Somers,

Yes, you did correctly guess from my questions to Coach Gibson that I agree with your point. I do believe that it is advantage to start wrestling at a younger age. I still strongly also agree with Coach Gibson that a gifted and motivated athlete with no experience can eventually overcome a less gifted and motivated experienced wrestler. I just believe that all things being equal that the more experienced wrestler has the advantage. But if I was a parent of an athlete who did not compete as a youth, I believe I would be lucky to have son or daughter wrestle for Coach Gibson because he obviously could really motivate the wrestler to reach their potential in a short period of time. I am still interested in Coach Gibson's answers to my question to him, because I do respect his opinion and I am interested in his answer. Coach Gibson has wrestling experience and knowledge that I do not have, so his opinions do have weight with me.

I will use some examples from another sport. Let's take the most obvious one, Tiger Woods. He had a nine iron in his hand before he could probably walk. I saw him at the age of about four or five on a national TV show demonstrating his early skills. I really do not believe that Tiger would have accomplished everything he has so far if he had started as a high school golfer. I know Tom Watson also started golf at a very young age. He won a Kansas City tournament against adults when he was about 13 years old. He has accomplished a great deal in golf. I believe that Larry Nelson in contrast started in his twenties. He was a great athlete and has done very well but not to the level of Tom Watson. I believe he would have if he had started earlier.

I know golf and other sports are not the same as wrestling but I bet there are examples in wrestling too. I believe I saw a short filming of Cael Sanderson wrestling at a young age when I was watching a special on him last Spring.

I just think that on the average that youth wrestling is a help and not a hinderance to a future wrestler. I believe that more athletes have been given an advantage by wrestling as a youth. I bet that more average athletes have achieved more than some better athletes who did not start untill high school. I know that there are exceptions, but I would be very surprised if normally that the inexperienced athlete did better than the athlete with youth wrestling experience. I realize that the exceptional and motivated athlete can overcome most less gifted athletes. But I believe this type of athlete is exceptional and is not the norm. It would be interesting to hear from some wrestlers who did wrestle as youths and find out what they think about this issue.