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Year round wrestling hurting the sport?


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Not necessarily my views, but I was reading a post on the another sight.    The title was "Is year round wrestling killing the sport? 

To summarize,  it just pointed out that due to kids wrestling 12 months,  we are developing great dominant wrestlers, and that looks great on the surface, but overall participation is dropping as a result.   The sentiment was,  the only way for kids to compete at the top level you have to wrestle all year round, only specialize in wrestling.   The kids that play multiple sports or don't have the resources to play year round, cant compete against the year round big dogs because they're not putting the time in or getting the training.   As a result, they're playing other sports because they're not going to be as successful.  Also adding to this is the pressure from other sports requiring specialization, thus scavenging good athletes away from wrestling.   The conclusion is this is the biggest reason why we have so many forfeits (not just an Indiana problem).  They even hit on the ever expanding national tournament circuit, that a lot of kids are being put in these too early and its freaking some of them out or burning them out when they're young, thus driving them away from wrestling.   Traveling sports is a billion dollar industry and is a phenomenon that every sports going to have to find away to adapt.

I got to agree that our best kids Indiana are better than ever.   But the middle and bottom levels are thinner than Ive seen. You also can see this represented by the top ranked schools have  4or 5 kids that can win a state championship. The big programs are doing things right and have something going on, but they're like the Tom Brady's of wrestling. They're monopolizing the state championships.

I just wonder about peoples opinions related to sports  specialization in wrestling?

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This goes along with every single athlete in any sport. Great baseball players play year round... as well as basketball. It isn't hurting the sport it is making the guy who are season only athletes fall behind. I say practice round round at what you love. Go do other sports but keep practicing the one you love most :)

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I think most of the kids that aren't year-round wrestlers really don't care.  If they cared that much about wrestling, they'd forsake other pursuits.

I was a "winter only" wrestler and I didn't care that I never made it to state.  February - August belonged to baseball and wrestling was just a "stay in shape" sport for the long, cold winter months.  It was fun, but it wasn't my passion.

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I don't believe this is just a wrestling issue, but an issue that all sports battle.  I wrestled school, did freestyle/greco, played school baseball, and travel baseball.  Even then I noticed that the most successful kids specialized and only played one full time instead of splitting time.  I found that I was falling behind in both and did not see the gains I wanted until I moved to just one.

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14 minutes ago, Cosgrove said:

This goes along with every single athlete in any sport. Great baseball players play year round... as well as basketball. It isn't hurting the sport it is making the guy who are season only athletes fall behind. I say practice round round at what you love. Go do other sports but keep practicing the one you love most :)

I think this basically summarizes it:)

The one other factor as 'year round' sports have become more and more popular is ACCESS to "off season" coaching.  If you live within 30 minutes of some of the better wrestling academies it is significantly easier to make that year-round commitment.  I know there are some who set such a high priority on their sport (whatever it is) that they invest vasts amounts of both time and money in travel costs.  That is not realistic for everyone.

Not saying this is "unfair", "wrong" etc....  But I do believe it is a fact that causes some differences in performance at the top level of competition.

I know my son considers himself a 'wrestler' and he competes in the preseason, does RTC's in the post-season, competes in the post-season etc....  That said, once he starts his summer job (which he has to have) his schedule does not really allow us to make the travel times and commit the funding to attending a wrestling academy (probably 1-2 hour drive to the nearest ones).  If he doesn't make it out of SS this year I definitely think that will be a contributing factor.  BUT NOT AN UNFAIR ONE!  IF A KID WHO DID MAKE THE COMMITMENT WINS- THAT KID DESERVES IT.

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I think it would be interesting to see how many state qualifiers are 2 or 3 sport athletes.  Also what classifies someone as a "year round" wrestler?  We have kids, let use Noah Warren for example, who I would consider a year round wrestler and he has played football every year while growing up.  He still has time to go to Disney Duels and a lot of national tournaments and also many camps in the off season. When football hits its during the short time that we are not practicing much or starting conditioning for pre-season. He doesn't miss much at all.  I guess what i'm wondering is can you still be considered a year round wrestler if you play a sport during the summer? I think it would be more difficult for baseball players and kids who run track because that's during the heavy part of our club season. 

