‘Wrestling kept us all positive’

Lancashire Wrestling Federation has had to shut its doors since the pandemic broke out in March.

Ste said the academy had “carried” his students through a tough second half of the year.

“They have been working on their characters.

“The better they get as wrestlers the more confident they start to feel.

“When you build a character, you put some of yourself into it.

“I think that’s helped carry them through this (pandemic).

“They have a sense of purpose which is huge, I think being a member of LWF has helped them through the lockdown.”

Carl has wrestled since 2006 and became a trainer for LWF in 2017.

Ste says Carl is a huge factor to the club’s sustainability.

Ste said: “Carl is constantly in touch with our students and puts in the hard work making sure they all stay focused.

“I would say he’s been a real constant to them. He has played a massive factor is the sustainability of our wrestling academy and helped create stars for us.”

Carl added: “The problem is for myself and a lot of trainees is that wrestling training is an escape for us.

“We see it as a great social thing and it’s been really hard missing that this year.”

Interest in the sport increases

Even though it is unable to open, the club has received a lot of interest from people wanting to join.

It received a government grant to help during the lockdown. This has meant they are in a stable position financially even if they aren’t able to reopen yet.

Ste said: “The frustrating part is we have new students wanting to sign up and aren’t able to. I don’t want them to lose interest. We must bring more people in and I’ve had a lot of interest,

"I’ll be annoyed if we lose that. I have been working my normal job at a warehouse during the lockdown, but I want to get back to what I love doing.”