tomtoothdoc

GOLFER WANNABE
Location
north jersey
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i need some constructive input/advice.
my 13 and 9 yr. old sons had been wrestling for a few years now. we will focus on the 13 yr. old since he's at the age where many kids are going through the growth spurts. here is the situation, my son was always one of the smaller kids in class. he's a 5'1" and 100 lbs. 8th grader. last year he was 84 lbs. and wrestled at 85 lbs. class. he did very well....took first place in district.
however this year his "walking" weight is 100 lbs. but my wife and the coach wanted him to wrestle at 98 lbs. instead of the 105 lbs class. their reason is that at at 100 lbs., he is actually wrestling kids at 110 lbs. on the tournament day. and at this age, the 10lbs. "mass" difference put him at a big disadvantage. i don't buy into the "everybody is cutting weight" idea, i don't get why the wrestling "authority" don't implement the same day weigh in right before the match. i'll buy the 2 lbs. leeway but if they would actually dq wrestlers who are over that 2 lbs. limit, we wouldn't have to deal with kids dropping 10-15 lbs. to make weight and then put them back the next day and the advantage/disadvantage issue.
even though i have never wrestled, i did compete in tae kwon do and judo tournaments. there were some "eyeball" weigh guide lines but they were fairly lax. the belt color was more of an issue than the weight. i also played football in high school and as a 162 lbs. defensive end and outside linebacker, i was used to playing with kids who were 180-220+ lbs. so the "eyeball" weigh class at judo tournaments were no big deal. i did very well at those tournaments because i felt i was much stronger and cardio was never an issue. i used to do the whole day tournaments and hit the weight room afterwards.
i don't want my son to have to worry about cutting weight. i told him about how training with a heavier kids may help but it seems he hasn't developed the "extra strength" to cope with the 10 lbs. differential. i also see his frustrations of placing 3rd. in many of the state qualifying tournaments where only the top 2 qualifies. he had been preparing for the state tournament since the end of last season. he has been wrestling year round. he is working very hard and wrestling almost every day, many times doing a double session of 2 hrs each.
i would like to hear from those of you who wrestled in high school or college and how you dealt with this issue.
thanks for reading such a long post.
 

MatthewScars

Guns, Razors, Knives.
Location
Brooklyn
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thanks for reading such a long post.

I wanted to open with, im not a doctor.

I train MMA and have for a few years and know a lot about weight cuts. Im not sure about kids, but the 2 pounds is super easy to cut. I agree having him fight bigger kids is good for him, but id say in practice only. When you're going for a real fight, you want him as light as possible. A 10 pound weight cut shouldn't effect his growth or development in the long run or short run. Its just one week of cutting then he's back at walking weight. You want him to win, the lighter weight classes are the way to go.

Im not 13, more like 30, but im 190 and cut to 175. Its not too bad with the proper trainers involved.

Just my opinion.
 
Location
Huntington
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I used to wrestle in high school and by senior year I was cutting down to the 155 class. The lower weight class does help and makes a difference. I was in military school at the time so we were in with other private schools that could recruit and there were a few schools fielding kids in my 155 class that were in no way that light, it was a little rough at some matches. Since he's only in 8th grade I don't think winning is the most important thing at this point. If he's serious about it and wants to pursue it I would say let him wrestle and work on his techniques and strength and the wins will follow. I don't think he needs to be cutting 10lbs just to gain an upper hand, maybe down the line when he's older and more serious but for now I would just let him learn what to do and get comfortable with it. On my team we had two if us in my class and we'd constantly wrestle each other to get used to working with the weight and after a full 3 2 minute rounds we were exhausted. We were pretty evenly matched and never really pinned the other plus that stamina we gained over time helped a lot when the match actually counted. Find a kid his size and let them practice, it's probably the best way to do it at his level.
 

