I'm pirating this thread from themat.com whose posters have some interesting thoughts!

http://www.thematforums.com/myforum/?show_topic=47788&forum_id=6

It seems like a timely topic!!

I can't believe there are no takers on this topic!!

There is too much to read for most of our posters! There are many valid points. Jack Spates told me this summer that he didn't let his kids enter tournaments until they were older. They practiced for four years before he allowed them to compete. There is more merit to this than you want to believe. On the flip side the tournaments become a social event for many kids. I know my son looks forward to seeing his friends from all over whenever we go to a big event. I also believe that you use more adrenaline in a tournament than you do in practice so some tournament wrestling is necessary. Interesting topic.

Will ... you are probably right! Most don't want to take the time reading what others have to say on a topic that might be critical to the development of our youth!

A lot of parents seem to be after the "instant gratification" rather than the long term development of our kids! I guess though, that this is a given, and I should just resign myself to it!

All right, going to stick my neck out there to get whacked, but it seems like these guys wrestle a lot more then Kansas, 70-100 matches! That is a lot! Other posts on this thread suggest that 30-40 matches is enough. My son is 10 & has wrestled every weekend since Emporia with the exception of Christmas weekend & has 36 matches. Alex also wrestles for PWA & has made friends from all over the state, actually the kids he enjoys hanging around the most do not live in our town. 98% of there interaction is in a hot gym or a hot wrestling room & they are missed during the off season by my son as well as myself. Every morning during the week at 7:00 a.m. it is like pulling teeth to get my wrestler out of bed for school, often turning into a yelling match but come Saturday at 5:00 a.m., I whisper as to not wake up whoever may not be going that weekend in my house & he is up & ready to go, won't even sleep in the car on the way, we get there, weigh in, eat breakfast & then my son is on a mission to find his buddies. I truly think it depends on the kid, If the kid sees it as a social event that they truly look forward to, is it a bad thing? Is there a risk for burn out? The kid being pulled out of bed crying that he does not want to go, but being forced to anyway is going to burn out, the kid that can't wait go get to the tournament for wrestling as well as for socializing, probably not.

I am with you; at 9 y.o., we had 144 matches last year (all 3 styles--first full year of wrestling), and at 10 y.o. about 100 so far this year. We go all over NM, KS, MO, CO, and a lot in OK, as well as TX for tournaments. Lots of great bonding time for me and The Boy (I have 6 kids and the other 5 are girls). He says he loves it, and his actions indicate he loves it. He doesn't win all the time. He does have a lot of friends and aquaintances around the country that he likes to see and play with. Some weeks he will not have a single practice before we go to a tournament--there just aren't a lot of good training options where we are. If we had a great room, we would not do as many tournaments, for sure.

MY SON WENT 61-20 THIS YEAR

That's a good record--he's winning a bunch, but losing enough that you know he's learning. I think mine's 87-15 so far. Was 119-25 last year.