Iowa has been hydration AND fat testing for the past seven years. It is interesting to note that Iowa's current plan will NOT comply fully with the National Federation rule.

Also, it is true that if a state follows all three components of the NF plan to the letter (hydration, body fat measurement AND a descent plan which allows for no more that 1.5% loss of body weight per week (how would you like to keep those records!) a wrestler can wrestle a weight class at Regionals which he/she has not wrestled at all year! How to seed such a thing?

The Jan. 12 date for certification is no different than it has been for the past year. And yes, it is true that a wrestler will have to be hydrated at his weight in order to be certified. I can think of NO situation where a wrestler cannot certify by Jan. 12 (unless sick, injured, etc. ) I CAN beleive that there will be wrestlers who certify at a weight heavier than they would have wanted to.

Yes, it is true that an athlete will not be allowed to practice until they have a hydrated alpha weight. Alpha weight wil be allowed to be taken during buffer week, or the week before practice officially begins. Again, unless a kid decides to come out late there should be no reason why a hydrated alpha weight could not be recorded before practice ever begins. Allowances will be made for those schools with wrestlers athletes participating in the football playoffs--and this would involve four schools in each class by the time wrestlin practice officially begins.
Again a hydrated alpha weight may be at a heavier weight than a wrestler would have otherwise desired.

Checking urine is not one of those things that I got into the school business to do. And I plan to handle none of it; the cup should NEVER leave the athletes hand! But, if checking the specific gravity of urine needs to be done to ensure that our athletes are healthy and wise, so be it. Two people should be able to do our team of 40 or so in 45 minutes to an hour at most. Also, we will have specific gravity color charts posted in our locker room and our athletes will have access to clear plastic cups so they themselves can check their hydration levels daily if they choose.

The committee which developed these rule recommendations is composed of active and retired wrestling coaches, high school principals and superintendents who have wrestling backgrounds, physicians with back grounds and great interest in wrestling and a certified trainer. The committee has worked hard to balance the compliance with rules necessary to lessen all of our liabilities in the event of a tragic accident and to also keep the bookkeeping burden on our coaches and administrators to a minimum.

Wrestling is the oldest sport known to man; a few rule changes designed to safegaurd the health of our athletes and encourage proper nutrition instead of dangerous dehydration is not going
to kill it.