Are Individual Tournaments

[casualwrestlingfan]

the right answer? As I head off to coach today in Edgerton Ohio I'm questioning this. Participation is hit or miss due to location on these tournaments for our club. Then you have the brackets drawn based on paper forms that you hope are filled out honestly for skills & abilities. Some kid just learning somehow get lumped in with a kid who has been wrestling since diaper stage. Learning kid quickly gets discouraged and mom & dad& etc get turned off as well. This is after an hour drive and finding seating. Then depending on how well the host site does, trying to figure out when & what mat they're wrestling on. Coaches scrambling to make sure wrestlers are at the mat when they should be (some kids have small bladders or big stomachs lol).

  Meanwhile the team dual events are much different. Everyone knows their mat assignment and fans can follow each wrestler one by one. Instead of the prior where dad's watching mat 1, mom mat 2, and grandma & grandpa on 3 and/or 4 at the same time as each kid in age bracket is up. The team aspect fires up the kids to support their teammates & friends. Fans get into it more as it's their school/club/community vs another.

  Back to the individual aspect, I love the Friday Night Rivals in Adams, Wells, & Jay Counties. For those not familiar, you wrestle as an individual but you match up with kids in similar age, weight, & then skill (if possible). You wrestle as many times as you want/can for 2hrs. Their is no awards, just working on skills & techniques. So much nicer than having a kid wrestle 10 seconds in 2 matches in a double elimination bracket an hour plus away as others weren't beginners as they claimed.

[Y2CJ41]

Team duals have the following drawbacks

1. Limited number of wrestlers participating. If you have 5 80lbers, only one, maybe two can wrestle.

2. Coaches looking to stack teams, thus stunting development of the newer kids

 

Weeknight friendlies that run for about 2 hours are ideal for beginning wrestlers. 

 

Much of the turn-off of wrestling isn't the kids, it's the parents who have to sit in the bleachers for 12 hours for three matches. 

[casualwrestlingfan]

4 hours ago, Y2CJ41 said:

Team duals have the following drawbacks

1. Limited number of wrestlers participating. If you have 5 80lbers, only one, maybe two can wrestle.

2. Coaches looking to stack teams, thus stunting development of the newer kids

 

Weeknight friendlies that run for about 2 hours are ideal for beginning wrestlers. 

 

Much of the turn-off of wrestling isn't the kids, it's the parents who have to sit in the bleachers for 12 hours for three matches. 

Agree on those drawbacks, but if you as a host become a stickler about matchups & number of matches, you can avoid some. Though it does run the risk of driving some clubs away for future events. However if they're more concerned about winning than teaching skills, maybe it isn't bad running those off. Think having 2 groups prek/K-2nd and 3rd-5th/6th as separate groups would help as well.

[Cmoney125]

i think it's really important for the coaches to set expectations for the parents. Letting them know where and when they should bring their kids and setting those kids and parents up for success, in my opinion, is on the coaches. I think parents see a schedule put out by a club and they just assume that they need to follow it. I do think it is important to have beginner level events, duals, and individual tournies on the schedule and i think they all offer their pros and cons. But ultimately, i think the coaches play a vital role in assuring the right kids are going to the right events. Once again, this is just my opinion and i could be all jacked up.

[casualwrestlingfan]

3 hours ago, Cmoney125 said:

i think it's really important for the coaches to set expectations for the parents. Letting them know where and when they should bring their kids and setting those kids and parents up for success, in my opinion, is on the coaches. I think parents see a schedule put out by a club and they just assume that they need to follow it. I do think it is important to have beginner level events, duals, and individual tournies on the schedule and i think they all offer their pros and cons. But ultimately, i think the coaches play a vital role in assuring the right kids are going to the right events. Once again, this is just my opinion and i could be all jacked up.

Not wrong at all. What I'm dealing with in a way. The sport is new for the MS & HS (Ohio) in a basketball favored school. The club has been around a few years longer, but has went through coaching & organization changes due to the HS & MS getting started. They truly scraped the bottom of the barrel having to resort to me coaching or possibly no club or very limited. The big thing is if one sibling is wrestling at the event then the parents feel the sibling(s) should too. Not totally wrong, but some events have been geared for older & others younger. This weekend for example, it may have been more beneficial if some of our kids went to Defiance and the remainder to Edgerton. Biggest problem though is finding enough coaching help and not having to split up families let alone the club/team. I'm just trying to think how families newer to wrestling may want to keep their kids in the sport & to grow it.