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.