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Year round sport specializing is here to stay. I'm not sure if that is good or bad for wrestling. I suppose it is both.

But, I will share a recent experience I have had. I coached in my local feeder football program when my son was playing - that was nearly 15 years ago. I was recently asked to do so even though I no longer have any young kids. I was happy to do so & accepted. When our regular season was over another coach & I were asked to put together an All-Star team. I was shocked when I discovered that All-Star Youth Football teams now play in tournaments where the kids are subjected to 4-5 games in one weekend. I could not help but wonder who in the heck ever thought this to be a good idea. The other coach entered our team into three of these tournaments. Against my better judgement, I attended & coached in the first. After that weekend & seeing several of the boys get beat up badly, I decided that I could no longer be a part of it. The other coach agreed given how banged up our team was after one weekend. These were 9-10 year old boys.

I know a lot of you guys on here are HS coaches. I employ you to look into your HS football feeder program to see if this is taking place. It shocks me that anyone would find this to be a good idea.

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This subject will be debated for years and years to come.  I coach in our club, as well as pop warner and one of my sons travel baseball teams (yes I'm crazy).  All three of my boys (9th, 7th and 5th grade) have been playing football and baseball since they were 5 and started wresting 3 years ago.  It's tough from a competitive standpoint to push them to the highest level when other kids are getting more swings in or more mat time or going to various year round football camps.  As a parent, at some point, you have to start making tough decisions regarding year round sport activity, not just from a progression standpoint but let's not forget a financial one as well.  I've seen many travel baseball players slowly walk away from the sport around the age of 13/14 and its been discussed in great length in the baseball community that part of this reason is because they simply start to lose their passion for the sport.  Some of these youth baseball teams are playing 70-90 games during the season, which is insane. 

However, wrestling seems to be a sport where only the passionate survive.  You can't really force a kid into wrestling as it typically doesn't end well.  Because of this, I honestly don't see wrestlers losing their passion as quickly as a baseball player might, not to mention that baseball is probably the biggest self esteem destroying sport out there from a statistic stand point.

College recruiters have also said they prefer multi sport athletes, but that can be misleading, because they aren't recruiting mediocrity either.

The real problem here are parents:  Parents have this crazy notion that their son/daughter should always be at the same level as Johnnie down the street.  Truth is, Johnnie matured earlier, has better muscle tone and at the age of 13 is done growing.  Kids develop at different rates, regardless if they practice year round or not.

Year round wrestling isn't pushing people from the sport, parents are. 

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I only have one knock on year round wrestling. Leadership skills are lost through the process (FOR THE MOST PART). It is the fact that year-round wrestling integrates a singular mindset into that wrestler, meaning they only care about their performance and not too much about their teammates' performance. Dedicating all of the hard work in the off season to their own skills sort of creates a mindset of "ONLY ME & MY WRESTLING MATTERS!" I feel that this then limits the leadership skills of these wrestlers who should be able to lead their teams during the season. I've seen this first hand at many of the programs I've been involved with. It isn't a huge or terrible deal that these guys aren't necessarily the best leaders of their teams, I just kind of get let down when the best wrestlers in the room only care about themselves and not the overall betterment of the squad. 

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15 minutes ago, NarrowGate said:

This subject will be debated for years and years to come.  I coach in our club, as well as pop warner and one of my sons travel baseball teams (yes I'm crazy).  All three of my boys (9th, 7th and 5th grade) have been playing football and baseball since they were 5 and started wresting 3 years ago.  It's tough from a competitive standpoint to push them to the highest level when other kids are getting more swings in or more mat time or going to various year round football camps.  As a parent, at some point, you have to start making tough decisions regarding year round sport activity, not just from a progression standpoint but let's not forget a financial one as well.  I've seen many travel baseball players slowly walk away from the sport around the age of 13/14 and its been discussed in great length in the baseball community that part of this reason is because they simply start to lose their passion for the sport.  Some of these youth baseball teams are playing 70-90 games during the season, which is insane. 

