I tried to keep quiet Randy but I just couldn't do it, so here goes.

First off. Spex, your own family travels out of the GREAT state of KANSAS. Why? To get better. I am all for supporting Kansas. We do. Landon has gone to 2 in-state tournaments and hasn't been beat. We traveled and he got beat. On the way home, HE stated what he needed to work on. NOT ME!!!!
The 2 tournaments that we wrestled in Kansas he learned very little because he didn't get beat. It was just mat time. A child only learns from mistakes. This also applies to adults. We not only travel to get better, we travel to see what the rest of the world is doing. Broaden your horizons. It will only help your son.

MR. Cokeley stated “The number one criteria for seeding should be COMMON SENSE.” This needs relayed to all seeding meetings. Records mean nothing. NOTHING! At the end of the year you can be a state champ with a sub-par record. When posting the results they don’t list the records of all the kids? NOPE!!!!!!!!


Are you making a POSITIVE difference in the life of kids?


In closing. I think that Spex came across different than what he was really meaning. I hope. SportsFAN02, you came across just as we know you. Negative towards someone that is trying to make a positive difference.

Spex,
I will see you in Goddard. We will visit then.

Jason W.--I agree with you that you absolutely have to travel to get better, with very few exceptions. Little story--we helped a kid from Texas go to his first out of state tourney earlier this year--Cliff Keen Kickoff. This kid was beating most of his local competition, but his dad was not happy with his skills progress; nevertheless the dad thought he would do well at Kickoff. I didn't have the heart to tell him it's a whole different world. Anyway, predictably the kid went 0-3. Within 2 weeks ON HIS OWN he was making changes to his training, moves, etc. And began throttling everyone in his region--pinning, etc. So much of wrestling is mental. Everybody, with few exceptions, reaches a comfort zone, and when they're in it, they stagnate. It even happened to Askren when he first went international. Happened to even John Smith, so he lost to the Cuban.

Here's an example: Nick got better this weekend in a very specific way--on bottom he has only been hitting switches for months--with lots of success. I told him, you still need to work tripods, standups, sitbacks, etc.--need variety. He says "I'm good on bottom." Well, I talked to D. Jefferies and knew Hayes was a great rider; if I wanted to promote winning the match, I would have had Nick choose top and go for his cradle (not that he would have gotten it against Hayes); but, I wanted to prove my point, told him to choose bottom. Well, against Hayes his lack of variety off the bottom showed--his switch attempt got him 2 back points against; then the tripods didn't work; standups a couple, but brought back to the mat; then he finally makes progress with the sitback series, but it's too late in the match. Now he BELIEVES he has to improve off the bottom.

Maybe the kids in Pennsylvania or Ohio can get by with their local tourneys, but certainly not here in Texas or even Oklahoma. Traveling is a struggle of course, and very often those who travel are "lone rangers." But I think the non-travellers should realize that the skills the travellers bring back improve everyone's wrestling. A rising tide raises all boats.

As a side note, Nick has been wanting to wrestle your son for a couple of years--glad they got to finally hook up. Your son is a very fine boy and I know you are proud of him. Nick knows he's going to have to bring it next time to hang with him.

I am living in Pa now as I have stated but love to try and keep up with what all the Kansas kids are doing. I view the forums and try to give my opinion every now and then when I think That I have something good or reasonable to submit.

As for the travelling to different states to wrestle, even us pennsylvanians take our kids out of state to get a bigger variety in our wrestling diet. We travel from one end of the state to the other and out of state because you never know whos out there and what you can learn. The statement( if your not losing your not travelling comes to mind).

As for the comments written by sportsfan02, as i said we wrestled in Kansas last year and live in Pa now and try to read the forums to keep up with the kansas wrestlers. It seems that everytime I log onto this forum sportsfan02 has something negative to write about someone or something. If you have to constantly defend yourself on this forum then maybe its not everybody else that is wrong. I don't pretend to know everything or even much of anything for that matter but I try to improve the sport of wrestling everyday.

I am not looking to fight with anyone I would just suggest that the comments be thought through before they are posted. My seven year old like to get on here and look for his friends names and how they did, and I don't think that the negativity is a good thing for him to be reading.

