Youth wrestlers and weight cutting or weight loss

[1Iota]

Max Askren had a great blog about cutting at the youth level & what it means down the road.  I will listen to Max before knowgangs. 

[knowgangs]

Max Askren had a great blog about cutting at the youth level & what it means down the road.  I will listen to Max before knowgangs. 

I have never said I advocate weight cutting for youth.  But people on this forum who in-vision puking, abused, starving kids just isn't the reality for the majority.  I just read Max's post and it's great information.   However at the same time I wonder when their youth club just competed at LAW duals last weekend, did they allow any of their kids to shed a bit of weight to compete on the team?  Was there any phone calls or conversations made such as "we got these duals coming up, can you make this weight?".  This year at youth state I wonder how many of their kids will be competing at a lower weight than what they competed at this month?  I'm not trying to pick on their club by this post, they have some great coaches and kids and my son looks up to Max a lot, but at the higher levels of youth wrestling it does occur and will continue to occur. 

Those who know me personally or know my son, know that for the amount of wrestling he has done, he has never cut very much weight and cuts very little.  For most of his normal youth club tournaments he would bump up his weight 5 - 10 pounds for better competition.  He would usually weigh in with all his clothes on (and even a couple times with his backpack).  He's wrestled his actual weight at state more than once and has wrestled at several national events without cutting an ounce.  Ben Peterson has a good story about his brother being a better wrestler not cutting a weight. 

Again, I don't advocate youth weight cutting, but at the same time--some people have some silly and inaccurate views.

[Jeff Farrell]

I don't usually agree with DocWrestling  , but I will confirm that as a wrestler, cutting 1 pound, 4 pounds, or 8 pounds was NOT fun, and if I had even thought of doing it early on in my 8+ years of wrestling, I doubt I would have stuck with wrestling all the way thru HS.  As it was, weight management in 11th and 12th grade was enough of a grind!

Why anyone would even have the discussion with their child about "going down" a weight class prior to high school is beyond me.  Very few positives, and a WHOLE LOT of negatives that come with it.  If it means losing more matches, not making it to state a couple years, or not placing at state, so be it!

It is very evident to me that the key to having a successful TEAM in high school is to fill 170 thru HWT with some competitive kids that have some wrestling experience, as I believe most relatively competitive teams have no problem from 113-160.  In my simplistic view, wouldn't that imply that generally speaking you are trying to promote kids to get bigger and stronger?  I understand that not all kids grow at a rate that would allow them to move from 130 to 150 to 170+ pounds in high school, but I've seen MANY that would cut from 170-180 during football to 140-150, when the team would have been much better served with them filling 170, 182 or 195.  Yet the mentality of "smaller is better" got in the way because it began at a young age!  Now think about what happens when you do have Johnny cut 3 pounds for regionals and state, and he successfully makes it to state or places at state.  Do you not think that a young child is going to assimilate weight cutting with success?  Do you think that they are going to place a higher emphasis on "smaller is better" thru 4 years of high school, as a result of their success earlier on when they did cut weight?

Just my perspective, like always, I'm probably wrong.

[1Iota]

Max Askren had a great blog about cutting at the youth level & what it means down the road.  I will listen to Max before knowgangs. 

I have never said I advocate weight cutting for youth.  But people on this forum who in-vision puking, abused, starving kids just isn't the reality for the majority.  I just read Max's post and it's great information.   However at the same time I wonder when their youth club just competed at LAW duals last weekend, did they allow any of their kids to shed a bit of weight to compete on the team?  Was there any phone calls or conversations made such as "we got these duals coming up, can you make this weight?".  This year at youth state I wonder how many of their kids will be competing at a lower weight than what they competed at this month?  I'm not trying to pick on their club by this post, they have some great coaches and kids and my son looks up to Max a lot, but at the higher levels of youth wrestling it does occur and will continue to occur. 

Those who know me personally or know my son, know that for the amount of wrestling he has done, he has never cut very much weight and cuts very little.  For most of his normal youth club tournaments he would bump up his weight 5 - 10 pounds for better competition.  He would usually weigh in with all his clothes on (and even a couple times with his backpack).  He's wrestled his actual weight at state more than once and has wrestled at several national events without cutting an ounce.  Ben Peterson has a good story about his brother being a better wrestler not cutting a weight. 

