An idea to help grow the sport

[casualwrestlingfan]

2 hours ago, julia2009 said:

I agree, start the tourney on time!  I've been in the same situation where you rush to get there, but its a late start because of something.  I get it, its usually an issue with the brackets and track wrestling.  There has to be a better way of getting them locked in early.  The other issue is the time between bouts.  We've waited hours and hours to wrestle matches.  Rest is good, but I also think that too much is just or more detrimental than not enough.  My son was 67 intermediate this year, and seemed like it was the biggest bracket everywhere we went.  So there was no in by 8 out by 2.  It was in by 7pm and the last match of that day, which was usually around 6pm.  Anyone less dedicated, wrestler or parent, would have checked out long ago and moved onto something else.

Definitely agree about the on time message. Our first tournament this year didn't start on time, and to make it worse everyone was trying to find brackets when they announced they were starting. We were supposed to be told when the brackets were released and then have time to get organized. Never announced they released the brackets and that 16 man and 8 man brackets were the format. Add in that there were 4 or 5 different 16 and 8 man brackets for each division. The brackets were on track but didn't tell you which group yours was. Finally paper brackets were made and handed out so the confusion could stop. For many, this was the first time parents were introduced to the sport (not a good look). Add in that there were 18 or more clubs/teams packed into one side of the lower level of the gym. Wife made the mistake of bringing in the car seat which ended up 2 rows behind us and her having to save my seat when I took our wrestler down to the mat to wrestle. We were supposed to go back to the same location this weekend, but are not due to a death in the family. Many others from our team are not going this weekend due to the first experience.

[NSego]

35 minutes ago, Wrestling Scholar said:

Ohio does a much better job of this than the ISWA.

What does Ohio do?  

[Wrestling Scholar]

5 hours ago, NSego said:

What does Ohio do?  

They do things to facilitate more matches in a shorter period of time.   

1.   Most tournaments don't have pre-defined weights.   You show up and weigh in and they group the brackets by closest weights to get an even distribution of wrestlers.  They don't waste time trying to seed. They don't have huge overloaded brackets that slow a tournament down and they avoid the super small brackets with 1or 2 guys in a bracket.

2.  They used modified wrestling rules.   If you go out of bounds or have a whistle,  you start in the neutral position all the time.  It really improves the flow  of the tournament.

3.  the best thing is they schedule age groups with time allotments.   6 -12 for example wrestle from the slot of 8 to 11.  So youre there for 3 hours and  done.   Then the 12 to 18 years wrestle from 11 to 2pm.  You're only at the gym for 3 to 4 hours.  Its much  more manageable.

4.  You don't have to buy a USA wrestling card. No offense,  I never bought a card in Ohio because the tournaments weren't sanctioned.  And that was fine.    It gives you more flexibility.

 

 

 

[NSego]

37 minutes ago, Wrestling Scholar said:

They do things to facilitate more matches in a shorter period of time.   

1.   Most tournaments don't have pre-defined weights.   You show up and weigh in and they group the brackets by closest weights to get an even distribution of wrestlers.  They don't waste time trying to seed. They don't have huge overloaded brackets that slow a tournament down and they avoid the super small brackets with 1 or 2 guys in a bracket.

 

Good information here.  We (Indian Creek) are just starting to host tournaments and I want the tournament experience to be GREAT...

[Kookie953]

3 hours ago, NSego said:

Good information here.  We (Indian Creek) are just starting to host tournaments and I want the tournament experience to be GREAT...

The only local tournament I've seen do this is the Dan Nelson tournament that Carmel hosts.  SO much better of a process to not have predetermined weight classes.  

[Westforkwhite]

On 3/11/2019 at 5:38 PM, Y2CJ41 said:

A major part of it is parents and the events. Name another sport where a kid will get 5 minutes of "playing time" over 3-8 hours? The way we have always done it can't be an excuse to change the format of our events. I know we have a lot of success with the weeknight events where another club comes and they match up on the fly. 

We have to sell the sport to not only the kids, but also the parents or they'll find something else for their kid to do.

That's spot on.

I think the current local tourney formats are a turnoff. Trying to squeeze HS thru K wrestlers into one gym(s) and making kids wait all day to wrestle twice is turning kids away not growing the sport. I understand local clubs have to generate revenue and this has always been the model but maybe we need to explore other options. Volunteers put countess hours in to make these tourneys go, and not one of them intentionally makes kids wait for 5 hours between matches. Unfortunately it still happens and will continue to happen under the current system.

Wouldn't that volunteer time be better spent on something that was driving interest in our sport, or at the very least not driving them away?

I'm not sure what that looks like, but maybe some Round Robin as Galagore mentions or the evening tourneys where kids can get in and out quick. More age specific events? 

Edited March 13, 2019 by Westforkwhite

[NSego]

13 hours ago, Kookie953 said:

The only local tournament I've seen do this is the Dan Nelson tournament that Carmel hosts.  SO much better of a process to not have predetermined weight classes.  

We used  block weights for our tournament a few weeks ago. We put ALL the kids in 4 man brackets and everyone wrestled round robins so everyone got 3 matches.  We were cleaned up and at home by 2pm.....