ok steele. with a name like that maybe you can wrestle your way out of trouble. i think if im in this scenario, your down by 1 and the kid is laying on you with less than 10 seconds and your on the line what are your best odds. stay in bounds and lose or get of the mat and have a chance to start over. if you dont think that is part of wrestling maybe you should do personal interviews with each one of the finalists at the ncaa championships and find what they would do. thats all im saying about that. there is a time and place to use the white lines. hell i wish every kid got the chance to wrestle on a full mat every week but thats not going to happen. i dont teach kids to wrestle on the edge but i will show them a way to stay out of danger when close to the edge.

I, too, wish all these kids could wrestle on a full mat. All I am saying is to crawl out of bounds intentionally is fleeing the mat.

"Fleeing the mat: Leaving the wrestling area to avoid the opponent’s
attack, punishable by a caution, plus a penalty point and choice of position to
the opponent; two penalty points if fleeing occurs from a danger position."

This comes from the rules book the the home page of this site. But back to the topic... 1/4 mats for some kids does make things hard but deal with it and move on.

Winfield started out having 12 and under on a quarter of a mat then changed it to a Half mat before the tournament even started. None of the bigger kids wrestled on a 1/4 mat. It ended up no different than any other tounament. we had 4 1/4 mats and 4 half mats in the big gym and 2 full in the small gym. By all means all those who want to complain "PLEASE" feel free to host dist. next year so I can go home as soon as my son is done and not have to listen to peoople complain about what a horrible job we did.

Whatever happened to the old adage that "the customer is always right"?

Talk to Jeremy Biddle. I briefly talked to him on Saturday, and let him know that I wish they had done 3 mats in the big kids' gym like they used to, and that would have alleviated some of the congestion in the little guys' gym. He listened to everything I had to say, and agreed. His door is always open, but I guarantee you that you won't get anywhere by screaming at him, or badmouthing Winfield on this board. Put your ideas in writing and they will listen.

3 mats in the big guys' gym would have allowed another 1/2 mat in the little guys' room, so maybe only the 8u would have to wrestle on 1/4 mats, and the big guys would get 3 full size mats, and 10u, 12u and small 14u would get 1/2 mats.

I'm sure they realize that the concessions was in need of another location, or more help.

I do like it when tourneys do the medal handouts at the tables instead of going to the head table.

Overall, I think people are making it out to be worse than it was.

Our family has helped run tournaments for over 5 years now and every year - there will be some group or club that is upset by something. I know how hard it is to run a tournament. I understand how frustrating it can get for the people AND the volunteers when things get hectic. Because of this, you will NEVER see me complain vocally about how a tournament was ran.

As for the mat size and kids fleeing, I agree that no matter how big a mat is, you will still see wrestlers who do this. Watch a high school tournament and notice how many of the wrestlers ona full-size mat will wrestle "right on the edge". Some of it is strategy (ie, if you get in a bad position, it's easier to get out of bounds and be reset). There are high school coaches who teach their wrestlers to use this strategy and there are many who will tell a wrestler to "look at where they are" or to "get out of bounds". It's a strategy and it does work (unless your opponent knows what you are trying to do and pulls you back in which also happens in many cases). Sometimes, going out of bounds is just the situation the two wrestlers are in. Other times, it is intentionally fleeing the mat. But I can guarantee you that good refs can tell the difference between a kid who is fleeing the mat intentionally and the ones who are not.

10 hours in an overcrowded gym, contant stop/starts because wrestlers going out of bounds, half hour wait in line for concessions, hour wait for medals, adults impatient with excited kids wanting to know when they could get theier medal/bracket... No, I don't think anyone is making it out to be worse than it was. So far, every complaint I have read is legitimate! This should have been a split format. Then they could have had larger mat sizes, and wait between bouts would not have been so long that the kids lost focus. And when I offered to help at concessions, was rudely told "no, we're fine".

Or maybe a chew garden? Take away the chew and the complaints start coming.

Wow, this is the kind of attitude that keeps things from changing for the better. Why not just listen to what people are saying, take notes and make it better next time? It IS all about the kids and being at a tournament for 10 and 1/2 hours IS NOT good for any kid. In addition, YES, some of us do have (maybe not better) but other things to do. I have another child involved in another sport that I would have liked to have been able to catch at least part of her competition. We LOVE wrestling but it is not our entire life! I think most of us have worked our own tournaments...this was Winfields tournament to take care of. I organize and work a sporting event every year (sometimes 2x a year) that takes four complete days of my life (6:30am -10:30pm). It is not a wrestling touranment. I do it because I love the sport. We do EVERYTHING we can to make it a good experience for the kids, coaches and spectators! We welcome complaints and concerns as that is the only way we will know if we are doing something wrong or if something needs to be changed! We host an awesome event because we have listened to concerns, complaints and suggestions and made the necessary changes.

So what you are telling me is that so far you have complained to one of the kids working the concession stand? Like I said before, if you would take the time to talk to Jeremy Biddle, he will listen, and possibly you would understand why some of the things were done, and he will also tell you that they will make it better. He is a stand up guy, and if a mistake was made, he'll admit it and correct it.

Wrestling was scheduled to start at 9:00 am. I was out of there by 6:00. That is 9 hours. We got there at 8:30 for warmup. So 9.5 h ours. Did you weigh in that morning? I guess you would have had to to make it a 10 and a half hour day.

