Am fielding this question for a start-up topic.

I think the main reason is the lack of trust amongst adults. People have cheated the system in the past and a lot of people are concerned that kids won't have to make weight. I know that there are some that will take advantage of the system but I think the benefits for all of wrestling (at the kids level) outweigh the risk of the few who might cheat the system.

Personally, I don't see why we don't do this for open and novice tournaments (I don't support remote weigh ins for qualifying tourneys). We are talking about kids wrestling and most of our weight classes are only 3 lbs apart anyway.

Shawn Budke

I certainly agree with you Shawn.

Most communities have a certified official that could easily take a Friday night weigh-in option or even a Thursday night weigh-in (Hosting Club Director's discretion) for perhaps $10 to get their children through a remote weigh-in or perhaps an Athletic Director (yes, I know you guys are really busy--but just may happen to be at the school).

We've been wrestling a great deal in Oklahoma and Missouri and we encounter many more opportunities for remote weigh-ins in both of the state's. With the weights being only 3 lb increments (primarily) I see that we all need to RELAX and let the kids get warmed up rather than making weight in the morning and enjoying a fun day of wrestling if they've done a remote weigh-in prior to the event. This would also include a skin check as well.

The Integrity issue is something that is amiss. Children learn from adults.

High School tournaments run by remote weigh-in for their duals, weigh in's at the site for qualifying tourney's.

What's stopping us Kansas folks at the Kid level

I am for the remote weigh in's. If you are cheating then it will show up when you try to weigh in for our qualifing tournaments. This will help with starting tournaments on time. If you cheat then it is on you and you will soon be figured out. I have to coach my wrestlers to be ready no matter what and sometimes that includes playing on an uneven playing field. Again, I think if you are cheating the system you will be figured out soon enough.

Coach Craig Adams
Carroll Jr Wrestling

the positives far outweigh the negatives. it's the whole police the criminals not society, thing. even if you would do remote weigh-ins, randomly select three wreslers from the clubs who did the remote, and weight them the morning of. allow a 1 or 2 pound difference, first and second time are warnings, 3 strikes you're out. tournamets could report the exceptions on the wed site and the state could track it. i don't just some brain storming. i just think we should let the kids wrestle, i think we sometimes "major in the minors"

I thought I read where someone mentioned having a paid certified Referee doing the remote weigh in would be a way to handle the issue of cheating or abuse. I am all for that. Could even pay two Referee's in my opinion, that way you have 2 witnesses. Question would be if a tourney could absorb into their expenses or not. May not happen this year, but if anyone wants to get this going you will have to bring these issues up when they have State meetings and get something put into the bylaws to make it uniform and controlled. Otherwise you are looking at people coming up with 10 different ways to make this a mess as well.

My prediction is that we will start to see remote weighs-ins in KS and I think it will be a positive change for everyone. I love the idea of making it easier for families to attend tournaments, committing less time and less dollars and believe remote weighs-ins will allow for this. The benefits do outweigh the negatives but I also think with a little effort the negatives can be mitigated even more. I would definitely support remote weigh-ins with a certified official or District Rep present. Being consistent in our approach with this is also critical and believe the state could help in this area. To date I believe there are several reason why remote weigh-ins haven’t been utilized: being a new concept for KS, giving up some of the control, making their weigh-in practices public!!, and logistics of conducting it.

The move in that direction is happening. I would be interested in the state’s input on this. Ned, Richard etc. can you provide any thoughts on this and the state’s possible role.

I certainly support the idea of remote weigh ins. We did it for the Manhattan Freestyle/Greco tourney this summer. It was easy. I weighed my kids in and then called the tournament director with the exact weights. It was great! Showed up about 45 minutes before wrestling was supposed to start, got warmed up, and wrestled. Very easy.

Here's a question a still don't quite get the concern...

Why should we have to worry about tournaments or the state absorbing the cost of paying referees to be at the weigh in sites and certify the weigh in?

Here's my thoughts.....

1. Any additional cost will eventually be passed on to the wrestler either in the form of increased tournament entry fees, increased USAW cards fees, etc. Personally, I would rather invest in a little trust in my fellow adult administrators at the remote site and not increase the cost for the kids.

2. You guys say you want the refs to certify the weigh ins at remote sites.....to me that means you trust them. Yet, every Saturday and Sunday I watch all of US (yes, I include myself) not trusting the judgement, eyesite, etc. with some of the calls these same officials make during a match.....now I know us coaches are always right and have much better judgement in those cases so obviously we could do the weigh ins at remote sites much better too! (OK, this is a little sarcasm.....I'm just kidding with this one)

Shawn Budke

The rules for sanctioned tournaments allow the tournament director discretion in establishing weigh-in procedures.

Shawn, if there were to be a cost to the club, never the state, for this I would think it would be a nominal one. For the small cost and the integrity gained IMO it would be well worth it. I will leave the rest of your question alone. LOL.

TRUST!!! just weigh-in friday night or sat. morning or move up a weight class. For those involved in pee-wee football. The kids have to weigh-in to see who can carry the ball and who can't. They don't have remote weigh-ins for that and everything seems to go just smooth.
It's the trust issue. I know when I wrestled in kids wrestling all those years ago. How coaches stood behind wrestlers with a clipboard and lifted them up to get the scale to break.

