New Wrestling "Uniforms"

[littleguy301]

In my opinion, removing the weight-cutting culture from high school wrestling would go a long ways towards increasing participation. High school kids need to have fun wrestling. Weight cutting is not fun. I think all of the saturdays tournaments turn some kids away also. For many that live and breath wrestling it is normal to be in a gym every saturday. For those kids we are trying to attract to the sport, giving up every saturday for 3 months might keep them from wrestling.

Here is a very nice post.

I agree that the weight cutting culture is a nasty one in the eyes of many parents.

As a middle school coach here are some of the things I hear from parents about this
1. I dont want my child to cut, I had to and I hated wrestling because of it
2. From a new parent, I really dont want my child to lose any weight.
3. Why are practices 2 hours long?
4. How many days do I have to take off work early or take a full day for Satuarday tournaments?

For me those are easy answers

1. Dont worry you are talking to a coach that had to cut one year and had to eat to make weight another and trust me when I say I had a lot more fun the other year when eating.
2. First of all, we as coaches need to teach your child the basics long before we talk about any weight issues. Sure I hope I run a practice that has them hungry when they get home.
3. Great question, at our school we do NOT have a deicated wrestling room so it takes about a half a hour to roll out the mats, clean them, tape them and roll them back up. Plus I give the kids 20 minutes to shower up so we really only practice wrestling for a little over an hour. Plus I told them that I am not sure if we had a dedicated room I would practice more than 1 1/2 hour any ways.
4. All but 1 of the tournaments are on Friday nights and they start at 4:30. We only have 1 Satuarday tournaments and all meets are easliy within an hour of the school.

I just was asked and answered those questions this past week. I was met with very positive reactions to those questions with the answers I get.

So yes, Time, weight and weekends are a big thing in wrestlings that needs to be addressed.

[Oldtimer]

At the youth and middle school level there should be a lot more options based on what the kid wants to get out of wrestling.  If they don't like the singlets... let them wear the other stuff.  If they fall in love with wrestling they won't care in high school what uniform they wear (I think).  If they don't want to wrestle all year long or do long before and after practice trainings that is ok but as a coach we should help them understand that they "May" not be as competitive as those that do... and that's ok.  We can match them up with similar skill levels so it's competitive and fun. 

To me at this level the more choices and flexibility we allow the more we have the chance to increase number.

My disclaimer... These are my opinions and if you don't agree... you're wrong.

[ramjet]

Ram,

So do private schools do a better job of marketing wrestling than do public? You took a jab at public schools/coaches/programs there. I would just like some clarification rather than assuming what you meant. I doubt that scheduling duals during school hours and taking kids out of class would be accepted by the school board, much less parents. Neat idea, but not reality.

Curious if the private clubs you are speaking of are getting and recruiting kids that have never wrestled at a higher rate than are public school coaches and community youth clubs?  Or are they much more often getting kids who already are in the sport, kids that were already recruited in by someone else?

In a recent MN Head Coaches survey about singlets, 56% said that they are a factor in preventing kids from joining the sport.  That's only a bit more than 1/2, but maybe something to think about, I'd say especially at the M.S/JV levels. It seems once kids are "in" the sport,the wrestling is more important than the uniform. It's the getting them in the door that is the toughest part.

Not private Schools but clubs and businesses market much better and some do an excellent job ....outstanding job of promoting attracting and retaining kids in wrestling.

The point is we all need to think outside the box and find new and exciting ways to promote and introduce the sport. Like Ghetto said and fully agree with guys like Padre are not that common and will eventually leave.

I think retaining is important as well.

HandlesII if you have THE winning formula by all means share it.

[Handles II]

So the private clubs and private businesses are recruiting bunches of non-wrestlers to join the sport?  I'm not really sure about that, please let us know all about it. Do you know how many new wrestlers that private businesses bring in each year? Which businesses are these? You seem to have the corner on this aspect of the sport. I'm really not familiar with it, so by all means, educate me on it. I'm here to learn.

