Novice tournaments are for kids that can't compete at the open level. I don't care if they have wrestled two years, or many more than that. My oldest son wrestled three years from 8-10. He won four matches (all in novice tournaments) in those three years. I asked him to give it one more year after his second, thinking since he would be at the older end of the U10 and wrestling in his third year, that he might finally have some success. He just didn't have a mean bone in his body, and we (I) figured out that wrestling just wasn't his sport. Some kids will put it together, the light will come on for them, and some will not. If I would have thrown him in with the sharks his third year, he probably wouldn't have finished the season. Novice has a place in this sport. It is not for the kids that are succeeding, it is for the kids that have to find out if the sport is for them.