Length of Kids Folk Style Season

Curious as to how many of our club coaches, club leaders and high school coaches in each district would like to see the kids season shortened? And what impact do you think the length of the kids season has on our Fr/Gr success as a whole?

Dave,

I would love to see the Season Shortened. Jake wrestled the least amount of matches he has since we started and he had more success and enjoyed this year more than any other. I don't know if this has to do with maturity on his part or easing up on mine, possibly both.

I do not think that shortening or lengthing the season will help Freestyle and Greco. These two styles are just not as popular as folkstyle. They have to compete with Baseball, Track, Golf, 4H with County Fairs, Family Vacations, and wrestling year round is hard to do. Folkstyle only has to compete against Basketball, which for most is a very easy decision. Alot of people look at Freestyle and Greco as lengthing their wrestling season which is already too long.

My Two Cents...I'm sure I will add more. ;-)

I agree with Chad, shortening the Folkstyle season will have little to no effect on FR/GR participation come April.

Also, when speaking of shortening the Folkstyle season, we need to thoroughly think through all the pros/cons. For example, the Kickoff Classic in early November is a very popular tourney for Kansas kids. Further, Iowa Nationals, Reno Worlds, Elementary duals, Schoolboy Duals, etc. are very popular in April.

Therefore, if the Folkstyle season is shortened, let’s ensure all Kansas kids have the opportunity to proper training facilities and coaching to prepare for these tourneys. My guess is that some will and some won't. If not, then we will begin experiencing negative effects on Folkstyle.

I'm not saying it wouldn't work, it would just take a whole lot of thinking and planning.

Max Fisher
316-655-5750

Why shorten the season it seems to fit pretty well.. the week after state USA.nationals, week after that ms and elem duals, reno etc. Then into freestyle greco couple tournaments then state couple weeks southern plains, sb, cadet, jr duals. Couple weeks fs gr nats. Then complete and utter bore of nothing but hard core drilling to Oct finally comes again and we start all over perfection

Just because the season is long, doesn't mean you have to wrestle every weekend from Kickoff to Reno. It also doesn't mean that you cant take a week off during the year to recharge.This year my son took off several Saturdays wrestling himself and I took him to Oklahoma State duals and High School matches.And even took the weekend off and watched High School State.

I like how long the season is.And I wish it was October so we can start again.

I agree with Jerry on one point!! I have been telling parents to schedule one weekend off a month!!

A hungry dog hunts harder!!

When our club makes out the tournament schedule for the year. We put in Bye weekends every month except March. We try to only wrestle 2 or 3 times in December. Then hit it hard in January, Feburary, and March. It works out pretty good the last couple of years for our club. Think the season is as long as you make it. I enjoy the wrestling season. When summer comes it seems like something is not right until November comes around then everything falls into place again.

Josh Parker
Mission Valley

I would like to see folkstyle shorter with State in February and starting Freestyle/Greco in March. It is definitely a long haul.

I don't think shortening the season would help freestyle and greco numbers. The problem with numbers in my opinion is the limited number of tournaments. This year our club's options were Manhattan, State, and Southern Plains. I know Blue Chip puts on three tournaments and Colby also has a couple tournments. Unfortunately, that was too far for some of the kids in my club to want to travel. If we want freestyle and greco to take off I think their needs to be more opportunities to compete around the whole state.

I do agree about the folkstyle season being a little drawn out. But have the kids take some Saturdays off. We had several in our club do that. We also had several who wrestled every weekend right up to the end of January, then they quit showing up. I am not sure if it was burn out or mom and dad's checkbook got tired of writing checks each week for tournaments. While I am a firm believer mat time is important for the learning and developement of a wrestler, having a 5-8 year old wrestling every weekend for 4 months can lead to some burn out and can be very expensive.

I am not one to post on this board, but here is one topic I am very passionate about. My feelings on shortening the kids folkstyle season are strong. There are a few reasons that I feel this way.

