The Physics of Wrestling II

Here we go: So I was having computer problems this weekend, and I was getting super mad. I think my computer has a virus. It kept randomly restarting. I was getting super angry. By nine o'clock I was flipping irate. I couldn't even listen to music to calm myself down. All of my music was on the computer. Grrr. I when it finally started working, I was looking through all of my files for anything suspicious looking and I came across these pictures of me wrestling. Some of these are from winter break, others are from last week. Because all I have been doing lately has been wrestling, I decided to use this on my physics journal. I rely heavily on takedowns when I wrestle. This is mostly because I suck on the ground. So one thing that we've been working on a lot is staying in good position at all times. Getting the takedown is all about being in a better position than your opponent. What I mean is, you need to stay in a good stance--ass down and head up. I realized that this is actually just simple phyisics, the concept of center of mass. The center of mass is simply a point (not neccessarily on the object) where an object's mass seems to be concentrated. You can also think of it as the balance point. You can calculate that center of mass by taking the sum of each mass times its position and dividing by the sum of all of the masses. The center of mass of a human is usually right below the belly button. The pictures above are of me wrestling in pretty good position. Both of our CMs are right over or behind our support bases. Because the opponents have their CMs right over their base, it is very hard for me to take them down. If I want to take them down, I need to extend their CM over their support base. Gravity will help create a torque, making it hard for them to stay on thier feet and easier for me to take them down. In the pictures below, you can clearly see me extend his body over his center of mass.

Here my legs are bent and my butt is underneath me. I'm in a pretty good position. If this guy was a lot stronger, I would want my head up more and looking into him. I would have to arch my back more also. This would cause my ass to sag even more, bringing my support base much wider underneath my center of mass and actually placing my CM behind the support. Here though, he isn't putting that much pressure with the wizzer. Notice, though, that my arms are extended. I'm a lot weaker in this position and its hard to hold up his leg. In the next picture below, I jack up his leg and pull it into my body. This makes me stronger and it extends his CM out over his support. Before you go on, take a look at the girl in the yellow shirt in the photo above. Then look at the guy in white sitting next to her. It looks like he's watching her adjust her bra. Sick.

In this picture, you can clearly see that my opponent is extended. His center of mass is clearly over his support base. He is weak in this position. I would also like to point out that I made a mistake here. Now I'm out of position also. You can see how I brought my hips in and under me. This would be good if I was trying to pick him up, but here I'm out of position. My CM isn't behind the support base anymore. If my legs are bent and my ass is down, I'm a lot stronger than when I'm standing straight up. Hey! My moment of Inertia increases, making it harder to turn me. Despite this, I'm still able to get the takedown. Two points. Yay!


P.S. This guy that I'm wrestling in these last three pictures was super duper stinky. Especially downstairs. Just ask Maxxx. He wrestled him too back in the day. I can't really describe the smell but it was pretty nuts, dude. Oh yeah, the ref in the first picture at the top looks like Mr. Feeney from Boy Meets World. Feeney Feeney Feeney