However, wrestling seems to be a sport where only the passionate survive.  You can't really force a kid into wrestling as it typically doesn't end well.  Because of this, I honestly don't see wrestlers losing their passion as quickly as a baseball player might, not to mention that baseball is probably the biggest self esteem destroying sport out there from a statistic stand point.

College recruiters have also said they prefer multi sport athletes, but that can be misleading, because they aren't recruiting mediocrity either.

The real problem here are parents:  Parents have this crazy notion that their son/daughter should always be at the same level as Johnnie down the street.  Truth is, Johnnie matured earlier, has better muscle tone and at the age of 13 is done growing.  Kids develop at different rates, regardless if they practice year round or not.

Year round wrestling isn't pushing people from the sport, parents are. 

That's some good insight.     I like your points.   Last year there was a HBO real sports segment on specialized sports.    It emphasized and foucused on some travel baseball parents but it did hit on volleyball, softball, tennis and other sports.   It just demonstrated how much parents invest their vacation time,  money and everything else into the sports.     There take away was that sports tourism is a billion dollar industry, parents are putting  money, vacation time and blood sweat and tears into the sports.   Communities are dropping millions into facilities to get the sports parents to their site and the sports tourism $.   They interviewed a community leader in Westfield about building grand park.  If people don't know,  Grand Park in Westfield is one of the largest sports facilities in the country with 26 baseball/softball fields and over 20 soccer/football fields.  They spent over 14 Million on it. 

The parents plainly said the main reason they did it was to have their kid keep up competitively with the other kid at the high school or wherever.    The problem was that more and more parents cant invest time and money to keep up with the next kid doing travel sports, so they give up. Real Sports noted that overall, sports participation is significantly down as a result of this phenomenon. 

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31 minutes ago, Wrestling Scholar said:

That's some good insight.     I like your points.   Last year there was a HBO real sports segment on specialized sports.    It emphasized and foucused on some travel baseball parents but it did hit on volleyball, softball, tennis and other sports.   It just demonstrated how much parents invest their vacation time,  money and everything else into the sports.     There take away was that sports tourism is a billion dollar industry, parents are putting  money, vacation time and blood sweat and tears into the sports.   Communities are dropping millions into facilities to get the sports parents to their site and the sports tourism $.   They interviewed a community leader in Westfield about building grand park.  If people don't know,  Grand Park in Westfield is one of the largest sports facilities in the country with 26 baseball/softball fields and over 20 soccer/football fields.  They spent over 14 Million on it. 

The parents plainly said the main reason they did it was to have their kid keep up competitively with the other kid at the high school or wherever.    The problem was that more and more parents cant invest time and money to keep up with the next kid doing travel sports, so they give up. Real Sports noted that overall, sports participation is significantly down as a result of this phenomenon. 

My boys have played at Grand Park and I believe someone said they actually haven't made any money in three years, although I'm sure they will long term.  The cost factor is huge, especially for parents with multiple kids.

The cost of being competitive in sports is simply ridiculous in the grand scheme of things

1.  Club fees for my three boys - $300
2.  Private academy fees - $230 (this will increase if we start doing privates and camps)
3.  Weekend club tournaments - $600 (estimated and doesn't include Greco/freestyle)
4.  Hotel fees - $460 (Estimated, including trips to Indy twice, Iowa and Battle Creek)
5.  Travel Baseball cost ($750 for 10U, $1000 for 13U)
6.  Estimated Hotel for baseball ($500 and this is cheap because both my boys play at the same out of town place twice, which isn't always the case)
7.  Pop Warner - $250
8.  And I'm not even including the stupidity that I have to pay to walk into any of these sporting events to watch my own kid play in a sport I've paid for them to play in.  Nor does it include food, gas, fund raising (which I almost always just end up paying for), etc.

Grand Total :  $4090 and I'm sure I'm missing a crap ton of other expenses since these are quick rough estimates.  In fact we actually budget $400 per month for sports.  I could be driving my dream car right now after a few years!!!

