If you were a coach bringing a team to the Bobcat, would you only bring your experinced wrestlers or would you bring the whole team regardless of wrestling experince?

Depends on what you call experience I would guess. I like the idea of throwing everybody into the tournament and keeping it as a team. You are telling your lower tier kids, "you're not good enough" in my opinion. Take them and if they go 0-2 make them have pencil and paper and take notes on moves, matches and stuff they see that they like. Make it a teaching moment.

This question is not just for coaches. I would like input from wrestlers and parents too. Please feel free to respond.

I think all kids should go. Most will have a chance to win a match on the backside if nothing else and it give lower kids a chance to see what that higher level is. I believe there is also benefit to greener kids to see how kids prepare and act in a big tournament like this. Have your kids watch how top kids prepare, warm-up, drill, take a loss, etc.

Many, Many state champs, etc will be beaten at this tournament. It's a great tournament not just for the top kids but for everyone. I have also seen some "greener" kids get a big win at this type of tournament and it makes them catch another gear.

JMO

In my opinion, a wrestler learns more from a loss than from a win.

Too bad they don't have the capability of doing something like a hard luck round or something for the 0-2 guys. I'm not saying an entire hard luck tournament, but maybe an extra match so you get at least 3 matches and more mat experience.

Last year at the Bishop Carrol Tourney our coach sent our less experienced wrestlers to another tourney and took about 5 or so wrestlers with experience. We didn't do to well as a team for points. but had 3 placers. This year we took the whole team and faired a lot better. I don't think splitting the team up is a good decision, because you might be surprised what kind of an upset your "non-experienced" wrestlers can pull off. just my opinion.

At the Bobcat, you had better bring kids that can defend themselves, coaches and realistic parents will know what I am talking about.

I think you can bring the entire team no matter what because experience and seeing what it takes to get to the top is what it is about.

Recently others have taken a new tact. If all of our wrestlers and coaches would adopt the "humane style" of wrestling you wouldn't have to worry about your inexperienced wrestlers. This is a new section of rules the officials are hoping to get inserted into the book. If you are much better than the other wrestler you should slow down, ease up, and be nice. Officials will be allowed to make calls based on the talent disparity to help level the playing field. Maybe it will eventually lead to having a scoring handicap. If you are too good you will start out being down 10-0 and have to dig your way out of the hole but not use any moves that involve force, pressure, pain, or advanced technique.

No doubt in my mind, the whole Varsity team travels together whether it is Garfields Take Down Tourney or the KC Classic. The camaraderie that is built through pulling for your teammates to get those "if" wins on the backside to help with the team score is what being on a wrestling team is all about.

The point made earlier about preparation at a big tournament is valid and so very true. I love watching the studs get their game face on in anticipation of the big qtr/semi/final match. There is so much the greener guys can learn about attitude at these events bc most of the time that is all the separates the 1s and the 2s.

Here is a little bit of a twist with a different question. Let's say that your school can send your more experienced Varsity wrestlers to a tough tournament, and they have the opportunity to send their less experienced wrestlers to a JV or Varsity tournament that does not have the caliber of teams that the Varsity is going to. What, as a coach, do you do?

I now understand the importance of a less experienced wrestler getting three periods against an opponent that is far superior. They get to learn how to defend themselves against moves that they couldn't defend before the match started. It is all about mat time. My question is, do you as the coach send them to the tougher tournament where they will get two, maybe three matches, or to the other tournament where they might get five in a day?

this subject is the same on the kids thread, it's talking about novice tournaments. i feel that if all you ever do is wrestle novice/ jv tournaments for "experience" you aren't getting the experience that you really need to advance.

I am not sure you answered the question. I will narrow it down a little. Would you send your JV quality wrestlers to a very tough Varsity tournament or would you send them to a good Varsity tournament?

Success equals more participation, more participation equals more success. A coach has to know his kids and put them in the right positons. It doesn't do a kid any good to give up 2 30 second pins, and it doesn't help the other kid either. An occassional growing experience is another thing. I also do not believe in giving a kid too much false confidence by never putting him in tough spots. A good coach will put his kids in the right positions, based upon the kid. Deep down, we all know where our kids fit, so do the coaches.

As a wrestler I was not allowed to go to the Garden City tournament as a Sophomore. Looking back the next year after getting going 1-2 I understood why.
Now as a coach I had the same problem in going to Beloit my first year, I took them all and learned a lesson. Next year I did not take the freshmen who were on varsity. They could not mentally handle it, sometimes it inspires a kid-sometimes it crushes them. The coach should know his wrestlers well enough to tell which is which. Case in point, I have sent kids to a JV meet, who were on varsity, as opposed to taking them to a varsity tourney, in fact I am doing it tomorrow. But really it depends on the wrestlers situation. If he needs a good boost and he is an underclassmen I see no problem, but sending a state qualifier to a JV meet is wrong, unless he didn't make weight!Just kidding.
Just my two cents.
Brown

Well said Coach Brown. We do the same for the Newton tourney. We decided to schedule a lesser varsity tournament on the same day to allow our kids to see their appropriate level of competiton. This type of creative scheduling allows our top varsity kids to experience state type competiton, our sub par varsity to still compete at a high level and some of our better JV kids to get varsity experience. This seems to work well for our team since we have numbers and depth but may not be for all.

i would send the kids who make the varsity line up all to the same tournament. no matter how tough is. no one likes to get beat, but it is what you make of it.

Thanks for the honest reply. That is what makes the forums a great place for wrestling addicts to come and discuss current topics, share their knowledge and experience, and to collaborate with other members. We don't have to agree on the same thing, and we shouldn't. As long as we come here with good intentions, for the love of the sport, then the forums are a productive venue to make wrestling better.

If my Varsity schedule says we are going to Bobcat, and a kid is a Varsity wrestler, then he goes to Bobcat! It is what it is!

As a coach at Wichita East I will just tell you from my experience what we did. The East wrestling program is not currently known as a prestigious program. In the past we have had very few tournaments outside of the city, but this year we added the Emporia and Junction City Tournaments to our schedule, both of which are fairly tough. We take our whole varsity so that our kids can see wrestlers outside of the city league and good wrestling matches.

When I was in high school however, we would only take the experienced kids to tournaments like Bobcat and Tulsa Union. I really think it depends on the program and the situation. If you also have a good JV tournament scheduled for that weekend, I would send some less experienced kids to JV. That my take on the situation.