Wrestling disappearing in small schools ?

[OutOfTheLoop]

Hard times make hard men...hard men make easy times...easy times make easy men...easy men make hard times. Our society, right now, no longer values effort above outcome. Everybody, parents and players alike, want instant success.
We all know that there are exceptions to this, as we still see kids working hard, but little Jimmy who could go .500 as a senior no longer endures the hardships to see that senior season.

I can’t say I completely agree here, everyone from every generation prefers instant success. Humans haven’t changed that much in 60 years as much as we think they have. The difference between then and now is simply there are more options. “Jimmy” the baseball player first used to wrestle or play basketball because what else was he going to do in the fall and winter, now Jimmy can play fall baseball and then train inside year round for a sport he likes rather than a sport he’s just doing because there is nothing else to do except sit around. Wrestling for many kids was “something to do” until their favorite sport was up again. Now even football players just focus on lifting all winter and spring and would rather do that.

It’s too easy to say that “oh kids just aren’t the same anymore”, and that may be true to an extent. But I’d argue that more kids are focusing on their primary sport first and playing others if it doesn’t interfere too much.

I also think we aren't considering the role that lower-level coaches have in this. It seems to me that too many of those coaches focus on winning and focusing on the kids who will help them win now instead of helping develop fundamentals in kids who may not blossom until high school.

I appreciate the pressure coaches have from parents but focusing on winning now can really hurt later when some kids feel they aren't getting support and quit or when kids show potential when young but don't physically develop into a successful Varsity athlete. There is too much blaming kids for being lazy or unfocused and not enough self-reflection of the adults who may be failing them.

[Rumorman78]

There is another important factor that I forgot to mention in my original post. A few of my friends who are wrestling coaches have told me that some of their best wrestlers have chose not to participate in wrestling for their respective schools' This was because they wish to focus on participating on AAU or Club Teams. The reason being that the better wrestlers want to focus on getting better competition at a higher level than what they will get from their high school team. For example' a good wrestler at a small school might only wrestle one match a week, and in many cases won't even wrestle due to a forfeit, or an opposing coach moving wt. classes to avoid wrestling him, or in the majority of his matches he pins his opponent in less than 30 seconds.
But if said wrestler went to a AAU event that was held over a weekend. he might wrestle quite a number of matches against tough competition, and these AAU events happen year round.One coach told me he felt this will become a greater problem for high school wrestling as time goes on.

[bedfordcountyfan]

My question to all of this, all of these kids focusing on one sport year around and skipping the school teams to play aau or club. Is it making them better? Do colleges want this? I used to hear people say college coaches prefer multiple sport athletes.

[CCDevil2012]

My question to all of this, all of these kids focusing on one sport year around and skipping the school teams to play aau or club. Is it making them better? Do colleges want this? I used to hear people say college coaches prefer multiple sport athletes.

I think they do, but wrestling seems to be an exception. I’m not sure I’ve heard of any local wrestlers getting a scholarship who didn’t wrestle year round. They may have played other sports but they never stop wrestling. Other athletes seem to have little to gain by wrestling if they’re just doing it for fun. If they’re not playing basketball they could lift, play football, play baseball, and still be a multi sport athlete

[Wrasslerfan]

Hard times make hard men...hard men make easy times...easy times make easy men...easy men make hard times. Our society, right now, no longer values effort above outcome. Everybody, parents and players alike, want instant success.
We all know that there are exceptions to this, as we still see kids working hard, but little Jimmy who could go .500 as a senior no longer endures the hardships to see that senior season.

I can’t say I completely agree here, everyone from every generation prefers instant success. Humans haven’t changed that much in 60 years as much as we think they have. The difference between then and now is simply there are more options. “Jimmy” the baseball player first used to wrestle or play basketball because what else was he going to do in the fall and winter, now Jimmy can play fall baseball and then train inside year round for a sport he likes rather than a sport he’s just doing because there is nothing else to do except sit around. Wrestling for many kids was “something to do” until their favorite sport was up again. Now even football players just focus on lifting all winter and spring and would rather do that.

It’s too easy to say that “oh kids just aren’t the same anymore”, and that may be true to an extent. But I’d argue that more kids are focusing on their primary sport first and playing others if it doesn’t interfere too much.

I also think we aren't considering the role that lower-level coaches have in this. It seems to me that too many of those coaches focus on winning and focusing on the kids who will help them win now instead of helping develop fundamentals in kids who may not blossom until high school.

I appreciate the pressure coaches have from parents but focusing on winning now can really hurt later when some kids feel they aren't getting support and quit or when kids show potential when young but don't physically develop into a successful Varsity athlete. There is too much blaming kids for being lazy or unfocused and not enough self-reflection of the adults who may be failing them.

