Cael was smart to leave

Oh you're right, it's definitely a crucial weight...for sure. This Skylar Cunningham from the Albia Sectional has sporadically caught fire off and on throughout the season and it appears that he caught it again yesterday...our 120 lber is going to have to make sure that he wrestles real well his first match at districts. Brendan Gould from Assumption looked real tough when I watched him earlier this year...he's probably the toughest kid I've seen at 120 this year.

Holy cow, did they ever.

I agree... Penn State is a perfect location to bring in some great talent. Every year that I've attended the Fargo national tournament, it has seemed as if Pennsylvania has had some of the toughest kids....consistently, every year they are tough. He's in a good spot right now...and his name alone will attract the kids to the program.

Great great great tournament...

MINNESOTA OVER PENN ST. 18-17?!?!?! Whoaaaa....

Good day for us today that capped off a good weekend. The youngest bro got 1st at districts today...He was in a 16-man formatted bracket (with a few byes, top 4 qualify). He wrestled 4 matches and the total amount of time he spent on the mat was 2 minutes and 39 seconds. He started with a pin in 45 seconds and followed with an 18 second pin and a 37 second pin...in the finals he pinned his guy in 59 seconds... Pumped up for state...for both of them, considering the Sophomore qualifies. If my 8th grade bro ends up winning AAU state, that means he finished the season close to flawless....only loss coming to Jacob Beason from Kansas.

Fun times.

Watched it. Fun match. Ness was Ness, 149 was a weird, and Storley wrestled with a horseshoe up his ass. But Minnesota deserved it. PSU with a big win at 197 to ease the pain a bit. I still think it's only a two team race come March. Minny falls short of PSU and Iowa, IMO

So...lotta shit going on with state tourneys, NCAA and stuff...anyone have anything?

Anyone watching the Finals tonight? Starts in under 30 minutes. Minnesota and Penn State battling it out. Iowa shit down their leg again, which is hilarious. My favorite March tournament and the ESPN3 coverage was outstanding.

I am now...

THAT was the most bullshit call in all of wrestling! YOU DON"T STOP THAT!!

**** John Smith!

That official is a ****ing idiot! I suspect this will be his last tournament..

Cox from MIZZOU is on now...

NICE WIN BY COX AND MIZZOU!!!!

UNI did ok, but not as well as they could have. Lazor was as student of mine and he wrestled well.

Hey, a student of yours. That's awesome.. Congrats! LIKE!

He's a great kid and will likely be a great teacher.

WOW.. That was a great match. Tough break for MIN, but wow...

Finals haven't been great so far, but should get better. 157 should be amazing. Ness needs a pin and he knows how to stick em. But Dieringer is so tough.

That was BS... Soory, there was a takedown the officials missed (even after a review)! Enjoy you BS win kid!

That was a great win by Ramos...

Disagree. **** all things Iowa wrestling.

God I love wrestling!!! Why can't THIS be a professional sport??!!

Wow!!!!!!!!!!! Nice job...

**** OU AND OSU!!!

I hope this cowboy gets stuck!

Great tournament...

Wow are anyone of you watching the crowd tonight is incredible
Posted via Mobile Device

???

Sorry wrong thread

Your just talking about the college scene, right?????

Otherwise, **** YOU, ASSHOLE!!!!

:p

Just kidding.

Wrestling has become WAYYYY too freaking defensive at the college level. It's become borderline boring. I'm going to post this article that I read a few weeks ago that I think hits the nail on the head.... gotta find it real quick. Something needs to be done to alleviate this shit... I think overly defensive wrestling it the primary reason as to why the sport was momentarily stripped from the Olympics...that and I think it takes people a while to understand the scoring system and therefore, the strategic aspects of wrestling.

Before I dig that up...I'm just going to throw this out there...Cary Kolat is the raddest wrestler ever. Youtube some of his technique clips....some of the coolest shit in the world. I love his variation of a standing cradle.

Article from 2/13 Des Moines Register. Enough of a wake up call I felt we should all read it so I cheated, copied and pasted it for everyone.

Andy Hamilton: The real problem with college wrestling
By Andy Hamilton
February 12, 2014


When a few coaches fired keyboard-tapped arguments back and forth a couple weeks ago, college wrestling's great dual debate reignited on Twitter.

