I know this has been talked about before and the season is about over but I was approached this weekend by an upset parent that witnessed the weigh-in process at Ottawa. I know this is probably not the first time it has happened so I am not trying to pick on Ottawa. They ran a great tournament. I also do not host a tournament so you can all tell me to put up or shut up as well.

The fact of the matter is, this mom claims to have watched as several wrestlers that did not make weight were checked off and allowed to wrestle. (these were not Ottawa kids getting prefered treatment but from several different clubs) Am I the only one that believes that a kid either makes weight or doesn't wrestle? Yes, I know it is about the kids but if this is the way we are going to handle weigh-ins, why do weigh-ins at all? We will just sign them up near a weight we think they should wrestle.

We have been at this a long time and we do not expect a tournament director to make concessions for our kids if they don't make weight. We take pride in the fact that we are very meticulous about our paperwork and the fact that we would rather wrestle our kids up a weight than have them not make weight.

Anyway it was a great tournament but thought I would see what other people thought.
Tom

Here is a good question,lets say your kid only has 1 or 2 wrestlers in their bracket, would you want to give up the mat time and possibly not to wrestle because a kid he is a little over weight? Right now mat time is mat time, but I do believe come subs, you make weight or go home.

At weigh-ins they don't know what the bracket looks like. If there are only 1 or 2 kids in the bracket, it's not much of a bracket and the hosting club will most likely combine brackets at that point.

It is a matter of ethics and setting a good example for our kids. If they are taught that rules don't matter, what kind of an example are we?

As club directors/coaches we need to make sure we are doing what is right. Mat time is important but at what cost?

I think you should either make weight or not wrestle. My son was so close to 58 after the first tournament that I didn't think he could go the entire season without having to worry about his weight - so we moved him up to 61. He weighed in at Ottawa at 58.8 ... I'd rather not worry about making him go hungry to wrestle.

I think a couple oz. is ok. We all use different scales and you cannot justify 1 or 2 oz. anymore than that would just be uncivilized.

I agree, I think that if a kid is so close that they have problems making weight that they should move up. There are two sides to the coin. On one side, other kids do what they have to to make weight so why should a kid get through who doesn't but on the other if there just a hair over is it worth giving up mat time? I see both sides

You either make make or don't wrestle. It's that simple. All clubs should conduct proper weigh-ins. Make weight-wrestle, Don't make weight-Don't wrestle. It really is that easy.

What about kids that WORK to stay at 8U 95lbs! You don't have to CUT weight but their eating habits are a daily/weekly focus. Then at almost every other event you go to you get combined with a 110lb group. If a combined bracket was a once a month thing then I would just pass it off. Look at the Classic for example, they have a 8U weight group that runs from 89lbs to 110lbs! That is outside USAW guidelines but they are doing it anyway! It is tough to give 10 to 15lbs EVERYWEEK!
The Salina tournement had kids that weighed 94lbs going up againest 125 to 130lb kids!
SOMETHING BAD IS ABOUT TO HAPPEN!
And please, if you plan to reply to this and try to justify/talk about A & B & C & D wrestlers then please don't waist our time! Its a stupid argument!
So as to my point to this post, I think weight classes/weight groups are ultra important.

The largest jump in weight class at salina was 14 & u 185 to 205.
Thats what the torny results say.

Not true! They combined brackets at the 8U Heavier weight levels. They classified it by who was an A&B wrestlers and who was C&D wrestlers. We had a kid at 99lbs who wrestled a 120+ pound kid!

BLT, The tournament directors are just trying to get your wrestler the best matches & mat time. If tournament directors could not combine weights your wrestler may have to be in a two man round robin. Or possibly a one man round robin. My opinion is this would be worse than the weight difference. My oldest son wrestled 6&u 95 & I was glad to have the weights combined. These tournaments Dont really mean alot untill districts & state. My son won 6&under state in a 2 man round robin this was a good experince for him but I wish he had more than one match. The kid he wrestled left after the first match & we sat around all day waiting on his award. My younger son also won 6&under state there was 21 kids in his bracket & this was a better experince (for him) than my oldest boy had. At your sons weight & age you are going to have combined brackets often. If your worried about him getting hurt wrestling heaver kids or you dont want him to wrestle any one in a different weight group simpley state that on your entry form. You may be just watching him walk out on the mat & getting his hand raised.

thanks for that point of view michael. i hadn't looked at it that way. i have a 6u that ususlly weighs in at 64.5 and we wrestle 67 and i haven't been happy that he's had to wrestle kids at some tourneys that were 80. although we did fine with those, i was concerned about the difference. after a while, you get used to it, but i never thought of it that way. thanks for putting my mind in the right spot.