1. The ability for or youth to first be fans of the sport. How will our children ever know what it is like to strive to be or what it takes to be the best wrestlers possible if they are not able to see it in action. I feel that we are limiting our athletes by not allowing them to watch the regional and state high school tournaments and especially the collegiate national tournaments. Kansas will be lucky enough to be hosting the NAIA national tournament the next few years but what happens following that

2. What are our goals as a state with wrestling. Is it to have the highest number of participants? Is it to be the best state in the country? Until we find a consensus on what our goals are then we can't move on. If our goal is to become the best state in the country, then the emphasis on year round wrestling and participation in the Freestyle and Greco styles is how that happens. As a collective group of goal setting driven individuals, too often i see the state championship being held as the Holy Grail. Maybe I had a jaded view because I failed at my goal as an athlete. I also feel like the lessons that were taught in a foreign place wearing my states colors were hard to match anywhere. A wrestling mantra has always been, if you haven't been beaten you're not wrestling tough enough competition.

3. I feel like there is a genuine dislike or hatred for summer wrestling styles. I spent this last weekend in Hutchison at the State Freestyle and Greco tournaments. What a great tournament! I have been blessed with the opportunity to be a part of the Cadet and Junior teams for the state of Kansas for the last two years. I have been able to share the love I have for this sport, and to watch it grow from the positive interactions with athletes from all over Kansas. Lines from clubs and cities are blurred during the summers WE ARE TEAM KANSAS. you would be hard pressed to find athletes that didn't enjoy/learn a ton at the tournament this weekend. You could tell from the smiles galore. It was also a great opportunity to finally wrestle in a predominately stress free environment. Less weight cutting. More matches. Great match ups. I met new athletes that I better get familiar with, cause they are the ones that will be looking down at me from the top of the podiums next folkstyle season.

I am aware that I have just written a book, but I divided it into chapters so that might help, ha. I am a Kansas transplant via Colorado. This state is now my home and I am proud to be a Kansan. I want to see our hard work displayed nationwide for all to see. This will have to be a collective effort, and chasing the illusive Stop Signs of Fargo, North Dakota should be the goal, not kids state titles. I'm sure I will be bashed and trolled for my opinions, but this topic I feel is important enough to share my thoughts and opinions.

Jacob Beck
Bonner Springs

Lack of tournaments available is correlated to the shorten season, considering most clubs start at the beginning of April, one week after Youth Folkstyle State. Then have a Freestyle/Greco state tournament 4 weeks later...

By shortening Folkstyle season, we extend the Freestyle/Greco season, allowing for more time and opportunities for clubs & communities to host tournaments.

Also, even if we did shorten Folkstyle, you can still take a weekend off a month. To continue to save burnout rate and parents check books.

1- month of Freestyle/Greco
to
4- months of Folkstyle

So the best we are willing to offer is 1/4 of the experience, lets at least offer 1/2...

Tyler Gonzales

I am not as concerned about "burn out" as I am with the over all development and growth of our wrestlers as a whole. All of the states in our region end the folk-style season in Feb. or early March. They have been in Fr/Gr for over two a months. When our cadets and junior's go to Fargo are we sending them as prepared as they possibly can be? I believe that if we were to change the length of the kids season, over a period of time, the numbers will grow in Fr/Gr. In the long run it will pay off immensely. Most college coaches attend Fargo to see what kids can do when exposed to the toughest competition in the country. They do not attend our kids state tournament to look at high school kids. Kansas has done well in Fargo but could we not do better? Is it not more important to preform well at Fargo?

Coach Hull,
I agree as a whole we do a fairly good job at Fargo, but we can do better as you said. I wish we had the RTCs like we had last year. We went to a couple in Andover last year and I found it very benefiting not only to the wrestlers but to myself as well.

Coach Gonzalez,
I agree I wish the freestyle and Greco season was longer also. If it was longer I would hope there would be more tournaments. I do believe coach you do an excellent job at promoting the sport and hosting those tournaments are very beneficial. Hopefully I can talk some guys into going on the 18th.

I completely agree with Coach Beck. For us to grow we have to be able to better promote every level of our sport and to do that we cannot continue to overshadow each other. I wish seasons were staggered in some way for this to happen. Well said, Coach Beck!!!