a smaller house and just stick to a decent used car. How do these people live with themselves after screwing up this badly?

It's up to the individual to make that choice. I'm just saying it's not accurate to pretend like pushing back work ten years is not going to have that kind of impact.

Also, your other post about people being stupid because they work hard now to have money in retirement is completely out of touch with reality.

Last time I checked, the average American household nearing retirement age has a total net worth of less than $200K. That's like $8-10K a year in money to live off in retirement. That is hardly lavish spending that they are going to jet around the world on. It's more like survival.

SS will provide a cushion, but that is going to collapse in about twenty years because it's unsustainable.

The fact is that retirement for the average American right now looks bleak as fuck. There is a serious crisis coming. No, the average person is not saving too much money now just to have a bunch in retirement when they can't use it. It's the exact opposite. The average person spent way too much in their youth and will be stuck in a hard spot when they retire.

 

[Zankou]

There is a time value to money, but there's also an equivalent time value to experiences.

Plus young people rarely save anything, you give them more money, they just spend more money.

So I don't think young people should feel compelled to maximize their earning potential ASAP.

The problem is really more one of people fucking around listlessly with no good reason, and shirking from applying themselves while young. If somebody is hammering away with full intensity on something difficult but non-remunerative, that's fine by me. I just see that very rarely, relative to somebody who is just fucking around. This is particularly true when somebody who claims to 'love' something hasn't actually even done it before, and is using it as an excuse not to develop their potential in more conventional but trying ways.

 

[Balto]

There is a time value to money, but there's also an equivalent time value to experiences.

Plus young people rarely save anything, you give them more money, they just spend more money.

So I don't think young people should feel compelled to maximize their earning potential ASAP.

The problem is really more one of people fucking around listlessly with no good reason, and shirking from applying themselves while young. If somebody is hammering away with full intensity on something difficult but non-remunerative, that's fine by me. I just see that very rarely, relative to somebody who is just fucking around. This is particularly true when somebody who claims to 'love' something hasn't actually even done it before, and is using it as an excuse not to develop their potential in more conventional but trying ways.

Yeah it's a choice people have to make. The ramifications will probably be permanent throughout your life no matter which way you choose.

There is one guy in my office who has a lower paying spot. He is in his 80s and still working. He is literally oozing from open sores in his office chair. He smells so bad that he has to get sent home periodically because too many other people complain about working around him when his sores flare up. There is nothing he can do about it though because he is too old to stop it.

He is not getting fired because he needs the money. He doesn't make that much, and he needs it to survive. He doesn't have any kids to take care of him or anything. His direct supervisor helps him make his doctor appointments.

An extra $1M or so earned over the course of a life might be a joke to some. I bet it would mean a lot to this guy though.

I am one of those rare young people that actually saved most of the money I made early on. Now that I am a bit older I don't have to worry about that.

One thing that sticks out to me from the SS crisis, baby boomer demographics, and just general economic situation in America going forward is that plenty of Americans do have to worry about this though. It is an extremely depressing outlook.

 

[SFCFighter]

It's up to the individual to make that choice. I'm just saying it's not accurate to pretend like pushing back work ten years is not going to have that kind of impact.

Also, your other post about people being stupid because they work hard now to have money in retirement is completely out of touch with reality.

Last time I checked, the average American household nearing retirement age has a total net worth of less than $200K. That's like $8-10K a year in money to live off in retirement. That is hardly lavish spending that they are going to jet around the world on. It's more like survival.

SS will provide a cushion, but that is going to collapse in about twenty years because it's unsustainable.

The fact is that retirement for the average American right now looks bleak as fuck. There is a serious crisis coming. No, the average person is not saving too much money now just to have a bunch in retirement when they can't use it. It's the exact opposite. The average person spent way too much in their youth and will be stuck in a hard spot when they retire.

Do you think you would have been able to accurately predict what the world and economy and national political situation would be like today 60 years ago?

Do you think you know what your lifestyle and circumstances will be like at age 80?

Social Security may collapse, but things will look so different in 50-60 years it is hardly worth predicting or planning for in my opinion. Also, I hate to go #YOLO, but you know, it'd be pretty shitty to die at 30 in a car accident when you spend your entire 20's saving up for some grand future.

I never remarked that people actually successfully save millions for their golden years, just that they fall into the trap of working really hard 'for retirement' or 'for later'. The reality is most of them just spend all the money anyways on the hedonistic treadmill so their sacrifice (not pursuing sports or travel or partying or any other 'youthful' activities) was just for bigger and better products 2 years from now, not 40 years from now.

 

[SFCFighter]

There is a time value to money, but there's also an equivalent time value to experiences.

Plus young people rarely save anything, you give them more money, they just spend more money.

