Real men travel

This traveling question is interesting to me…my experience is that for many years I was a high end corporate pilot and usually traveled 300 days a year…so the very thought of traveling is unpleasant to me…so my fix was years ago I moved to Las Vegas NV…we get something like 40 million travelers a year…coming though here for one reason or another…some of them are into our hobby…and have had many fights over the years directly from living here…so now people travel and usually on the company’s dime for business, already have a hotel room and all I have to do is go a few miles…so what I am saying is depending on how much you are into fighting or need fighting…find a tourist center, get online, and answer your emails…works great and most of the people I meet for this were going to be here anyway so no one is put out at all…

Hmm. Some people have jobs which ring on short notice, some people are carers for others. Some can't afford that £40 train. It's not fair to be judged like that when everyone's circumstances are different.

Love the beard Taigun! :)>

Ironbull I have travelled 10 thousand miles to wrestle you buddy. lol I get the same thing down here I live 60 miles(120klms) out of Melbourne I have a matroom and gym and i class myself as an adequate wrestler for the expirence I get. I get many comments on my ad but when I try to arrange a meet there is always the excuse of its too far. If I say that I can meet them in Melbourne they are always busy. lol most of them are oxygen thieves mate

But I do have a diary restle, and by the way isn't Grudge a japanese horror film? Not that I'm nitpicking or anything like that...

yep - reckon ironbull is whinging (feel a grudge match coming on!) - read his comments here and thought he would be worth travelling to for a meet - then you read his profile and he dosen`t have availability until May!!

I think you're being perfectly fair Robert. My whinge (it was a bit of a whinge) was really directed at those who seem unwilling to get on a train or drive up the motorway, and not to the many who are fair and gentlemanly without question.

Of course it follows that if you are lucky enough to have mats at home (the last time I wrestled at home the plaster came off the ceiling below!)then the other guy is travelling but then you're the one setting up and cleaning up so that balances it out.

I have read with interest the dialogue regarding travelling and/or hosting. I would be only too pleased to be able to host but regretably I can't. However, if my opponent is travelling and incurring costs that I don't have I always offer to pay the mat room costs to compensate. Depending on the the guy's costs I'll pay for food and drinks after (assumimng I'm still in one piece) I think it all boils down to using some common sense and being reasonable with each other. Or am I just old fashioned. Robert

I think one really important thing to do at the outset is to communicate clearly with each other about hosting/travelling arrangements and be in agreement about the meet. This should then eliminate the majority of problems.

From experience of travelling to meets and accommodating there are a few things I'd make sure of:

If you've agreed a meet and one of the guys has a particularly long/arduous/expensive journey the other could offer to help in some way (financially maybe or otherwise). I had a long journey once and was given a nice hot dinner when I arrived! It just shows some consideration.

If you're hosting be clear about the setup you have for wrestling. I often send a pic of my mat space and then the guy has a better idea about the meet. And I always offer a shower afterwards; this has to be a given.

We should always respect other wrestlers' circumstances and preferences- for example some guys just can't host. I personally prefer accommodating, not because I don't want to travel, but because I just enjoy hosting. If we do our prep before the meet, reach agreement, wrestle in comfortable surroundings, and have the opportunity to freshen up afterwards then it is more likely to be a great grapple!

Agree generally with comments to date. I've met quite a few wrestlers since I joined AF 2 and a bit years ago, but in every case it's been because I'm prepared to travel. Plenty of those occasions my opponent(s) have travelled too, but yes sometimes I've felt a mug when I've done all the work myself and the other guy just sat in his cosy front room waiting for me and didn't even offer a shower afterwards! One who will remain nameless didn't actually have space for us to wrestle when I got there after 2.5 hours journey!!

However, I do have some sympathy with the cost side of it: rail fares are expensive and adding this to the price of venue hire (Pippas £60 for the afternoon) and in odd cases a hotel room overnight, the budget is comparable to a weekend away. Also, bearing in mind that choices are at the moment pretty much limited to Manchester, Rochdale or London, in my case each of those is a basically a full day out so it really is not something I can do any day: I need to budget for meets!

I couldn't agree more with both these guys comments, I've also messaged guys on the "match request" section, only to be ignored completely buy guys who aren't prepared to answer a request let alone travel.

Agree that some expect people to come to them rather than travel, I have had people refuse a meet in manchester as its half an hours drive where its over 2 hours drive from me! I'm happy to pick up my own hotel costs in London though leaving others to buy the post bout pint!

Wrestling comes at a cost, like any hobby. If you use a matroom or Travelodge it costs around £40 plus travelling costs plus a beer or two after. I know times are tough but that is not off the scale compared to a number of other leisure pursuits.

As someone (among many) quite prepared to travel for meets I have become somewhat peeved recently at the unwillingness of some others to do the same. "I want to wrestle you" turns into "I can't be arsed making any effort to make this happen so you travel across country, you book the venue, maybe stay overnight at your own expense, and I'll just turn up OK?". Lucky me.

I also find it surprising to see such a large number of profiles saying "I am prepared to travel 0 miles". Unless you have a steady supply of wrestlers within walking distance and a matroom at home, this either implies that you expect your opponent to do the travelling and bear all the costs or else it says that in reality your "wrestling hobby" never really extends beyond your computer screen. All the genuine guys here will travel according to the needs of the meet.

I live in the UK not the USA. It's a small island. Most of us are no more than 200 miles from the action, 200 miles is an easy daytrip and it's not that expensive if pre-planned. I think that anyone not prepared to travel 200 miles is suspect. I also plan to start acknowledging those who do travel in my recommendations.

If one person's journey is significantly longer than the other's then the other should be sensitive to sharing costs or reciprocating. So I am also going to start acknowledging those who were fair in this regard in my recommendations.

Some people only accom, but then their home is being used by the other guy for shower facilities and also the home owner has to clear up any mess made afterwards. This is a small price to pay for a local train fare, or a bit of petrol used.