But while program leaders and fans continue to contend the merits of a proposal that would add a dual tournament scoring system to the current NCAA team championship format, the larger problem remains overlooked.

College wrestling is becoming tedious. Scoring is down. Inactivity is up.

It's a dangerous combination for a sport that dodged the Olympic death sentence it received 365 days ago. Yet college wrestling seemingly isn't learning from the missteps that jeopardized the sport at its highest level.

Aside from its general arrogance, total disregard for public relations and cockamamie rules, the biggest sin committed by FILA -- wrestling's international governing body -- was turning a blind eye to the product on the mat. When international wrestling became hard to watch and harder to understand, spectator growth became virtually impossible.

"I'm not so sure some of that Olympic wrestling hasn't had an effect on how people wrestle at all levels," legendary former Iowa coach Dan Gable said. "And that's one of the reasons why we were getting kicked out of the Olympics -- a lack of action, a lack of scoring."

Sure, it's been the wildest regular season in recent memory with a series head-shaking upsets and there have been a few wildly entertaining duals, too. But how many potential fans clicked to the next channel after an action-less period and never bothered coming back to see the drama that unfolded in Minnesota's win Sunday against Penn State?

The fact of the matter is this: When Oklahoma State scores two takedowns in an entire dual meet and a couple weeks later Iowa follows it up with five, there's a problem. And it's not a problem isolated to the two most storied programs in the sport.

Check out the scores each weekend, and you'll see it's a Division I issue. The first three bouts of last week's dual between Pittsburgh and Virginia Tech produced a grand total of 12 points. A week earlier, Michigan and Ohio State wrestlers tangled for 29 straight minutes without a takedown or near-fall in three consecutive tiebreaker decisions.

"I've seen 0-0 matches in the first period -- and quite often -- from the No. 1 guy in America at pretty much every weight except 165 and 184," Iowa coach Tom Brands said a couple weeks ago. "That's not exciting wrestling. It's boring."

As Brands mentioned, Penn State is an outlier with David Taylor and Ed Ruth and boosting the entertainment value for college wrestling's most exciting lineup. There are individuals on other teams, too, who make it well worth the time it takes to set the DVR and fast forward until they take the mat.

But unless you're in tune with the sport's top entertainers, you can doze off in a sea of scoreless periods. It's becoming more and more of a tactical sport with three-point stances, wrestling on a knee and backing to the edge, all strategies designed to slow an opponent in the neutral position.

What's happening in many cases is neither wrestler takes a chance because scoring is scarce and mistakes are harder to overcome. It's a system that rewards defense rather than risk.

"That's not what our sport is looking for," Gable said. "Our sport is looking for growth; our sport is looking for entertainment; our sport is looking to get into the top core sports in the Olympic Games. And we're not going to do it by standing around and looking at each other."

Wrestling has essentially evolved into a game of who can camouflage stalling the best while the riding-time clock ticks.

"It's hard to watch top(-position) wrestling right now, in my eyes," Northern Iowa coach Doug Schwab said. "There's not a whole lot of emphasis right now being put on turning."

Look, I love wrestling, and I'll watch any dual I can find in the TV listings. But I nearly fell asleep recently watching a match when one guy rode another for more than six minutes without remotely coming close to a turn.

It's a complex issue and a vicious cycle. Referees don't want to interject themselves into the outcome of matches, so stalling calls have generally gone by the wayside. Wrestlers want to take the fast path to victory, and coaches are teaching them methods to succeed in the current environment.

So action grinds to a halt, spectators watch a deteriorating product on the mat and potential fans look for something on another channel.

If people who are passionate about wrestling aren't thrilled with what they see, then what do casual viewers think?

Meanwhile, the duals debate rages on after two years of bickering and forming allegiances on each side. It's like arguing over which shade of carpet to install as rain pours through the roof.

"Our product is not where it needs to be," Gable said, "to make advancements, to be able to get sponsorship, to be able to get viewers, to be able to get people to walk in and say, 'What is this? This is great.' "

It once was, though, and it still is at times. But until the product is more entertaining on every college mat in the country, changing the national championship format won't solve wrestling's biggest issue.

But, hey, at least the carpet might look nice when the roof caves in.

Andy Hamilton is a three-time national wrestling writer of the year. Help him get to 6,000 Twitter followers, @Andy_Hamilton.

