I got additional confirmation this weekend that it's not simply enough to look at records.
My 11 yo (who by a fortuitous birthday is still in 10 and under) wrestled at SFT Sunday. Only two kids in his bracket, so they went best of 3. He got second. Or last. Depending on how you look at it. Either way he got beat twice. On paper it's a second place. In reality, he still has a LONG way to go before he can protect himself against B or C wrestlers.
My 8 yo, however, won his first novice. Against two other kids and there were no pins. So does winning two matches on points mean he is ready to move up permanently? Maybe. But we need a little more mat time to know for sure. We are definitely doing some D entries at bigger opens this year so we can see how he does against a bigger pool of kids. So far I think he has only wrestled 5 different kids this year.
As a parent, I really do like round robins for the novice wrestlers. The goal for us is more matches, and round robins make that more likely for a new wrestler.
According to win percentages your 11yo is -2 and still has a ways to go before becoming open.
Your 8yo is +2 if he wins 6 out of his next 8 you may want to evaluate the whole novice classification.
A win to loss ratio is the best option in my mind. You may have kids that have wrestled for 3 and 4 years that have not won, or won very few novice matches. And on the other hand you may have a first year kid that has won 18 out of 20. Which one do you think needs to be novice?
