Mr. Cokeley,
Thank you for your positive comments!

Coach Knox and I have had a few conversations about TW and I would like to say that we are in agreement on many points. Probably the biggest point that we agree on is the ability allow wrestlers to wrestle what they weigh.

TW allows a tournament director to quickly make adjustments prior to finishing the bracketing with little problems. Of course your addition to my prior post is correct: having enough PC's and Printers.

TW also allows directors to set up multiple brackets within the same weight. At our open tournament, we will always wrestle as many RR brackets as possible. I believe this allows each wrestler to get more mat time.

Mr. Cokeley started a thread earlier in the season concerning the "health" or "lack of health" with regard to the number of wrestlers involved in our sport this year.

I believe the problem is that over time or culture has changed and both parents and athletes have come to be more demanding.

Normally when I ask a parent why they did not come back to wrestle the three most overwhelming replies are: (Parent replies)
"I do not want my athlete cutting weight"
"My son is first or second year wrestler and keeps getting put into open brackets."
"Time commitment on Saturdays. If my athlete played BB we could go somewhere spend two-hrs and go home and have the rest of the day to do other things."

I believe that everyone of these issues can be improved upon by using TW.

Cutting Weight:
Pre-Register at your targeted weight but, have the flexibility to adjust based on what they weigh when they step on the scale. (Move up not down).
Put a weight-check scale outside the official weigh-in room but allow only one shot at weighing in.

Competition:
Allocate as many RR brackets as possible.
This allows the less experienced to wrestle against their peers.
If we want some of these kids to stay with the sport, they must see some success early or they will not stick it out.
Think about it, if you send your first year athlete in as a "D" wrestler, they will be seeded dead last in the only available bracket, get two matches, get beat and go home!

Time Commitment:
The last issue is to be addressed is the Time Commitment.
If more tournaments could figure out how to wrestle in sessions, athletes would have the ability to wrestle more matches in less time and have more of their Saturday to do other things.

TW has the ability to do analysis of matches and mat time to allow for over lapping sessions to keep the tournament flowing.

At the coachs meeting at our open tournament we informed the clubs that we had a few targets that we wanted to reach:

Give each wrestler the most matches possible.
(We actually had a number of six-man brackets at our open tournament.)

Get them out of the tournament as quickly as possible.
(We had some of the six-man brackets get done in under 2.5 hrs)

Place the wrestlers in brackets that they would allow them a chance to compete against their peers.
(Of course this was based upon their rating sent in by their clubs, and we may not have got it right every time)

I believe that we can improve our sport but only if we have collaboration, be willing to change, and finally come together as a sport and become positive ambassadors for our sport.

Finally I would like to say, we have been given the privledge and opportunity to make positive changes on our sport. The question is are we willing to change to make our sport better?

Thanks for your time!
Steven