I'm all for more weightclasses.Wrestling is a sport where everyone should be able to compete regardless of size. Just happened across part of this show on PBS talking about the rise in weight of children,and remembered you citing this same fact.Came across this article with a google search and was supprised by some of the claims cited. Found other articles that were more shocking such as the expected life span of an X- NFL players to be 55 yrs.with weight being the biggest factor and many more.I don't believe everything I read or see on TV but if I had a son with a football type body I think I would now take a harder look at him "beefing up" for football than I would a couple days ago.Still I think more weight classes would be a positive and never indicated otherwise
Good point and I understand your motive now. This is a sensitive subject though for those with sons in the heavyweight bracket to be considered severely overweight or obese. A 6'3' 235 kid can be well muscled and not even close to obese. Many of these NFL players who have the obesity problems are well over 300 pounds and that is not what we are talking about in high school wrestling with our 285 limit. Could a committment to gaining as much weight as possible for football lead to overweight problems later in life? I think that is very possible if football player is gaining fat pounds instead of muscle pounds during his career. Some football players actually lose or at least maintain weight after their careers are over. That can be done thru aerobic training, cutting back on the heavy bulk weight training and changing their eating habits. Your statement about taking a harder look at beefing up for football though is a valid one. I am going to talk to my son about it and make sure he understands the dangers of putting on fat pounds instead of muscle pounds.
On the lower end of the weight classes, wrestlers and parents need to be concerned with health risks too. There are health risks that can develop from trying to reach too low of a weight class for a person and from getting into a syndrome where a wrestler is constantly having his weight fluctuate during the season by letting weight rise after a tournament and then later in the week cutting severely to make weight for the next tournament.
You said that you are for adding more weight classes. I would like to see that too. If it is impossible to have more than 14 weight classes I think it needs to be changed to bump the mid weight class 140 up at least 10 pounds to 150. I think wrestling needs to do this because I believe the median weight for teenage boys has risen by over 10 pounds since these weight classes were established decades ago. I also think that 103 is too low of a starting point and that is mainly freshmen and sophomores who are in that weight class. Many of these freshmen and sophomores have to severely cut weight to make it.
If we can only have 14 weight classes, I think high school wrestling should consider changing to the following:
1) 112
2) 119
3) 125
4) 131
5) 137
6) 143
7) 150
8) 158
9) 167
10) 178
11) 190
12) 205
13) 230
14) 285