And these days, Iowa Hawkeye wrestling is the epitome of defensive wrestling. I hate it because I grew up wrestling with the mentality of "a best defense is a good offense."

Penis envy.

I can see it with NCAA wrestling. I hate Hawkeye wrestling right now...they are the epitome of boring.

Northern Iowa on the other hand...those guys freaking go after it.

In terms of preference of styles, I like the Schwab coached products more than I like the Brands coached products...as of the past couple-few years anyways.

Nothing better than the Iowa High School state tournament though.... hell even the youth state tournament is awesome in Iowa. Packed, intense, electric house.

One thing I've always been concerned about is riding time. I've never seen a more blatant "stalling" in my life that's not called exactly what it is, stalling.

I'd also contend that "control" needs to be looked at. Lower the bar for what is "control" (or loss thereof), and you'll see the match change a lot. Holding on to a guy's ankle as he drags you across the mat is hardly "control", and it's only "control" because of how they call it. Change that call, and you'll see not only a point awarded, but two wrestlers getting back at it pretty quickly...

I'm less concerned about what's being called or adjudicated as a take-down, but it's a kissing cousin to the disadvantaged wrestler having broken control. I'd take a closer look at that if they're ttying to break the current trend of people calling the sport stale or boring (and getting it booted from the Olympics.

And last..... If I were king for a day, I'd have NO problem awarding a point to the wrestler who had his feet in contact with the starting line "the most" or the wrestler who was in the inner-circle the most. Whatever it takes to award the wrestler who doesn't spend too much time fleeing! I know it's far-fetched, but they've gotta do something!

Ryan Morningstar is an assistant coach. Need I say more. That's where the problem starts. He's never been aggressive ever. He has my respect as he was a multiple all-American but boring as hell to watch. I'm with you Rico. Push the action. That's how I'm coaching my boys.

Iowa wrestling is where it's at.

I'm just talking Hawkeyes. I do like UNI (even with Schwab) and ISU and you have to respect the youth and high school scene.

Riding time is a skill that should be awarded. I agree that with some it's a stall tactic, but if you can't get out from underneath, you don't deserve to win. End of argument. If you get rode like a mule you lose!

Why do you think 90% of wrestlers choose down??

They need the point if they can get it...

I'm not lost on the point, but it's boring and keeps people from liking the sport, and it flies in the face of "action".

And at a minimum they need to make the standing ride a call for neutral. Keep the disadvantaged wrestler down and I can agree that you have to have been a wrestler to understand it. But if you let the guy get up and all you are, essentially, is a zit on his ass, well I have HUGE issues with that.

And back to the holding on to an ankle while you get dragged, and that's worse...

And last, you get one chance to have the circle's edge save you, after that it's fleeing... I get the tactic, I used it, but it's wrong and not a good thing.. Reward the guy who stay in the middle and invites a match, and penalize the guy who's willing to run out of bounds to save his ass..

Agree 100%. Holding onto the ankle and being drug around is stalling. No ifs ands or buts. There are some wrestlers out there that are tough riders and a hammer on top. Always looking to score. It's a slippery slope. As a former wrestler I want to see our sport survive and thrive.

Good commentary GloryDaze.

The sport's survival is all I care about. :) and if it really leaves the Olympics, it'll be one of the worst man-made disasters EVER!

Ryan Morningstar was a highly anticipated wrestler from Lisbon coming in to high school...I think he won 5-6 AAU state titles as a youth wrestler. That along with the fact that his father was well-known for his accolades made him a pretty big freakin' deal coming in to high school.

Guess who he wrestled in his FIRST EVER wrestling match in high school? My brother...and it was at Lisbon High School.

Guess who won??? My brother. I was banging my chest and hootin' and hollerin' like a freaking caveman during that match. I probably looked like a fool. I think my brother won something like 6-3 or 6-4... it was somewhat of a barn-burner. Granted, my brother was the upperclassmen...and was a Junior who had been a runner-up at state as a Freshman and Sophomore (so close to winning it both years...ugh)...and was also the eventual 2A state champion that year... It was still a big win for him. Lisbon people mention it to me to this day. My brother and M* met up like 6 times over the years and M* won only 1 match...which was the last time they ever wrestled each other when my brother was a Senior. He beat him by 1 point with a last second crotch lift at Freestyle State that year...Justin was pretty pissed.