 

And you're right, many parents can't afford the time commitment or the financial commitment so that drives people from the sport(s) as well.  It also creates a lack of local pride, meaning that kids travel to play in other elite clubs or baseball teams because they are more competitive or in some cases because dad can't get along with a coach.


 

 

Edited by NarrowGate
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It only ruins the kids seasons that AREN'T  WRESTLING in the summer because the kids that do pass them by and evolve at a faster rate are wrestling more...If you wanna be on that podium in most cases you better wrestle year round because this is a unforgiving sport and it's very evident with most good wrestlers that they put the extra work in... the game don't wait, period. 

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36 minutes ago, NarrowGate said:

My boys have played at Grand Park and I believe someone said they actually haven't made any money in three years, although I'm sure they will long term.  The cost factor is huge, especially for parents with multiple kids.

The cost of being competitive in sports is simply ridiculous in the grand scheme of things

1.  Club fees for my three boys - $300
2.  Private academy fees - $230 (this will increase if we start doing privates and camps)
3.  Weekend club tournaments - $600 (estimated and doesn't include Greco/freestyle)
4.  Hotel fees - $460 (Estimated, including trips to Indy twice, Iowa and Battle Creek)
5.  Travel Baseball cost ($750 for 10U, $1000 for 13U)
6.  Estimated Hotel for baseball ($500 and this is cheap because both my boys play at the same out of town place twice, which isn't always the case)
7.  Pop Warner - $250
8.  And I'm not even including the stupidity that I have to pay to walk into any of these sporting events to watch my own kid play in a sport I've paid for them to play in.  Nor does it include food, gas, fund raising (which I almost always just end up paying for), etc.

Grand Total :  $4090 and I'm sure I'm missing a crap ton of other expenses since these are quick rough estimates.  In fact we actually budget $400 per month for sports.  I could be driving my dream car right now after a few years!!!

 

And you're right, many parents can't afford the time commitment or the financial commitment so that drives people from the sport(s) as well.  It also creates a lack of local pride, meaning that kids travel to play in other elite clubs or baseball teams because they are more competitive or in some cases because dad can't get along with a coach.


 

 

My daughter plays travel softball.  Im in denial and am not going to list how much it costs me.  Wrestling in some ways isn't as bad cost wise but, if you hit the circuit hard it can add up.

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3 hours ago, Wrestling Scholar said:

But the middle and bottom levels are thinner than Ive seen

Or is it that the best Kids are making that gap larger seperating themselves from the pack? I don't think kids are getting worse I just think the quality is getting better and the lower level to mid level are getting left behind...Forfeits come from too many reasons to point at just a couple of reasons.. good topic though 

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28 minutes ago, FCFIGHTER170 said:

Or is it that the best Kids are making that gap larger seperating themselves from the pack? I don't think kids are getting worse I just think the quality is getting better and the lower level to mid level are getting left behind...Forfeits come from too many reasons to point at just a couple of reasons.. good topic though 

My son played for the Indiana Bulls and they traveled to Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia and Florida.  I would spend every bit of $4,000 a year on Hotels, Food and Gas; throw in organizational fees (around $2000), baseball equipment (new bat every year), gate fees, and just a crap load of incidentals and I was probably close to $7,500 on baseball alone.   My daughter was involved in Club Volleyball and Travel Softball but because they didn't travel outside of the state very often it felt like we were paying a discount for them.

With that said they had a wonderful time, learn their sport extremely well and I know they will remember it for a lifetime so it was money well spent. 

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It’s Parents that get burned out, not the kids. That’s what Parents (Adults) say to Coaches or their Kids when they had enough. Little Johnny burned out . EXCUSES ! 

