I have waited a little while as I witnessed a situation that really bothered me at a recent tournament. I watched, what I'm guessing was the father of the child, pick their child up of the mat by their arms and dropping them while the child was crying because they didn't want to finish the match. This individual continued to jerk the child up and yell at him as the kid did not want to stand up, he even went as far as kicking the child in their but as he was yelling at him. The official was standing there watching all of this yet nothing was done about it. We all want our child to be great but their has to be a line drawn somewhere as in my opinion that is an automatic ejection and borderline child abuse... Any thoughts on this?

My thoughts are if you witnessed this and thought it was wrong you should have acted then. Whether it be informing the tournament director, the childs coach, or approaching the parent personally. Standing by and watching is just as wrong.

Wrestlers have all sorts of emotions that they have to deal with during a match. The younger the child the harder to deal with these emotions. There is no easy answer to what should be done. I personally think the child should be encouraged to finish the match. If they can not be encouraged, then they should forfeit the match. If it continues to be a problem the coach should step in and with the parents decide if the child is too young to be competing.

It was the head official that was with this child and the parent, and the child did end up forfeiting the match. I think that is sufficient for reporting as that would be the person I would take it too. It almost sounds as though you would support this type of action. In what world is it ok to kick your child? I do agree they should be encouraged to continue but not to the extent of being physical. The purpose of this post was to bring awareness to this conduct and put an end to it.

Well if the Head Official did not see it as a problem and you did not see it as a big enough problem to ACT, then since I was not there, I will assume it was not really a problem. If you think it was a problem and did nothing then by not acting you supported the action.

There is no question as to where I stand when I see something wrong, I act immediately, regardless of who is present. If I see something questionable, I will let it go while watching intently. Parenting is not black and white. How you handle your childs upbringing and how I handle mine may be two totally separate ideas. That doesn't make one right and one wrong, just different. Be careful judging, you do not know the entire situation.

I remember the last time I physically spanked Jake. It was after the State Finals match of 8U. Jake lost in OT. Jake was upset as kid's are. I tried to comfort him and talk to him but he swore the official had cheated. The official made the best call he could and it just didn't happen to go our way. I tried to talk to him and he continued to scream he had been cheated. I swatted him 3 times and told him to drop it. After he calmed down we discussed it and everything worked out. I'm sure to some parent that did not know what was going on, they thought Jake got the swats for losing. He got the swats for being a bad sport, not taking responsibility, blaming someone else, and throwing a fit.