Will, I agree with a lot of points u made. However, I do believe that there are some dynamic kids club wrestlers who move on to high school and never even place at state. As incredibly hard of a tournament high school state is if you walk into high school with 5 years under of wrestling on your resume than placing in the top 6 out of 16 isn’t such a hard thing.
I do believe that a lot of club coaches do a few things wrong. Keep in mind I don’t go around into everyone’s practice room to rate or judge them.
1) Club coaches teach too many moves. Yeah I know this sounds funny but I was very guilty of this my first few years as well. Honestly, in wrestling at the higher levels will u be able to perform the 350 wrestling maneuvers and techniques u learned in the 3 month kids club season?
2) Club coaches teach to win.
I had a kid in my club who came to my club from another club. He was real good at this move called the twister because he was naturally strong however he lacked any other moves. He wouldn’t shoot and didn’t know any top positions moves etc... I could NOT un-teach this move because the kid won matches with it but he always fell one match short or qualifying for state.
3) Too much pressure to win. Its simple when a kid comes off the mat it should be hard to tell if he/she was the winner or the loser. Coaches and parents focusing their ambitions on kids who ultimately just want to wrestle. After a kids win..."Good Job John way to work hard in the match. In the second period you had an opportunity to get the cradle but it slipped out because you didn’t have the arm. We will work on that in practice. I am proud of you." After they lose..."Way to work John, you continued to fight the entire match. Here are some things we need to work on in practice this week. Keep your head up and we will get them next time." There is no reason to wrestle 70 matches a year if u doesn’t learn anything from any of them. The rest of this is continued in (4)
4) The 6 & Under to High School Pyramid
If you really want high school programs to be better than let’s see what we can do about this.
6 & Under 1,857
7 & 8 1,609
9 & 10 1,428
11 & 12 1,241
13 & 14 1,135
15 & 16 651
If u don’t think the pressure to win from coaches and parents are burning kids out of EVERY SPORT then u are hiding under the pillow. Kids almost ALWAYS reflect the attitudes of the coaches and parents around them.
I coach wrestling for one reason only… To provide an experience. One of my kids went to the middle school duals and from his words and the many on the talk forum that the experience was so positive that win or lose the kids would want to come back for more.
One of my greatest high school experiences was being a member of the Schlalge marching band. It was when the band was first starting to gain it reputation. We started traveling to St.Louis MO, Indianapolis IN, Nashville TN, Houston TX and many other places like Disney Land, and Los Angeles. Only about 40% of the band would go off to college and play but ALL of them have the experience of being in the band that we will remember forever.
Allow your wrestlers to have the experience and win or lose they will come back for more. Wrestling is NOT fun. It’s hard, challenging, mentally and physically tough. But the experience is very enjoyable if the School/Club, parents, and coaches all have the right attitude about winning.
P.S. I love to use Marcus Walker as an example. Marcus started wrestling when he was 10. He did NOT qualify for kids state until his 9th grade year and didnt qualify for high school state until his 10th grade year. Marcus used to be very ROUND kid should I say. He was 4'11 120lbs all baby fat. Marcus was NOT a natural athlete and he only wrestled because I knew his older brother. Through his younger days of wrestling Marcus would win 10 out of 40 matches and placed 3rd or 4th at some tournaments. He had such a great attitude about wrestling along with the coaches and his mom that he always looked forward to wrestling. Wrestling was his sport and something he had pride in.
Point is you never know how kids are going to turn out. Keep working with them, there are plenty of diamonds in the rough. Keep winning and losing in prospective and provide them a life long experience. Like Randy said the are a lot of good wrestlers in Kansas but there is such a large gap between the the great wrestlers and the others, a gap that if we use our CURRENT resources we should have quality kids from top to bottom (with of course those few outstanding kids).
I believe if this is done there will be a lot more Marcus' moving from the lower tier to the high tier. If didn't have the proper mix of good supportive parents, coaching, and wrestling environment its very possible he would have quit well before getting his 115 high school victories and breaking the school record in takedowns 3 years in a row.