Best answer for this thread ive seen i completly agree

[reugenev]

That’s the problem with youth sports in general!

[PAMDGrappler]

Hard times make hard men...hard men make easy times...easy times make easy men...easy men make hard times. Our society, right now, no longer values effort above outcome. Everybody, parents and players alike, want instant success.
We all know that there are exceptions to this, as we still see kids working hard, but little Jimmy who could go .500 as a senior no longer endures the hardships to see that senior season.

I can’t say I completely agree here, everyone from every generation prefers instant success. Humans haven’t changed that much in 60 years as much as we think they have. The difference between then and now is simply there are more options. “Jimmy” the baseball player first used to wrestle or play basketball because what else was he going to do in the fall and winter, now Jimmy can play fall baseball and then train inside year round for a sport he likes rather than a sport he’s just doing because there is nothing else to do except sit around. Wrestling for many kids was “something to do” until their favorite sport was up again. Now even football players just focus on lifting all winter and spring and would rather do that.

It’s too easy to say that “oh kids just aren’t the same anymore”, and that may be true to an extent. But I’d argue that more kids are focusing on their primary sport first and playing others if it doesn’t interfere too much.

I also think we aren't considering the role that lower-level coaches have in this. It seems to me that too many of those coaches focus on winning and focusing on the kids who will help them win now instead of helping develop fundamentals in kids who may not blossom until high school.

I appreciate the pressure coaches have from parents but focusing on winning now can really hurt later when some kids feel they aren't getting support and quit or when kids show potential when young but don't physically develop into a successful Varsity athlete. There is too much blaming kids for being lazy or unfocused and not enough self-reflection of the adults who may be failing them.

Well stated! I think we see this mentality in all youth sports, not just wrestling. The primary focus of youth sports has become to win now by working only with the kids who are already really good. And that's great for the said individuals; they will continue to grow and become elite and be highly successful in their craft. However, the team aspect is dying because those young kids with "potential" are being lost at an early age. I don't think it's a coincidence that the quality of high school athletics has continuously declined as participation in club teams has become the modern trend.

[knowitall]

Wasn’t the two piece wrestling uniform that was introduced a few years back supposed to fix this problem?

https://www.tribdem.com/sports/how-rule ... 123ce.html

[abpk2903]

Easy to blame the kids for not wanting to participate in sports, especially the team sports in today's day and age. What people don't want to hear is the problem is actually with the adults. Adult participation is down with quality youth program coaches, quality youth program officials, and so forth. A lot youth coaches are there to make sure their kid and their kids friends get the best opportunity. All it takes is a few bad youth coaches/administrators in your community to chase off dozens of kids over the course of several years.

Its funny how communities that still have GREAT youth program coaches and leaders seem to still have success at the varsity level. Two youth programs that always seemed to be well run are CR wrestling and BA football. Look at the success and participate rate of their varsity programs over the years.
Coincidence? They seemed to always have members of the community step up and coach the youth even when their kids are no longer on the teams.

Way to many youth programs are run by dads and only while their kids are coming through the program. Way too many parents want to kids to "specialize" because it cuts their costs and obligations. Money is a major issue. The affulant families are able to send their kids off to whatever prep school, travel team, and AAU program they wish. The kids then get sucked into this thought that unless it is "travel team" then it doesn't matter. The kids then have no loyalty to the community they grew up in, why should they. The less fortunate families need their kids to pick 1 sport or less due to cost of gear, sign ups, work restraints, etc. Those same less fortunate usually also quickly get looked over because their parents usually are not the ones with the money and time to take on a coaching rule. The team is then assembled with the coach his kids and his assistants kids as the core of the team.

"Travel" is the most ridiculous thing we have every done to youth athletics. The idea that an 8 year old needs to travel out of the area so they can face enough "competition to develop" is beyond insane. Every town now has an 8U, 10U, 12U, 14U, and so on for every sport. Heck I just got an email from the ball league I have spent years coaching in that they need a coach for their new 5U program. Yes, 5U. Half the team still wears pull ups to bed. So instead of kids enjoying the game and falling in love with the game playing their friend from school all summer. They are staying a hotel in Ocean City for a week playing some kid from North Carolina while their parents and coaches convince themselves that this game means something in the scheme of life. Kids burn out, parents burn out, coaches burn out, and officials burn out long before the kid even gets to varsity athletics.

Anyways, that's my 2 cents.

[Roofee]

Abpk, you Sir, are spot on!!!!!