chiaracokieng.com

Topic

Wrestling

A collection of 4 issues

Why I quit being an Olympic hopeful

I wanted to be an Olympic Wrestler. Or at least a World or Asian one. My hypothesis: I could condense twenty years of training into four, through heart, intelligence, and a willingness to invest time and money. After 1.5 years of training, competing, and collecting data, the verdict is

Be a woman who wrestles

Me (in green) at the Buno at Dumog Takedown Challenge, May 2016, Manila, Philippines I was on a 2-month North America speaking tour, we were in Boulder, Colorado, and I was the only female speaker. During Q&A, a young woman asked me, How do you overcome biases against

Break the opponent's balance before you attack

WRESTLING – I will be competing in my first takedown challenge in April 30. I have been thinking a lot about tactics. Which takedowns should I own and practice? Should I focus on offense or defense? (Offense) Should I train to be powerful, flexible, or nimble? These seemed to be

The day I got it in my head to join the Olympics

Jimmy Angana – the #1 freestyle wrestler in the Philippines today – was laughing at me, pulling me up, and cajoling me to stand up and fight. Albert Balde – then-president of the Wrestling Association of the Philippines – was at the edges of the mat, looking at his stopwatch,