maybe bockman wants to remember it whats wrong with that, and how do you know the 16 year old won't remember. I still remember moving up from kindergarden to first grade, man i am still proud of that... i just wish i could remember where i left my kids yesterday.

i didnt have a state but i do remember wrestling at 6. I guess I am probably the only one in the world that remembers it.

oops some one is going to report that to the srs so i am sorry. I found them just now.

I take it you don't have a 16 year old, I do and he could care less who he beat or what he won at six, it just doesn't matter,He cares about what he is accomplishing today and trying to get into college. I think it's sad that people peak out at six and remember that the rest of their lives, Sorry guys but that is a really crappy life.

so my 6 year old cant think about it today since he is 6 years today. he does care who he wrestles and beats and loses to today. you might be right he may not care later but he does today.

You need to realize he is only six, he is still a baby, maybe he needs a little bit of guidance and advice from his parents. Maybe they can tell him that wrestling at six is about learning and having fun, and that he will get his chance to compete at state soon, He just has to wait like every one else did. Isn't that what parents are supposed to do. That is what I did with my son, He is 16 now and could care less if he went to state at six.

i am peaking mine out at 5 not 6 i just wish i would have peaked him out at 4. and rassler your probaly right my son probaly will not care at 16 either, but he is having fun now and is loving the sport of wrestling and i hope for a long time to come so i can keep up with these post. and i am just kidding about the peak at 4.

rassler you are right they do need guidance and yes it is about fun and yes as parents that is what we are for. but there is nothing wrong with a stand alone tournament to let the 6 year olds battle it out, as long as it is for fun. Now i know my boy won't win state, mmaybe place thats still a long shot but no presure on him as long as he is enjoying it we will go. if not we will end the season, just like that.

... and I was getting my hopes up! I have a Grandson who just turned 3 and he shoots a killer blast double on me!!

Not all 6U kids are created equal. I guess some of us are lucky enough to have ones that want to push on . . . for the love of the sport!!

Your boys are exceptional, but modesty is usually best, especially in wrestling.

I am not bragging on my kids, I am just saying that not all 6U are already burnt out . . . KMac, Bockman and I's boys are still excited about wrestling . . . so we too are still excited!!

And I don't think anyone is worried about a 6 year old being burned out before the end of their first season. Burnout usually occurs after attending 12+ tournaments year after year after year without some breaks in between. Most of this group of 6 year olds will not be wrestling by the time they are 12. The numbers show this to happen year after year. Some will drop out because they just didn't like the sport but a lot will drop out because they get tired of the sport every weekend: aka burnout.

You can't just ask your kids, most kids want to please their parents. So if they think you want them to say "yes! I want to go" that's what they will say even when that is not what they really want. That's why you see some parents shocked when their kid doesn't want to continue in a sport when they get to junior high or high school. To the parents, they are thinking "you use to tell me you wanted to go and you had fun but now you don't want to do it anymore. Why the change?" whereas the child has just grown up and is starting to insert more control over their own life and so feels he can finally say what he really wanted to say a long time ago. Hope this makes some sense.

mom4,

Very good post. I would add that burnout from wrestling is a combination of things. I love watching wrestling, and I loved to wrestle. My mom hated to watch wrestling (a little too rough for her I guess), and still doesn't like seeing my son wrestle. Whether you enjoy the sport or not as a spectator, the truth of the matter is that wrestling is brutal.

When I watch kids wrestle, I am amazed at the skill, finesse, strength, power, flexibility, balance, agility and sheer determination of these miniature "gladiators" (stole the term from my older brother). Yet, I still have to fall back on the term brutal to describe wrestling best. It is not easy, it is not pleasant, and it is not always fun. Don't get me wrong, kids should always have fun in youth sports. That being said, if any child has fun getting pulverized by a superior opponent, whether in practice or in a tournament, then they have something special going on that most kids don't.

