I am not sure that all of the high school coaches, parents and athletes who get on this forum also look occassionally in the Kids forum section, so I'm introducing this subject here in hope that there will be some additional response from you to a topic brought up in the youth wrestling section.

The topic is: Starting Wrestling Age? introduced by Nigel Isom.

A suggestion has been made on that topic that youth participation is not necessarily a good thing for eventual success as a high school wrestler due to bad habits that might be formed and impossible to break.

I am curious if the majority of you high school coaches, parents and wrestlers feel that way. If you do, I believe that many of us youth parents are under a mistaken notion, because I believe probably the overwhelming majority of us feel that having our children participate as a youth wrestlers will help them be better high school wrestlers and give them an advantage over a wrestler starting out as a freshman in high school.

What do some of you others think? I think it would be good to voice your opinions on the youth topic section instead of here, if you are interested in commenting. I just introduced here in case some of you had not seen it since it is being discussed in the Kids section. Thank you in advance if you participate in the discussion.

Absolutly vital for a successful career, Just look at 99% of the successful wrestlers out there. There are a few exceptions.(Blake Seiler)

I think it is a good thing to start when you are young. I wish that I would have started when I was 5 years old, it gives you a huge advantage over newcomers.

Getting started at an early age can be a big advantage. It also can ruin a potential wrestler if not handled correctly. All kids are different. Some can become passionate about wrestling at an early age and work hard all through childhood. Clearly these kids benefit from wrestling early and will be the best as time goes on. Others can be pushed too hard too long. It is important, to not push kids into wrestling without taking the proper steps to build their interest and make them feel good about wrestling. It is especially important to be encouraging and help them deal with defeat in a positive manner or you may lose a wrestler before they have a chance to develop. Listen to the kid and respond accordingly!

I responded in the kids forum too--but the issue is a little different here. In our local program, nearly all the good high school wrestlers (and I can't think of any exceptions in the past 15 years) started as kids...usually in the 6-7 year old age group. Some of these wrestlers were not great as kids, but developed into fine competitors as a result of years of learning and practice. I can remember one high school state champ who started at age 6 and never won a match until he was in middle school. Why did he continue? Because the program--and the other wrestlers--were good to him. He will tell you that those years of trying, learning --and even losing-- taught him valuable lessons that paid great dividends in high school. There are some God-given factors that you can't dispute, and exceptional athletes can (sometimes) compensate for years of training. But many wreslters are not blessed with superior quickness, strength and balance...and that's where experience plays a big role. One last thought- just because a kid starts young in not a GUARANTEE he/she will develop into a stud. We have a number of local wrestlers who are in the average to slightly-above-average range. They will never be world-beaters..but they sure to keep our program strong.

I feel youth wrestling is important, but not necessary. Many of our young wrestlers have bad habits that they developed as youth wrestlers and we work hard to break these. We have had a lot of recent success with non experienced wrestlers such being Harold Thompkins (2 time stateplacer) George Roath currently ranked 2nd and Justin Beatty currently ranked 4th. Harold and Justin didnt even come out until their sophmore years, and George missed half his freshmen year thinking he was a babseball player. These young men had little to absolutely no experience and therefore never developed bad habits.

The thing about kids wrestling is, every kid is different. Mat time is one of the greatest determinants to success in high school, but it is not the only determinant. Each kid is different. Regardless of bad habits, kids wrestling is important for kids to learn the rules of the sport, the basic techniques, what competition is about, how to win, how to loose, among other things. Without competing in anything you don't learn these things.

In my experience as a kid's wrestling coach I have learned that the basics kids learn and the muscle groups they develop are helpful when they get to the high school level.

Rolling around the mat when they are little develops instincts of balance,leverage and knowing when they are getting in trouble. I have noticed that high school freshmen who are wrestling for the first time find it very hard to gather in all the arms and legs to get a pin..this skill comes from experience.

In Short, the kids programs improve the chances of a successful high school program.

I think that youth wrestling does help alot. Yeah first timers don't have any bad habits yet, but a technician will beat a muscle head any day. That is all Thompkins was, and Beatty is. Roath had a lucky draw down at state last year. It would be a huge suprise to me, to see Roath in the State Finals.

Crossface killer, you are opinionated, just as I am. BUT, your OPINION of Thompkins just being a musclehead, as well as Beatty, is wrong. If you are right, how could they manage to win 57 matches between them last year? Surely your theory of technicians always beating "muscleheads" must be more accurate than that, or your depiction of them is way off. As far as Roath is concerned, willing to make a friendly wager? P.S Who are you?

Coach Penca. No disrespect to you or your program and wrestlers. It is just my opinion that Beatty and Thompkins were muscleheads. I wrestled Roath at the Bonner/Turner/Washington/Schlagle Duals. I am the one who got poked in the eye in the first 10 seconds. He beat me in over time, I feel that is because I couldn't see out of one eye for 2 periods. And I do feel that he had a lucky draw down at state last year.

Crossface, I wasn't offended but stating my opinion as you had done. I disagree with the statement you made about George Roath having an easy state bracket. He had to go through Darcy Riley, Kyle Breese, Nick Hanna and Trent Swanson. Even his first match was against a decent wrestler. I think all of them are very good wrestlers, I feel it was definately not easy.

I don't think that Darcy Riley is a very good wreslter. I beat him at kids state two years ago 15-2. Trent Swanson wrestled him in the finals for 3rd&4th. The tightest match that he had was against Riley. No offense, but Breese schooled him in the semis.

I guess this topic got off the subject in the last few posts. My personal opinion is kids wrestling participation is essential to High school wrestling success. I know for a fact that I wouldn't have been as sucessful as I was in high school without my 9 years in kids wrestling. Of course there are exceptions. One that comes to my mind is a guy who wrestled on our high school team when we won our 2 state championships and that was Josh Elliot out 189 pounder. He wrestled like two years in Middle school. then sat out the first two years of high school. He got recuited about half way through the season his junior year, came out and qualified for state, then placed 6th at state the following year. So he never wrestled in kids but did fairly well in high school. The opposite is also true. Because we have guys in our High school program that have been wrestling in kids for many years and they are not very good in high school wrestling. So in general kids participation is good. Good Subject!

Plain and simple, youth programs contribute so so much to the success of high school programs. Ark City's success in the past can be traced right back to their youth program. Add in a great coach, great assistants and great fan support-- and you have a successful program. Bottom line- its a part of the recipe that cannot be forgotten.

Wrestling at the youth level is probably the biggest advantage to a High School wrestler that there can be. I know some kids that if they would have wrestled when they were at the kids age they would have won high school state very easily more than once.

Given my experience with my son Joe, I would say that 3rd grade is about the latest one should start if their goal is to wrestle in college. Joe was in his third year before he had a winning season and in his fifth year before he started to become an "elite" wrestler. That leaves the entire high school career to build a good wrestling resume that colleges are interested in seeing. National competitions are also very critical items to have on the wrestling resume.

i think it is a necesity that kids start at a very young age learning their techniuqe and getting their body in the correct position and know how to use it.Most the kids you see at fargo cadet and junior nationals were great kids wrestlers and usaly the teams that have great kids programs have great highschool programs.You can see this all over the nation.The kids coming into highschool that have wrestled on a national level have seen college techniuqe and have drilled it and are way ahead of the kids that havent wrestled when there younger.

Tanner Gardner started out during his 7th grade year. And yet he's going to a Division 1 school. So It is vitial but, as long as you have determination you don't need to start out that early.

yeah i started my sixth grade yaer but i really wish i would have started when i was in first grade i think it would have helped me out a lot