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Bring back the Mat Patrol #252442 02/11/19 03:55 PM
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Brent Lane Offline OP
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Back in the days, most every tournament had mat patrol running kids, parents etc... off of the mats and back in the stands. It seems like at most tournaments, if a wrestler is up, everyone who is anyone related to that little guy is matside with the camera, phone, ipad, or telescope lenses. I get it, it's important to you to have the best seat in the house, but for the issue of SAFETY, the sides of mats NEED to get cleared out. Are you aware of the NFHS rule changes regarding the out of bounds rules and allowing wrestling to continue? I blame tournament directors, officials (me) and coaches. Do your part, control your kids and your families. Tell them to sit in the stands where honestly they should have the best view (I know, if no one else does it why should I) It has to start somewhere. As an official, safety should be our number one priority. To me, this is paramount, we have got to provide the wrestlers the space that is afforded to them. Coaches, 2 in the corner, it's a rule, enforce it with your team, and if everyone does this things will improve. Thanks in advance and I anticipate your constructive criticism.


"If it is to be, it is up to me!"
Re: Bring back the Mat Patrol [Re: Brent Lane] #252443 02/11/19 05:55 PM
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smokeycabin Offline
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Great Call! Some Mom, Brother, Dad, etc. is going to feel like crap, a turd, - what ever when some kid crushes his eye socket and loses his or her vision from going out of bounds head first and their eye gets smashed on a corner of an eye pad, camera, tri-pod, it is insane -

Coaches, parents, Refs, tournament directors need to get on the same page on this now!! Make an announcement at the beginning of the tournament - anyone not following the rules will be subject to ejection - escorted out by the city's finest if needed. It is a safety issue end of


my comments - for now.

Re: Bring back the Mat Patrol [Re: Brent Lane] #252450 02/12/19 01:23 AM
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Bring back the Mat Patrol #252442
Yesterday at 03:55 PM
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Brent Lane Offline OP
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Back in the days, most every tournament had mat patrol running kids, parents etc... off of the mats and back in the stands. It seems like at most tournaments, if a wrestler is up, everyone who is anyone related to that little guy is matside with the camera, phone, ipad, or telescope lenses. I get it, it's important to you to have the best seat in the house, but for the issue of SAFETY, the sides of mats NEED to get cleared out. Are you aware of the NFHS rule changes regarding the out of bounds rules and allowing wrestling to continue? I blame tournament directors, officials (me) and coaches. Do your part, control your kids and your families. Tell them to sit in the stands where honestly they should have the best view (I know, if no one else does it why should I) It has to start somewhere. As an official, safety should be our number one priority. To me, this is paramount, we have got to provide the wrestlers the space that is afforded to them. Coaches, 2 in the corner, it's a rule, enforce it with your team, and if everyone does this things will improve. Thanks in advance and I anticipate your constructive criticism.

Re: Bring back the Mat Patrol [Re: Brent Lane] #252451 02/12/19 02:57 AM
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Todd Ashbaugh Offline
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We are going to try something different this weekend at our tournament. It may work, or it may fail miserably . We are putting two chairs on either side of the table, and if you aren't in those, you need to be in the bleachers. We are reserving both sides of the gym bottom row of bleacher for upcoming wrestlers and coaches to sit. Try to eliminate the kids laying on the edge of the mat.

Will report later....

Re: Bring back the Mat Patrol [Re: Todd Ashbaugh] #252452 02/12/19 04:20 AM
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Brent Lane Offline OP
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Originally Posted by Todd Ashbaugh
We are going to try something different this weekend at our tournament. It may work, or it may fail miserably . We are putting two chairs on either side of the table, and if you aren't in those, you need to be in the bleachers. We are reserving both sides of the gym bottom row of bleacher for upcoming wrestlers and coaches to sit. Try to eliminate the kids laying on the edge of the mat.

Will report later....

Awesome, let us know how it goes.