I am not sure when Morningstar became as defensive as he ultimately ended up building a reputation for being in college. He wasn't real offensive and/or stallish in high school or youth. He was definitely difficult to score points on, but he did have an offense that he went to and did well with it... I just think when the competition got stiffer at the D1 level for him, that's basically when he went into full-fledged defensive mode. He went from being one of Iowa's most highly touted and respected high school wrestlers to a wrestler who had some success for the Hawkeyes, but as most of us know, became mostly known as defensive/stallish.

Man...remember when Jay Borschel won his national title his Senior season by riding the hell out of everyone? That kid was amazing. Won 4 state titles, his first one being at 103 lbs and his 4th one being all the way up at 171...unbelievable.

Nice post, dude.

The fleeing just seems to gradually get worse and worse every year. Something needs to be done about it. Heck, I've seen successful youth wrestlers who have succeeded in using this tactic...kids as young as 4th grade. 4th graders are fleeing the mat and are being coached to do so. It's ridonkulous.

Gable commentated the semis and finals at the high school state tournament this year. It was obvious that he had to bite his tongue a few times during some of the matches when he observed this sort of thing going on. It was most noticeable when a kid named Kaz Onoo from Mason City was wrestling.

My 8th grade bro wrestled this kid at AAU state this year who backed up and backed up and backed up and backed up and backed up on his feet. I just told my bro to stalk the kid by continuously moving slowly towards him and the moment the kid neared the edge of the mat, to bull-rush him to push him out of bounds while simultaneously keeping his hands in front and staying on his toes. We did this to him 3 times in the first minute. After the 3rd time he did this, the ref warned the kid for stalling and the kid's corner and father (who was standing behind me) got PISSED. They heard me yelling at Brennan, "PUSH HIM OUT" right when the kid would get near the edge of the mat....they thought I was advising him to be dirty. :) In reality, all I wanted was to force that freaking kid to open up and basically force him to wrestle OUR match, not his... my brother is the epitome of aggressive/offensive...sometimes gets himself in trouble by being TOO aggressive. However, in scramble situations initiated by offensive wrestling, the kid is money and just puts kids away... As soon as this kid was forced to open up against us, that is when we racked the score up and ultimately ended up winning by like 11 points. This was vs. the kid who ended up placing 4th.

On a sidenote, I don't know if I've ever posted this video on here or not, but I post it from time to time on wrestling forums because it is pretty comical, yet self-deprecating.

In the consol-semis at state in 2001, I took the mat against a kid from Creston named Cody Downing. If I won, I'd be going for 3rd and 4th, if I lost I'd be going for 5th and 6th.

I was real confused because the night before, after I lost my semifinal match vs. the eventual 3X state champ and future Hawkeye, Cole Pape, I walked over to the mat where Downing was wrestling the guy I beat handily 1st round. I was winning like 12-2 when I pinned the kid in the 2nd period my first match. Anyways, that kid (my first match) was beating Downing pretty badly going into the 3rd period. It was to the point where I thought it was a done deal...that I was going to have a rematch of my first round match, so I just walked off and pouted in the Vets basement over losing my Semis match vs. Pape.

With that said, I was really, really confused when I took the mat and saw this Creston kid, Downing walk on the mat. I stood there and thought, "what in the world is going on? Was there an injury late in this guy's match in the 3rd period that I didn't know about?" To that point, I had been preparing for a rematch of my 1st round match...I had no idea what had happened...turned out, Downing hit a left-sided sag headlock late in the match for the pin...I had no idea...I was too busy pouting when it took place.

Check out what happened when I wrestled Downing. I am the guy in the black and Downing is the guy in the red:

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/AQibGZ05Xxs" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

I...GOT...CAUGHT...IN...THE...WORST...HEADLOCK...EVER... Against a kid who I was wayyy better than. I mean, it was ridiculous. As you can see, there was no set-up...nothing...just a slow, deliberate headlock...I was MORTIFIED. I remember thinking to myself in the first minute or two of the match, "oh man, I got this in the bag. I'll be pissed if I don't pin this kid." Then boom...I was caught and pinned in a headlock....and I FREAKING DESERVED IT for failing to counter such a telegraphed move... I shit you not, from 1st grade until that point, I had NEVER been hit in a headlock...whether it be in a live match OR practice. I was NEVER susceptible to a headlock...and to think I got hit with such deliberate one with NO SET-UP in an important match at state is just.... it still just boggles my mind. I have no clue what happened or what kind of brain-lapse I had there.

