I saw the incident that brought this topic up for discussion. I also can relate to what everyone else talking about this subject is saying about yelling at our kids, getting emotional while they wrestle, and having concern about exactly what it is that we are teaching our kids. My wife and I both work in professions created to protect kids from abuse and neglect so this incident immediately concerned us. I believe this incident occurred because a young wrestler had a moment of not so good sportsmanship and an emotional charged father/coach then reacted inappropriately.

My son had wrestled a tough little guy from TOHK a few matches prior and lost (he could have used a way better coach than me).
During the match I think I was yelling almost the entire 3 periods and believe it was instructions like, "get off your back, bridge, and don't quit"!(the kind of advice/instruction I used to get and the kind I think my son needed to survive that match without getting pinned)! I was very proud of my son for listening to me during the match and doing all those things I yelled for him to do combined with wrestling hard, and then even better, displaying good sporstsmanship after he lost. I then stayed on the floor after the match to watch some of the other 49 lb kids and saw the incident that brought this issue up. The kid at the receiving end of this just was pinned after wrestling his heart out and then reacted by throwing a little tantrum on the mat. I believe it was his dad/coach who then "lost his cool". The man grabbed the boy by his arm, jerked him around by the arm a few times, and then pulled him in close to his face and told him, to "knock it off", with an angry demeanor that was inappropriate. He then angerly pulled the boy by the arm into the commons area and sat the boy in a chair at a table. The boy needed to be taken some where so he could have been redirected however, given the man's demeanor, the way this was accomplished was also over the top. I walked to the commons area behind them hoping this was not going to get any worse. I saw the dad get down to his sons level on a knee, and completely changed his approach for the better, thankfully. It appeared to me that he was explaining appropriately and sincerely and I was satisfied the man regained his composure. His son was receptive to this and seemed to be responsive to what dad was saying so I went back to the gym with the feeling this was taking a much needed turn for the better. I then went to where my wife and son were seated in the corner of the gym and asked them if they saw the incident. They had. I took the opportunity to comment, "See, I'm not so bad, am I"?

In any case, all of us in that corner of the gym witnessed something that needs to be addressed. It was terrible for our kids to witness and is simply "bad" in so many ways for the sport we love. I hope this was a one time incident where emotions got the best of this pariticular dad. I hope this is an embarassing learning experience for the father that will prevent this from happening again. I also hope this is not a common approach he utilizes to parent his children. If it is, I hope somebody from the Augusta club who knows him will talk to him about this.