"If it is to be, it is up to me!"
Re: Bring back the Mat Patrol [Re: Brent Lane] #252457 02/12/19 02:59 PM
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Brent Lane Offline OP
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It has also been brought up in discussion that many tournaments are not marking their boundaries correctly, and there are insufficient space, as well as not hiring at least 50% registered officials. Also. The tables are too close to the wrestling surface. I have noticed this at a few tournaments as well. This too is a safet issue that needs to be addressed, if you don't want to do things by rule don't host.

From the Facebook discussion, we are in agreement, parents need to stay in the stands, film from above. Of course this only works. If everyone follows the rules. Only two coaches in the corner and only wrestlers warming up can be near the mats.

At districts these rules should strictly be enforced. I would also encourage all tournament directors hosting from now until then to do the same. Get people used to it before it comes to crunch time. Make it known in advance those are your expectations and then follow through if people are unwilling to follow. If they can't follow the rules and expectations they can leave or be escorted out.

The real test is will you enforce and follow the rules or will you be the exception? For the safety and enjoyment of the wrestlers, coaches, parents, fans, and officials let's be better.


"If it is to be, it is up to me!"
Re: Bring back the Mat Patrol [Re: Brent Lane] #252520 02/17/19 01:44 AM
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Parents get in the stands - PLEASE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJT6gmX1Br4
One of the uglier videos circulated last week with cell phone video of several parents fighting on the mats of a pee-wee wrestling tournament. The brawl, which lasted 20-30 seconds, spilled onto the mats and was watched by several of the young wrestlers participating in the day's activities. The motivation for the altercation wasn't really specified, but it was implied that something on the mat caused a comment from a parent, which inflamed some egos.
No pressure on these 5 and 6 year olds.

Parents don’t ruin the sport –

https://intermatwrestle.com/articles/21444
Foley's Friday Mailbag: February 15, 2019

Re: Bring back the Mat Patrol [Re: Brent Lane] #252599 02/21/19 12:37 AM
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Parents get in the stands - PLEASE -
Let everyone else watch also!

Re: Bring back the Mat Patrol [Re: Brent Lane] #252643 02/23/19 02:44 AM
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How about at District and State we also limit the number of coaches onto the arena floor. I get it's for Bronze coaches only but anyone that has been there and can walk around and notice there are a lot of Moms/Dads or family that are on the floor that are there just to take pictures and have never coached or wouldn't know where to begin coaching a match. Just cause you have a bronze card and a current coaches card ( which is easier than ever to get) doesn't mean you should be down on the floor. Could we look at the # of kids for each team and give out a limited # of bands? Or have club directors give a list of who they need on the floor to actually help coach.

I know as a coach I had parents always trying to get a coaches card or want to take the bronze class. I have stayed firm and said once they could come run a practice and actually teach kids moves then we would talk.


Maybe I'm wrong and all the people need to be on the floor, but just my rant and it feels like every year it just gets more and more crowded.

Re: Bring back the Mat Patrol [Re: Brent Lane] #252644 02/23/19 02:54 AM
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Foley’s report on Intermat.com - today


Q: I agree with your take on youth wrestling. It's a broken system with too much emphasis on winning and not on development.

I coach youth wrestling and some of it makes me sick to watch. You see 4-5 year old's who have no idea why they are there cornered by seemingly novice wrestling coaches and/or parents screaming at them and the ref. It is not a good look.

I've thought about this model for kids under 10:
Break them up by age like we already do (5-under, 6 & 7, 8 & 9).
4-man round robins in all tournaments NO WEIGHT CLASSES. These four are close in weight, they go together.
Three 1-minute periods. Green starts on bottom in second. Red on bottom in third.
If there is a pin, they start on the feet (or referees' discretion). Third pin will end the match.
Raise both hands at the end.
No trophies, no medals, no records, just go have fun. No state or national tournaments.
Parents cannot be in the corner if there is another coach available. (May be tough to enforce but worth a shot.)
Something needs to change. What do you think?
-- SPM

Foley: If we want to retain some type of tournament competition, I think that your plan is a great starting point!