I'm able to laugh it off today... so feel free to have some laughs at my expense. :)

Downing ended up doing pretty well at the D3 level...He was a national qualifier and may have come close to being a D3 All-American...probably a bunch of left-sided sag headlocks. LMAO

LOL, don't worry about "self-deprecating" - I wrestled before camcorders, and the 8mm tapes would be cracked by now! Oh, and I wrestled heavyweight! Yeah, everybody (including the cheerleaders) went to get a hot dog when we got to the mat!

I wrestled in high school because the all-state defensive tackle on the football team was an awesome friend and wanted somebody to spar with because he was a perennial all-state wrestler too! He was obviously a MUCH better DT than me, and he was pretty much that much better at wrestling too. So I loved it, I really did, but my job was to make him better and test the value of over-the-counter pain relievers!

Anyone at Fargo or keeping up with it? There are some kids who bare really coming out of the woodwork this year.

Like most years, been keeping up with it a bit over the week. Texas had a few kids do well. They continue to improve as a state. Still miles behind the elites.

JR FS predictions:

Miranda CA
Vega AZ
Mueller TX
Russell GA
Tucker MA/NJ
Hayes MO
Zacherl PA
White IL
Manville VA/NJ
Massa MI
Rogers WA/OK
Martin NJ
Benick MN
Harrington IA
Jones IL

I was happy to see Iowa recruit Burke Paddock lose. It's not a big event for incoming college freshman as it is and the dude is almost 20 years old. Stay home. He will underwhelm like his brothers.

Looks like you were 8/15. Not bad... would have been better if you didn't have that 5 match skid starting at 120 after predicting the first 3 correctly. It appears that there were some dynamite matches.

Being an Iowan, it may be surprising to hear me say that I was a bit happy to see Iowa's Freddy Stroker get beaten out. His dad is a poster on the Iowa high school wrestling message board that I post on and he is total moron. I mean, you can't say something even slightly negative about Freddy without him logging on and going on a long-winded tangent in which he really lays in to the person in obnoxious fashion. For example, hypothetically speaking, someone makes a comment about how Freddy has looked better in a certain match than he did in another...It is a sure bet that Stroker's dad logs on and call you a bunch of names, make a bunch of excuses for Freddy (when he doesn't even need to) and go on and on and on about how much of an asshole you are for basically not talking about Freddy as if he is flawless. It's ****ing ridiculous. Freddy is probably a nice kid, so it is unfair to judge him according to how his dad acts... However, I just can't help it... the guy is just THAT arrogant.

Wish my brothers decided to wrestle in this opposed to showing their horses at the fair... I would have loved to have caught some of these matches.

Serious question here:

Did you guys actually enjoy the sport of wrestling in high school? I can't imagine the weight cutting or grabbing another man in spandex would be fun.

How many of you were forced into it?

Weight cutting in excess is awful and I think many wrestlers (myself included) have put too much emphasis on it in terms of it being necessary to be successful.

Yeah, the spandex stuff... :) Have heard it a billion times from a billion different non-wrestlers. I've never met a wrestler who has had an issue wrestling in their singlet. It's not a big deal.

Story of how I started wrestling: My wrestling-crazy dad took me to a local tournament when I was 6 years old. I was just there with him to watch and had no idea why he took me there to begin with. I was bored out of my mind the entire day. At the conclusion of the tournament, my dad asked, "did you have fun watching the tournament?" I replied, "no." He asked, "that's because you want to wrestle yourself, right? Do you want to do this?" I replied, "no." My dad responded with, "well tough shit. I registered you in the Central Lee wrestling tournament. That is next week. Your first practice will be in our living room when we get home." I had 5-6 two hour practices in my living room...just my dad and I. I wrestled in the Central Lee tournament and walked through it... 2 pins and a tech. From that point on, my dad was a full-fledged crazy wrestling parent. He started the youth wrestling program at my school (which still exists today) and I was in wrestling practice for 8-10 hours per week.

