I've been hearing terms of "red shirt", "red shirting" and so on in this forum. What does this mean?

Redshirt is a term used in American college athletics that refers to delaying or suspending an athlete's participation in order to lengthen his or her period of eligibility. Typically, a student's athletic eligibility in a given sport is four seasons, a number derived from the four years of academic classes that are required to obtain a bachelor's degree at an American college or university. However, a student athlete may opt to redshirt for one year which allows the athlete to spread those four years of eligibility over five years. In a redshirt year, a student athlete may attend classes at the college or university and practice with an athletic team, but he or she may not play in games. Using this mechanism, a student athlete has up to five academic years to use the four years of eligibility, thus creating the phenomenon of the "fifth-year senior."

Originally Posted by goferphan

Redshirt is a term used in American college athletics that refers to delaying or suspending an athlete's participation in order to lengthen his or her period of eligibility. Typically, a student's athletic eligibility in a given sport is four seasons, a number derived from the four years of academic classes that are required to obtain a bachelor's degree at an American college or university. However, a student athlete may opt to redshirt for one year which allows the athlete to spread those four years of eligibility over five years. In a redshirt year, a student athlete may attend classes at the college or university and practice with an athletic team, but he or she may not play in games. Using this mechanism, a student athlete has up to five academic years to use the four years of eligibility, thus creating the phenomenon of the "fifth-year senior."

Thanks that explained a lot! So he can practice but he can't in any way compete? Is that correct?

They can compete in open tournaments generally and/or unattached meaning without their schools singlets and typically have to pay their own way to open tournaments if they don't want those matches counting.

In addition I think if they take a medical redshirt they have to have wrestled in less than 25% of the total eligible matches.

Originally Posted by goferphan

Redshirt is a term used in American college athletics that refers to delaying or suspending an athlete's participation in order to lengthen his or her period of eligibility. Typically, a student's athletic eligibility in a given sport is four seasons, a number derived from the four years of academic classes that are required to obtain a bachelor's degree at an American college or university. However, a student athlete may opt to redshirt for one year which allows the athlete to spread those four years of eligibility over five years. In a redshirt year, a student athlete may attend classes at the college or university and practice with an athletic team, but he or she may not play in games. Using this mechanism, a student athlete has up to five academic years to use the four years of eligibility, thus creating the phenomenon of the "fifth-year senior."

Hi, I am Big and I approved this message because it came from Wikipedia

I thought wikipedia was only used by doctors?

I don't have room in my brain for stuff like this, so I keep it all at wikipedia.