Culture of Youth Wrestling - Where is it going?
What needs to be addressed by State and National Wrestling Leaders in the USA at Body Meetings for the long term health of the children and the sport?
Foley's Friday Mailbag: February 15, 2019
T.R. Foley, InterMat Senior Writer
2/15/2019
foley@intermatwrestle.com, Twitter: @trfoley, Instagram: tr.foley
The wrestling community has been treated these past few months to a number of viral videos -- some good, some bad, and some ugly.
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.
While women's wrestling is taking off, international styles are becoming easier to watch/follow, and college dual meets are seeing 15K-plus fans, there remains a cancer at the root of the sport.
The culture of youth wrestling is broken.
We see the system in tatters each time there is undue focus put onto these coaches and parents who seem more interested in their bragging rights than the growth of their children. There is no reason to ever watch children aged 5-10 years old competing at a national tournament with medal stands, pomp, and consequences. Pre-teens need to focus on developing physical fluency, creating bonds, and sharpening wrestling skills. They shouldn't be the vessel by which parents navigate discovery of lost glory.
But that might be too harsh. Parents are hard wired to protect their children, to cheer them on and enforce rules. When parents storm the mat they aren't guaranteed to be awful humans at the outlier of our sporting culture. In reality they are the symptom of the disease -- just one of the many visible failures in the culture of youth wrestling in America.
Other countries don't seem to drive their kids into highly visible, consequential wrestling events before their 10th birthday. From what I've seen, most don't leave the wrestling room in any meaningful way until they reach 12, or more often, puberty. They stay in the rooms, drill techniques, learn movement exercises, wrestling skills, and a whole heck of a lot of discipline. In the United States we seem to prioritize winning, and by any means necessary.
We are at a breaking point. The time has come to suspend all elimination-based wrestling competitions for children under the age of 10. A pre-pubescent child wrestling five times in a single day isn't building development, it's destroying joy. Parents and youth coaches dragging these babies across their home states, regions, and even the country, only to be pitted against each other in HIGH stakes physical competition, is absurd and should no longer be allowable.
There are alternatives. The United States has excellent, passionate coaches who would love to learn more about their craft and ways to improve the lives of their young wrestlers. The wrestling community needs to come together to devalue these tournaments, adopt skills-based tournaments that allow for kids to build their competitive spirit, and give coaches the tools and techniques to avoid creating a toxic culture of youth sports.
We need to take our foot off this pedal and come together to find solutions. A summit of top club coaches, officials, and leaders in the sport could be a great first step. Bring in educators and those familiar with creating positive conditions for improving physical literacy and see what they can recommend would also help wrestling be a leader in youth sports.
What we saw happen last weekend was only a sliver of what we all know goes on at these tournaments. It's time to make immediate and drastic changes to the way we approach teaching our kids about the world's oldest (and still greatest) sport.
To your questions …
