Though some siblings may not share the same interests or passion for similar activities, brothers Joshua and Zev Hartman share a relationship strengthened by their common love for wrestling. However, the brothers have been unable to wrestle alongside one another recently, as Joshua suffered a shoulder injury earlier in the year that ended his season. Despite the setback of not having his brother wrestling next to him, Zev has continued to direct his attention towards perfecting one of his greatest passions and wrestling his way to the top of the leaderboards.
Zev first began to wrestle his sophomore year when he deemed himself overweight and thought he needed to make a change. He cut down from 215 pounds to 175 pounds by his first weigh in and began to dedicate his time to wrestling.
To stay in shape, Zev conditions in the offseason and regular season by running every day to keep his body in check. As for his current preparation for districts, Zev has developed a daily routine of “getting in a good state of mind, running a mile every day and practicing with 100 percent effort.” In order to get into his preferred mindset for a match, however, he listens to rapper 6ix9ine and focuses on dominating his opponent.
Though he properly prepares for such first matches, the second wave of matches challenges Zev to truly work to muster energy and willpower in order to walk off the mat as the winner. “Getting prepared for the second match [is the hardest],” Zev said. “After the first match I feel tired and it’s hard to get back into the fighting spirit after finishing the first match.”
Nonetheless, Zev usually finds a way to dig deep enough to outlast his opponent. Throughout his wrestling career Zev has become accustomed to a winning culture, an aspect of wrestling that proved most enjoyable to him. “The pure thought of winning is all the motivation I need,” Zev said. “I love to win; it’s the best feeling in the world.”