So I don't think young people should feel compelled to maximize their earning potential ASAP.

The problem is really more one of people fucking around listlessly with no good reason, and shirking from applying themselves while young. If somebody is hammering away with full intensity on something difficult but non-remunerative, that's fine by me. I just see that very rarely, relative to somebody who is just fucking around. This is particularly true when somebody who claims to 'love' something hasn't actually even done it before, and is using it as an excuse not to develop their potential in more conventional but trying ways.

Most people have very little potential and the thing they will remember the most and the thing they enjoy the most in life is fucking around. I don't have a problem with it.

Isn't that really the ideal life for the vast majority of people? Partying without any worries? Just 'having fun'? Very few people actually want to sit in an office all day shuffling papers or sitting in a lab all day trying to cure cancer. The people who want to do that stuff already are. There is no need to convince the normal person that they have to work harder to 'fulfill their potential'. They aren't going to do great things and don't enjoy the process of working hard to do great things.

The world would be much better off if we just automated most jobs, provided some basic income, and let people be beach bums or whatever. Most of them wouldn't be competent engineers or doctors or whatever anyways.

 

[Balto]

Do you think you would have been able to accurately predict what the world and economy and national political situation would be like today 60 years ago?

Do you think you know what your lifestyle and circumstances will be like at age 80?

Social Security may collapse, but things will look so different in 50-60 years it is hardly worth predicting or planning for in my opinion. Also, I hate to go #YOLO, but you know, it'd be pretty shitty to die at 30 in a car accident when you spend your entire 20's saving up for some grand future.

I never remarked that people actually successfully save millions for their golden years, just that they fall into the trap of working really hard 'for retirement' or 'for later'. The reality is most of them just spend all the money anyways on the hedonistic treadmill so their sacrifice was just for bigger and better products 2 years from now, not 40 years from now.

No one can predict the future. But I think people do need to take a hard look at reality. The future looks bleak right now unless things change. I don't think we can just keep hoping for lucky windfalls.

SS itself was a windfall out of the Great Depression. Instead of letting the retirees starve, they just taxed the workers at the time. All the old retired people who were otherwise stuck got a windfall.

The problem with the windfall is that all the workers who paid into it expect the same benefits, etc, etc. Eventually it cycles to a point where there are not enough workers to pay for all the retirees. That's where things appear to be heading.

Could there be another unforeseen windfall? I guess, but I'm not willing to bank my future on it.

You are right that it's pretty shitty to die early in a car accident. But it is probably more likely that I will live to old age, so I have to plan for that. Plus if I die, my son can inherit all my savings, which will give him a very nice head start in life.

I agree with you that people suck at saving in general. That's a pretty big issue in and of itself. But it's harder to save when you have less coming in. My only point was that starting later on does usually make less come in, and you have to plan accordingly for that.

 

[smc]

Balto I respect your viewpoint, but I'm literally the guy described in your post. I spent my 20s in the Army going to war, traveling down to Brazil for over a year to train BJJ and write, and traveling various other places having other experiences that I now (kid and mortgage as someone wrote before) won't ever be able to have.

I'm the 30 (well 32) year old making a bit more than the guy in your example. Finished my BA at 28 (8 years on and off, woo!) and my MS just last year at 31. I gave up that 10 years in income.job experience, but I would NEVER be able to have the experiences I did if I started them even now at my age let alone 40s or 50s.

Life is short. Extremely short. No one should piss away their life and never set themselves up with a career to take them into old age (or into a family, whatever else they want), but I think people that want those experiences in their 20s should chase them, and I agree with Holt's assessment. Worst case, they didn't make it in their dream, and they get a degree and job later. That is assuming they actually put in the work later though, which I agree is probably 5% (can I get a patch made?)

 

[Balto]

Balto I respect your viewpoint, but I'm literally the guy described in your post. I spent my 20s in the Army going to war, traveling down to Brazil for over a year to train BJJ and write, and traveling various other places having other experiences that I now (kid and mortgage as someone wrote before) won't ever be able to have.

I'm the 30 (well 32) year old making a bit more than the guy in your example. Finished my BA at 28 (8 years on and off, woo!) and my MS just last year at 31. I gave up that 10 years in income.job experience, but I would NEVER be able to have the experiences I did if I started them even now at my age let alone 40s or 50s.

Life is short. Extremely short. No one should piss away their life and never set themselves up with a career to take them into old age (or into a family, whatever else they want), but I think people that want those experiences in their 20s should chase them, and I agree with Holt's assessment. Worst case, they didn't make it in their dream, and they get a degree and job later. That is assuming they actually put in the work later though, which I agree is probably 5% (can I get a patch made?)

Good for you man. I am glad that it is working. Sounds like you are very happy with your choice.

