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Numbers up? How are those numbers now?


takemtothemat

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3 hours ago, artie_wrestler said:

Started with 26 down to 20. I see these 20 staying the rest of the season. On Friday I had a "varsity" kid say he emotionally cannot handle the competitiveness and quit.

Wow, unfortunately we have raised an over sensitive society.  Hope these kids never run into a rough patch in their life.

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We started with 17 on the first day of practice. We currently have 6.

reasons-

4 are ineligible with grades and have decided to stop showing up

3 had decided to quit to get jobs. (At the present time only 1 of them has a job)

1 has been expelled

1 quit because he still has to let his arm heal from when he broke it in the spring (odd considering he played the entire football season, starting both ways, without any padding on said arm)

1 quit after the first tourney saying it wasn't for him

1 decided to tell me he didn't care if I thought him wrestling in a tourney was important, he had dinner with his girlfriend and he was meeting her family, so that mattered more to him.

plus I lost my manager because she was the aforementioned girlfriend

plus my assistant has mono and hasn't been cleared to help.

 

so yeah

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9 hours ago, artie_wrestler said:

Started with 26 down to 20. I see these 20 staying the rest of the season. On Friday I had a "varsity" kid say he emotionally cannot handle the competitiveness and quit.

Only 6 out 26 is not bad. You're doing something right.

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I have have been around this sport for about 45 years and I have several theories why kids are leaving the sport.  First of all, I agree that kids don't seem to be as tough nosed today as they were 20-30 years ago.  It is true that the caliber of wrestling is much higher today than in the past, but the majority of kids are softer and much too quick to quit.  Cultural shift is mostly responsible for this.  Parents in the past simply would not allow their kids to quit a sport once they started.  It was a responsibility issue that is not present with today's parenting.  Technology is probably the biggest culprit.  30 years ago all kids had was sports, now they have far too many other things to occupy their time which makes quitting easier.  Let's also face the fact that wrestling isn't a sport that you do just for fun or something to do.  Unless you are good at it, it probably does suck to get your butt pounded every time you go out.  However, my main theory why kids don't stay interested in wrestling is due to the lack of individual tournament style wrestling.  The sport has mostly gone to super dual formats where you take kids to an all day event where you wrestle 6 times on one day and maybe even another 6 time the next day.  I feel that most kids find this format unmotivating and quite frankly boring.  When there are championship style tournaments the excitement factor raises about 10 fold for everyone involved.  I realize the reasons why coaches prefer the super dual format.  Their kids get more matches in and let's face it, super duals take very little effort to run and championship style tournaments are a logistical challenge.  It is my belief, that if we provide a more interesting format for the wrestlers, the retention would be much much higher as would overall interest in the sport.  It is almost impossible to sit and watch an all day super dual without wishing you were doing something else.  But, when the end of year state tournament season starts, interest soars.  As a fan of the sport, I have gradually quit going to any wrestling events until mid January.  This is just my theory.  And the big argument  against my thoughts are that kids don't get as many matches with tournament wrestling.  To that I say, kids probably shouldn't be wrestling 50 -70 time a year.  Not sure the human body was meant to take that much punishment.  These are just my thoughts on the subject.

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12 minutes ago, headlock83 said:

The sport has mostly gone to super dual formats where you take kids to an all day event where you wrestle 6 times on one day and maybe even another 6 time the next day.

Who's wrestling 6 times in one day?

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49 minutes ago, headlock83 said:

