Would like some imput on how important it is to have a partner close to your own size/ability. Too often we are left to wrestle kids 7,8, even 10lbs. heavier. What can a wrestler learn with this much size difference at such a young age?

This is a tough one I have a son at 40 pounds and he kills all the 37's but has to wrestle a 52 to challenge him and this is to much. All I can tell you is work alot with him at home and try to take him to as many tournaments as you can. Also check with other clubs we partner with other clubs somtimes to get practice partners if they are not to far away. And I dont mean change clubs we have to much of that now just see if you can practice over there one night a week we have a kid from another club come over once a week and we welcome this.

thats just it this late in the season most of our 37/40s are done for one reason or another. going to another club is a good suggestion just don't know how are club would feel. but we have to get some good practice in.THATS A MUST.......

This is exactly a point that I make in Bronze clinics! IF you must mis-match kids, then you have ONE coach dedicated to that pair, especially if they are wrestling live!!

If in your room you don't have that luxury, then in my opinion, they shouldn't wrestle live.

Bryan37
My 6U 40 wrestles bigger kids exclusively. His partners are all 8U from 43-49 lbs and all 3 are Multiple Ntl Champions/Placers. Once in awhile, he will workout with a 6U 70 lb'er. I see it as a huge advantage when drilling against a slightly bigger, stronger kid. Now when they go live wrestling, he definitely takes his lumps the big majority of the time. If practice consisted of 1 hour of live wrestling, I'm sure his desire and his outlook on wrestling would be crushed. But taking a beating for 10-15 minutes by these quality kids is not a bad thing....it's exactly the opposite most of the time. It has made him much better in a "scramble" situation at tournamnets and that's where a lot of matches are won and lost. While the ideal situation would be to have two older, bigger, quality kids and maybe one the same size or smaller that he could really work over, the current situation that my boy has (and yours too) can work really well as long as the "beatings" are in short intervals.
If you are the "Bryan" that I think you are, I think your coach would be very in tune to not let your boy get crushed for long periods of time. But drilling on the bigger kids would be a big plus for him in my opinion.

Very good points KMac. I too allow my 8u 52 his "lumps" with the 55/58 lb boys. I think it helps prepare him for the tuff matches his own wt. Besides, he is pushing the edge of 55 all the time, he could have to move up to them soon anyway.

We have guest wrestlers that come by from time to time from smaller clubs in the area that are looking for a little closer wt competition. We have a little over 100 kids in our club, so we hit alot of wt classes. I don't think your club should get upset if you "visited" a practice once in awhile to help your wrestlers out.

Bryan37, I think it depends on how much your son weighs. My son gives up 10-15% of his body weight against his practice partners at every practice & I think it helps him tremendously on Saturdays. As long as it's not dangerous for your son, he should learn quite a bit in regards to technique, leverage, balance etc. It is harder for my son to muscle his partners when they are stronger & heavier then he is. Your situation is a better scenario then the other end of the spectrum where your sons partners are lighter & less skilled then he IMO.

this sounds harsh but the only way to get better is wrestle somebody better

Last year my son wrestled 8u46 and the closest kid to his weight was at 61, and was much more skilled. We would work on technique during practice then wrestle live the end of practice. My son was for the most part unable to use these moves on the older bigger kids, thus getting a constant pouding day in and day out. Wrestling the bigger/older more skilled wrestler was good for my son because he was forced to use leverage and technique rather than muscle...etc. In addition, he learned a few more moves by getting them applied on him (on a regular basis).

This year, he still wrestles with the bigger more advanced kids some, but also wrestles with another group of kids (a couple older and a couple younger), all weigh more, but are less experienced. This has allowed him to be able to finish moves where before he couldn't.

I think a nice mix between experience levels, age/weight will benefit all involved if managed properly.