Wrestling is a sport unlike any other, and one that it requires intense commitment from competitors. It requires years of training and focus to compete at a high level. This makes the case of sophomore Abby Lloyd all the more interesting. A native of Powell River, BC, Lloyd’s background is in judo, and she only began wrestling when she came to SFU.
“I started judo when I was about six years old,” Lloyd said. “I competed internationally for quite a while, and leading up to graduation I had to consider post-secondary, which there wasn’t a lot of options in regards to judo. [. . .] So I turned to wrestling, where Mike Jones [Head Wrestling Coach] recruited me, and I saw an opportunity in that.”
There are some similarities between judo and wrestling, but for the most part, Lloyd had to learn the sport from scratch. “There’s a lot of overlap in regards to takedowns and throws. But there were a lot of habits that I had to break in regards to being put on my back. Because judo fighters can be on their backs and defending at the same time. [In] wrestling, you can’t.
“What I really like about wrestling is that you can grab the leg,” she said. “Whereas in judo in 2010 they started incorporating rules where you couldn’t grab the legs. [. . .] In wrestling there’s more freedom for me to use my technique and [less worry] about being disqualified for something that’s against the rules.”
Lloyd has had some help from numerous people in SFU wrestling to make her a more well-rounded wrestler. “My coaches and my teammates” were the first people she mentioned. “[My teammates are] not ones that because they are [competing] in the same weight class, they’re going to keep all these secrets from you. They’re ones that actually want to see you get better and they want you to improve. If they see you doing something wrong, they’re going to correct you on it.
“In regard to coaches, Mike Jones is one of those guys that’s not going to tell you that you’re doing it perfectly, because he doesn’t want to boost your ego that much. He’s going to tell you that you did it better, and then he’s going to tell you how you can improve on it.”
One thing unique to the sport of wrestling is the weight class system. To compete in a certain weight class, Abby has to be at the weight or under it. For this season, she is fluctuating between the 109 lbs and 116 lbs weight class, which means lots of bulking and then cutting down.
“It’s not really healthy, but a lot of it will be water weight,” she said. “I know some of the guys they can probably lose 20 pounds of water weight. So what I do is, probably two to three weeks before prior to [the] competition, if you’re making a big cut, you want to focus on just cleaning up your diet. Making sure you don’t have any added sugar, no unneeded carbs, [and] try not to eat late at night.
“Leading up the week before you, start reducing water intake. Basically we just throw on the [compression] suit and get sweating. You want to cut water weight as much as you can before the competition.”
Abby explains the difference between the two weight classes. “The 109 [weight class] will definitely be focused more on speed, and the 116 more on strength. I myself am very compact, so a lot of the girls are going to be taller than me. [. . .] The strength and the height are the big differences.”
Between gaining and losing weight, Abby still has to study for her classes, a balance she found difficult to maintain in her freshman year.
“It was really, really hard,” she said. “I had no idea what I was doing. I came from a really small town, and in high school, I had such a close connection with my teachers [and] they were very lenient with me, [because] they knew my travel schedule.
“At SFU they understand the situation of varsity athletes, but you have to understand the responsibility is on you to get your assignments done and have things ahead of time if you’re going to be away. Whereas [in high school], I just relied on my teachers to get me out of things. But my first semester was a nightmare. My grades weren’t the best, but as I started to learn the ropes, I recognized that there has to be a balance academics and sports.”
The season is still in the beginning stages, but Abby has some concrete goals heading further into the season.
“My personal goal is to just really focus on my leg shots right now. Because I’m starting to develop an understanding of what my setups need to be in order to make those leg shots, as opposed to just tying up and going for the throw in judo. My goal is just to keep up with that, keep improving, and then hopefully it’s going to lead to some good results.”
