As a coach at Schlagle High School we participated in the pilot program last
year. Maybe one of the biggest benefits was the school getting our program a
tanita scale.
As a coach most of my athletes look for me to decide what weight class they will
wrestle at. With the help of the tanita scale that measures body mass and body
fat % and the hydration test, a lot of the decision making was taken out of my
hands.
I know I have heard of several kids quitting wrestling because of cutting weight.
For some of us older wrestlers cutting weight is like a time honored tradition. I
believe one that should be handles with much care. Our athletes look up to us
coaches and many will do whatever the coach says. I truly believe this new system
will make a lot of the 'what weight should I wrestle at next year?' out of the
coaches hands.
I am glad to hear they KSHSAA got it right by pushing certification back. I have
called and complained about it several times. Moving certification up hurt our
team very bad the last few years.
For some unfounded reason some coaches where thinking lets get it done before
Christmas so the kids can eat... If that's your only reason for moving
certification up than we should certify before thanksgiving cuz that's the biggest
meal in my family...
The biggest problem I had with the December certification date was that even if u
done everything right... (EXAMPLE) u have a 144 pound kids who wants to wrestle
130. According to the 10% rule the lowest he could go without a medical release
is 129.6 (14.4 lbs.) So u are a few pounds within the guidelines so u lose the
1.5% per week (2.16lbs) it would take 8 weeks.
Point is if we admit that weight loss is part of the sport then we should design a system where our kids can follow the guidelines without being penalized. Moving the certification back to January gives kids 3 more weeks to get down to weight in a much safer way and kids can actually follow the 1.5% weight loss per week guideline and make it to weight before certification.
Our team last season had a good size group of freshman and I was worried about
the perceptions they might have when they were told they would have to give do a
urine test. But the whole group responded well and there was not a problem with
it at all.
It is best if u do the alpha weigh in before the season starts because since the
alpha weigh in is the entire time it can be time consuming. I know it took us
about an hour to go 25 kids but we also did other paperwork that also needed to
be done like check physicals, insurance etc...
When we conducted the urine test it maybe took about 10 seconds per wrestler. Its
just a matter of comparing the urine color to the color on the chart. It is a lot
less of a hassle then doing body fat percents, water submersions, skin folds etc...
As far as educating athletes.. I think through the test they get a better
understand that just because they are drinking fluids wont mean they are PROPERLY
hydrated. I guess u can keep in mind that we do work with kids and they u can
educate them all u want. To some degree some of them will refuse to lose weight
and some of them will lose all the weight they can to be in that lower weight
class. I just believe that overall this will help guide wrestlers and coaches
into putting more thought into how am I going to get in the right weight class for
me.
Excuse any typos
