Will,

I read your 6/19/08 post on this topic concerning the article from Tony DiGiovanni - OhioWrestling.Net on November 15, 2006. He made a strong case for matside weigh-ins. I think it is an interesting idea because I believe that weight cutting is one of the biggest obstacles that wrestling needs to overcome to increase participation. Some in the wrestling community may consider weight cutting to be some sort of positive indication of a wrestler's dedication to the pursuit of wrestling excellence but it is definitely not viewed that way outside the wrestling community. It gives wrestling a bad rap with the general sports public. I have heard both men and women say that they would not get their kids into wrestling because they remember the awful things that their brothers had to do to make weight. If matside weigh-ins could help eliminate severe weight cutting, I would be in favor of it.

My question though would be concerning the mechanics of making it work. How cumbersome would it be? Would it add a lot of extra time to a tournament day? Tony's article seems to say they are weighing in front of everyone. Would that be correct? Who would actually weigh the wrestlers in and would it be by every mat? Would they weigh in with their shoes and singlets on with some added weight allowance to compensate for it? I am assuming it would have to be only one weigh-in to make weight. I am just wondering how it would actually work in a tournament.

Vince,

This process change will scare most because it will be a huge cultural change. The idea is to have your wrestlers enter a weight they are comfortable maintaining throughout the tournament. You have a digital scale at every mat. The official observes each competitor on the scale and if they are on or under they wrestle. You step on one time and that is it. It takes very little time. If your are not on or under weight you are disqualified from the event. It seems radical at first but not really when compared to the beta weight, hydration, weight loss permit, etc. scenario we are currently confronted with.

An allowance for equipment would have to be established and there would have to be a certification process established. I invsion a standard type of scale with a discrimination ratio that would permit scales to be accurate to degree of standard deviation which is acceptable, repeatable and reliable.

A check scale would be provided in a secure area so if wrestlers wanted to push it to the edge they could. I would imagine over time there will be those who want to the competitive edge who will strictly monitor what they eat and drink where others will not. That is the way it is today but at least with this program there wouldn't be rehydration recovery time for those who are radical weight cutters. No matter what system you put in place those who strive to win will look for every possible advantage. There is no way to eliminate that.

It would be a huge cultural change as you stated. It could be worth it though for wrestling to have better control of excessive weight cutting. I appreciate your explanation of how it would be implemented in practice.

Will's argment - advocating for "mat-side" weigh-ins - makes alot of sense to me. As a matter of fact, it sounds almost too sensible to ignore.

As I understand the debate, (at least,from Will's perspective) "mat-side" weigh-ins will likely serve to "lessen" the likelihood that many (if not most) wrestlers will be able to continue to subject theirselves to "unhealthy" weight losses during the course of a regular season, as this practice would ultimately prove to be counter-productive to their (and their team's) ultimate success.

Like alot of parents, throughout past wrestling seasons, I've witnessed my own son undergo a weekly regimen/ritual of losing an inordiante (and I'd proffer a guess: unhealthy) amount of weight each week (sometimes in excess of 20 pounds - as measured from his week-end tournament weight (i.e. Saturday) to his next scheduled dual (i.e the following Thursday))

My wife, a registered nurse, had more than a little difficulty in acquiscing to this regimen, as she innately knew that it was probably not healthy, nor in my son's best interest. She lost that debate!

As for myself, I unequovacally shared in my son's quest, to maximize his competitive physical attributes/talents/instincts and probably encouraged him to "do whatever it takes" to succeed in league, regionals and, ultimately at state. It's not that I "trumped" my wife ( a registered nurse) in these regards, it is just simply that my son would do "whatever it took" to succeed!


Like I said, all of this family dissension mattered little, as my son wanted to "win" (and would chose to do whatever it took to do so). He believed that "this" was the "way" to ultimately succeed.

In order for my son to present (in his mind) a formidable presence on the mat he had the unwavering support of his coaches and team-mates. As for myself,I supported my son and his coaches.

Please do not perceive this post as an indictment (or, in any manner, criticism) against my son's former wrestling coaches -as they were great, supportive and I don't think he could have had better coaching (too this day, I still don't. He was coached by the best!)

I guess that it is just the "nature of the beast". This brings me to the point of my post - Am I wrong? And if so, Why?


In the final analysis: Why not implement "mat-side weigh-ins"? I would like to hear any counter-arguments to the points I've made. thanks for hearing me out.

This is a great discussion and I think there are a lot of valid points. For what it is worth here are my 2 cents.....

I think that matside weigh ins are a step in the right direction and could help reduce unhealthy weight loss practices. I am not convinced that it is the "silver bullet" or practice that will end unhealthy weight loss practices. The reason I say this is because I think it would help for tournaments or instances where you had to wrestle more than 1 match in a day. I don't think that it would hav that much of an impact on single match duals. The reason I say this is because having matside weigh ins as a solution to drastic weight loss practices assumes that wrestlers who cut weight that way won't have the recovery time/rehydration time before they wrestle and therefore they would not have as much success. Having cut weight throughout my career I think there is probably some truth to this but I am not sure it would eliminate wrestlers trying to cut too much weight.

Having said that, I think the answer is probably a combination of the practices we currently have and mat side weigh ins. I like the idea of the hydration testing (notice I said idea, I am not a big fan of how complicated the system is) and I like the idea of a Dr. being involved in certifying the amount of weight an individual is allowed to cut. There are systemic challenges with this and it seems pretty complicated. Hopefully over time we can improve those.

Having said all of this, I think by combining mat side weigh ins with hydrations testing and Dr. certification would be the best solution if the goal is to really stop drastic weight cutting methods and changing the mentality of the wrestling community.

Feel free to fire away!

Shawn Budke