"To face someone is to truly search their intentions and will. To compete with someone is to profoundly know them.”
At 42, I was overweight and I had hypertension. I turned to an old friend for help.
As a child I studied Northern Shaolin Gung-Fu and Wing Chun. I boxed in my early 30s. But one martial art always got away. In my freshman year of high school I made the wrestling team, and watched the school dissolve that team 24 hours later. There weren’t enough wrestlers to sustain it. I never quite let the interest go.
In October 2024 I found the SoCal Wrestling Club in Beverly Hills. For five dollars every Sunday, I had technique instruction and live rolling with strangers who became teammates. One year later I had lost 20 pounds, no longer had hypertension, and had achieved a level of athleticism that I never thought was possible. I was doing handstands, cartwheels, and diving front rolls.
But something really I didn't expect happened.
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I discovered that wrestling is a time machine.
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Wrestling is depicted in Egyptian tomb paintings, Greek pottery, and Sumerian clay tablets. Every culture on earth invented it independently. It is the foundation of the most effective martial arts across the globe, and it is something you can train in today that your ancient ancestors would immediately recognize.
Wrestling is a call back to our elders. It is also, if you choose it, a path forward with cultural intelligence.
On March 28th, 2026, a year and a half after walking into that club, I competed in my first tournament at age 44. My first match was against Mohammed Abdulkareem, a decorated wrestler on the Kuwaiti national team. I scored two points on him. I came back for a second match. My goals that day were simple: show up, be better than yesterday, have fun, and find the toughest competition I can. I did all four.
I am of German, Scandinavian, and Irish heritage. Each of my ancestral cultures has its own wrestling tradition. Each of them are still alive, if you know where to look.
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Germany — Ringen
The medieval German grappling tradition, documented in 15th-century treatises. Preserved today through the historical martial arts community.