Mark Baldwin

If most of the people in wrestling are honest, why have weigh ins at all? Why not have the kids and parents PROMISE to make weight before leaving home for the tournament.

I would vote against the idea of remote weigh ins at local or qualifying tournaments.

Bob Steele

Lets leave it the way it is - its not broken - why bring in the "CHANCE" for scales that don't measure the same or poeple that cant read a scale. How about matside weighin's - that would stop all issues with travel schedules and the youth weight cutting problem @ the same time. What's stopping that?
Either the wrestler makes weight before he/she hits the mat or they go home. Here is an outside the box idea. How about "WEIGH OUT"'s. If a wrestler places at a tournament they must "weigh out" ,like 2 pounds over, their prescribed weight or forfeit their place.

My suggestion ... have a couple of tourneys try both options! Perhaps, one could do home-site weigh-ins and another, do matside!

The sport of wrestling is a true investment. Time, emotion, and yes, money.
I think remote weigh ins (RWI) have a lot of positives and the negatives can be managed.
I think RWI would also help people travel to tournaments that they would usually not go to.
I also hear that there is a lack of good officals in KS.
Remote weigh ins could help with all of this.
If a CLUB was to charge the parents $2-$5 bucks each to pay a ref to oversee a weigh in. Then they would save lots of gas money and time. More then one club could go in together and pay even less.
A ref could make some good (easy) money on a friday night.
I heard people say we question refs during matches and why not at a weigh in. Well the numbers on a scale are a lot less subjective then the question of did he have control. lol
I have also heard of clubs allowing teams to have a supervised home weigh in in exchange for table workers!!!
I think there needs to be weigh ins no matter how close the weight classes are.
Well I am done rambling and doing all this typing on my phone!
Let's help move this sport forward and get this practice of RWI perfected and start using it to help grow our sport!

MATSIDE!!!!!!!
birddog, as you know, matside will keep some from winning. This is where the parents/coaches are putting the "winning" before the "competeing/improving/fun" of the sport. People, HS is where weight mgt and weight cutting is a fact of life. I have posted before promoting matside weigh-ins. And here were some of the responses:

1. they wont be able to drink all day
2. they wont even be able to go get a candy bar.
3. no snacks all day.

MY personal favorite is:
What happens when u make weight your first match then get hungry and get a bite to eat then fail to make weight in the next match?

MATSIDE weigh-ins bring:
technical improvement of our youth
kids that don't end up hating the sport
kids that are happy the 2-4 days before

NO,
MATSIDE weigh-ings are not that big of a problem to do. How hard would it be to have a scale at each table and as the wrestlers are checking in the ref approves the weight of each kid.

There are a few national tournaments that if you step on the scale and are over weight by any amount you have to bump up and you pay ANOTHER entry fee. The weight cutting at these tournaments is less than any other circuit out there.

Just my opinion. Everyone has one. Everyone is entitled to their own.

Randy,
What can we do to try some of these ideas?

BLT
What is wrong with the matside weigh in? Their is no extra travel expense, either make weight before you hit the mat or don't wrestle. The "weigh out" is even better as it would allow for nourishment.

Birddog
To be very honest I am not sure the reason why I don't like the idea of matside!!! LOL! I understand the idea behind it and if I was at a tournament that had it I would follow the proceedure. I just prefer to do Friday night only weigh ins and allow RWI to accomadate those that might have issues with making two trips to a location.
I just want to try make our days shorter, tournaments easier to run and start on time, and make it easier so that hopefully the kids that are very aggressive with their weights can have it all over a little sooner.
Those are my basic reasons and I think that with the fact that Trackwrestling is here to stay that these ideas will help make tournaments a little easier!

Shortening tournaments and making them easier to run should be the credo of USAWKS! These two factors our huge within our high school structure too. (Saturday the 17th I had a 19 hour day and Saturday the 24th I had a 20 hour day)

I might prefer matside weigh-ins over remote weigh-ins. First, the trust issue would be a non-factor. Some local tourney just needs to give it a try!

I am also a proponent of showing up, weighing kids, grouping them in 4's or 5's and running round-robins!

I understand the need for defined weight classes in our State Tournament Series but do we really need them for the local tourneys? We need to get away from a 10-year-old, having to watch what he eats, all week, every week, for 5-months!

I think our emphasis is far to much on, "making weight" instead of wrestling!! After all, I think WRESTLING is in our name!!

My wife is the director of our club & my job is running the trackwrestling system. I want to do block wrestling next year. If I get my way rossville tounament will use this system next year. This is how it works. You dont have to worry about your weight! Your wrestlers weigh in I will enter the actual weight they weigh in at. Then I will enter the desired percentage of weight difference & bracket tourny. Advantages are 1-full brackets less byes-- 2-different competeition than you will normally see during the year.-- 3-DONT WORRY ABOUT MAKING WEIGHT.-- 4-this gives track wrestling system more freedom to seperate A&B ranked wrestlers from the D&C. I will try to let every one know a month or two before tourny so you dont have to worry about weight. I have been using this system some what for the last two years. If a wrestler enters at say 52LBS I have been entering there actual weight as 52. Next year I will enter the ACTUAL WEIGHT of each wrestler & this will make it a little more fair.