Foxcatcher

Supposedly, a very good movie. I believe it seeing this trailer.

I actually wrestled at Foxcatcher when I was a kid and knew both of the Schultz brothers. This movie has been delayed a few times for final edits. John Dupont was bat shit insane. He came into practice one day and kicked everyone out, saying one of the parents drove their car through his front yard. He used to drive a tank around his property. Was a shame that he was so crazy, because the wrestling facilities on his property were top notch.

the article spoils the movie too.

Yeah, this looks pretty good. Excited to see the Steve Carrell transformation.

"It was the most suffocating sport I'd ever played," the 34-year-old actor and former football star said. "You can box and hit the bag or something like that, but you can't wrestle if you don't want to actually do it. It's a thankless, painful sport."

Hardest sport in the world, but you don't "play" it.

I thought boxing was considered the most strenuous sport?

Szlia_sl said:

I thought boxing was considered the most strenuous sport?

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Not an expert, but: probably the actual matches/ competition. But the training required for an Olympic level wrestler is beyond insane.

Antithesis_sl said:

Not an expert, but: probably the actual matches/ competition. But the training required for an Olympic level wrestler is beyond insane.

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This, but not even just olympic level, Division 1 college level as well (I wrestled at Penn State). Boxing is probably a very close second. Both sports require a shit ton of cardio, weight training, an ungodly amount of mental toughness, and weight cutting (unless you're fortunate enough to be a heavy weight). But there are 1 minute breaks between rounds in boxing. There are no breaks in wrestling, unless there's a blood or injury timeout. Nothing like going to a 2 hour practice and working your ass off when you haven't eaten or drank anything for a day and a half...

Yeah, wrestling training seems like it would be pretty tough, especially when you add in the physical aspect of it. Same with boxing. Always wanted to try both, but never got into it. Did you have to pay attention to your weight a lot etchazz?

As far as cardio and overall fitness is concerned, I'm going to have to go with soccer needing the most, though I have a pretty big bias. When you watch it on TV it doesn't look so demanding, but playing it is a completely different story, especially at a higher level. 90 minutes with few breaks and ~7 miles of running/jumping/sliding while people kick the shit out of you.

eVasiege_sl said:

As far as cardio and overall fitness is concerned, I'm going to have to go with soccer needing the most, though I have a pretty big bias. When you watch it on TV it doesn't look so demanding, but playing it is a completely different story, especially at a higher level. 90 minutes with few breaks and ~7 miles of running/jumping/sliding while people kick the shit out of you.

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I'd have to throw Australian football in there too, alongside soccer.

eVasiege_sl said:

Yeah, wrestling training seems like it would be pretty tough, especially when you add in the physical aspect of it. Same with boxing. Always wanted to try both, but never got into it. Did you have to pay attention to your weight a lot etchazz?

As far as cardio and overall fitness is concerned, I'm going to have to go with soccer needing the most, though I have a pretty big bias. When you watch it on TV it doesn't look so demanding, but playing it is a completely different story, especially at a higher level. 90 minutes with few breaks and ~7 miles of running/jumping/sliding while people kick the shit out of you.

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Wresting is just another animal in terms of the amount of physical suffering. I don't mean to diminish the conditioning of pro soccer players at all, but it's not the same as having to do a similar shit-ton of cardiovascular work while another angry man is using direct weight and leverage to try to tie you in knots and make it as uncomfortable as possible.

I played soccer for 13 years and it's not even remotely as grueling as submission grappling, which by any and all accounts is easier than wrestling.

I wrestled in middle school and freshman year of high school and practice wore me out way more than football/basketball/track. I'd go home absolutely destroyed everyday. Luckily I broke my collar bone midway through my freshman season and never had to go back. Our coach was a monster too. Used to do laps around the school gym on his hands. Always found it funny that he was like 220 of solid muscle but he sounded like mickey mouse.

eVasiege_sl said:

Yeah, wrestling training seems like it would be pretty tough, especially when you add in the physical aspect of it. Same with boxing. Always wanted to try both, but never got into it. Did you have to pay attention to your weight a lot etchazz?

As far as cardio and overall fitness is concerned, I'm going to have to go with soccer needing the most, though I have a pretty big bias. When you watch it on TV it doesn't look so demanding, but playing it is a completely different story, especially at a higher level. 90 minutes with few breaks and ~7 miles of running/jumping/sliding while people kick the shit out of you.

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Sorry man, but soccer isn't even in the same universe as wrestling in terms of conditioning. yes, most midfielders and forwards run the equivalent of 7 miles during a game, but you're not going full out the entire time. Most of the time you're jogging. wrestling is more like sprinting, where you're using up all of your energy in a much shorter amount of time. You couldn't wrestle for 90 minutes, because you'd die. wrestling is a fight with rules. Ever been in a serious brawl? Remember how exhausted you were when you were done fighting? That's wrestling. Practices are just as brutal. The conditioning needed to wrestle a 7 minute match (a college match of 3-2-2 without overtime) is insane. There's a reason why just about every UFC champion right now is an ex-collegiate wrestler (the only sport that I can think of that is harder than wrestling). And yes, weight cutting was terrible. In college, I weighed right around 132 flat weight and I wrestled 118. 14 pounds is a lot of weight when you don't have much fat on you to begin with. And that's nothing compared to how much a lot of wrestlers I know cut to make weight. There are wrestlers who cut up to 30 pounds or more to make weight. The mental and physical toughness needed to do wrestling is hard to compare to any other sport (except for sports like MMA and boxing).

I actually know several of the extras in this movie, and they all told me that Tatum did an amazing job preparing for this movie, and that he came a long way in a short time in actually learning how to wrestle, which is pretty damn impressive because it is not an easy sport to learn. This movie is going to be really good, and I can't wait to see it (Vision Quest fucking sucked).

In the realm of non-competitive superhuman physical activities, rock climbing and dancing are pretty insane and Tatum is a trained dancer I believe.

Just got back from a trip to New York to see this movie. Well worth the drive. It was amazing, easily the best picture of the year (so far). The acting was suburb (if you can get Tatum to act this well, you deserve an oscar for best director). They nailed the story. It also did a really good job in bringing the issue of class disparity to the forefront (fucking rich people think they're better than everyone else. Who knows, they probably are). Don't know why they didn't just do a wide release of this film out of the gate, but I'm sure it's going to do well once they do. One of the best sports movies I've ever seen (even though the wrestling part of the movie is not the main focus).