Did I like it? No, not really... the pressure from my dad along with the pressure I put on myself to succeed was unbearable. The weight cutting was horrific. It prompted a LOT of performance anxiety. Hell, the worst trouble I would get into in my life was when I would lose a wrestling match. However, when you do something for a long time and become pretty good at it in rather quick fashion, you naturally develop a passion for it. I loved winning. Hated losing to the point where I was straight up scared of it. I can't imagine my life had I not wrestled...it's just been that prominent of a part of my life. And I think I am a better person now because I did wrestle...sometimes I wonder what I would be like today had I not wrestled. It is embedded in my mind as being pretty bittersweet. I can't honestly tell you that I liked it. I love watching it now... I love following my brothers and some of the other kids I have coached. My high school really has something good going right now.

My finals predictions were terrible considering there were 4 or 5 gimmes.

Stroker definitely did not impress this tournament. I don't know if it's the jump in weight, but as a Cael fanboy I wouldn't be disappointed if he backed off recruiting him. But I remember thinking Brandon Sorensen, another Iowa wrestler, had leveled off and he has been really impressive in his redshirt year.

If Stroker' dad were a planeteer...he'd be on here ripping you a new one. :)

Speaking of Sorensen, I saw that Jake Marlin, fellow 2013 4X state champ and Sorensen's roommate left Iowa to wrestle at a community college or something.

I don't know the story with that but it would have been tough for Marlin to crack the lineup for a few years. He's a 141/149 guy and the two starters last year (while not complete studs) have two years of eligibility left.

Maybe he'll end up at UNI eventually. With Brands continuing to recruit nationally, Schwab is really benefitting from the local talent.

I loved it.... Every part of it....

I love to read this.

Enjoyed absolutely every bit of it from the time I was 7 years old until I was 20. Dislocating my elbow in the state championship match and having to forfeit the match when I was up by 5 points in the third period during my senior season is something that still bothers me to this day.

Oh my God, that is absolutely heartbreaking. I just can't imagine. I don't know if I'd ever get over that. Hell, as you may have seen on the video I posted on the page prior to this, I had a very difficult time getting over a semi-consols loss from state.... and that was 100% my fault for that head lock I got caught in was atrocious. Man.... I feel for ya...that's awful.

I have acquired a 12x12 mat for my basement dojo. There are several little fellers that live close to us and are in our circle. It won't be too much longer and birthday parties will probably start having Takedown contests for the boys.

Yeah, I was attempting a Granby roll and for some reason my left arm didn't tuck under correctly. Came out of the roll with my arm sticking out 90 degrees from my elbow. Match stopped and the doctors rushed the mat. I was in intense pain, but was keeping my composure pretty well. I asked the doctors if they could put it back in place, tape it up, and let me finish. They told me I had to go straight to the hospital to make sure I kept sufficient blood flow to the arm. When I realized my dream was over, that is when I cried like a little bitch. I didn't even get to stand on the podium to receive my second place medal. Still bothers me and that was 24 years ago.

Right on, dude.

I would have cried as well. I probably would have been crying on the medal stand (if not rushed to the hospital immediately). In fact, there were probably random spectators in the stands who were crying because they felt bad for you. Wrestling hits deep. Was there a lot of time left in the 3rd period when it happened?

Man...sometimes timing just makes things straight up unfair.

The sport of wrestling builds more character and mental toughness than any other sport in my opinion. It's not even about the matches. It's the discipline to maintain your weight, to not eat, to push yourself farther physically than you thought possible and then keep going.

I loved it, I walked around at 165 and wrestled at 138. It wasn't even the biggest cut on our team.

42 seconds left in the third period. My opponent had scored a reversal about 10 seconds prior to make the score 7-2.

Firstly, pardon any ignorance in this post, as we're just getting into wrestling. I'm from the South, so I didn't grow up with the sport, and it's just now starting to build up some here.

My youngest had his first match today after 3 practices. He's in novice division 1 (6 year old) and wrestled up a weight class (he's 58 lbs. and was wrestling kids up to 70lbs).

Had 5 matches, and he only won one of them. I'll say that if he would have wrestled in his first 3 matches like he wrestled in his final two, he probably would have only lost 1 match. He just didn't understand how to score points or anything and wasn't ever getting takedowns until his last two matches. Then it started clicking for him. Unfortunately, his last match was against his best wrestling buddy who just dominated the division (he's on the upper end of the weight class), so he wasn't winning that one. He did wrestle him for 3 rounds, whereas the kid had pinned everyone else in the division in the first round.

