We are required to rate our wrestler's when we enter our team in a tournament. The tournament's that I have been to this year that have used the track wrestling system have had D and C wrestler's seeded over A's. I have also noticed that the system either has the best wrestlers in the bracket's on the same side or the have them wrestling each other right off the bat! My question is, what's the point in sending in rating's if the system dosen't take it into consideration. If the system does not use the rating's then are we going to see a decrease in exciting final's matches?

I completely agree. I have an A wrestler and he has had to go up against the A or AA wrestlers in the bracket first or second match of the day and then the finals are so poorly matched up that they are not really exciting to watch. The system has a few kinks that I can see but I know it is what the future holds for tournaments. Just wish it was a little more evenly matched in the brackets.

Ditto! This happened to my son at Topeka with the Track Wrestling system. His first match was against another A wrestler. It was the first match at the top of the bracket. Great match but it should have been the final match. Instead his final match lasted 10 seconds. Does this software have seeding capability and it's just now being utilized? If so please tell the participants. When you ask for ratings the wrestler expects some resemblence of an attempt to seed a bracket.
Or does it NOT have seeding capability? If it doesn't are we going to use track wrestling at subs, districts & state?

I just read that Sub Districts will be using Track Wrestling software, again I am asking someone who know about this system if it takes into account the rating of wrestler's? If it does not we may see several kids that should make it on to the Districts Tournament come out of Sub's very disappointed.

Good question. No reason to go to the seeding meeting if the seeds can't be inserted into the brackets.

TrackWrestling is capable of handling seeds in different ways, depending on what the tournament host wants. While the program can do the seeding randomly or based on rankings entered, our subdistrict tournaments will be seeded entirely based on the input provided after the seeding meetings.

Just to clarify, in past seeding meetings i have been to, the committee for the age group looked at each bracket and placed the kids on the brackets according to their seeds as decided by the comittee. Will this translate into trackwrestling so that the brackets that are decided upon during the seeding meeting will look exactly like the brackets once trackwrestling spits them out? Then once it goes to Districts, does trackwrestling have the capability of combining the 2 sub-districts properly ie. 1N vs 4S, 2N vs 3S, etc.? These are questions that both the Sub-district and District hosts need to be double checking on and testing the software now so that we don't have a mess on our hands next month.

I am using Track Wrestling for the Central Inv this weekend. Im in the process of seeding kids right now. Just did a 16 man bracket with 11 kids in it and it put them on the bracket right where they should be as if I did it by hand and in alot less time. Heck at the sub district seeding meetings you ought to be able to walk out of the building with a printed copy of every kids bracket you have in your club and it will still not last as long as it always has.

I am hoping all the people involved in subs and districts across the state know all that you know about track wrestling!

You can not have a seeding meeting at every kids tournament it takes most of a day to do the seeding for subdistricts. The tournaments every weekend only give a rating A,B,C, etc. It is not a seeding meeting. A high school seeding meeting can take 2 to 4 hours for 14 brackets. Multiply those number times 120 brackets. Some tournaments just lump all the A kids in one bracket and the B & C in another. Or A's&B's and C's &D's.
Sometimes people sign their kids up as an A kid and he should be a C rating or the other way around. Records of every kid are not submitted at every tournament. Some clubs do not even submit records at subdistrict and they say their kid is an A wrestler.
It happens all the time. In the end the wrestlers sort it out on the mat.

Just a thought.

NO EXCEPTION THE NIGHT BEFORE only weigh-ins will solve hundreds of scratches, no shows, weight changes, AGE CHANGES(Unbelievable) huge problem parents signing kids up in the wrong age group. The people traveling will have to get a hotel and maybe leave a day early, or do not go to that tournament. But if bad weather comes over night the no shows will increase. Kids dodging other kids once they see who is in their weight - or the parents changing the kids to get easier competition and sometimes better competition. It is not just one kid and your kid that needs to be changed at the last second. Every tournament(novice & open) I hear from at least a few parents "I accidentally signed my kid up in the wrong weight." This happens at subdistrict also and it is a fact that some change just for an easier path to state. The morning of the tournament weigh-ins is not friendly to Trackwrestling or any tournament format. I think a MANDATORY night before weigh-in & check in ONLY that end at 8:00pm - NOT 8:03pm or 8:30pm or 9:02pm. Brackets will be posted the next morning at 7 or 8 am. Do not provide a list of the names of participants early. Tournament directors could post the number of kids in each bracket. Sing the National Anthem at 8:45am Start wrestling the next morning at 9:00am sharp. Unless there is bad weather and you'll get local no shows. Then for example 3 no shows in a 5 man round robin just became a 2 man RR best 2 out of 3. Sorry, I can't control the weather. Optional weigh-in site, 1 or 2 different locations maybe - besides the sight of the tournament. I do not understand why people can not read the flier that says NO BRACKET CHANGES - DEADLINE IS this DATE at THIS TIME. I would suggest READ THE TOURNAMENT HANDOUT.