I have watched my twelve year old wrestle since he was six. I have seen him have a lot of success, and I have seen him lose more than his fair share along the way as well. I have seen his arms, legs, neck and back get put in positions that are not natural. I have seen his lips and nose bleed and his face, knees and elbows get mat burns. When he was ten he missed three weeks of the season due to a shoulder injury. Sounds like a lot of fun to me.

Every year around September, after soccer and baseball are over and the school year is well under way, I get the nerve up to ask him if he wants to wrestle again this year and if he still enjoys the sport. Every year, I hope and pray that his resounding answer is "yes". If he ever loses his interest and love for the sport, I don't want it to be because of something I did. His competition is already trying to give him a reason to quit every time he steps out on the mat.

The hardest thing for young wrestlers to do is to continue wrestling. Its not just when they are six, seven or eight, but all the way up until they start Jr High and High School. The easiest thing for these kids to do would be to pick up a basketball, run up and down the court, and try to put it in the hoop.

Oh WONDERFUL POST!!!!!

It sounds like you have been around so here is a question I would like your honest opinion....do you think it is harder for a wrestler who has immediate success at the age of 6 to still like wrestling if they can not sustain that success versus a kid who gradually improves over time? I'm asking honestly because I have seen it happen in our family and want to know if others have noticed it too.

My oldest boy did not win very many matches at all when he first started. In fact, we celebrated whenever we saw his name move on the front side of the bracket. But, each year, he would win a few more and then a few more. I vividly remember him winning his first tournament title when he was 10 years old (and it was in a 4-man round robin). We were so excited and it was a HUGE deal (you know calling grandparents, uncles, cousins, ect.). Now, he is wrestling in high school and has had many 30 win seasons. With my middle son it was almost exactly the opposite. He won his very first tournament he was in by pinning every opponent. In fact, he won most of the tournaments when he was 6. So the following year, he was moved up as a B wrestler and started to wrestle against the "toughest of the tough" kids often in the same brackets as the A wrestlers. It became a battle just to see him finish the season. He could not understand why he wasn't winning his matches anymore. There was a point where I felt like I was pushing him too much just to get him to keep trying and couldn't wait until the season was over. I am happy to say that after the past two years, he has finally seemed to turn the corner and now is starting to understand. But there is another boy in the club that is kinda going through the same thing.

It kinda relates to the 6 and under crowd. You have some kids who are winning easily at this age but what happens when the time comes and it starts to get tougher? When they move out of the "novice" category? Maybe it is better for a child to see success slowly and over time than all at once.

after the last year of 6 and under most of the kids will struggle every other year due to being on the young side of the age group. Yeah you have some kids that are good but most will fall down then when they get on the older side they will win again. My son is 7 now and wrestling 6 and under. he will move up to 8 and under next year and will fall down and take his lumps. he will win some and lose probably alot. then the next year he will be back on the older side and probably win quite a bit more than lose. I do agree that some of those kids that excel early will eventually get caught by the late bloomers. I talked this over with Sonny Manly who wrestled at Nebraska back in the day. He was a big 8 champ if you must know that lol. He told me its good to teach them a few moves and let them perfect them at the early age and until they perfect it dont show them all the fancy moves. The will learn something year after year and progress where as those that already know it will not progress like that. they hit that early and stay the same. now i know this is not every kid but it is majority.

"It sounds like you have been around"

mom4,

Funny you say that, I was on the very first Kids Federation Wreslting team in Belleville (KS) in 1973 at the age of eight. There were five of us (two of us eight, twins who were 9, and one of my older brothers who was twelve). All of us wrestled all the way through high school, (one of the twins won high school State one year), and although I qualified twice for State in high school, I was the only one who didn't win at least one match on the big stage.

I don't know for sure how to answer your question. I do believe that there aren't two kids exactly the same, and they all deal with wrestling in different ways. Back when my son was six, he only wrestled in novice tournaments, as he did when he was seven. He didn't want to step out on the mat his very first match, and after a little help from his mother, he went out and eventually pinned his opponent. By the third match that day, he looked like an old pro with his aggressive looking stance and finished the day by taking home the bracket. He won his second tournament that year and went on to win four out of the eight he wrestled in (I think). He won a few more his second year of novice. Since he started wrestling open tournaments when he was eight, he has only taken home one bracket although he has placed in a lot of tournaments. Most of his early success was due to natural ability and a good attitude (sometimes a bad attitude - he sure didn't take losing very well) for the sport.