Again, I don't advocate youth weight cutting, but at the same time--some people have some silly and inaccurate views.

I would suggest that in a way you do defend weight cutting, you simply title it weight managment.  You list common things you have seen done to lose weight & then ad that you would not consider any of these things as abusive, which I would agree, but that still doesn't make it fun for a kid. 

I am not trying to pick a fight, but in reading some of your recent posts it is clear that you are an advocate & leader for the State's elite wrestlers, which is great.  There are a small percentage of kids that can deal with all of the sacrifices & never lose their love for the sport.  Especially if they are winning.  I am firmly of the opinion that this is the small minority of kids currently wrestling.  Most would not be willing to make these sacrifices, & it certainly wouldn't equate to fun.  In this sense I believe our goals are different.  You are putting your energy it to making the best ever better.  I am concerned with growing the overall participation numbers in our sport, & the only way to do this is for the average kid to look at it as a fun recreational activity.  Weight management may not be unhealthy, but it is also certainly  not fun.   

On the bigger issue of cutting at the youth level, it will never change or will it end.  While I have not had kids who wrestle at the youth level in years, I doesn't look like anything has changed.  There are still a percentage of kids even in the lowest weight classes cutting as much as 10% of their body weight.  While I don't understand that, It won't change.  My advice to Parents is don't worry about it.  When you kid is older you will realize how unimportant that period was from a wins & losses stand point. 

[DocWrestling]

Mat side weigh-ins would help but not stop it.  I agree you will never stop it.  The WWF really encourages weight cutting and at least starving kids with having weigh-ins on Friday before state which can really make it unfair on Saturday with weight changes and allowing everyone to weigh-in on Friday before regionals.

It will lengthen the day by having weigh-ins on the day of the event or even mat side weigh-ins but it would certainly make things more fair and would penalize the kids that cut too much rather than reward them by weighing in at 75 on Friday night and wrestling on Saturday pounds heavier.


For every parent that talks about "weight management"  it turns off more parents from allowing their kids to wrestle.  We need to realize that their are kids out there that want to wrestle and parents won't allow them due to the negatives.  The only parents that don't want their kids to play basketball are wrestling parents!

[Hillbilly]

The saying is "bigger stronger faster".  Teach your kids that and they will be happier.  When I was 15 I showed up on certification day at 134.  Got certified at 130.   But I was growing.  I made 130 for 2 weeks to make varsity but then vacated my spot and wrestled the rest of the year at 140 on JV.   Came back next year at 145 and made varsity   Eat healthy and let these growing kids put muscle on their bodies. The competition is supposed to be on the mat not on the scale.

[kpugh8680]

When we first started youth wrestling we had no idea what we were doing. In fact we did not realize there was a youth state until it was already past. He has made it to state every year since and has placed the last 2 year. 2 years ago my wife and I had it in our minds that he should go in at 69 pounds. After practice one day I asked him what he wanted to do. And that there is the key, he made the decision and had his best year, and I can say that 69 is not the weight he chose, he went up. We still watched his diet leading up but there was no cutting. Last year he maintained the weight he was at, which can be challenging as well but he placed both years that he decided what weight he would go in at. We participated in Track Wrestling's inaugural pre season tournament and he decided to drop .7 pounds, he decided, based of the opinion I gave him and what he was hoping to accomplish as well what he knew it would take to drop that little weight. He placed and looked really good. He has wrestled middle school, this being his second year. He was asked to help the team by wrestling at a weight that will require him to "cut" a pound or 2, this will be up to him since he has to do the cutting, although once he decided we help as much as possible. But you see the key, talk to you wrestler and find out what they want to accomplish and what they want to do, since it is they who have to do it. I am extremely proud of him when it comes to making these decisions and asking for advise in order to come up with a good decision. My wife and I no longer pick weights for him to wrestle at, he does and it seems to work.

As far as eating "healthy" during the season, that to is his decision. Most of the time it means eliminating things that we limit in our house anyway (soda, sweets, ice cream). He is maintaining a weight that is close to where his coach has asked him to wrestle at for middle school tournaments. If he starts to put weight on and is finding it harder to take off it is then time to talk to the coach to make sure that he is aware that he may need to go up a weight class. My son is small and only has the next 2 years to weigh enough to wrestle in high school is he so chooses. He has only gained 3-5 pounds each year so every weight gain is a plus.