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.