This is kind of a touchy subject with some of the parents. I am going to ask the question anyway. If your kid has to lose a bunch of weight in order to take 1st place is he really a champion? In my opinion if you can wrestle at your natural weight and win you are a champion. If you are losing a bunch of weight to dodge competition ( In my opinion) You are not. I am talking about kids club not high school.

i personally keep my kid at his natural weight but i dont judge others that have their kids cut the weight. Cutting weight is no t an easy task, especially for kids. If they can do it and want to than more power to them!

What about the kids that cut some weight to go get some competition? Sometimes, not always, the heavier you are, the less kids there are, therefore, less competition. If you're in the ? and Under 100 lb class, and there are only 2 kids in the whole district there, but there are 7 kids at the ? and under 95 lb class, and 95 is within reach, why not do it? Remember, there are healthy ways to lose weight. If you're losing muscle weight, that's bad, if you're losing fatty weight, that is nothing but good for the kid, as long as he's doing it in a healthy way, not just cutting off the food and water to lose it..........

I have been on and seen both side of this.

I have with my boys been very firm on not having them cut weight.

I have always felt that wrestling is a hard enough sport that as young kids this is a issue that drives smaller kids away from the sport if their parent do in fact have them cut weight.

I have a boy this year that is kind of stuck inbetween two weights. That usually isn't to big of a deal and I would always just bump him up to the next weight. In 12U the diffeence is 10 pounds so it changes the game a bit.

We currently have been eating better cutting out the sweets and pop and have been able to stay at the top of the lower weight. I don't see that cutting wieght rather than managing it.

When and if he get to a point to having to stop eat or great reduce it he will be at the higher weight without hesitation or how it will effect his ability to win.

So overall I am against "cutting" which I consider that not eating.

I am all for managing the intake and eliminating the luxury items to help maintain their weight.

As far as cutting to dodge, it happens all the time and in my experiences with that it doesn't matter where you go if you are dodging someone it usually doesn't work out in the long run.

Those were the answers I was looking for thanks. I see a kid that is in top notch shape and he has to cut 3- 6 pounds Every week

In my opinion there is a difference in losing weight and "Cutting" weight. losing weight is when there is weight that needs to be lost. for instance, when my son steps a scale right after summer and weight's 160lbs we say he needs to LOSE 10 to 15 pounds. Get the summer weight off. To me anything more than that would be CUTTING weight. Lastly I think if you can make the weight and your Healthy, Your a champion!

When they get into high school and their eyes are all black and sunken and they are flat out just not eating, then thats not healthy. I've told my wife that whenever our boy gets bigger, if he wrestles in high school, that whatever he weighs at the start of the season he can drop 1 weight class I don't care what the coach says. I agree that there is a big difference between cutting and losing needed weight though.

We fill the same way in our home. . CUTTING weight is just wrong. Now, we all know we as parents. That we dont like it if we have to lose weight if the dr or someone says you need to lose few pounds. So, I just dont see why there are so many kids and high school aged kids out there CUTTING weight!!! WHY????

Sometimes it is necessary to make your team better. If you have two stud kids that each weigh 152 lbs, someone is going to have to take one for the team, and lose 7 lbs until after Christmas to make 145, then keep 5 of it off the rest of the year after the 2 lb allowance. It can be done the right way, and it can be done the wrong way.

Just be careful not to blame losses on things like this: "that kid was cutting so much weight, by the finals, he must have weighed 20 lbs more than my kid.........."

If a kid can cut weight the right way, and still perform, more power to him.

On the other hand, I have been one of the people on this forum multiple times saying we should do matside weighins, just to get kids away from cutting. It won't happen though.

It is and always will be a part of wrestling. Those who want to make the sacrifice can and will, but dont be upset just because your choosing not to. What someone may call abuse, someone else will call discipline. What some will call crazy, others will call intense. What some will call pushing too far, others will say going the extra mile. It all comes down to preception, how you were raised and how you see something will determine whether you think it is wrong or right. I have no problem with those who cut weight. It all depends on what your definition of "cutting weight" is.