[ramjet]

So the private clubs and private businesses are recruiting bunches of non-wrestlers to join the sport?  I'm not really sure about that, please let us know all about it. Do you know how many new wrestlers that private businesses bring in each year? Which businesses are these? You seem to have the corner on this aspect of the sport. I'm really not familiar with it, so by all means, educate me on it. I'm here to learn.

Come on that's not what I said they promote the sport and market the sport with fun and innovative ideas .

They do draw wrestlers or they would not exist....

I mention this only to promote or try and come up with good ways to promote and market this sport.

I also mentioned W-B and Iowa both public entities.

[imnofish]

In my opinion, removing the weight-cutting culture from high school wrestling would go a long ways towards increasing participation. High school kids need to have fun wrestling. Weight cutting is not fun. I think all of the saturdays tournaments turn some kids away also. For many that live and breath wrestling it is normal to be in a gym every saturday. For those kids we are trying to attract to the sport, giving up every saturday for 3 months might keep them from wrestling.

Removing the weight cutting culture might be something that we aspire to, but will only partially accomplish due to the need to fill all positions.  I have noticed however, that the expansion to 14 weight classes has resulted in less weight cutting in our program.  Maybe that's one reason our numbers have improved recently.  Personally, during the 20 years that I coached middle school wrestling, I found the kids progressed most and stayed involved best, when they had more practices and fewer contests.  Our team actually competed in fewer conference meets, which didn't always make other coaches happy, but I felt it provided a better balance for our kids.  We focused on basic skills, made up drills and contests that made practices fun, educational, and challenging.  We found that we could do most of our conditioning through these activities, rather than spending a lot of time running.  As a team, we competed in 3 tournaments per season, including a conference tournament that was held on a Friday night.  If wrestlers wanted to do more, they could also attend other tournaments as individuals, but school transportation was not provided.  The 2 Saturday tournaments we attended were far away and ones that awarded team trophies, with our focus being on building team unity.  Also, our after school activity bus only runs Mon. - Thurs., so we made Fri. practices optional; the smaller numbers allowed coaches to individualize instruction more, rather than making it a tough workout.  Also, at the end of the season, we had a team party.  A wrestler's ticket to this party was his/her cleaned uniform and headgear, which saved a lot of time chasing down equipment, later.  Our wrestling club supplied food (pizzas, pop) and any activity funds needed, if we did something like swimming, etc.  I also did not keep track of win-loss records.  I focused more on improved skills and told the kids that winning would eventually take care of itself.  I can remember kids who never won a match until 7th or 8th grade, but got lots of compliments on a good takedown, escape, etc. from the coaches and their teammates.  Several of those late bloomers became good high school wrestlers.  Also, I think it helped when coaches focused on positive interactions with parents; saying what a good job their child was doing by working hard, improving skills, and being a good teammate, helped sustain parental support and gave kids time to physically mature instead of giving up too early.  Also, it was very helpful that our principal allowed me to frequently add positive updates about team results to school-wide announcements; it elevated the programs visibility and generated excitement in the school community.  He also made allowances for me to meet with all students and give them a sales pitch about our program, which resulted in a lot of kids giving it a try.  There's nothing like high numbers to generate positive peer pressure. 

[ramjet]

How many High School programs take the teM into community and do some high visibility volunteer work?

Coaches have you requested or required the wrestling team go as group and support other school sports?

[imnofish]

How many High School programs take the teM into community and do some high visibility volunteer work?

Coaches have you requested or required the wrestling team go as group and support other school sports?

Great point!  I know that our head coach has done the latter and the community response was good.

[ramjet]

Not my idea many College programs do this and allot of other things and the recognition cannot hurt.

[Handles II]

So the private clubs and private businesses are recruiting bunches of non-wrestlers to join the sport?  I'm not really sure about that, please let us know all about it. Do you know how many new wrestlers that private businesses bring in each year? Which businesses are these? You seem to have the corner on this aspect of the sport. I'm really not familiar with it, so by all means, educate me on it. I'm here to learn.

Come on that's not what I said they promote the sport and market the sport with fun and innovative ideas .