Anyway, here's the coolest thing:

My son is a pretty average athlete. He's gifted physically, but he's a complete lazy **** on the mental side of the game. He just wants to talk to his buddies and hang out. In soccer, baseball, and football... he "lollygags" all the time. He's never really been invested in winning, and he's basically let his teammates carry him in games (though he was a pretty badass scorer in soccer). He just has a lack of effort.

Today, at the end of his match, he saw his best buddy win a medal. He didn't get anything and placed 5th. He was bummed. Like seriously bummed (complete with tears). I felt bad for him, but I was happy to see him actually care. He's now motivated to actually practice, get better, and actually put out some effort. He and his buddies stayed and wrestled and worked with the coaches for an hour after the novice division before the Open started. This isn't something we've seen from him with team sports, but the individual nature of mano y mano on the mat is completely different. It was a pretty badass character building day for him. Looking forward to more.

Great story, especially the part where he found the desire to win and learn. I've coached it for years, and the sport is simply awesome for all involved. The weight difference is huge, and even more huge that that age, and being his first outing. You might need to talk to the coach about getting into some novice tournaments that offer something with kids in his weight class, or maybe one up. But at that age weight classes should be 5lb differences, so 58 wrestling 70 ain't not small deal. If they can't find tournaments that have his weight class in it that "fits the team", perhaps you can find one and ask a coach to go with y'all to that one so he can coach him mat-side. I've done it, but usually so a heavier kid can find somebody closer to him. But never let your son know of any such conversations, it's not helpful, and it should never be a demand, just a query. Trust me, setting-up tournaments if tough. It brings in much needed money for the team, but figuring-out brackets, and planning for all the known lairs that are some coaches (yeah, it just sucks!!), but bracket night is hardly ever easy or overly fun. LOL, and when the liar coaches find out you put their kids in brackets with kids their own weight, they usually freak the next morning! Ha!!

But tell him coach GloryDayz takes his hat off to him for standing his ground, that's awesome and a big step in life that says a lot about taking on what's put in front of you..

Just tell him that the first tournament is just that, the first. It shows the difference between the room and game-day. And you usually need to gently insert the reality that the kids who mopped-up the mat with him, are usually either very committed (fucused and all those things the coaches have been yelling about), or in their second year. Yeah, you'll find some 3rd year kids, but that's crap and a punk move (not that you should ever bother to tell him). Just tell him to double-down in the room, work the moves exactly like coach shows them, and be as good a practice partner as he now needs his team mates to be when they're in the room. be friends later, but in the room wrestle your ass off. If they do, all of them will find more success on Sunday's and eventually Saturdays, and hopefully in school.

Oh, and study hard too! There should be no dumb wrestlers, we leave that to football (that I played!!) and baseball (that I played too!!).. Books first!

Yeah. They had to combine a bunch of weights in this tournament (and probably will in most tournaments) because of the lack of wrestlers. They also wanted the novices to get to wrestle as many matches as possible.

Wrestling is pretty much in its infancy in this area. There's a pretty storied club out of Little Rock called the Mighty Bluebirds, but other than that we don't have a lot of clubs. They formed this club about two weeks ago, and we already have had around 30 kids showing up for every practice (5 years old up to 14, at which point they start wrestling for the high school). Anyway, we have another tournament this weekend in Van Buren, which is about an hour away. Hopefully the snow/ice they're predicting doesn't keep us from attending.

A dynasty begins. I take my son, 3 nephews and join some young sons of other family for their first practice next week. Put a mat in my dojo room and started FUNdamentals.

Be safe and please drive carefully. Let's hope the weather holds off, I hate to see kids miss a chance to step in and toe the line....

In Iowa you have a lot of dynasties to learn from! GREAT wrestling state!

All of my siblings have wrestling age boys now. The mat club now allows preschool so we are throwing the young ones in. With our boys and those of first cousins when this group is in high school we could have 13 boys on the high school wrestling team from our family at the same time. We are not pushing. We are encouraging. Right now it's just rough housing on the mat and practicing stances and getting thrown around.

