I have to wonder how much is all this going to cost, and who does all the monitoring to determine whether or not the rules are being adhered to? from what I can see of the regulation, no small amount of documentation and reporting will be required. is this a deal where each team is on the honor system, to be "audited" only if a complaint is filed by another school when they think someone is cutting too much weight? Over the years, I have seen a lot of kids that just were enormous for their weight, some did really well, some not.
but the decision to wrestle at a certain weight was made by the wrestler, or the coach, or the kid at the next higher weight that could kick the crap out of the wrestler that dropped down to the next weight. I can't think of a sport that requires more sacrifice and disciple than does wrestling, and regulating the weights in such a restrictive manner is, in my opinion opening the door for all kinds of rules abuse. I remember when we made a rule that teams could weigh in at home the night before or morning of a match, seemed like a good deal that coaches a could be trusted to regulate and not cheat on until one coach brought the scales out before the match and SHAZZAM--whodathunkit? some lightweightson the other team were about 10 pounds over. That practice turned out to require a little more observation to be successful, and this looks like a similar situation to me. I think the folks that adhere honorably to the new regulations will be restricted in their team lineup adjustment in a way that those who choose to falsify data will not. I can't see that the old system here was flawed to the extent that it requires such drastic adjustment, which in my view is only as enforcable as the integrity of the people documenting the weights. the lions share of the programs would be clean, but the new system would offer a benefit to those who chose not to be. I know this post will likely draw a lot of criticism from the gallery, but I guess what it boils down to is, "can somebody just explain to me what was so seriously wrong with weight adjustment practices in this state since 1930?" I don't recall any deaths or serious injuries that have resulted from excessive weight loss since the 70's at least, so what in the world is the big deal?