Are Super Duals hurting or helping Indiana Wrestling?

[AC Computer]

It's kind of slow this time of year, so here's something to discuss:

 

A lot of discussion occurs on this site about how we can improve the state of wrestling in Indiana, but has anyone considered that the increase in super duals and the decrease in regular 2-team duals may be hurting the sport?  Here?s my logic on asking this: 

 

Back in the 1980?s Adams Central?s schedule had one super dual, one triple dual, and two individual tournaments (including conference).  The remainder of the schedule was made of duals wrestled on Tuesday and Thursday evenings.  A normal home dual would draw 600-700 fans.  Many of those fans weren?t related to anyone on the team.  They came to support their local school or because they enjoyed watching the matches.  When tournament season they followed the team because they?d developed a connection with the young men on it.  My parents were like that.  After my nephews finished wrestling they still attended every home dual and the entire tournament series until Dad got sick because they supported the school and team.

 

This year Adams Central?s schedule still had one triple dual, but there were only four duals and the conference tournament was the only individual tournament.  There were five super duals.  If I had to guess I?d say we averaged 50 or fewer people at the away super duals and most of those were family and friends of wrestlers.  The attendance at home duals dropped to around 300-400.

 

I know that super duals mean more mat time for the wrestler, which in turn improves their skills, but few fans want to dedicate almost every Saturday for three months to attending super duals.  They are much more willing to spend two hours during the week watching a dual.  We?ve lost the casual fan that came to support the school.

 

That carries over to the tournament series.  Fewer fans attend because they haven?t developed the attachment to the team and its members like they may have in the past.  If we have more duals we could build more fan interest in the sport and could result in more athletes deciding to participate.

 

Any thoughts?

 

[MattM]

I think you hit the main issue in the middle of your statement.

 

What does your team and area need more of:

A. More mat time for your wrestlers which can lead to greater success and possibly more publicity for the sport in your community.

B. More opportunities to watch the team compete for your fan base and potential fans which could help gain more support for the sport within your community.

 

Obviously, the easy answer is a good balance of both.  But, I'm guessing you are looking for which approach will gain community support the fastest.  To me that may be somewhat of a community to community issues.  If not many people in the community know wrestling even is a legit sport at the HS the fastest way to change that would be show them you are having team and individual success.  Since people are attracted to success the more they hear about it the better chance they will jump on board and this will continue to help the team grow further.  If the wrestling team has had a fair run but the community doesn't seem to feel connected with it then more dual meets will probably be the fastest way to gain the community support needed to get to the next level.  People want a more fan friendly way (all day events make this hard) to feel connected to a program that is doing well and will show up if they feel they can watch the team add a win to a successful season.    Either way I think collaborating with the media and keeping the student up to date on the team progress will do more to grow the culture of wrestling weather you have a schedule of away multi-dual season or have more home duals.

[headlock83]

I think this is really two different issues.  What is best for the individual wrestler and what is best for the fan/spectator.  The recent era of super dual wrestling has without a doubt killed the dynamics of watching a great individual championship style tournament where a champ in each weight class has been established.  This can clearly be seen by the lack of attendance at super duals and then the immediate flood of people attending the final tournament series.  It does suck to take a wrestler to a single elimination tournament and have him sit around all day because he lost in the first round.  There are however, ways to do both.  Tournaments with full wrestle backs or pool wrestling where everyone in each pool are guaranteed to wrestle at least three matches.  Then winners of each pool wrestle for 1st and 2nd place, and so on.  I do think something needs to be done to put excitement back into the sport for spectators and community, which will encourage more youngsters to give the sport a chance.