I anticipate a lot of winter bleacher butt in the coming years. I will likely be helping with thE youth program as time allows.

I'm now taking my dad spot for our youth wrestling program. My dad been doing it for about 30+ years.

Tournament #2 is in the books.

This was an open tournament, unlike our last one which was novice. My son wrestled at 60 lbs, so he was in a good weight class. Unfortunately, his first match was against the reigning state champion in their division. Ouch.

He won his second in nailbiting fashion. The kid went up 1 point on him with out 12 seconds left in the final round. We were screaming "You've got to double leg him! Get a takedown" and with like 4 seconds to go, he shot and doublelegged and scored two points to win the match by 1. Freaking craziness.

He lost his third one to a kid who had absolutely zero form. Just grabbed him, tied him up, and tossed him around. The kid wasn't shooting or halfing or doing anything. He was just stronger and more agressive and my kid was doing a shitty job of running out of his holds and then turning around and double legging him.

This week, my son is going to have to learn how to do a decent double leg. He wants to sprawl and work to back constantly, but he's not quick enough on his sprawl, so he ends up getting taken down a lot, which puts him behind in scoring.

I love the update.. And yes, at 10 they will run into kids who are technically not as good, but win on attitude. Don't worry about it, in short order the coaches will coach your son through such things and teach him to use their aggressiveness to their advantage. Nothing wrong with being aggressive, but there's everything wrong with being predictable and not having the skills to make the stick.

Here's a pic of my son (burgundy singlet) at 10/60 bridging-out of a match that he won because he held that bridge for nearly 25 seconds. He learned a lot that day, and one lesson was not to get too cocky because your're up by 6 points. He also learned that just because you're pretty good doesn't mean that other kids aren't good too. This was a friend of his to boot! He lucked-out because the kid thought my son couldn't hold the bridge. Well, he did, the the five points the other kid got for all this effort left him one short of the match going into OT. It was a great day and 25 seconds of my life that took more than a year off the end of my life!

I coached him a LOT in football, baseball and wrestling and wrestling, BY FAR, is the one that put more gray hair on me! LOL!!

That's an awesome pic! My boy is actually 7, though (not 10).


My 9 year old developmentally delayed kid is also wrestling, but he's not competing as of now. It's more like physical/occupational therapy for him. So far the coaches have been very cool about it. We just have to rotate his partners, because he doesn't put up much of a fight for his partners, so they don't get as much work as they should. That being said, I was noticing his partner working with him last week, and I thought the other kid was actually learning a ton, because he was having to teach my delayed son how to do some of the moves and such. What's the saying: you remember 10% of you hear and 90% of what you teach (or something like that).

Oh, and I witnessed the most glorious ankle pick I've ever seen to start a match in Division 5 today. Sadly, it was against one of our club kids. It was still just insane. The kid who had it done to him walked off the mat laughing actually because he couldn't believe how quickly it was over.

Ref signals, other kid quick as lightning drops down and does an ankle pick, upends our kid, throws him, and pins him. Over in like 6 seconds.

http://cdn1.sbnation.com/imported_assets/1515227/20.gif

I love these inside ankle picks. Absolutely wicked.

You're a teacher so you prolly know this already, keep them both in it. Like music and scouting, there are secrets in these activities that help kids be awesome. I think we all understand how music helps the mind, scouting prolly character, but wrestling is the enigma to me. i know it helps kids be as awesome as they can be. Perhaps it's the "no team mates, no time outs, not excuses" way things unfold on the mat, but the room is another place where these kids learn the value and coloration between hard work and success. Conversely the experience, or at least see, how lack of effort, preparation, and commitment leads to poor outcomes. The same can be said of any sport, but wrestling doesn't dilute the blame or accountability factor.

I know my son did band all through high school, earned Eagle scout, went to state as a youth wrestler, played football for five years, baseball for seven, played tennis throughout high school, lived his high school years in the robotics room, took every advanced class they offered in science, English and math, and ended up in S&T. Am I a proud dad? Yes, he's one of the best kids and young men I've ever known. He's everything I wish I ever could have been at those stages in life!

And I credit wrestling with a very unique lesson in all of that - a gut check... He went through his phases, but was awesome because he learned how to channel anger, frustration, pain, and humility into a positive force on the mat.

Keep both of them in it, you won't regret it...