Yes, kids got to have the desire to get better and willing to do a sport 24/7/365. It’s tough, injures ect. ect. ect. I look back at what I done to get my boys to where they are now. I literally spent 2 years in a building every night watching my sons practice, 2 practices, sometimes 3 practices Hours & hours of “my” time, “my” life, I pretty much lived there. Everyday the same routine, no vacations, our family vacations was Wrestling Tournaments. It didn’t stop there once or twice a month crossing the Country searching for best competition. I had a Goal, my Sons had a Goal. My Goal to give them the best environment to honne in their skill . Their Goal to train to be the best . I never told them they had to go to practice, they told me let’s go. “Routine” It’s a sacrifice that parents willing to take out of their personal lives, the kids have to want to do it . Gotta Love doing what they do. I wouldnt change what I did, I bet they wouldn’t change what they did either . 

 

 

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Young kids (elementary) should definitely be playing 2,3, even 4 sports if they want to.  Play for the season and then move on to another if they want to try another, or extend one if they are only interested in 2 sports maybe just to keep them active.  There are some sports that are better than others to pair up with wrestling.  Football is usually not going to have much going on when it is not in season.  It is a great mental break and physically different so you don't get injured from repetition when you turn off wrestling and turn on football for a few months.  Travel baseball is a nightmare in my opinion.  They start practicing in December or January and play through August.  There are high costs so the parents feel they must do it all.  Plus the kid's whole summer is spent competing instead of playing and being a kid.

I think you can still strike a balance if the kid ends up in football and wrestling.  Wrestle and compete during the season.  Take some time off after the season.  Find a club or an RTC to go to maybe 2 or 3 days a week in the summer.  Maybe wrestle one or two summer touranments.  Play little league or Cal Ripken even for fun if you want, just not full blown travel ball.  When football starts, be 100% football and take a mental break.  I think a kid who does that has a chance to compete for a state championship if they have some talent, work hard, have a good coach and partners.  Anyone who wants a state championship are going to need those things.  Put yourself in a position to have a good chance and then show up, do your best, and see what happens.

From what I have seen, kids who start wrestling at 6 or 7 years old do have an advantage heading into middle school.  But 3 years in middle school with a good coach and maybe some summer wrestling for a kid with physical talents makes it very possible to make up that gap on the more experienced kids.  I really don't care anymore if a kid has any experience before middle school, I just see it as a challenge to prepare them for high school and I enjoy seeing the huge improvements.  Plus they don't have bad habits to break or believe they can headlock or bulldog to win every match - its hard to convince kids those things aren't going to work when they win with it for years. 

I think kids expect too much as a freshman and make bad choices for a career based on what they do when they are at a physical disadvantage against more mature kids.  I am trying to stress that their success will most like come as a junior or senior and you have to pay your dues to get there - take the lumps and it will pay off.  

 

Edited by doctorWrestling
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17 hours ago, TeamGarcia said:

It’s Parents that get burned out, not the kids. That’s what Parents (Adults) say to Coaches or their Kids when they had enough. Little Johnny burned out . EXCUSES ! 

Yes, kids got to have the desire to get better and willing to do a sport 24/7/365. It’s tough, injures ect. ect. ect. I look back at what I done to get my boys to where they are now. I literally spent 2 years in a building every night watching my sons practice, 2 practices, sometimes 3 practices Hours & hours of “my” time, “my” life, I pretty much lived there. Everyday the same routine, no vacations, our family vacations was Wrestling Tournaments. It didn’t stop there once or twice a month crossing the Country searching for best competition. I had a Goal, my Sons had a Goal. My Goal to give them the best environment to honne in their skill . Their Goal to train to be the best . I never told them they had to go to practice, they told me let’s go. “Routine” It’s a sacrifice that parents willing to take out of their personal lives, the kids have to want to do it . Gotta Love doing what they do. I wouldnt change what I did, I bet they wouldn’t change what they did either . 

 

 

I totally agree it is a personal choice that the wrestler needs to make. Once that choice has been made the parent has to be all in.  Four years ago when my boy was a 4th grader we were driving back from Brute nationals, he finished 4th.  He woke up and the first thing he said "dad, I cant play football and be a national champ" What do you say to a 4th grader when his goal is to be a state and national champ?  We had a long conversation about goal setting and what he is really passionate about, at that point he made the choice to be a full time wrestler. 

