Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Manly Sports – Wrestling.


Mongolian wrestling begins and ends with a dance. Each contestant has a second to hold his hat. But before the symbolic hat taking, the wrestler dances round his second with extraordinarily light steps for such big men. Then there is the first bottom slap.

Once the struggle is joined, the object is to ground your opponent. This can take less than a minute or half and hour. There are usually a number of bouts going on simultaneously on the field, so if two guys are really enjoying each other’s company, there is always someone to watch who is about to hit the dirt. As encouragement, the seconds circulate the guys and occasionally slaps his man on the bottom by way of encouragement. A bit of a miss match here but I guess you have to start somewhere!!! No prizes for working out who won this bout!!!

Being triumphant, the winner almost pirouettes with graceful arm movements that wouldn’t look out of place in Swan Lake. The two contestants then collect their hats from the seconds and part with a final bottom slap. All quite touching.

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