Wrestling with Cuba’s Wrestling Coaches

Mercedes Gonzalez Aguade

HAVANA TIMES — As I’ve written before, my son practices Greco-Roman wrestling. I’ve shared the difficulties mothers face to acquire the needed sport implements. Today, I want to talk about wrestling coaches.

My son has been practicing the sport for 7 years. I signed him up because he was hyperactive and I thought the sport would give him the focus he lacked and help him channel some of his excess energy.

Luckily, his first coach was someone with extensive experience in the field and, in a very short time, thanks to discipline, perseverance and understanding, my aims and those of my son were fulfilled. The coach brought out the best in the kid. He trusted his potential and taught him to love what he does. You already know the results: Carlitos, my son, was the provincial wrestling champion for several years in a row.

No one knows what happened, but, it so happens that the coach left the sporting facility all of a sudden, abandoning his students. His position has been occupied several times by young people who start out with plenty of enthusiasm and gradually lose interest, making their students, who don’t feel motivated, lose interest as well.

It’s been a very unstable period. The boys have gone through nine trainers, one after the other. Some have had a certain degree of experience, others none at all. Most of them have given up this beautiful career to become security guards (custodians who receive certain perks) or to join the arts world. Some have even become singers (and now earn better salaries).

I’ve been on good terms with all of them and sometimes I even reproach them for not being reliable, as this affects the kids and, therefore, the mothers. My son Carlitos now finds it more difficult to focus and his academic performance has suffered.

If coaches – who do this job professionally or as part of their studies – had some kind of monetary incentive whenever they achieved positive results with their students, fewer of them would leave and we would make better use of the many physical education teachers in our country.