My son is wrestling @ 8 and under 58 pounds and is in his first year. I have seen that with tougher competition my son improves more and more each time he wrestles. We went to Salina at 8 and under 61 lbs and he was bracketed in the A bracket even though he was classified as a "C" wrestler due to being a first year kid. The competition was great even though he was finished after 2 matches. He wrestled both kids well and took both kids 3 periods to beat him by the scores of 9-6 and 9-4 respectively. I was very proud of him to have wrestled these top notch kids so well even though he lost, because he is learning and the experience was our main objective. We have also taken him to USJNC where we knew he probably didnt stand a chance, but would get to wrestle very good competition in order to give him the experience and improve his wrestling skill. We expected to lose 2 and out and thats what happened, however he wrestled hard and the competition was stiff. Losing against stiff competition doesnt frustrate him because he is always wanting to improve at wrestling. I had a little talk with him today before practice and told him if he didnt want to, he didnt have to go to our clubs novice practice before his advanced practice anymore because his skill level has improved so much from the start of the year. He told me that he wanted to go to the extra practice because he wanted to learn as much as he could and to "help" teach the novice kids.

We will be going to Valley Center at 8 and under 58 pounds and welcome all good competition that he can wrestle and improve his skill.

So my reply is this: you are taking the proper approach because these same kids will be trying to qualify for state as well and you might see some of these kids later on down the road, so getting a taste of the competition and skill level now can only improve the wrestlers skill.