Two weeks isn’t a whole lot of time.  Half a month. Not much time.  Or is it?  But you could get a lot done in that time if you got the desire to do so; when that’s all the time you have left to reach your season goals, you develop a sense of urgency.

That’s the situation among the wrestling team.  We are all in. No going back.

The team is pushing itself to the breaking point every day and we always come back for more.

Our enemy is no longer the man across the mat from us, it’s an even bigger threat that we can’t see but we can feel him at our heels.   Our enemy is ready to pounce and take you out at the slightest hint of weakness.  We are our own enemy, if we allow ourselves to be.

It’s sort of a welcoming card to the grind, the grueling days to come, breaking your will and your body till you can’t even crawl away and you have no choice but to stand and fight.

That’s when you’re ready to take the battle into the open and take what you have worked for all this season.

A coach said to me once that your battles are won or lost before you ever step on the mat.  You have to ask yourself two questions every time you go out there,  1)  Have I done everything I possibly could to be the best I can be now?  2) Am I willing to leave every ounce of fight I have on the mat?

As the season comes to a close and the days tick away, what we can achieve is within us.

When we’re in practice, pushing to the limit and feeling the overwhelming pain, the thought crosses our mind to stop.  We can’t continue.  But we ask ourselves, “Is that all you got? Are you sure?”

And we push on.