I'm not normally one to get on here and complain but I really think we need to revisit how we're ranking our wrestlers for tournaments. I just looked at a bracket and there are 3 wrestlers rated as "Excellent" that have no business being rated as so. I'm sure they are great kids and work really hard at practice but parents, coaches and club directors need to rate their wrestles appropriately.

Just because a kid won 6U State and hasn't done much sense doesn't mean he's still a state champ at 12U. Let's keep it real and rate the kids at their true ability level. At some point the best will wrestle the best anyway.

My experience has been the opposite, I find that whether its the club admin, parents or coaches they usually sand bag and try and get kids into "B" brackets. This doesn't help the kid get better and it doesn't help the true "B" bracket/potenialy novice kids either. I'd rather make a mistake and put a kid in a little over his head than not be challenged at all.

I ranked our wrestlers this weekend for our club, and with no actual set criteria to differentiate from good to excellent. I simply put excellent if they qualified for state last year, even though some of these wrestlers went 0-2 at state I figured they have been to the big show it is time to wrestle with the big boys. As far as ranking them good most of these wrestlers I ranked there if they went 2-2 at districts last year or if they are competing at a higher level than last year in open tournaments this year. As far as beginner and average I think these are fairly self explanatory on who should go there.

I would much rather see a coach or parent put a kid as excellent and him be average than put a kid as average that should be in the A bracket just so they can get little Johnny a big trophy. Let's go back to "see that kid over there? Now he's going to kick your butt. Go stop him" do away with A,B,C crap.

Who farted?

JDale did.

Either way ... rating up or down is silly. We need to rate them correctly. My point is that we need to rate them appropriately. The "#1 Seed" in my son's bracket went two and out yesterday. The brackets are always tough to manage and the kids have to beat however is in front of them. I just hate seeing the two best kids in a backet on the same side.

Nathan

I always rate myself A for Awesome Amazing A-ffical

I do have to agree with ranking the wrestlers accurately. If everyone would use the wrestlers last 12 months accomplishments only this would eliminate confusion.
However lets keep this real and note that at almost ALL of the club ran tournaments there really is NO #1 seed. When was the last time you attended a seeding meeting for a regular season tournament?
In Track Wrestling it is basically a random draw unless you enter seeding for each kid. That is the last thing clubs holding a tournament want to do is add more man hours to what is already an exhausting week of preparation.

I agree with Master Blaster. Through my years in youth wrestling I think the worse problem has been sending good or great kids in as C or D. If you send a decent kid in as an "A" ranked wrestler to get a better seed...not really a big deal...the cream will rise to the top anyway. And they will have to beat someone to place...or beat them all to win the bracket.

BLUF: Rate the wrestler correctly. I'm not sure why anyone would under rate a wrestler. Whoever is rating them for the club should know how to rate them. If they don't know the skill level of the wrestler, they shouldn't be in charge of rating them.

What if a kid places at state every other year? My boy places when he's on the top side every year but gets his butt kicked and seems like he doesn't belong when he's on the bottom of the age group. Do you still rate him as A even though he is getting manhandled and mess up the seeding or do you rate him lower?

This really is easy...Rate them accordingly. If they start doing poorly, drop them to a B. If they are kicking ass, move them to an A. Common sense really is not that common.

I was always told that once you are a state Placer than you always have to enter a tournament at an A entry. Is this info wrong?

If you places as a 6u and are now a 10u and havnt placed since you were 6 obviously you should not be still ranked as state placer. Although you see people do it all the time these are the people that are being complained about. As Beeson calls them trophy chasers and not doing their kid any favors

Been a sore subject for YEARS!!

Here's how you fix this problem. I've coached club for over 10yrs. Do away with A,B,C,D. If you are NOT novice, meaning first year wrestler, then you should be in an OPEN. Take your lumps get better. Padding the brackets in kansas only holds these upcoming HS wrestlers back. Novice is Novice. Open is Open.

If you want your kid to wrestle in HS, good luck finding the alphabet grading criteria. Freshman-Senior doesn't matter. Seeding happens in HS, but you have to prove yourself first.

Want to get better and wrestle the best, rate your kid as "A" every weekend. Trust me if he/she loves the sport, it will push them and the hardware will come. But looking for a $1.00 medal instead of competition, is the wrong way to go.