With respect,

I believe that wrestling is way too much of an individual sport as it is. Over the years I have witnessed a deterioration of the “TEAM” aspect in this sport and with it comes a whole laundry list of downsides. Although our kids are important along with their development I disagree with only considering their needs when deciding where to practice. Thinking positively, the values, morals and unity gained by committing to a team outweighs a lot of the downside. Not only do we frown on wrestlers practicing away from us on scheduled practice nights we also encourage things like sitting together at tournaments, spending time together outside of practice, developing mentoring programs with the wrestlers etc etc. It is these things in my opinion that build unity, help kids stay on the right track and hopefully someday make the right decision on and off the mat. How can a team be close if the wrestlers are always off at another practice only to be seen on the weekends? How can the host team’s coach effectively coach not knowing what they have worked on away from their club? I will also share that we are perfectly fine and encourage our wrestlers to practice with other great clubs on our off night. Not that any of your approaches to the contrary are wrong, this is just what we believe in and I think it has worked well for years.