I think Kansas is one of the best states to have a six yr old wrestle and I think that novice program is one of the big reasons. I also believe that the coaches in Kansas are top notch. I just don't want to have real novice kids get discouraged do to a parent or coach wanting a kid to get the gold. We have to work harder as coaches to realize who is novice and who isn't. Just because you don't place sometimes or get fourth in opens, doesn't mean that you are novice. It should be based on your level of competition and by this time of year it is pretty evident how good you have done.

Novice by definition: A beginner. If you have been wrestling for two wrestling seasons placing in Opens and winning Novices in my unprofessional opinion you would not be considered a beginner or Novice. You go outside this great state of Kansas and 6U is considered a legitimate open class. OK for instance. I am not whinning about my kid wrestling open class wrestlers. I would just like to be able to know when we enter a tournament for novice wrestlers that he will wrestle beginners. These coaches and parents that want to build confidence need to build it in the training room not on beginning wrestlers. These Novice wrestlers are trying to make it through the first year. Learning techniques and basic skills needed to become open class wrestlers. That is our Goal, and at the point my son is no longer a beginner he will move to Open Class..

OK, so your kid's "right" to feel good about himself, is more important than another kid, who has improved more than yours, yet is still very raw. The minute another kid wins a few novice tourneys, he has to leave and get throw to the wolves.........

We are overreacting to a very small problem.........I have had my novice kids at quite a few novice tourneys this year, and I don't remember seeing a kid that was sooooo good, that I even thought about saying "hey, that kid isn't a novice".......

First of all, no one said anything about my kid needing to feel good about himself. I had a parent come up to me and say she thought that my son and her son would be rivals on the mat. In my opinion if my kid is still wrestling Novice after two seasons he needs to find another sport. You are either spending the time with them or you are not. By Raw do you mean a kid that does not know how to put a move on someone? My son practices three nights a week two at his club and one night at open club.
This is by his choice he wants to learn the techniques and become better. If as a parent or coach you choose to let your novice wrestlers off the hook on techniques and the BASICS you are not doing them any favors. You can say it is not that big of an issue, it is usually not for the ones on the other side of Novice/Open Class

I also think this is almost laughable, go back 7-8 years and there were no novice or very little. Did we lose some kids to but whooping they got, maybe but they probably wouldn't made it anyways.

My oldest (21 no) still thinks the novice is crazy, it does have its place and I do think it helps the starting kids.

So by the sound of it they had 1 wrestler out of what 600 that may not have been a novice.

How about telling who the club is, if they don't know they did anything wrong then why the complaining?
Granted maybe not right but a small issue.

Ask most of your Collegiate wrestlers and they will tell you they got started at a very young age. The basics their coaches taught them are what they go back to. What they learned in Junior wrestling. I can appreciate that it is laughable to you.
I can really!! I know the drop off for 6U is high. Look at the numbers, you have 130 aprox. more in that class than in any other age group. Hum? Could it be something we are doing or are not doing? To say that it does not warrant discussion is a mistake. These wrestlers are the future. Like it or not.

I repeat, we are making a large issue, out of a very small issue. If you feel like a kid shouldn't be in novice, just keep your kid around long enough to kick that kids tail. It doesn't count right now, just in high school.

ALL 6U are NOVICE....ALL 6U are NOVICE.....ALL 6U are NOVICE....

I agree 6u are novice no matter how you look at it. At that age they have no idea (or the coach) what they are going to do or react. At that age mat time is mat time, whats the big deal if you face them on Sat or Sun. At the end of the yr 16 make it to state and there are 6u that make it to state, and their are some 1st yr's that make it.

If you think that all 6u are novice then what do you think the reaction would of been last year if you would of had Kael Pappen wrestle on the Sunday tourneys. You have to admit there are exceptions.

Doug you are right it is a small issue I was more concerned with the kid that won the tourney. He should be challenged more. That tourney did him no good. I know you have said before I would rather have a kid get third and wrestle for it than have a kid get first with no challenge what so ever.It more than likely didn't phase any of the kids he wrestled.

What I have seen is coaches/dads getting carried away with the "be mean" phase, seeing kids having to endure chinning of the eyes and face. Stupid stuff that punk dads show their kids. I love an aggressive wrestler, but teaching the dirty stuff makes me want to walk to the other corner and give "Coach Dad" a taste of his own medicine........Kids that wrestle like that WILL run other kids (and moms especially) off from the sport.

doug I am with you on that one.I hear it all the time,if the reffs dont see it it is ok.

I have been struggling with this novice/open issue for my first year son. He has placed 3, 1, 2, 1 in his novice tournaments so far (8 and under). However, every single tournament has only had a maximum of 4 wrestlers, and this weekend there was only my son and one other kid.

I feel like he is progressing well, but in my opinion he is nowhere near wrestling open tournaments against kids that have likely been wrestling for years.

However, each novice tournament defines novice on their own terms, and many state that if you have won 4 novice tournaments you do not qualify. Does winning a tournament by wrestling and beating one other kid in the bracket really make him that much more prepared to wrestle kids with that much more experience? (totally forget the fact that we spent 5 hours there for less than 1 minute of wrestling).

I believe a better definition of a novice tournament is necessary for everyone.

You won't know until you put your wrestler in a small open tourney. If he handles it, go bigger. As far as Novice wrestlers being better and let in novice tourneys, I am against it. I am lucky that both my boys took the sport easily. Once they won their first open tourney a few weeks into their first season, we didn't enter any novice. I feel if they can place in an open, they are no longer novice.

Back east you have the luxury of having novice tournaments. In the wild west we have one novice tournament that is close. That is in Dec. . So we don't have to worry about who is a novice after that you wrestle opens. The chips fall where they may. Novice tournaments are a good idea BUT then you mess them up by getting adults involved and that is where the problem lies. The Mom's and Dad's want that throphy or medal more than the kid does. They don't have novice basketball games or baseball games or football games you are in the pit from the beginning.

To the person that said if your wrestler is still a novice after two seasons it is time to find another sport: My son is in his second year and still very much a beginner. He probably will be next year too. He may never be a "great wrestler", but if he wants to continue and enjoys it I will never tell him he can't wrestle. I know at a certain point if he is not a top notch wrestle he will probably have to stop, but until then he has the choice. In my opinion it is about winning, especially at this young age. It gives kids something to do, exercise, and socialization and those too are why my son wrestles.

so wrestle them all open.....so wrestle them all open... so wrestle them all open

teach your kids to challenge themselves. teach them that small victories are victories nontheless. wrestle open and challenge them to get better.

Then Kael would have been the best of the novice I guess. It is true that all are novice. Some just have natural athetisism at a younger age. Most will catch up in time, some not until puperty or beyond. No matter what, none have been alive long enough not to be considered novice.