Wrestling Beast's blog

How long should a good match be? One hour is usually given as the minimum time for two guys to meet and wrassle.

Generally, I say that if you are going to have to travel to meet up with someone, the encounter should last as long as the time it takes to get there and back, but I am willing to make exceptions for a truly great opponent. So if it takes me an hour to get there and back, I should have two hours with my opponent. If I have other business or can find other stuff to do in the area, maybe an hour will suffice. But splitting the cost of a hotel room, if that is a factor, should be taken into consideration. $50 is a lot of money to spend on an hour's worth of entertainment.

Some people can wrestle for a full hour non-stop. Some people can also run marathons too, but I cannot do either. In my matches, there are always breaks. Sometimes after a painful submission, one guy needs to get his bearings. Othertimes after several submissions. My general rule of thumb is that 10 to 15 minutes of wrestling between breaks is appropriate. But the match itself can go on for hours, until the opponents are too sore or bored to continue.

How long should a break be? Most opponents can find a comfortable time. Most people enjoy talking to each other during breaks about things in common or interesting to them, past opponents, the weather. In a hotel room, they may turn on the TV. With one guy, we watched MMA in between wrestling. If you are recording your wrestling, it would be a good time to review it. Just keep an eye on your watch.