I am introducing this new topic in hopes of possibly drawing some more input from people across the entire state to the discussion that is going on under the Atchison Tournament topic.

I think some important issues are being brought out in that topic that go beyond just this weekend's tournament at Atchison. I believe a very worthwhile discussion is being conducted on the Atchison tournament. The Atchison officials have apologized, acknowledged the problem, are making assurances to the clubs they are going to correct this year's problem and are already planning ways to do that. Most of the people posting seem to be wanting them to do that because I think they can see how it can be a potentially very good tournament with great wrestling and opportunity to wrestle good wrestlers from different clubs.

What is also coming out from the frustrations that people dealt with in the long day in Atchison on Saturday is that there is a limit to what people find acceptable in the length of our normal tournament day. I think some interesting suggestions have been made.

Personally I like the one proposed by Oltymer and Mike Juby for split session tournaments. I know I like this at Districts. Mike said that the reason that it has been slow to catch on is because although most of participants would have their time cut by about 50% and approximately 80% would benefit that the 20% who would not benefit would be at the tournaments longer because some time is lost between sessions. Mike said included in this 20% who would be there longer are the people who actually run the clubs. I can understand why these people would not want to be there longer. I mean these are the people who put in most of the time. But if Mike's numbers are close to correct to the amount of time that could be saved for that big of a percentage of people, it seems like it is something to consider.

So tournament time: What is acceptable, How long is too long too wait to wrestle your first match, and what do you think are ways to achieve it?