Whew, another folkstyle season in the books. I have been reflecting today, looking back on this season as well as the other two seasons that I have been involved with kids wrestling as a parent/coach. I have learned a great deal over the last 3 years, some good & a lot not so good. After watching my 10 year olds state champ aspirations crumble I was forced to take inventory to discover what went wrong, where could we have practiced more? What tougher tournaments should we have gone to? Were we at the right weight? Was he committed? Did he put in the time? What if this? Should have that! HOW COULD I HAVE PREPARED HIM MORE FOR THIS EVENT?! Then it came to me. He's 10 year old!
He is not a soldier nor is he a professional athlete. He is a little boy that more then anything wants to make his Daddy & his coaches happy. Some where along the line over the past 3 years it stopped being fun. It became a mission where failure in his eyes as well as mine was not an option. This morning, he advised that he did not want to go to Brute Adidas, nor did he want to wrestle Freestyle/Greco this year. He said he was tired. He's never tired or at least would never admit it. Folks, the free advice for the day is, keep it fun! Winning is not the only thing that makes wrestling fun, Alex won over 40 matches this year & by yesterday he just wanted it all to go away. Keep in perspective why we are there & who we are there for. If it's for you, I suggest you take a good look as I have been forced to do.
We will not be wrestling at Brute, as of now we will not be wrestling Freestyle/Greco this year. We will not be checking weight or shadow wrestling, I will not be on this forum. We are offically on Vacation. God willing we will recharge our batteries & come back next season with much more focus on what the participant wants rather then the fan clubs wants. Take care & God bless,