not sure if you are agreeing or not, but you've hit it on the head. Why get up at dawn every Sunday morning to sit in a gym all day long if there's no benefit? The key word, as I said, is DEVELOPMENT that's the big picture. The sooner you start wrestling older kids the better off the wrestler will be later, SOCIALAZTION, after awhile it's no big deal. I tend to agree with the people who have "been there done that"(College wrestlers and coaches).
i think that it really does cripple youth who really want to grow in this sport. For some unless they drive 3 to 4 hours away each weekend they end up wrestling and wrestling the same kids...they could easily bump up and get experience in wrestling a better and older wrestler. will all of these be losses, no, im not saying that but in my expereince personally when i have bumped up and lost or wrestled better competition and lost i learned more from that than taking an easy win against a familiar opponent. Kids that come from feeder programs or large clubs that have the resources and varied age groups so that the younger kids can get reps with older more experienced wrestlers are the ones who grow most. Look at some of the top programs in the state and you will see that they for the most part have a successful club that allows wrestling in between age groups. I think that this same experience can be attained on the mat in a match with older opponents too....