They do draw wrestlers or they would not exist....

I mention this only to promote or try and come up with good ways to promote and market this sport.

I also mentioned W-B and Iowa both public entities.

"Not private Schools but clubs and businesses market much better and some do an excellent job ....outstanding job of promoting attracting and retaining kids in wrestling"

It is EXACTLY what you said. Please tell us which businesses are attracting and retaining wrestlers and how they are doing it. If you didn't mean it, then write what you mean and give examples. I'm all for attracting more new wrestlers. If you know who and how new wrestlers are being brought in, and how many per year, then by all means share with everyone. Don't keep it a secret ramjet.

I've thought about doing a dual up on the stage in our Auditorium. Theater seating, cool lighting, way better sound system. After measuring it all out, there's no way legally or safely that we could do it... However, there may be some schools out there that it could work for, I hope you give it a shot.  And I'm not done trying, I hope to use the stage in an exhibition setting for our 5th-8th grade students in an assembly if it can be approved. HS guys will demonstrate some "cool" moves and hopefully draw some exposure to the team and sport.

[ramjet]

HandlesII

Not really sure why you do not understand what I am saying here but let me take another approach.

Many private clubs and entities exist and have good participation. If they did not they surely would not exist. I say this because they have to have enough business to survive and people pay money to go there. They have some good ideas and they because they are business and have to have clients to survive they are innovative. So it would not hurt to take look at how they do things or even ask or maybe partner up with them to get some of these ideas.

I hope I did better job of explaining my line of thinking.

1.) I encourage any student in speech class to choose wrestling as thier topic and demonstrate different spectacular moves that bring excitment and education to those they giving the demonstration speech to.

2.) Not sure if this can be done but I will throw it out there. Invite the Basketball team up and demonstrate some throws onto the crash pad allow them to try some.

3.) Encourage the phyed teacher to do an intro to wrestling in gym class. With some simple but fun low key matches or throws.

4.) Have a match during any high visibility event you can at school where you can take advantage of a captive audience that does not normally attend wrestling events.

5.) Get the team out inot the community high visibility.

6.) Check with local college teams and have a cooperative drilling session with them. (not sure if this is any violation of WIAA rules so check that first) MALE A BIG DEAL OUT IT.

7.) Offer uniform options and if it is getting good results MAKE A BIG DEAL OUT OF IT. If this is the ticket or good way how cool would it be to offer the Board short with XX school and see an entire gym class wearing XXschool WRESTLING!

8.) Most communities have parades during the summer and homecoming parades at the school make darn sure the wrestling team has float and participates make sure they have fun and make darn sure they have high visibility in a good way.

9.) Pictures I took and posted allot of action pictures focusing on the success of the wrestlers. It was big hit and the wrestlers liked it and so did the rest of the school and parents.

10.) Have your team show school spririt and as a group support teams at those events. Be visible ina good way let them work out a deal where that team them support thier events. Work together not against each other.

11.) Social media draw attention to the sport in positive exciting fun way USE IT.

These are simple easy things to try and draw folks in folks that do not currently have the desire and or the exposure. Desire is the tough one exposure is easy and can be done with allot of cost or money.

My suggestion of the week to get more visibility to the sport.

[Handles II]

Sorry ramjet, I can't read minds, only what you wrote. You wrote that businesses were promoting and attracting new wrestlers. I understand that private clubs are a business, but you wrote clubs AND businesses were doing this. Maybe in your area they were/are. How would I know? Therefore I wanted to learn more.

As for private clubs...I asked earlier are they bringing in many brand-new wrestlers? How many? More than public school coaches? If so, who, when, where and most importantly, how?  That information would help out public and private school coaches that are in need of more wrestlers.
Do share.

You have a few good ideas written down in your last post.

[imnofish]

HandlesII

Not really sure why you do not understand what I am saying here but let me take another approach.

Many private clubs and entities exist and have good participation. If they did not they surely would not exist. I say this because they have to have enough business to survive and people pay money to go there. They have some good ideas and they because they are business and have to have clients to survive they are innovative. So it would not hurt to take look at how they do things or even ask or maybe partner up with them to get some of these ideas.

