legridder155

As a youth coach, ( grades k-6) I wanted to get some of your views on how many matches these kidds should get.

My own kid has been averaging about 50 a year and he is a 5th grader. ( except this year due to an illness he only got one tourney in).

This year after the season he practice with the county frestyle but did not get to wrestle a freestyle tourney.

I have seen kids with 140+ down to kids that only get about 20 at the varsity level. The kids with the more matches are only wrestling and not playing ather sports. I personally do not agree, I think they are to young to focus on one sport and can burn out.

Avallone

I think it should be up to the child, I have 2 that wrestle 1 girl & 1 boy. They both do multiple sports but when ever they have any down time they are begging me to take them to the wrestling room so they can practice.
If they only want to do 1 sport then let them, if you force them to play a sport they do not really want to play you are wasting everybody's time.

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wrastler118

Less matches as a youth and more once they hit Jr High and HS. You will see them peak at an older age, than at a younger age.

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sroman

This is a topic I think alot about too. The local club that my six and eight year olds wrestle in is part of an organization (MYWA - Michigan Youth Wrestling Association) that has local tournaments every weekend for about 15 weeks, including the regional and state championships. We try to get to every tournament we can and the kids wrestle 3-5 matches per tournament, depending on the size of their brackets and whether they might have a "true second" match. So basically they wrestle an average of 4 matches per week for 15 weeks or 60 matches in the regular season. On top of that we try to get to an off-season tournaments (like Border Wars) every month or two just to keep them fresh. If we do 5 off-season tournaments with an average of 4 matches per tournament then they might get another 20 matches in. I would estimate they are wrestling 60-80 matches per year.

When I step back and think about it, it seems like a lot for a six and an eight year old. But because it is a club and not team wrestling they can take a week off whenever they want without feeling like they are letting anybody down. I even tell them that if one wants to take the week off the other can still wrestle. I wouldn't mind just taking one of them or letting the other one just come and cheer for his brother.

I make a point of asking both of them every week to make sure they want to wrestle before signing them up for that week's tournament. It is important for my wife and I to know we are at the tournaments because the boys want to be there and not just because they think we want them to be there.

We love going to tournaments as a family, but in the middle of the 15 week regular season my wife and I wouldn't mind taking a week or two off every once in a while. But as long as the boys keep telling us they want to wrestle we keep going.

As crazy as it can get, I can see examples of others who are wrestling kids of the same age even more. Besides the MYWA organization we also have MMWA (Mid-Michigan Wrestling Association) and AAU that hold wrestling tournaments witihin driving distance of us. Youth wrestling is alive and well in Michigan! That could be another post all to it's self...What are some of the best youth wrestling organizations in the country? I digress.

The reason I bring it up is that I see many kids who will wrestle Saturday at an MMWA tournament and then wrestle again Sunday at a MYWA tournament, ore vice versa. Quite frankly, I don't know how the parents find time to attend two tournaments in a weekend. We had one wrestler from our club who wrestled in each of the three organizations this year and was a state champion in all three. We call him our triple crown winner! I know his parents pretty well and I can say honestly that they are not pushing him too hard. Wrestling is just something he loves to do and is obviously very good at.

Even though they are all folkstyle tournaments he still is getting exposure to different opponents and other things that continue to help him. I have considered letting my boys try a couple tournaments from the other organizations next year. I just don't want to start wrestling every Saturday and every Sunday.

By the way, I also agree with you very strongly that I think the kids should experience as many sports as they can at this age. My boys also play baseball and football. The six year old just asked me this week if he could join a roller hockey league too. I told him I would check into it, as long as it doesn't interfere with any of the other seasons. I like them playing a lot of sports, but not at the same time. I coach their baseball and football teams and I can't believe how many kids will play soccer or some other sport at the same time and have to choose which team they are going to let down when they end up with practices and games on the same day. If for instance hockey were at the same time as football then I would tell him he has to commit to being there for either the hockey team or the football team, but not both. As always...these are just my opinions. Thanks for bringing this up. I am anxious to here what others think about this too.

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Proudpatriot

We struggle with this as well. My son is 14 and has just finished 8th grade, where he was wrestling varsity (he goes to a private school). He also plays lacrosse and football. He really struggled with the spring tournament season as he felt he was falling behind in wrestling because he couldn't train during lacrosse season.

We feel that he should participate in as many activities as he wishes but that it was up to him to decide what sports to play. He went to his wrestling coach who told him that he should NOT give up his other sports for wrestling. His coach feels that even high school kids benefit from a break in training and that wrestlers benefit from cross training.