I have read a couple of post the refer to the " Cry Baby" Rule. I have wittnessed kids use this rule to keep from getting pinned and come back to win a match that should have been called a pin way. This has happened way to much this year. I wittnessed this happen 3 times this weekend. This rule needs to be ammended. If a kid is screaming after he is throw to his back then the match should be over. It is called a submission victory. If the kid is " TRULY" hurt he will get the attintion he needs and if he is not he gets what was probably coming anyway A LOSS. It is not fair to the wrestler that worked his butt off to get a kid to his back and not gain the pin or at least the chance to pin them.( Not to mention the 5 point move the kid made to win the match had the kid not started screaming.) I am not so sure that there aren't coachs out there teaching this as much as I have seen it this year. Let alone the wrestlers who are old enough now to know they will get a min. to get their breath back and start again with a chance to score and squeeze out a win after they should have lost because they got out wrestled.This rule needs to be changed. If a kid is hurt then they will scream and stop the match and get the attention they need ,if they are just getting out of a bad spot they lose plain and simple. This needs to stop it is unfair to th kid that should have the chance at the pin.

I agree, way too many times this year, and at state saw kids using it as a breather, if a kid is really hurt then they should have time, but not to catch their breath when another kid is just in better shape

This rule was used on a kid I know and he wasn't trying to keep from getting pinned. His emotions were getting the better of him. He was losing to a kid that he had beat twice this year. I heard his Mom tell him don't be cocky this weekend is different he kinda blew her off. So sometimes it is not an injury to the body but a injury to the spirit. It does need to be changed saw kids lose matches this weekend and during the year.

emotion or not you are losing. You shouldn't get another chance just because your spirit is being injured. Either way the kid not screaming should get the chance to finish what he worked for. This rule was not put in effect for emotions but for bodily injury. Maybe this rule should just be allowed with the younger kids.

OMG! I was beside myself this weekend witnessing older wrestlers "working the system in their favor!" Multiple times did I see this..However, there is one that I will never forget...
theres a score of 2-0 red ahead, green gets an escape 2-1, red makes a crappy shot, he's laid out flat, green about to get around on him for 2pts(10 sec. left)..red aware he's about to lose by 1pt calls injury time...explain to me how bad the injury was when he only used 10sec???? And ends up winning by 1 pt!! FYI this was not my kid..but felt super bad for the kid who lost-he wrestled his butt off!

After they take the injury time, they need to be put back in the same postion...on their back.

I saw this in High School this past season. You know, I'm getting beat and I need a breather, so my headgear slip off. The one most recent in my memory made it to state and tried it there. The ref MADE him get a different pair the first time he did it! Guess he had seen him before.

CCWeil oh no I wasn't saying stop it. You leave your emotions on mat side. But we are dealing with kids the emotion thing happens sometimes. Don't stop it suck it up and wrestle. emotional or not don't stop we all know the true scream of pain.

I also have witnessed wrestlers be on there back and hauler or say they are being choked to get the match stopped and then jump right back up and be ready to go. This is totally unfair to the other wrestler. But on the other hand i have seen 4 kids this year get thrown to the mat so hard they have been knocked out one happening at state, I sometimes feel that in the last few years wrestling has started looking to me like a cross of wrestling and ufc fighting. Maybe I am crazy but some of the things i see happening on mats kind of scare me. Does anyone know how the young man on i believe Mat 9 that looked to have been knocked out and then taken out on a strecher is doing? I know it was a 12 and under 130 match.

