I agree with shawndj and usawks 1. There has been lots of discussion and research into the harmful effects of competitive sports on kids at a young age. In fact, ESPN had a feature on little league baseball/youth sports. With my two cents thrown in: wrestling is a wonderful sport but the season is way too long (especially for the younger kids.) No one should specialize in just one sport under the age of 14. A child should be encouraged to try as many different sports as they can and the "changing of the sports" makes it more fun and challenging. Just because someone is a super stud at the age of 6-8-10 does not mean that person will continue to be the super stud. Likewise, just because a kid struggles in a sport does not mean that same kid will continue to struggle in that sport. If a kid starts wrestling and has a lot of success earlier on-they start to think they will always have success. When they don't (because they have been moved up to a different bracket) they can get very discouraged and want to quit. The rationale about kids dropping sports when they get older due to the reason's stated by Crash99 are usually only seen at larger schools-not smaller ones. Think back to the days when sports was you getting a bunch of your friends together and finding an empty lot to play. No coaches, no fans, no rules, no "right technique", no pressure-just fun.