No Excuses By Kyle Maynard

One in every two thousand; the chances of being born with the life changing disorder Kyle overcomes every day. If you were that one, would you chose to let it hold you back from chasing your dreams or would you prove to the world that you are just as capable as any other person? No Excuses is an inspirational story about the life of Kyle Maynard, who was born a congenital amputee. With arms ending at his elbows and his legs at his knees, you can imagine the plethora of issues he is faced with each and every day. The book tells how Kyle must overlook everyone’s doubt and pity to reach his overall goals and prove he is just as normal as any other human. His dedication for wrestling has a large impact on his life as he works diligently on perfecting

One moment in Kyle’s life that demonstrated his “No Excuses” attitude is when he continued wrestling and did not quit until he won his first match. Coach Ramos and Kyle’s father were two of his biggest supporters during his first year of wrestling. The three of them would work during practices to come up with move sequences that would work best for his body type to allow him to win. They helped Kyle believe in himself and gave him hope that if he continued working hard he would win his first match. However, as his wrestling season came to an end 6th grade year, he had still not won a single match. As he contemplated giving up, his father spoke to him about how he had not won a match his first year either. Even though this ended up being a lie, it gave Kyle hope to continue pursuing his wrestling career. As the regional tournament was approaching, he pushed himself harder each practice hoping to qualify for states. His hard work definitely paid off as he won his first match 7-4, and placed 2nd at regionals. Therefore, this shows that if Kyle had given up he would have never got the satisfaction of victory and discovered his passion for

Kyle also demonstrated his “No Excuses” attitude when he continued wrestling with a broken nose. In one of his matches, Kyle’s nose was broken as his opponent’s arm crashed into it. As you could imagine the type of pain he was inflicted, he continued the match as if nothing was wrong. When he woke up the next morning his nose was swollen twice its size, but he still participated in the second day of the tournament. Kyle refused to tell Coach Ramos he was injured, due to the fact he didn’t want a JV player jeopardizing his chance of becoming a state champion. In his first match of the day, his competitor noticed Kyle’s broken nose and decided to use this as an advantage. He was head butted the first 15 seconds of the match and began feeling unconscious. Although, when the match resumed Kyle beat the kid with a 15 point mercy rule. As well as winning his first match of the day, he also qualified for states. Finally, Kyle had the chance to chase after his dream of becoming a state champion. If he had not wrestled with his broken nose, all his hard work over the years would have never paid off towards his ultimate