Again, just my thoughts.
Congrats Kansas boys at JOCS
Mike Pirl

Hey Spex,
I hear what you are saying...Tulsa, Ok Worlds, USJOC are some awesome tournaments. I believe we need to support our local clubs. We have one of the largest in the state, and we want you all to come! We also know if we want the best to attend our tournament you have to look at the calender to see whats going on.
It is right... Oklahoma has some tournaments like none in Kansas. When Garrett was ready (I thought) I took him to Oklahoma Worlds and then to Tulsa. WOW what an eye opener for both of us. Around here there was only one kid in the state that could beat him. We went to Oklahoma and got our butt kicked bad! The next year we went again and he placed 7th in a 128 man bracket. We learned alot about the different levels of wrestling that first year. Yes, We have some AWESOME kids in Kansas and they represented us very well at USJOC this weekend. We sent about 10 to 15 boys and had 30+ at Valley.
Spex, you have two boys who are now and going to be great wrestlers. Will is ready for Oklahoma. Let him see some different
wrestlers who can challenge him in different ways.
I'll See you also In Goddard. Have a great week at practice.

Side note:
You and Mike have done an awesome job with your club. I saw the results from Valley and you had 5 or 6 1st!! Great Job Keep it up!

Hey Mike!!
Are you ready to come to Kansas!!! Our tournament is Just 4 weeks away.... We can't wait to see you and Logan. I let the TEAM know you would be here and their excited to see ya!! We have a new web site http://www.maizewrestlinglub.com That will let you know what we've got going on.
Hope is all well with you and yours. God Bless and we'll see ya soon!!

Yes sir WE cant wait to see everybody and maybe get a little bit of that kansas sincerity. We miss Kansas alot and are seriously thinking about coming back. The wrestling is crazy good here but we do not feel like the coaching or the support is as good. My wife says that without me Logan wouldn't have won at all this year. It is so bad that we have gone to 5 tourneys and have only seen teammates one time and it was only three of them. I have been coaching Logan myself in the living room more than our coaches do in the wrestling room.

Can't wait to see you
Mike Pirl

Spex, When you wrestle time and time again locally I think with us you lose your edge it becomes repeditive for the kids. My kids dont focus on matches as hard. So we load up and travel to central KS, OK, Tx, Co, IO. Plus you meet alot of great people. Kids get back to where they need to be. Travel for us local is a 2hr drive one way. for you guys it 15 minutes. So I guess you can say we support the whole state not just local. If you would of loaded up and went to USJOC you would have been suprised with what Will would have done plus it better prepares the kids for the state Tourney cause kids are not as nervous. Wrestle some national tourney like liberty come you see what we are all talking about. Plus it's only a 2 1/2 hr drive dont be so tight. See you this weekend.

WE travel to Oklahoma every year to JOC (which holds its tournament on the same weekend every year). Maybe you can change your tournament date to a different weekend so that more "A" wrestlers can attend.

Congratulations to all of the Kansas wrestlers who attended JOC/JNC. Kansas had a great showing!! The only way to improve is to wrestle the best, and sometimes traveling is involved!

Thanks for all your in-put on this subject,for I am new at being a head coach of our club. I have met a lot of great coaches at tourneys and gotten some input as well from a coach-family member out west, I am learning as I go on what drives a wrestler as well as a wrestling team. My real question of "Why Oklahoma not Kansas?" Got twisted around to the wrong matter. I over heard some coaches whom were quite upset that they have been going to local O.K. tourneys and O.K. had been putting Kansas wrestlers up against each other, why I don't know. That is why I asked this question, why go if your going to wrestle Kansas kids anyway. I was NOT refering to the National events, I'm all for those.......As for the seeding meetings does your record reflect where you should be seeded... I think I made a mistake last year with my own son due to people had better records but he had also beaten them and we got a lower seed due to the records. Yes we made state, but wanted some input on this matter....Once again thank you for your comments I am having a BLAST meeting new coaches along with the ones from the past... Spex headed to practice!!!!

I am one of the ones who probably over reacted to your comments, and I apologize if I came across as being to harsh. When you see these kids work so hard, and want to expand on their abilities, then you read, what appears to be negative comments, the parent/team mom comes out in me to want to protect these kids. Yes, some of these kids do wrestle against each other in KS, but they weren't limited to seeing just the same kids, they met some really great wrestlers from other states, who they could learn something from and vice versa. I'm sure you are a terrific coach, Spex, and your passion does show!

Sincerely,

I am in no way downing anybody's tournament, however we found out two years ago that if you only attend tournaments locally you wrestle the same kids every weekend. This is not a horrible thing, but I really think that once we started broadening our horizons and going wherever we could in order to get quality competition our son's skills really grew. He went from not even qualifying for state to winning state! If that competition happens to be in Oklahoma then that is where we go! We attend tournaments every weekend(sometimes twice) from November to March and we only attend out of state 3 or 4 times. I feel we are very loyal to our fellow Kansas clubs. We also have to remember that several out of state kids come to some of our finer tourneys like Park City!