Let me first say that I completely agree that if a kid isn't hurt the ref should slap the mat and end the match. We shouldn't reward a kid for crying by letting him stay in the match. One of our wrestlers lost a match earlier in the season by 1 point when he had the kid pinned twice only to have the match stopped because the other kid was upset.... But this topic does go both ways. My son was wrestling in the consolation qtrs for a chance at a state plaque when about 30 seconds into the 1st period he gets an accidental finger in the eye and falls down to his back holding his eye saying "my eye! my eye!" and gives absolutely no effort to come off of his back, the ref was quick to the mat gave it a one count and slapped the mat.....now what happened next I am far from proud of. I did not handle it the "right way" not that there was much I could really do at that point anyway, so I said some things I shouldn't have said and didn't really mean, and somewhere in the heated discussion the ref told me that he slapped the mat and then realized my boy was hurt. After I calmed down (about 4 hours later!) I wanted to believe that was how it really happened, then I watched the video....if your face is less than 12 inches away from the face of a limp kid with both hands on his eye crying my eye and you don't realize he is hurt then I don't know what it takes! Should my boy have kept fighting and got off of his back? ABSOLUTELY!!! Should I have handled it better? No doubt about it, but the "dad" came out of me and for that I am truly sorry. I think my boy learned a valuable lesson, I know I did, and I sure hope that ref reads this and looks at it a little different next time too. I don't know what the answer is on the Cry Baby Rule, but there has to be something there for the kids that are truly hurt to give them a chance to get over their injury and wrestle the whole match.

this happens a lot even in high school, not so much the crying but faking a injury to catch a breather or because they are about to get turned...

Great Subject, I agree with Beeson put the wrestler back on his back asap in some sort of pinning position and blow the whistle. That will slow this down.

I say SLAP the mat.If it is my boy on bottom or top.Here iy why.If the boy is hurt bad that will get the boy doing the damage off him fast.I can not think of any better whay to help a hurt kids than to get what is hurting him off.Now if the boy is faking this will also fix the problem.

There is a few times to stop them.EYES are one of them.Fingers also, I know a few boys that have had bad finger sprains and still come bad and win.But most of the time IF the kid is realy got hurt he takes a lose anyway.

Tapping out is another thing that is driving me crazy. If a kid wants to use a MMA gesture of tapping out he should also pay the same way the MMA guys do. WITH A LOSS.
Crying out saying that someone is choking you is BS in my book. If you can yell and scream, you are getting plenty of air to your lungs.

I also saw this happen 3 times at the district tournament in Goodland. 1 kid did go on to lose the match in overtime, so things did work out properly. One kid did this 2 times in 2 different matches. The first time he was on the bottom on his belly crying with 15 seconds left in the third period. The ref stopped the match and this kid came back and scored a reverse and 3 nearfall to win the match by 2 points. The second time he was on his back in no ohysical danger other than ready to lose by 3 points or get pinned. He came back and reversed the kid and pinned him. If the ref (same ref in both matches) had not stopped these 2 matches, this kid would not have qualified for state. As it turned out he not only qualified, but he also placed 4th at state!!! He definitely used this rule to his advantage.

Agreed but do not confuse getting "choked out" with getting your air shut off (strangled). I would think many would agree alot of this has to do with experience & age. I know many are aware, but for those who are not......

Choked out - shutting off the blood in the carotid arteries on both sides of the neck, ie blood to the brain and you go to sleep. It can happen very fast (1-3 seconds before lights out). For example, in wrestling this type of pressure is seen in the headlock and the front headlock to the locked-whip-grapevine. The feeling is very scary to someone who is not used to this type of pressure.

Strangled - shutting off the air or putting hard pressure on the wind pipe. Potentially very painful & dangerous due to swelling and yes you can scream and still have damage. Thats what makes this a little scary not only for the competitor but to a coach/referee watching. Due to the serious nature of the potential injuries, police & prison guards are very limited as to grabbing around the neck.

i agree mostly witht he whole crying wolf thing but my son got kneed in the eye and had immediate swelling when it happened he grabbed his face and yelled for the ref he was ignored and our coach was told that he wont stop a match for a child faking it. funny thing was he wasnt on his back and was working a move to reverse control we heard him scream in the stands and his eye immediatly swelled to the size of an orange