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Age groups in wrestling


spanky8545

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I understand why certain sports have to use age group cutoffs because teams and schedules need to be made for a significant period of time, but wrestling is for the most part an individual sport and the dual teams are put together on a one time basis.  I realize the core of many dual teams are used from tournament to tournament, but people are always looking for kids to fill in.  With trackwrestling being used for nearly every tournament, why cant a kid wrestle in a tournament in the age group that he is that day.  I understand in the past it would have been a logistical nightmare, but with computer technology and simple programs it would be quite simple to do now.  My son is born on December 13th 2010 and is 49 pounds.  He is 8, but in most tournaments he wrestles U10 because he will be 9 as of January 1st.  Because he is small he wrestles the same handful of kids all year long and it never changes.  Doesnt it make sense to use a kids birthday to change divisions on a floating date now that the technology is there to facilitate this.  It would certainly add some variety of wrestlers in all weight classes at the tournaments throughout the year.

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Your son may be at a disadvantage in USAW youth wrestling, in the sense of his age compared to others he is wrestling. But unless you enrolled him into school early, he will have an advantage in that way in high school.  My 13 yr old is an October birthday and I think it has been great for him. 

One of the best youth wrestlers I know (if not the best) is not small for his age and his dad had him wrestle 8th grade and under duals from the time he was in 2nd or 3rd grade.  So he was wrestling kids who were 3 and 4 years older. He would even have him bump up a weight at these duals. Lol It was tough going in the beginning, but he won USAW folkstyle nationals and got 2nd in USAW freestyle nationals this last year. He is in 6th grade this year.

My two youngest sons both have November birthdays and I think it’s great. 

Either way, this is a USA Wrestling thing and not necessarily an Indiana thing. 

Edited by graham
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On 9/26/2019 at 9:01 AM, spanky8545 said:

I understand why certain sports have to use age group cutoffs because teams and schedules need to be made for a significant period of time, but wrestling is for the most part an individual sport and the dual teams are put together on a one time basis.  I realize the core of many dual teams are used from tournament to tournament, but people are always looking for kids to fill in.  With trackwrestling being used for nearly every tournament, why cant a kid wrestle in a tournament in the age group that he is that day.  I understand in the past it would have been a logistical nightmare, but with computer technology and simple programs it would be quite simple to do now.  My son is born on December 13th 2010 and is 49 pounds.  He is 8, but in most tournaments he wrestles U10 because he will be 9 as of January 1st.  Because he is small he wrestles the same handful of kids all year long and it never changes.  Doesnt it make sense to use a kids birthday to change divisions on a floating date now that the technology is there to facilitate this.  It would certainly add some variety of wrestlers in all weight classes at the tournaments throughout the year.

I feel your pain, spanky.  My grandsons are very young for their grades (both will graduate just after turning 17) and also very small.

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