Know Your Limitations,

or When to Submit

Garry, HM022

Imagine the scene.

The kids have been packed off to their grandparents for the day. You are your partner have the house all to yourselves, and change into the appropriate dress for the wrestling match that you've been planning for weeks.

It's going to be a one-fall contest, so you start wrestling. The it happens. You're caught in a hold that you cannot escape from, and catch a glimpse of the clock on the mantle. You set aside an hour for your wrestling match, and you've been wrestling for a grand total of ... 2� minutes!

What happens next? (One thing could be that your partner gets exhausted by the energy they are using applying the hold or bored with your inaction. - ed)

Firstly, you could try to resist submitting, in the hope that your partner will release the hold in order to try a different approach. This can be incredibly dangerous. When your body is in pain it is trying to tell you something is happening that it doesn't know how to handle. Should you ignore these pain signals, the odds are that some damage may result, especially if the hold is a well known damaging hold, such as the Boston Crab.

Secondly, you could submit. This is, of course, the safest option. The problem would be that the "game" would be over, although surely that would be preferable to suffering injury. You can, of course, start a differently match afterwards, but that may not be as enjoyable.

A third option would be to use the "emergency" word. Most couples who wrestle with each other have a special word only to be used in emergencies, in order to be released immediately. The problem with this is it is just that, an emergency word. Using it "just so I wouldn't lose so quickly", reduces its value as that.

One of the safest options is to avoid being in that situation in the first place.

I don't mean not to wrestle, but to arrange your matches differently.

For a start, try to avoid the "one-fall wins" type match, as that means just what it says - one fall or submission, and its over.

A best of three, best of five would be far better, as a person would probably submit thinking "well, I'll win the next one!" My own personal preference is to arrange a time-limit, as an hour, and the person with the most falls or submissions in that time-period wins. It doesn't matter how many times you submit, two, five, ten, you've still got the chance to win.

Just remember one thing:- you're wrestling for fun. It would not be much fun waiting at the hospital for your partner, due to the fact that (s)he refused to submit and it resulted in a dislocation. Pain may be a part of the game, but surely not serious injury. By all means wrestle, but do it safely.

Remember, know when to quit, and you'll enjoy your wrestling for much longer.

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