what my point is, is that in my view a fit wrestler is going to be dictated to wrestle at 7% body weight. In the past, if a wrestler wanted to reduce to the next lower class and reduce to 2% or 3% body weight, he could do so. now he is stuck in that weight. on the other hand , if he comes in at 15% body wieght and chooses to reduce to 3% body weight to attain optimum strength and endurance, it may be that he would not be able to. say he comes in at 120 with 15% body fat-- he can get to 7%, or lose 8.5 pounds, to 112. if he cuts to 103, he is in violation, losing 17 pounds or about 15% of his body weight. It is not terribly common for a kid to cut from 120 to 103, but it happened quite often in the past, with no reported ill effects. my point is that if the individual determines that his best shot at a title is at 103, it will not matter if he has the discipline to get there, he will be prohibited from doing it. Similarly, if a football player decides to blow out to 260 when he should weigh 215, all the creotine he wants to take, and all the measures that he wants to use short of steriod use is legal, as far as I know. I believe that there are a lot more former high school athletes that are grossly overweight in their twenties due to recklessness at the football training table than ever resulted from excessive weight loss in a wrestling program. I am just saying that the disadvantage that a wrestler under the new rules will keep him from making the team or performing as well, in some cases. I believe that the weight decision should be an individual one, and that losses beyond what is being allowed can be accomplished if done in a responsible manner. the comparison that I mad was to suggest that the wrestler that elect to wiegh less should not be forced into a higher weight. getting down and staying there takes a lot of discipline, and that should reap rewards. the less disciplined wrestler that doesn't want to lose any weight to compete is fine, I just dont think that the guy that decides to drop a weight to better compete shold be prohibited from doing so.