The idea I was floating (though hadn't fleshed out) was that the competition would remain but would be driven towards rewarding the outcome of wrestling-based games and drills. Scholastic wrestling is so often about brutishness that working to de-emphasize that behavior and emphasize technique, while also maintaining competitiveness, would be an ideal antidote.

Not totally sold on raising both hands. While I also don't get behind all the college coaches using their pedestal to complain about participation trophies, I think it's OK to have kids learn from some failure here or there.

On a side note, it's always struck me as odd that the generation responsible for RAISING the "participation trophy generation" so often are the ones complaining. They somehow don't see that it's their fault, not the kids. Also, by whining about your athletes on camera you are doing the exact thing you JUST complained about (blaming other people), Mr. Tough Guy Football Coach!

Thoughts on youth wrestling
By Matt W.

I thought the youth wrestling stuff was interesting and important to discuss. I agree that we have issues with the youth wrestling culture, but I don't think abolishing all youth competition up until a certain age is the solution. I really think that would also harm youth numbers. Most of us really love to compete and I think that starts at a young age. The important thing is to find a way to foster that in a healthy way for all of those involved. Abolishing things is often a lazy solution and may very well shift the bad behavior to older ages. Now, do I concede that certain youth events have gotten way out of hand, such as traveling all over the country so a 5-year-old can compete at Tulsa or Vegas, or anything of the sort? Resoundingly yes. However, I do want to tell you about another experience I had with youth wrestling that has convinced me that we can't abolish youth tournaments, and that there are workable solutions to erratic parents/coaches.

Before I came to the University of Iowa for law school I was living and working in Chicago and helped coach a youth club affiliated with Beat the Streets in Chicago's Englewood neighborhood. If you aren't familiar, Englewood is on Chicago's southside and is one of most dangerous areas of the city. We had about 40 kids K-8. These kids, as you might have imagined, had very little relative to many in the rest of our country. Certainly no parents were going to drive them to Tulsa for a massive tournament. We took them to about eight tournaments in the season and hosted our own on MLK Day. We were really focused on the development of the kids and teaching them everything wrestling had given to all of us, and there was minimal if any focus on winning and losing. With that being said, the Saturdays that these kids went to compete were the highlight of their week, and maybe even month at times. This ranged from the kid pinning his way through the tournament to the kid who got stuck in every match. They were excited to experience something new and unique such as riding the bus together to a suburb and to compete and spend the day with their friends and teammates. We were able to get money to get everyone the same T-shirt and shorts for tournaments as well, and every single kid wore their warm-ups with the utmost pride at each of those tournaments. Seeing the positive impact those tournaments had on those kids really got me excited for youth wrestling again, when it was something I had thought of as rather noxious for quite some time.

So, here we are with the terrible stories of parents getting in fights and other instances of youth tournaments being massively positive experiences for some kids. Due to my experiences I really think we cannot possibly abolish youth tournaments until a kid is 10, 12 or any other age. I do like the idea of skills-based competitions where there is little to no spectacle and the focus is on developing young people. Some things I saw in the Chicago suburbs that was far more effective than the small-town Iowa style of running youth tournaments was the requirement of USA Wrestling certified coaches, roping off the mats from anyone that is not a registered wrestler or certified coach, and the degree of control that event organizers had as a whole. If those practices become more regular and perhaps more regulated by state AAU or state USAW bodies I think we will see a massive decline in inappropriate behavior. A couple commenters on the mailbag also discussed the coach's obligation to educate parents. I think that is extremely important as well and can remedy a lot of aspects of issues we see here.

All-in-all, great piece as always. I just think that a call to abolish is knee-jerk, punishing the wrong group, and a lazier solution than we can really come up with. Just wanted to share the experience I had with the last group of kids I coached and how valuable that experience was for them. Really makes me want to search for more solutions that get them and keep them excited for wrestling. The best part about when you write these things is that it gets the conversation started, and I think that is what you're ultimately calling for in the article


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