MOVING JUST 1 KID WHAT IT REALLY MEANS – It is more than 5 minutes per kid
On average from what I can tell - there is at a minimum of 60 to 80 changes per tournament with about 400 kids signed up. Note: each change affects 8 other items in brackets and bout sheets.

Moving a 12 & under 76 (wrong signup by someone) out of a bracket to and 8 & under 76 bracket so those kids can at least wrestle a kid or kids their own age requires the changing of eight brackets - 2 head table brackets, 2 scorers table brackets, 2 wall brackets, and 2 sets of bout cards. - That is moving just 1 kid. It is very important for parents and club sign up people to get the kids in the correct spot. DO NOT COMPLAIN IF YOU HAVE EVER EVER SIGNED YOUR KID UP WRONG.

If one club who sent in 8 entries and had one wrong entry that is 12.5% of the entries sent in wrong. 12.5% of 500 entries is 62 total wrong entries. If all of these kids are in one of the different 120 brackets then over half of the brackets would have to be changed on the wall, at each table packet, the head table, and the bout sheets. This all has to happen before the tournament can start.

Nobody on this thread is suggesting a seeding "meeting" for every tournament. But only that, if you are ask on the flyer to give a rating for a wrestler that then, they make some effort to place them in a bracket accordingly. If a tournament director does not ask for a rating then you expect to be all thrown together, and that is perfectly fine. In the end you have better communication, less confusion and maybe less complaining.

That I agree with totally, if you ask for a ranking or rating then try your hardest to set the bracket up that way. My son has gotten the rotten end of that a few times this year. He is an A and gets put against the other A in the bracket first or second match out and then gets sent to the backside and ends up 3rd and a poor C or D wrestler gets his butt handed to him in the finals match. It is just not fair to any of the wrestlers when it happens that way.

i guess i for one dont see what the big deal is, if we send in rating info and it doesnt work out the way we think it should we just go and wrestle.. when my son started wrestling he was wrestling an A wrestler almost every weekend never won a match for the first month or more, but i know for a fact it made him a much better wrestler in the long run.. i figure put them in there and let them wrestle if you win you win if not you go back and practice harder and wrestle another day.. whats going to happen when state comes around and most kids in the bracket will be A or AA wrestlers cant seperate them then..

john mason

I think every parent on this fourm know's what kind of wrestler's you see at State,and I agree kids will learn more from a loss then they do from a win. The point of this thread is for use as parent's (that spend alot of time and money on this sport because our kid's love it) to find out how the Track Wrestling system work's. The biggest question I had is the Seeding capability since this system will be used at the Sub's,District's and State Tournament. That's why there is a seeding meeting before Sub's to assure that the dedication and hard work of the wrestler,s throughout the year is taken into consideration. Mike Juby has answered our question by letting use know that it does take seeding into consideration and the seeding capablity will be used for these tournaments.

Let me start out by saying that I think Track Wrestling is great and will only get better in time. We have all heard a saying, something to the effect of, "garbage in ... garbage out". Coaches and parents still need to stay on top of their wresters' bracket and bout numbers. Human error is always going to contribute to everything we do. And most of us know that a Kids' Wrestling Tournament is chaotic at best. My point is this, I know of an instance at one of the recent TW tournaments where the wrong kid was given the win on the TW results, both in the bracket and in the text results.

Due to circumstances beyond my control, I was unable to bring this to the attention of anyone that could do anything about it. The next round, the kid who was incorrectly given the win was called out to wrestle the match on the front side of the bracket instead of his backside match. Before the mistake was caught, he had already wrestled about 30 seconds of the match.

If your wrestler is called out to wrestle a match that you believe is incorrect, don't be afraid to question someone at the table.