I do hate it that this is our society, but we have to face reality specializing in a sport is here to stay.  I felt I had to be honest with my son and I told him its not that he could not be a state or national champ if he played football but his chances would be slim.  Once he committed we both were all in and like previous post I have traveled the nation and my boy and I have spent time together that I will cherish forever.

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I'm not going to question anybody's parenting because you know your kids better than anybody.  I think specializing prior to middle school is not such a good thing.  Sorry to say it, TRbell, but the chances of being a state or national champion is slim regardless of whether or not you son plays football (or any other sport).  I'm not saying he's not talented enough, because I have no idea who he is, but it's just long odds for anybody.  Specializing early may or may not get a kid to that level, but good luck to your son.

I see posts on facebook from people that have young kids (1st - 2nd grade) that say how worried their kids are about their diet because they have a better chance at a lower weight.  Completely ridiculous at that age.

I was always a multiple sport athlete (lettered in 4 sports in HS) and went one season at a time.  Wrestling was winter only for me, with an occasional freestyle tournament during the spring.  Freestyle pretty much stopped in HS because that was baseball season.  I was a state place winner.  Could I have placed higher if I had specialized in 3rd or 4th grade?  Who knows?  But I sure had some good times with my baseball, football and soccer teams that I probably wouldn't trade for a couple of extra spots on the podium.

The problem I see is the parents.  Again, not pointing fingers to anybody here because I don't know any of you.  But I think parents want little Johnny to be the next Nick Lee or Brayton Lee, or Lebron or Bryce Harper and they sacrifice a lot in the hopes of essentially hitting the lottery.  Saw a post on FB the other day of a young kid (2nd grade I think) at batting practice with the caption "Putting in work because college is expensive!"

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32 minutes ago, Trbell said:

I totally agree it is a personal choice that the wrestler needs to make. Once that choice has been made the parent has to be all in.  Four years ago when my boy was a 4th grader we were driving back from Brute nationals, he finished 4th.  He woke up and the first thing he said "dad, I cant play football and be a national champ" What do you say to a 4th grader when his goal is to be a state and national champ?  We had a long conversation about goal setting and what he is really passionate about, at that point he made the choice to be a full time wrestler. 

I do hate it that this is our society, but we have to face reality specializing in a sport is here to stay.  I felt I had to be honest with my son and I told him its not that he could not be a state or national champ if he played football but his chances would be slim.  Once he committed we both were all in and like previous post I have traveled the nation and my boy and I have spent time together that I will cherish forever.

The bottom paragraph nailed it, “spending time together that I will cherish forever”  PRICELESS ! 

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The "one sport superstar" mentality drives me nuts. I hate it. I have a kid that is a very good baseball player (and would be a good football player) that says he is going to drop baseball to work more on wrestling. I've had some of my football players that think if they stop wrestling they'll magically get more playing time and better at football. Be well rounded. Be an athlete and have fun doing it. Kids that are great all-around athletes choose to give up on something they enjoy and are good at and it is really disappointing. The middle tier kids that would turn out to be very very good, but not elite choose not to stay because they think they'll be a one sport superstar in something else.

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3 hours ago, MD92 said:

I'm not going to question anybody's parenting because you know your kids better than anybody.  I think specializing prior to middle school is not such a good thing.  Sorry to say it, TRbell, but the chances of being a state or national champion is slim regardless of whether or not you son plays football (or any other sport).  I'm not saying he's not talented enough, because I have no idea who he is, but it's just long odds for anybody.  Specializing early may or may not get a kid to that level, but good luck to your son.

I see posts on facebook from people that have young kids (1st - 2nd grade) that say how worried their kids are about their diet because they have a better chance at a lower weight.  Completely ridiculous at that age.

I was always a multiple sport athlete (lettered in 4 sports in HS) and went one season at a time.  Wrestling was winter only for me, with an occasional freestyle tournament during the spring.  Freestyle pretty much stopped in HS because that was baseball season.  I was a state place winner.  Could I have placed higher if I had specialized in 3rd or 4th grade?  Who knows?  But I sure had some good times with my baseball, football and soccer teams that I probably wouldn't trade for a couple of extra spots on the podium.