I have have been around this sport for about 45 years and I have several theories why kids are leaving the sport.  First of all, I agree that kids don't seem to be as tough nosed today as they were 20-30 years ago.  It is true that the caliber of wrestling is much higher today than in the past, but the majority of kids are softer and much too quick to quit.  Cultural shift is mostly responsible for this.  Parents in the past simply would not allow their kids to quit a sport once they started.  It was a responsibility issue that is not present with today's parenting.  Technology is probably the biggest culprit.  30 years ago all kids had was sports, now they have far too many other things to occupy their time which makes quitting easier.  Let's also face the fact that wrestling isn't a sport that you do just for fun or something to do.  Unless you are good at it, it probably does suck to get your butt pounded every time you go out.  However, my main theory why kids don't stay interested in wrestling is due to the lack of individual tournament style wrestling.  The sport has mostly gone to super dual formats where you take kids to an all day event where you wrestle 6 times on one day and maybe even another 6 time the next day.  I feel that most kids find this format unmotivating and quite frankly boring.  When there are championship style tournaments the excitement factor raises about 10 fold for everyone involved.  I realize the reasons why coaches prefer the super dual format.  Their kids get more matches in and let's face it, super duals take very little effort to run and championship style tournaments are a logistical challenge.  It is my belief, that if we provide a more interesting format for the wrestlers, the retention would be much much higher as would overall interest in the sport.  It is almost impossible to sit and watch an all day super dual without wishing you were doing something else.  But, when the end of year state tournament season starts, interest soars.  As a fan of the sport, I have gradually quit going to any wrestling events until mid January.  This is just my theory.  And the big argument  against my thoughts are that kids don't get as many matches with tournament wrestling.  To that I say, kids probably shouldn't be wrestling 50 -70 time a year.  Not sure the human body was meant to take that much punishment.  These are just my thoughts on the subject.

Kids aren't softer, that is on the coaches. There are still kids that are tough, you have to bring it out of them. Every generation says that "kids these days are soft." There are more distractions and activities for kids to do these days. There are club sports like lacrosse and rugby, but also other activities are year round including things like band and choir along with the sports. 

As far as the super dual issue you allude to there are several factors.

1. The weeknight dual was replaced with super duals. Kids aren't able to perform in front of bigger crowds including family and friends.

2. The two day events are not good for the sport. I have tried telling our IHSWCA leaders to try to implement the rule of one two-day event is worth 2 points all others are 4.

3. The super dual is easier to keep the lower kids engaged vs. the tournament. If a kid is sitting around all day after going 0-2 they are much more likely to quit. 

The state series is always more exciting because the best start rising to the top. During the regular season you get lineup shifts and kids out due to injury and sickness. There is much more at stake during the state series, that is why it's exciting.

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On 12/11/2017 at 2:16 PM, jpt189 said:

We started with 17 on the first day of practice. We currently have 6.

reasons-

4 are ineligible with grades and have decided to stop showing up

3 had decided to quit to get jobs. (At the present time only 1 of them has a job)

1 has been expelled

1 quit because he still has to let his arm heal from when he broke it in the spring (odd considering he played the entire football season, starting both ways, without any padding on said arm)

1 quit after the first tourney saying it wasn't for him

1 decided to tell me he didn't care if I thought him wrestling in a tourney was important, he had dinner with his girlfriend and he was meeting her family, so that mattered more to him.

plus I lost my manager because she was the aforementioned girlfriend

plus my assistant has mono and hasn't been cleared to help.

 

so yeah

Wow.....that is going to be hard to top.  

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5 hours ago, Y2CJ41 said:

Kids aren't softer, that is on the coaches. There are still kids that are tough, you have to bring it out of them. Every generation says that "kids these days are soft." There are more distractions and activities for kids to do these days. There are club sports like lacrosse and rugby, but also other activities are year round including things like band and choir along with the sports. 

As far as the super dual issue you allude to there are several factors.

1. The weeknight dual was replaced with super duals. Kids aren't able to perform in front of bigger crowds including family and friends.

2. The two day events are not good for the sport. I have tried telling our IHSWCA leaders to try to implement the rule of one two-day event is worth 2 points all others are 4.

3. The super dual is easier to keep the lower kids engaged vs. the tournament. If a kid is sitting around all day after going 0-2 they are much more likely to quit. 

The state series is always more exciting because the best start rising to the top. During the regular season you get lineup shifts and kids out due to injury and sickness. There is much more at stake during the state series, that is why it's exciting.

I've had parents tell me it's to hard. I do push but, no harder than I did 25 years ago. Yeah I'm old. However, when you get that feed back from parents the kids tend to stick with mommy and daddy. 

No matter anyones opinion about kids being soft or not. We have to keep the sport fun and find a happy medium for all involved. 

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