I hope I did better job of explaining my line of thinking.

1.) I encourage any student in speech class to choose wrestling as thier topic and demonstrate different spectacular moves that bring excitment and education to those they giving the demonstration speech to.

2.) Not sure if this can be done but I will throw it out there. Invite the Basketball team up and demonstrate some throws onto the crash pad allow them to try some.

3.) Encourage the phyed teacher to do an intro to wrestling in gym class. With some simple but fun low key matches or throws.

4.) Have a match during any high visibility event you can at school where you can take advantage of a captive audience that does not normally attend wrestling events.

5.) Get the team out inot the community high visibility.

6.) Check with local college teams and have a cooperative drilling session with them. (not sure if this is any violation of WIAA rules so check that first) MALE A BIG DEAL OUT IT.

7.) Offer uniform options and if it is getting good results MAKE A BIG DEAL OUT OF IT. If this is the ticket or good way how cool would it be to offer the Board short with XX school and see an entire gym class wearing XXschool WRESTLING!

8.) Most communities have parades during the summer and homecoming parades at the school make darn sure the wrestling team has float and participates make sure they have fun and make darn sure they have high visibility in a good way.

9.) Pictures I took and posted allot of action pictures focusing on the success of the wrestlers. It was big hit and the wrestlers liked it and so did the rest of the school and parents.

10.) Have your team show school spririt and as a group support teams at those events. Be visible ina good way let them work out a deal where that team them support thier events. Work together not against each other.

11.) Social media draw attention to the sport in positive exciting fun way USE IT.

These are simple easy things to try and draw folks in folks that do not currently have the desire and or the exposure. Desire is the tough one exposure is easy and can be done with allot of cost or money.

My suggestion of the week to get more visibility to the sport.

Our (now retired) Phy. Ed. teacher used to have a wrestling unit for the boys.  He asked me to teach him the basics and help him put the unit together.  It turned out great and really promoted the sport.  BTW, he was the middle school basketball coach, so I thought that was pretty cool of him to take the initiative.  Of course, that was back when we had separate seasons for every sport and no club overlaps.  We worked together to get kids to try all the sports, so they could make the best decision for them.  It's a different world, today; now the sports compete for kids, as soon as they come out of the womb.  One thing that really killed the wrestling unit was when budget cuts made Phy. Ed. classes all co-ed, whether they are taught by a man or a woman.  We have one teacher of each gender and neither of them know anything about the sport, or would probably feel comfortable teaching it to a mixed-gender class.

[Handles II]

Budget cuts have also cut the number of days and number of minutes in PE overall. Some districts are finally learning that PE is critical to performance in the classroom, but most haven't paid attention to the statistics.

After fighting it and showing the studies on it for four years, next year finally (!) HS kids will be able to take more than just 1 year of PE, which was all that was required and all that was allowed. Band and choir however...students could take those every semester, every year, and get credit for it. So thanks to that imbalance I was able to convince the new admin that PE is every bit as important as those classes.

That might lead me to possibly having a wrestling unit in freshman PE. At least it's a start in the right direction.

Parents, your voice at school board meetings and to admin is far more powerful than that of any teacher in the district. They fear parents. So get several of you together and start a petition, or make a proposal.

But I digress.... Not having singlets could possibly bring more kids in the door. What possible harm could it do for the WIAA to approve it?

[ramjet]

Sorry ramjet, I can't read minds, only what you wrote. You wrote that businesses were promoting and attracting new wrestlers. I understand that private clubs are a business, but you wrote clubs AND businesses were doing this. Maybe in your area they were/are. How would I know? Therefore I wanted to learn more.

As for private clubs...I asked earlier are they bringing in many brand-new wrestlers? How many? More than public school coaches? If so, who, when, where and most importantly, how?  That information would help out public and private school coaches that are in need of more wrestlers.
Do share.

You have a few good ideas written down in your last post.

You are hilarious.