The problem I see is the parents.  Again, not pointing fingers to anybody here because I don't know any of you.  But I think parents want little Johnny to be the next Nick Lee or Brayton Lee, or Lebron or Bryce Harper and they sacrifice a lot in the hopes of essentially hitting the lottery.  Saw a post on FB the other day of a young kid (2nd grade I think) at batting practice with the caption "Putting in work because college is expensive!"

I totally agree with about 90% of what  you said. We all know that we all can't be national champs, but I do think there are kids at a young age that are driven more than other kids and those are the kids that become state and national champs.  If a kid falls short of his goals in this great sport I guarantee he has learned intangible skills that will make him successful in life. Work ethic, taking ownership in your success and failures, leadership are all skills learned  through the process of chasing a dream.  I too have seen 1st and 2nd graders cutting weight and this is another reason why kids quite, not the specialization but the parents living their dreams through the child.  I do not allow cutting more than three pounds.   Two weeks ago for Tulsa my son cut 3.3 pounds over 3 days and that is only the second time he has cut in over 9 years of wrestling,  even my high school team is not allowed to cut more than 5.  On the other side of the coin I know kids who cut a lot of weight and do it safely with no issues, I just choose for my son to lift and eat into his weight class.

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5 hours ago, Trbell said:

I totally agree it is a personal choice that the wrestler needs to make. Once that choice has been made the parent has to be all in.  Four years ago when my boy was a 4th grader we were driving back from Brute nationals, he finished 4th.  He woke up and the first thing he said "dad, I cant play football and be a national champ" What do you say to a 4th grader when his goal is to be a state and national champ?  We had a long conversation about goal setting and what he is really passionate about, at that point he made the choice to be a full time wrestler. 

I do hate it that this is our society, but we have to face reality specializing in a sport is here to stay.  I felt I had to be honest with my son and I told him its not that he could not be a state or national champ if he played football but his chances would be slim.  Once he committed we both were all in and like previous post I have traveled the nation and my boy and I have spent time together that I will cherish forever.

To add to my post you cannot force a kid to be a full time wrestler or to specialize and any sport they will just rebel.  Being a full time wrestler is physically and mentally demanding and only the truly dedicated athlete will do what it takes to have chance to become a state or national champ.  There is no blue print that will ensure that an athlete will reach their goals if there was we would all follow it.  I have no opinion on specializing because each athlete is different any many ways.  As for my son his goals are straight forward and it has nothing to do with any sport outside of wrestling.  On my high school team I have full time wrestlers and wrestlers who play multiple sports, it is simple we discuss their goals and I give them the information and guidance to make their own decision.  I have a baseball player who wrestles, his goal is to pitch in college  but he wrestles because he loves competition and to keep him busy during the winter, he is even my captain.  I have football players that love wrestling but football is their main sport.  We should not be labeling or being closed minded, because today the athlete has many opportunities that were not available when I was young,  it is ultimately up to the athlete and if they are allowed to make their own decisions it will be a more enjoyable process for all involved.

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Does year round wrestling hurt the sport?

You don't become a more skilled wrestler playing other sports, so in that sense kids have far more developed skill sets because of year round wrestling. But as others have mentioned it has created greater separation at our top level, and potentially created a barrier of entry for kids new to the sport. Does that mean we impede the progress of our elite kids or programs for the betterment of the masses? (exemplified in the bias against V2 teams)

I see plusses and minuses, but it is here to stay. I prefer to see the specialization wait until MS or older, but i know that all circumstances arent the same, and it may well be the best thing for some younger kids. 

The one thing i like about year round wrestling is that it keeps the kids active and involved. Now i love Indiana, but we have a lot of depressed communities both economically and culturally. There isnt a whole lot else for kids to do besides partying. But wrestling year round keeps them engaged and focused. Kids are more likely to stay on a successful path if they are involved in something. If that something isnt another sport or constructive activity, then wrestling in those other 3 seasons is the answer.

Edited by Westforkwhite
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