Mattl22

Advanced Reefer
Location
Garden city
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I wrestled in the heavy weight class used too laugh at all the little guys sucking weight as I eat 2 bacon eggs and cheese on way too wrestle !
Tough question! What does your son want too do? If he's comfortable losing those extra lbs and it's not a health issue it will give him an advantage !
 

tomtoothdoc

GOLFER WANNABE
Location
north jersey
Rating - 100%
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thanks for the replies.
the coach and my wife wanted him to wrestle at 98 lbs., at 100 lbs. he's right on the 2lbs. leeway. but i wanted him at 105 because back at the beginning of the season (september '10), i thought he would have gained more weight by the time march and april (state tournament time) comes around. what i didn't think about was that he has to placed in the top two to go to state and have to wrestle at the weight of the qualifying tournaments.
what kept happening was the other 105 class wrestlers suddenly became 110-115 on the tournament day while my son is 100 lbs. his skills and techniques are good enough but when those are equal, higher mass has big advantage.
yes at 8th grade, winning isn't everything. but believe it or not he's already being recruited for private high schools. he has been offered scholarships....but whether partial or full ride, unfortunately, is weighted by the ranking from the state championship.
and what i worry about is when will this ever end. if i encourage him to cut weight to win at tournaments, potentially that can be an 8 years of this thru high school and college.
he wants to win and willing to do what it takes... shown by going to summer wrestling camp while his friends went to "fun" summer camp. he wrestles year round, runs a few miles a day, watches what he eats, and kept up with his school work. he does everything he's asked of. it's frustrating as a parent to see your child's disappointment when he did everything he could.
 

thirty5

A Little Annoyed!
Rating - 96.6%
84   3   0
Tom,
When I was in high school i was in the same boat, I wrestled freshman year at 103 and had to gain wait to make weight. I was always lined up with another person who would actually kick my a$$. Then came along senior year where I would have wrestled at 154, again with the same guy who would kick my A$$ so the coach told me I needed to drop to 135 to wrestle that class. Lets just say I played tennis that year (yes my senior year) and I had a total blast.

I am totally against dropping weight. The same guy that kicked my a$$ was always sick, always spitting in a cup and wearing plastic bags when working out, and never ate. He was never "healthy"

I say when you are young grow as you are supposed to and now worry about weight. In your son's case he is obviously not over weight. If being overweight was the issue then sure drop a few lbs. But to just drop weight to wrestle a different class, not a good idea in my head...
 

Brando457

NJRC Member
Location
North, NJ
Rating - 100%
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I wrestled in high school also and went from heavy weight my freshmen year 275 down to 215 by sophomore year, they wanted me to go down to 185, but I enjoyed walking around at 195.

If it's only 2 pounds and he has a higher chance of winning and accomplishing his goal let him. Ultimately everyone is right though let him do what will make him happy.


Sent from my mind.
 

NYreefNoob

Skimmer Freak
Location
poughquag, ny
Rating - 100%
166   0   0
ok i never wrestled, but use to box golden gloves, my carry weight in those days use to be 175 and had to drop to 165 middle weight, even though i could have easily boxed light heavy weight, i had the upper hand dropping weight, problem for me was at 175 i was around 6-8% body fat so it made dropping 10 lb's really hard and had to learn the proper way to do it so that i wouldnt be starved to death or burnt out come fight time, i usually took 2 weeks to drop weight, hated doing it but it did give me a advantage
 

Mike389

Advanced Reefer
Location
Staten Island
Rating - 100%
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I wrestled 145 in high school and bumped up to 152 and sometimes 160... i did really well because i had great cardio, technique and was strong... kids were deffinetly bigger than me but i didn't let that get into my head.. i took first in new york city and qualified for states at 152.... i did not cut weight instead focused on taking in more calories than i was burning and lifting at least four times a week.
 

tomtoothdoc

GOLFER WANNABE
Location
north jersey
Rating - 100%
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a quick up date, this past weekend my 13 yr. old took first place in the 2nd district at 100 lbs. class.
next week he'll be at the regional and the following will try to qualify for state at 98 lbs. he will have to drop 1 lb....which would be just peeing before getting on the scale....lol.

the 9 yr. old missed the podium coming in 4th.... ending the season being undefeated in the rec league and a winning season overall combined....which i am very proud of... especially for coming back from a hiatus with a broken elbow falling off a monkey bar. :fight2::sick:
 

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