Thoughts following State FS/GR

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

100% agree with Coach Beck. Well said, wish I could add something but you pretty much said what I, and most of the coaches my circle, continue to talk about. Glad to hear someone a little more well spoken than me get this topic going.

Clint Slyter

I also agree 100%. The summer season is definatly the most fun season.

I have spoken to many of my friends in the coaching ranks (high school and kids) and in parent ranks. Not one has disagreed with the fact that the folk style season is too long and the Fr/Gr is too short.

December Week1 Folkstyle
Week2 Folkstyle
Week3 Folkstyle
Week4 Folkstyle
January Week1 Folkstyle
Week2 Folkstyle
Week3 Folkstyle
Week4 Folkstyle
Febuary Week1 Folkstyle
Week2 Folkstyle
Week3 Folkstyle
Week4 Folkstyle
March Week1 Folkstyle
Week2 Folkstyle sub-districts
Week3 Folkstyle Districts
Week4 Folkstyle State
April Week1 Usa nats
Week2 Middle and Elementary duals
Week3 FS/GR
Week4 FS/GR
May Week1 FS/GR State
Week2 FS/GR
Week3 FS/GR
Week4 FS/GR Southern Plains
June Week1 FS/GR
Week2 Schoolboy Duals
Week3 Cadet/Jr Duals
Week4 FS/GR Usa Nats
July Week1 FS/GR
Week2 Fargo
I agree with all the points without getting into to much confusion( mostly to myself) taking into consideration some months have 5 weeks. While FS/Gr state Approaches very quickly. Length wise the seasons seem to be close in length.

maybe if we stopped treating the seasons as it has to be folkstyle or freestyle greco and started having tournaments with all three styles in a weekend??

To me it is all wrestling. Just a bit of a change up for fun. I just wish we would not have our qualifying tournaments around NCAA and H.S. State. I like the idea of having the kids 6th grade and under at a tournament and then have a KSHSAA sanctioned middle school tournament and then start freestyle. These tournaments would also carry through for who would be on Elementary and Middle School Teams. If I also had a wish we would do away with class systems and have one high school state tournament.

My wife has been going to folk style matches for 7+ years and this weekend was her first chance to watch FS/GR. One of her comments was golden. "I like this, them boys are trying to kill each other." She also noted that there was more blood spilled in one day there than all the tournaments she's seen all year and she goes to a bunch. She''s a fan now. We also do some Highland Wrestling/Cumberland which is a bit like Greco but you wear a kilt and shirt is optional. Talk about obscure wrestling.

Well said Beck!

I had a blast in Hutch. You simply can't beat the spring and summer seasons. Kids go to war on the mat and then smile walking off! One of the reasons our kids see so much growth this time of year is because wrestling becomes fun again - crazy concept.

I look back on my summers on the mat and remember why I fell in love with our great sport. This time of year allows kids to get better without the grind and stress of the winter season. The Olympic styles allow kids to become a part of something bigger. During the spring, a kid can acknowledge their identity as a wrestler in the company of like minded individuals. A kid from Olathe South can become a member of KCTC. With some dedication and a little luck, he can become a part of Team Kansas. Along the way he will make friends that last a lifetime (something I was reminded of this past weekend). This time of year brings us together through something we all share, our love for wrestling.

Wrestlers - Join a club. Drill with a kid you've never met. Get out and compete. Make friends. Get better. Have fun!

God I love this time of year.

GO TEAM KANSAS!

I agree. Freestyle season is amazing. It is fun to be able to come up to kids from different towns and talk and cheer for them. During folkstyle it seems everyone has there own agenda, but my experience with FS/GR is everyone is on the same page: To make ALL kids better. I know at one point this weekend our club had several wrestlers wrestling at one time and I noticed kids from another club coaching one of our wrestlers. This isn't just about teaching kids wrestling but how to be a great person. I believe with Coach Beck that we all need to get on one page and set goals for the state of Kansas.

Tate,
I agree that it is pretty awesome to watch kids from other schools and clubs cheering on wrestlers from a different club. I saw a lot of that at state this year, and I remember seeing a lot of it at Southern Plains. I think Coach Beck hit the nail on the head, during this season we are not members of clubs, but we are all members of TEAM KANSAS.

Let me start this by saying I enjoy the FS/GR season and the change in styles. Having said that I am going to offer some counter ideas and some potential negative second and third order effects of shortening the folkstyle season....

1. Elephant in the room.....FS/GR out of Olympics. If this doesn't change, the need to even compete in FS/GR greatly diminishes. I think some tertiary effects of this are that kids will really focus just on folkstyle because the big goal or pay off will be wrestling in college and competing in the NCAAs not the Olympics.

2. FS/GR rules and scoring needs to change drastically in order to stay relevant. Will posted a good post on this earlier. Too easy to be defensive and score by just rolling somebody. Aggressive wrestlers get punished not rewarded (unless you count pushing somebody out of bounds without even attempting a wrestling move as exciting).

3. Everyone looks at the kids folkstyle season as being sooooo long. It depends on how your club runs it. Yes it is if you start going to tournaments in Nov and then finish in March. Most clubs that I know of focus and compete during the Jan - Mar timeframe. It is mainly the elite kids or the parents who are pushing their kids to be elite that start competing in Nov.

4. It would be nice to at least free up the weekends of high school state and college championships so we could take the kids to watch those events.

5. I also think the sooner we end the folkstyle season....the sooner most kids will start baseball. I do not think you will see the kids transition to freestyle and greco. My guess is that most of the kids (not the elite single sport kids) but the majority of the kids that make up our high school teams will just transition to baseball earlier (or other spring sports).

Recommendation: I would like to see us end the Kansas folkstyle kids INDIVIDUAL season earlier and then see us run a team dual season based on age groups. My reasoning for this is that if you have watched the explosive growth in the desire for kids to compete on the Elementary and Middle School dual teams you see that these kids and parents love these team events. Heck, most of the kids that do freestyle and greco do it so they can be on the Schoolboy, Cadet and Junior duals. Let's take advantage of that.

These are just some random thoughts that pass through my cranium and a contemplate solving the rest of the world's problems. Feel free to agree or disagree with them.

Shawn Budke

Ding ding ding, we have a winner!!!