I disagree...if you want to strengthen the sport you should be thinking about the attrition rate much, much earlier. At the elementary level, the attrition rate in youth wrestling is substantially higher than other sports, especially for first year wrestlers. I'd bet my house on that. Shoot, I'd say the percentage of new kids that leave wrestling DURING the season is higher than the attrition rate between seasons in Little League baseball, football, basketball, and soccer. Yes, wrestling is a hard sport, and I think life long wrestling folks like to point to that as the primary reason kids quit...but from what I have experienced that is not the primary reason young kids don't stick with it. In actuality it is the families that quit.
I have seen many, many families drop wrestling because of the awful tournament experiences. They go to one or two tournaments and say enough is enough. There are some very good athletes with very committed and supportive families that leave the sport early. If my son didn't like wrestling so much you can rest assured that I wouldn't subject myself and the rest of the family to another Sunday in Hades. I'm not going to list the horrors of the Sunday wrestling experience (and I'm talking about the stuff not associated with the actual matches) because you all are familiar with them. This is coming from someone who didn't grow up wrestling so perhaps my view of the sport and the youth tournament experience is different that most of you. I respect the heck out of the sport and am in awe of what it takes to get good and stay good. I suppose I am representing the group of parents who could give two turds whether their kid becomes a state champion wrestler. Having said that, I hope that he sticks with it for a long time because there are so many positive aspects of the sport. In terms of the challenge and competition, there is no other sport like it.
To me the solution to improving the attrition rate is to improve the youth tournament experience. If I had a vote, I'd say that splitting sessions (AM/PM) for the young kids and the older kids would improve the experience substantially for the kids and the families.
IUPsych