Dance Like Gable

Say what?  Back in January I told you to Box Like Gable, now I'm telling you to dance like him?  The short answer: Yes.  The long answer: here is an excerpt from The Legend of Dan Gable "The" Wrestler by Russ L. Smith (an excellent book by the way):

They made the New Year's Eve scene together.  Here Kathy made a discovery which should not, really, have surprised her.  Dan was an excellent dancer.  There are strings attached to most bonanzas.  She couldn't get him off the floor.  Dancing to music was a logical by-product of his art.  The same grace that characterizes a mat champion is also a dancing asset.  Dan had worked out often enough with Rick Sanders' stereo blasting.  Kathy should have known, also, that he was not going to succumb to fatigue.  He outlasted her, easily.  He outlasted the musicians.  They closed up the joint.  They left with another thing in common.  Kathy was radiantly happy.  So was Dan.

 Over this past summer (It flew by didn't it?  That means wrestling season's almost here) I actually took a ballroom dance course that a friend of mine taught.  It would never have been something I thought of doing, but she urged me to take the class.  Although not as intense as wrestling, dancing can be a great workout, as evidenced by star athletes that still manage to drop pounds while competing on Dancing with the Stars.

Smith also mentioned that an expert grappler can use some of the same skills to also excel in dancing.  I experienced this first hand when trying to learn new dance steps.  The ability to visualize wrestling moves in your head, as well as shadow wrestling, translates perfectly to mastering the footwork of a dance.  I also got an inkling of this when I was explaining some basic moves to some classmates of mine in a Movement Explorations class in college.  Many of the students in the class were females with several years of dance experience, and they definitely drew parallels between the sequence of a wrestling move and a set of dance steps.

It may seem completely unnecessary for a wrestler, but it is a cross-training idea to consider as a diversion from wrestling, despite the similarities I mentioned above.  It is something that most anyone of any age can participate in, and you'll get some decent exercise along with it.  Give it a try; worst case scenario you'll have a little fun.  And I'll guarantee there's more girls at a dance class than your wrestling practice...

Get your dancing shoes on,
Jeff


P.S.  The book I quoted was written in 1974, so your best bet is to find it online, but I was lucky enough to find it at my library back in high school and have read it twice.  Here's another quote for you to chew on:

Coach Tommy Evans counseled Dan, "A man in condition can eat anything."  Dan did - whatever was served; his fill, desserts included.

P.S.S.  Random fact I found in Wrestling for Fun at the Akron library:

Swing dancing gets its name from a form of wrestling that was popular in Switzerland in the 1940s.