First of all, I don't want to know how wrong it is to pull weight for young kids. I also don't want any bleeding heart responses on what IS and IS NOT considered pulling weight. I know the difference. NOW for my question. Should a club allow children under the age of 10 to PULL weight for weekly tournaments? I can understand pulling 2 or 3 pounds for a BIG tournament once or twice a year, but not weekly. If the parents continue to sign the wrestler up for a weight, should the club send them in at that weight?

In my club 10u i typically decide weight. That comes from practice weigh in sheets. Typically I will take them up one weight class over what they are weighing at practice. 12u and over depending on the kid I will let them decide knowing if they dont make weight they dont wrestle. It works for us.

Jared Bammes
Oskaloosa

no a club should not allow pulling weight on any kid let alone 10 years old or younger just my own thought.

I don't think it's the clubs place to decide what weight someones kid is wrestling at. Thats a family thing. That being said, I doubt most kids under 10 that pull weight all season every week will wrestle too many seasons. Takes the fun out of it.

I agree. Maybe the coach could give some input though.

I dont know exactly how the parents are in your club but a vast majority in mine are brand new to the sport and ask for input. Any wrestler under the age of 12 as a general rule we wrestle one weigh class up from practice weight. Thats to avoid any potental problems with weight. Even over 12 we help in the decision of weight. I wont let a kid cut weight.

I feel that if a parent is being reckless and pulling weight weekly than a club should step in and say something to the parents such as you need to put your child in this weight class or you will have to find your own coach for matside the club will not provide one for them since we feel you are hurting your child and we will not be a part of that with that being said I have had to pull weight from my son who is 8 and under but never weekly and it has never been a habit he had to run last week in concordia for being .5 over by then we had already turned in Manhattan today he was still .5 over so for the tournament we turned in today he is in 58 that was to many times to let it go even just if it is just .5 but that is my personal opinion and how I do my kids..I feel it is a coaches job to make sure the parents know the safe and productive way to make the kid into a smart competitor There are good kids in every weight bracket so I dont think making a kid pull weight to be in a lower weight bracket is goin to help them at all its not how much you weight its about how much heart u have .

most kids and almost all adults can benefit from a better diet. when you are usually talking 3 pounds between weight classes, it shouldn't be that hard for a child to drop 1 weight class. it's not easy, but it is a part of the sport, no different than bulking up and adding pounds is to football. although it doesn't get as much bad publicity, it can be just as dangerous. it should be handled by coaches and parents alike. the club has a responsibilty to provide safety to all wrestlers. if it isn't safe the club should step in. same for the parents if a coach is pushing too hard, to cut weight the parent should ensure that their child is healthy. point is do it RIGHT and do it HEALTHY and it shouldn't ever become a problem. it will start good habits for years to come.

What is the reason to cut every week?? Don't want to wrestle who's in your weight, can be the only reason, if you say better competision, then wrestle up. Parents and coaches need to keep one thing in mind these are kids, NOT high schoolers whose weight changes week to week. If you look at majority of wrestlers on saturday someone tell me where you see that they can loose more than 1 lb. Most of these kids are already cut, and don't have a pound left to loose. From past experiences cutting weight makes you weak, JMO!!

At first I was against my kids wrestling. Why? Because I watched my brother wrestle in high school and cut weight. I would watch him sweat it off and have nose bleeds in the middle of the night d/t being anemic. Now that my kids are wrestling, I have a rule: You wrestle what you weigh. I can see .5, making them run it off or even go to the bathroom, but nothing more than that. I won't put my kids through what my brother went through.

i agree that it is wrong to cut weight in the 10 and under brackets or younger but i think that 12 and under 14 and under and 16 and under it should be up to the parents and kids!!! if they are not hurting themselves or making themselves sick and there is no helth issues then i think the club shold support the familys' decision.. cause once the kids start puberty their weights fluxuate daily and it is a lot harder to stay at a steady weight...so since you have to sign up for tournaments weeks in advance then i think it shold be up to the kids and their parents!!!!

I am quoting this only to point out a serious flaw (IMO) in our current system. The flaw comes where you must sign up the kids for tournaments so far in advance. As a tournament director myself, I have found that with the advent of trackwrestling being utilized for a tournament, a Director can give more time for clubs to enter their entries since there is no lag time in between actually getting the entries and setting up the brackets. In the past I have set up an entire day 2-3 days before our tournament to bracket out the weight classes and write up all the bout sheets for each mat. This was a painstaking process which has been virtually eliminated with the use of trackwrestling. This may be one reason for the tournaments setting their due dates so far out from their tournament date. This in turn can cause a problem for kids entering a certain weight class too far in advance and they start hitting a growth spurt between the time they turn in their entry and the weekend of the tournament which would force the child to "cut". As a tournament director I try to make my deadlines less than one week from our tournament date. This allows for those "last minute" weight changes to be turned in before the deadline.
Kids will cut weight in High School for the sake of the team, wrestle young kids up a weight class and be stronger, better athletes for when it really counts when they are in High School (and beyond).

If you use trackwrestling you can actually have wrestlers signed up just for age and ranking...when they weigh in it is very easy to put in their exact weight at weigh in and place them in a weight class. You are still going to have those wrestlers who want to make a certain weight class but the majority won't be sweating the weigh in.

Just some thoughts.

Sharon Henes
STA Wrestling