I feel like i need to add my $.02 in this discussion about split vs non-split tournaments. I tend to agree with both sides of the issue. In saying this it is important to note that USAW-Kansas has recently adopted the language and/or qualifications for Novice wrestlers. This was told to me by our club leadership and I have not seen anything in writing to confirm nor deny the following statement: "Novice wrestlers are those 1st and 2nd year wrestlers who have NOT placed in any OPEN tournaments except by default (4 man round robin) nor have taken 1st more than twice in any novice tournament." Like I said this is only from what I heard our club leadership say was adopted by the state. If anyone can clear this statement up for me it would be greatly appreciated.

Anyway back to my point. Open tournaments throughout the year are designed for those wrestlers who are more experienced and talented wrestlers. Therefore, a split tournament may or may not be a good idea for open tournaments. The wrestlers in Open competition expect a certain level of competition at these tournaments and for those who love the sport it is a great venue to not only watch your own kids compete but also to watch the competition in other weights and age divisions. In the early stages of a developing wrestler, a split format is much better for both the wrestler and his/her parents (i.e. Novice wrestlers) This allows them to compete but also have time for themselves on the weekend which keeps it fun for both the kids and the new parents to the sport.

Being a 2nd year wrestling dad, I can speak from experience and this in no way means that others would not have differing opinions. Last year we started out my youngest son in the Oklahoma season and went to 3 Open tournaments in Oklahoma. Having never wrestled except for in the practice room it was like throwing my son to the lions. But his desire for competition was strong and we allowed him to decide if and when he wanted to go to tournaments. He lost every match in Oklahoma but he was determined to get better every week, and when he hit the Kansas season he did just that. Those first 3 tournaments were murder on me sitting in a hot gym for hours on end, but we as parents could see the friendships that our son was making and we also started bonding with the kids not only in our club, but also with kids from other clubs. Had my wife and myself not been competitive ourselves in high school and college, we probably would not have been wrestling parents very long after the first couple of tournaments.

Now to our oldest son who is also a 2nd year wrestler this year and who tagged along all last year to the youngest boy's tournaments all year. Our oldest son was strictly a novice wrestler and that is perfectly okay. He was sometimes discouraged by the sport because he saw his little brother winning while he seemed to lose all the time. In all the novice tournaments we went to last year my oldest won only one match. But it was this one win that left him wanting more. After the summer and fall football, my oldest could not wait to start wrestling again. (he will still start off in novice because he wants to have fun with it) There were many times last year at Open tournaments that the oldest son would be so bored out of his mind that we would often times find him sleeping in the bleachers away from everybody.

My point is that Split tournaments are probably best for novice tournaments to keep those new kids interested in the sport and one format that I think worked out great was how our own club ran the end of the year Novice Championships sometimes called Nebraska format where each age group is designated to wrestle at certain times: 6U from 8:00-10:00 8U from 10:00-12:00 etc. This format needs a little tweaking but for the most part there werent too many complaints about the length of the tournament and wait times between matches.

I am not sure if that same format couldn't be adopted in some way for open tournaments as well providing there are enough mats for the kids to flood and get done in the alotted time. This could be a great way to not only keep the kids in the sport but also keep the parents interested in the sport as well.