My suggestions:
Second concession area
3 mats in alternate gym
Split session
Don't know why the medal wait happened, but I'm sure it will be addressed, as I like the idea of giving them out at the tables.

Mat savvy is knowing where you are on the mat, no matter if you are in trouble or trying to turn a guy back in bounds. Smart wrestling is using the tools at your disposal. If you are one that continues to "run" out of bounds, then I don't see that as mat savvy. If you are wrestling a close match and you get caught with a move (happens to the best of em) close to the white line, having your mind in the match can give you an edge. No pun intended. I think that is just smart wrestling.

Actually, my son weighed in the night before. We got there at 8:15 and did not get his medal until 6:30pm. Ok, I guess it was 10 and 1/4 hours NOT 10 and 1/2. In any case, it was a LONG time. I agree with your suggestions! Hopefully Winfield and others will follow them. I'm sure they read the forum or someone has told them about the complaints!

Could someone please tell me when there has been 3 full mats for the 16 and 14 and unders? I've always seen 2. If you guys want 3 mats in there, bring your own. We moved 5 mats Thursday and believe me that was enough for me. 3 mats fit but not well in that gym. One reason I was against 3 mats in the other gym was a couple of years ago we did that and one was too close to the wall and I witnessed myself one kid using that to purposly slam another kid into the wall( even though there was padding there it still wouldn't have felt good). Also the last time we used 3 mats in the small gym we only had 2 in the big gym. Like I said before if you can do better by all means do it! Setting up and tearing down for tournaments is not on my list of favorite things to do especially when a bunch of frigin cry babies, who probably have no idea how to put a tournament on nor have "probably" never volunteered to work a tournament of that caliber sit back and critisize.

Easy Zach Dad, most of us posting here have run a tournament, from the classic to our own.....all we are saying is the rules are set for a reason.....3ft. perimiter (not there) mat sizes (not there) now to make everything perfect would have held up this district tournament by hours, all most of are saying is if you want to hold a QUALIFYING tournament do it by the GUIDELINES. Now having said that I do not feel that certain matches should be moved when everyone else had to wrestle on the same size mat during the tournament.. Not to start a war but at districts every kid has earned their place to be there. I know the coach asked the head ref to move to a bigger mat, but now your opening the door for all of us to say we want a bigger mat at each tournament...JMO...Good luck to all at state this weekend and drive safe!!!!

Spexy,

No war, just clarifying...I stepped the mat off and came up with 12x12. I did not need a "BIGGER" mat, I just wanted a "REGULATION" mat. I did ask if we could wrestle on the 1/4 mat that I stepped off at 16x16. If I had to do it again, I would. With all the fuss this has created, I'll bet all of the qualifying tournaments next year will make sure the mats are regulation. I did learn something from this. If I feel the mat is not regulation size, use a tape before the tournament and refuse to wrestle any match on it. I hope the State mats are Regulation, because I will have my tape measure there.

Chad.... I agree with you 100%, wasn't looking to step on toes. Next year if this problem arises more than a couple coaches need to band to together to have it resolved.. Tell Jake good luck and we'll see you at state.

Thanks, I'll pass it on to him.

AAAAHHAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!! I KNEW you were exaggerating!!!!!

I have been at WInfield when there was 3 mats there for Districts, when my son was 12u 80 lbs he wrestled on what would have been the SE mat in that alternate gym. I think that is the last time prior to this year that Winfield hosted districts. I don't recall ANY problems with that tourney, other than Wyatt Villers whipping Levi's tail in the finals. I believe it was a split tourney as well.

I am not "crying", I wasn't up in arms about the tourney, but IMO it could be much better, and I gave my suggestions, which you guys had done a couple of years ago, and it worked fine. I'm not too sure you didn't fix something this year that wasn't broken.

I disagree with the whining people, but only in their way of complaining. If you don't think your tourney could have been run better, you have your head buried in the sand. Unless Jeremy was pumping me full of crap, he agreed with the things I am talking about. Jeremy is a standup guy, so I know he isn't BSing me.

So, if you guys want to host districts again, I would suggest that you make some changes, and make the representatives at the District 2 preseason meeting aware of them, and I feel like you can still host it. I would not have a problem voting for Winfield if the changes are made. We shouldn't have to bring our own mats, cause we aren't hosting the tourney. I'm sure Central, or Wellington, or Ark City, (If Ark City brings a mat that Beeson has been rolling around on, I would insist that it be thoroughly sanitized before allowing any kids on it).or someone would be willing to loan you another mat. I don't believe you are correct in saying you only had two mats in the main gym. I believe it has always been 3 in that gym, and 3 in the alternate gym. And if you run a split tourney, you would be able to run half mats for those 3 mats, for 6 surfaces, and the 3 full mats in the alternate gym, for a total of 9 surfaces, same as you had Saturday, and you'd run each session thru very quickly. I am only telling you, as the "customer", what I want to see before I buy your product again. Good luck at Topeka, feel free to talk at me if you see me.
Doug

Doug,
You are correct that we ran 3 mats up and 3 mats down 2 years ago when we last had districts. Yes, WE (Winfield Wrestling Club) acknowledge we tried a few things different this year and all did not work out for the better...We have discussed some of the concerns already and I assure you when we hold our next tournament, districts or not, we will take ALL things into consideration. Like you pointed out in your post, we only disagree on how many have expressed their concerns.

Kinnie Ledford
Winfield Wrestling Club