I believe that his progression throughout his years wrestling has been positive. He has wrestled a lot of the same kids over the last seven years, and some of them have sure gotten a lot better (one young man he beat every match his first few years turned the table on him the last three, beating him five times last year and placed second in State). Last year was the true test as he did not win a match his first four tournaments and started 0-11. He finally got his first win in his fifth outing and was 1-13 at that point. The end of the story goes something like this: he went 13-8 the rest of the year, won seven of those matches agains kids he lost to earlier in the season, finished third in Subs, third in Districts, qualified for State for the first time in six years, and he even won his first match at State and got to wrestle on Sunday.

I am not sure to this day why he didn't at least mention giving up wrestling last year the way things started. I had to help him understand that he wasn't wrestling bad, he was just wrestling a lot of very good competition. In his case, he had above average success in his early years, had his share of losses as well as wins the last few years, and had the worst and best year of his career last year.

The one thing I do know, he is not one of the best wrestlers in his age/weight group in the state, but he is a pretty good wrestler. There is a chance he could miss making it to Districts for the first time since he was eight, but I don't think that it will destroy him. He has had a good balance of success as well as failure, as these things are often measured in wins and losses. I believe he will continue to plug away, get a little better, work a little harder, and when it is all said and done, he will be a pretty solid high school wrestler which is the most that his Mom and I could have hoped for.

This has probably sounded like me rambling on and on about my son. He is just one of many young wrestlers out there that all have to find there own way and are fortunate to learn many life lessons through their own unique experiences in wrestling. They need the support of their families and coaches through good times and bad, with one common goal - continue to improve, enjoy and appreciate their sport, and continue to wrestle as long as they can.

good luck to your boy at subs

Well, since I have started this post, I have realized that I'm not the only person dealing with the issues we are going through. My son won 21 times this year, good year for him. I'm very proud of what he has done, and as bad as I want to take him to 6-under state, he really isn't interested. (and for all you parents, you know this is killing me!) I think he would do well there. Im not sure who said it earlier but, not all kids have that fire in them. I originally signed my boy up to wrestle 2yrs ago to toughen him up for football next year. I told him that tonight and you should have seen the look on his face. He almost looked relieved. I told him that winning and losing wasnt what his dad cared about. I cared that he went out ,fought hard, and never gave up.(the same thing I told him all year long). But knowing that it sure looks like he is ok with whatever happened on the mat this year, good or bad. I guess that just shows you maybe we(I) can learn something from an innocent, awesome 6 yr old boy! Thanks for all the posts- CW Buoy Neodesha,KS

nix,

Thank you for wishing my son well at Subs. I will let him know he has another fan in his corner. Good luck with your son's season and I hope he continues on for many years to come. I can tell that you are very passionate about his wrestling and proud of his accomplishments thus far.

CW,

I have always told my son that wrestling is the most difficult sport that he or anyone his age will ever participate in. I told him that when he first started and I can't even count how many times I have told him every year since. I still believe that today and I will believe it when I wake up tomorrow.

I think I am beginning to have another belief. It would appear to me by many of the posts that I have read on this forum, and looking back on my own experience, that wrestling is also one of the most difficult sports on parents who have kids that wrestle.

I have been out of the country since September and have missed this entire wrestling season. Considering I have been very actively involved in my son's wrestling as a parent and a coach since he started wrestling seven years ago, I can only hope that this has been much harder on me than it has been on him (and my wife and our other three boys). This experience has given me a lot of time to reflect on the things that I am missing out on, and the things that I am unable to directly help him with. I can only lend my support and encouragement from thousands of miles away. Be thankful you had this season with your son, and be thankful for every season you have with him in the future. He sounds like a pretty good kid.