The brutal truth is, most kids are cutting some (high school), and others are cutting a lot. It is a tough proposition all the way around when you get to high school. Sometimes, being the next weight class down helps the team. Other times, not being the next weight class down is hard on the wrestler that is battling wrestlers that seem much bigger. The wrestler will decide what they want to do (high school) and all you can do as a parent is try to help them make the right decision. In Kids' Federation, losing one or two pounds can be a challenge. In high school, it is a whole different ballgame. My best advise would be to not allow youth wrestlers to cut much weight unless they have it to lose.

The hydration and weight loss rules are trying to prevent what we all know is true..an in-shape athlete is doing himself physical harm by losing weight.Fat kids...different deal. And there are lots and lots of kids that are wrestling and are overweight.But kids that are lean and mean to start with are losing muscle and organ tissue by cutting weight, not to mention stunting their growth. Don't believe that cutting weight as a kid stunts your growth? Take a look sometime at a family of brothers/cousins who had wrestlers and non-wrestlers. All the short, bald guys are the wrestlers that were cutting weight for 4 years during their "formative" years.

That describes one whole community down here in the Wichita area!

I agree that a lot of the boys who cut serious weight as youth and high school wrestlers never did grow very much. I think I would much rather my children be lean, muscular children who eat a balanced diet of healthy foods. If we are trying to maintain a particular weight that the kids have chosen to wrestle a particular weight then we make them eat healthy to make that weight. They may have to choose vegetables over chips, but I think giving your kids plenty to eat even though it may not be what they would prefer to eat is the key. If you child can't make weight eating fruits and vegetables and lean meat, you have entered them in the wrong weight class. Depriving a child of food and water in order to make weight is depriving them of nutrition that their bodies need in order to develop and grow.

I just remember the guys that were cutting weight when I was in high school or just wrestling period. Were usually told not to be lifting weights much and also not many of them were eating much. My thoughts are I would much rather my boy be lifting weights and eating healthy and be ready to go rather than be starving and just feeling week and trying to wrestle. I think a kid that is cutting vs a kid that is at this natural weight would see the natural kid win a lot of the time just based on energy.

Again, folks, what is cutting weight? My kids' growth obviously has not been stunted, and he "cut" some weight when he was younger when going to Tulsa, Reno, etc. What you call "cutting", I call managing. Anyone can lose a few pounds over the course of a few days, just by eating right, and without depriving the body of the necessary nutrients and water. And don't try to tell me that a good looking kid coming out of football is in wrestling shape. He may look like he has no fat on his body, but he does have some to lose. So if you saw a kid listed at 195 during football, will have an easy time going to 182 for wrestling..........

Personally, I believe that we have some people that are trying to use weight cutting as an excuse for their kid losing. Beeson's post was on the money. If someone else is cutting, and winning, he is doing something right. If someone else is not cutting, and winning, he is doing something right. Next you are going to tell everyone that they can't whip their kids' a$$es when they are out of line............

I think you meant CAN'T. And if you see mine out of line, please do what I would and warm his backside.

Many things make a champion. Not just a win/loss record. I am of the thought that I let my kids decide within reason. They wrestle where they are naturally. If they are a tad over, I ask if they want to go down. They understand this is by a correct diet and workout only. Not cutting weight. Right now, both my sons are wrestling one class heavy(meaning they could wrestle a lower weight), but both choose not to because they do not want to watch what they eat completely right now. Also mind you, I have one that is only 7% body fat. My goal for them is to love the sport and continue on into high school. We will worry about the rest when we get there.

While we have been on both ends of the spectrum, I am ok with a lb or 2 being dropped. Cutting hard for youth atheletics does not make a lot of sense to me. To my knowledge, scholarships have not been handed out over an 8th grade (or younger) performance. However, not every kid changing weight classes is cutting. Brian wrestles up one weight class from what he weighs at years start. This is in anticipation of growth through the season. After all, records at the end of the year are supposed to carry down in weight but not up in weight ( for example a kid wrestling 140 lbs dropping to 130 keeps season's record but same kid going from 130 to 140 is now 0-0). So no use not holding a weight and being 0-0 in a new weight class up. Now, if that anticipated growth hasn't come by mid January (like this year)we will go back to what the true weight class should have been and all records carry for subdistrict seeding.