And thank you for your service.

 

[Zankou]

Most people have very little potential and the thing they will remember the most and the thing they enjoy the most in life is fucking around. I don't have a problem with it.

Isn't that really the ideal life for the vast majority of people? Partying without any worries? Just 'having fun'? Very few people actually want to sit in an office all day shuffling papers or sitting in a lab all day trying to cure cancer. The people who want to do that stuff already are. There is no need to convince the normal person that they have to work harder to 'fulfill their potential'. They aren't going to do great things and don't enjoy the process of working hard to do great things.

The world would be much better off if we just automated most jobs, provided some basic income, and let people be beach bums or whatever. Most of them wouldn't be competent engineers or doctors or whatever anyways.

Yeah, this is true in large part, and you can't turn your average kid into the Second Coming of Spinoza no matter what you do. But the problem is that nobody's actually going to be handing out 'basic income,' or at least not in a non-terrible form.

This makes a big difference when you are thinking about starting a family, for example, and yet you can't provide any real money. You don't need to be rich, but being poor sucks ballz if you have a family and aren't just some young kid gulping vodka out a plastic jug at the party.

What's needed is a sensible balance, and most young people should be doing SOMETHING hard with their lives, not just sleeping on the sofa and smoking up. Unless Daddy's rich, that's a disaster, because it just makes young kids into spoiled brats who can't productively apply themselves to anything genuinely difficult. Such people are not just economic drains, they are drains in every sense of the word.

 

[Balto]

Most people have very little potential and the thing they will remember the most and the thing they enjoy the most in life is fucking around. I don't have a problem with it.

Isn't that really the ideal life for the vast majority of people? Partying without any worries? Just 'having fun'? Very few people actually want to sit in an office all day shuffling papers or sitting in a lab all day trying to cure cancer. The people who want to do that stuff already are. There is no need to convince the normal person that they have to work harder to 'fulfill their potential'. They aren't going to do great things and don't enjoy the process of working hard to do great things.

The world would be much better off if we just automated most jobs, provided some basic income, and let people be beach bums or whatever. Most of them wouldn't be competent engineers or doctors or whatever anyways.

Economic concerns aside, it is an interesting question if what you described is actually the ideal life for the majority of people. I'm not sure it is.

Our modern technology has automated most jobs. We really could provide a basic income and let most people be beach bums. I think we do have that capability.

The interesting wrinkle is that as we developed these technologies, people grew unhappy with their leisure. So they just came up with new jobs instead. We have automated the vast majority of jobs required for life (food, water, shelter, energy, etc.) But most people now choose to work in fields that are not absolutely required for life.

If you look back at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, the prediction was that all this technology would lead to a beach bum society. But for whatever reason, it seems most people actually rejected this lifestyle and chose to work on something new instead.

I think people may be happier having dedicated themselves to some type of work. Even people who are rich and do not need the money tend to dedicate themselves to serious pursuits rather than just fucking around. It's not everyone, but I think the majority would rather dedicate.

I have always thought this was an interesting question.

 

[smc]

Good for you man. I am glad that it is working. Sounds like you are very happy with your choice.

And thank you for your service.

Thanks. I just want to add that I did have a plan, and I used distance learning to be able to go to school and still accomplish a lot of those things I wanted to do. I hope my post (obviously not to you but others) doesn't come off as saying screw it and dive in head first without a plan.

Make a plan!

I ended my trip in Brazil when I had finished the last courses in my graduate program, and that was the plan in the beginning. If I couldn't make a living down there writing/training (which I didn't put in near the work I should have on "Trying to make a living") by the time that degree was done, it was off to the real world.

To the guy in this post, pick one. Wrestling or MMA. They are two different animals. MMA "includes" wrestling but is in itself different from the various forms of sport wrestling in many ways (cage techniques, submission defense integrated into wrestling, etc.). If you're looking for a career, forget wrestling at your age and go with MMA.

If you just want to participate in a sport and get a career, stick with wrestling. Go to college and spend every minute you aren't SUCCESSFULLY studying/passing classes to wrestling.

If it's MMA, find a good gym and join. If you can't afford it, get a job. Any job. Then when it doesn't make enough money, get another one on top of it. In between those two jobs go train. Sounds crazy? It is, but that's what a lot of guys do, and most of them don't make it not because they are bad but because it's a short list of guys who actually do. Or go to school in lieu of a job and do it that way.

As for your original question, when you say is 23 too late for college wrestling I'm going to assume you mean competing at the highest levels. Probably. Is it too late to make a run at MMA? No, not at all. But the right person with the right physical characteristics, motivation, and natural ability could conceivably make it to the top of either sport at that age, it's just really unlikely for wrestling.