Perfectly good thread hijacked!

I really don't think anyone should pick on sportsfan for a couple of reasons, some of the conversations or banters on here are more a battle of wits. It's clear from some of his posts that he is going to the battle unarmed.

He may not be someone who is really involved with the wrestling/coaching part of the sport. He might be someone that watches the kids practice or compete at meets and just imagines himself being involved.

Sometimes its better to leave people like this alone or have trained professionals work with them.

Agreed! But Sportsfan is getting thrown under the bus.

I agree that being such an overzealous parent that you need/want to see brackets a week aheasd is a little much for kids wrestling!! Come on! You go to practice, you listen to your coach, work hard and the winning and losing will take care of its self. I can see this topic in the High Scool or College thread, but not here.

Those of you that are worried about this...Do you take it easier on the kid when his bracket looks "weaker"?? I doubt it. These are kids, don't make it easy for them, but don't burn them out. A quote that sticks with me, that I learned a few years ago, from someone most of us has met, "Prepare you child for the path, not the path for your child."

Our jobs as parents/coaches is to help the young wrestler develop a basic skill set, learn to listen at practice, respect other wrestlers coaches and officals, to always give you best win or lose and have some fun.

Spending time worrying about who little Johnny is gonna have next weekend does not accomplish the above.


BTW...Yes I love to see my kids smile after a win and it hurts to see them after a loss.

Practice = the amount of work you put in.......

Tourneys = either A-winning and awards or income at work(the more work, the more money) or B-losses or getting paid less, or fired

Wrestling = life lessons PERIOD!!!!

sportsfan does not see any correlation between the two. He hasn't wrestled so he doesn't know. Wrestling isn't for everybody, so that is not a knock on him. Roundball isn't a sport, because any "sport" that the referee has that much control over the outcome, is not a sport.

Dan Gable said it "once you have wrestled, everything else is easy"

The only reason I like to see the entries early is because my son is in a weight that doesn't have a lot of wrestlers in it. We have to travel to find opponents. It is nice to know what to expect when we get there. That being said, after we have entered a tournament we show up even if there are only 1 or 2 other wrestlers. It is just nice to know if our son is going to get a work out that day!

That absolutely makes sense!!

no one threw sportsfan under a bus. your quote just solidifies everyones point, there is nothing wrong with practice, scouting, video taping, what ever. that is preperation, i someone were preparing the "path", they should even sign up for the salina tournament, trust me it won't be easy. the point about burning kids out is a good one, but that doesn't have any more to do with wrestling than the man in the moon. kids get burned out on EVERYTHING. how many kids get A'S AND B's in jr high then D'S and F's in high school, i doubt that has anything to do with extra preparation. sportsfan used some pretty discouraging words in his post. perhaps a better quote for all to think about is this "if you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem" GET INVOLVED. the parents who complain most, are usually the ones who do the least to benefit the club, the sport, or anyone other than themselves. i've seen this for too many years, it's not just IMO, its the truth. you don't have to be in the practice room to get involved, raise money, organize movie nights for the team, have a swim party, but do not sit back and critisize those who are involved.

by the way the salina tournament is always one of the best tournaments, any way you look at it. KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK.

The time it took to read this post we could have been in the basement working on some new stuff. See you at the tournament!

I hated every minute of training,But I said don't quit. Suffer now and LIVE THE REST OF YOUR LIFE AS A CHAMPION!!!!!

to me it sounds like it means more to the parents/coaches to win than the kids.
all I ask of my kids is that they do their best every time they go out there on the mat.
Have personally seen alot of very good wrestlers quit at around the 5th grade because their parents pushed them too hard to be a "CHAMPION" and they couldn't take the pressure anymore.

i didn't read where anyone said they were pushing their kid to be a champion, just helping them prepare to "do their best". some times kids get burned out, there is a fine line between pushing too hard, and not doing enough to TEACH a young person to succeed. i guess again some people will always assume the worst. i done this for many years, i haven't had a kid yet not come up to me when they are 20 years old and speak to me about wrestling. some of these kids wreslted for one year when they were 8 yrs old, most of them were never a champion, sometimes never a medalist. i haven't had one come up yet and say the reason they got burned out is because we pushed them too hard. most of them are very greatful that they gave this sport a chance, and have used what they learned, to succeed in sports, school, and life. i'm not saying kids don't get pushed too hard. i'm just saying that some will decide to quit because they don't have any success, and feel they aren't getting parental support. again if you feel that something else should be done, GET INVOLVED.

man you guys are making me feel bad, you mean to tell me i have not let little nix eat for five days or drink anything and i worked with him every nite this week for myself. i thought he loved working with his father and not eating, but i see the light now i will give him a cracker and a half glass of water. i will also call the school and tell them it's ok to feed him lunch.

i also said jeffrey there is no more having fun wrestling, he said but dad it's fun i had to tell him no more.

" I SAID ONLY A HALF A CRACKER SON "

i might be way off topic here, but i have read about math, burn out, beat out, some one getting thrown under a bus figured i would get on the topic at hand myself.

" ONLY A SIP OF WATER SON "

Salina is a class tournament and the posting of entries like they do just adds to its class. Posting entries allows for the correction of mistakes. It also allows kids to prepare mentally for their brackets. And, it helps to increase interest. I think the problem with Sports is he has a negative attitude of people. I doubt if that many people really view entries and then try to change their kids weight to avoid another competitor. By this time in the season most of us know who is probably going to be in our kids weight. Sports just needs to be a little more positive.

Salina is a class tournament and the posting of entries like they do just adds to its class. Posting entries allows for the correction of mistakes. It also allows kids to prepare mentally for their brackets. And, it helps to increase interest. I think the problem with Sports is he has a negative attitude of people. I doubt if that many people really view entries and then try to change their kids weight to avoid another competitor. By this time in the season most of us know who is probably going to be in our kids weight. Sports just needs to be a little more positive.

I hope that wasnt a SALTINE cracker nix! Do you know how much water weight that will make little nix retain? You should quarter a piece of whole grain bread and let him suck on 1 quarter until it is soggy then have him spit it out. WOW! I'm glad I showed up when I did. Could have been disasterous.

Can u please post the link to the entries. Thx

It was moved to the Upcoming Events sub-forum!

Once again the Sportszero has to live up to his self cast role as lead villain! He is so awesome to point out all of these pitfalls that we would NEVER think of without his help.

Sportszero, when was the last time you coached? Do you have the secret formula to raising an NCAA National Wrestling Champion/Rhodes Scholar? Please share it with us!

Every sport suffers from 80% attrition from eight years old to high school. Just the way it is.