1.5%/Week?!?!

[Ty Clark]

It's not as big of a deal as some coaches at the clinic want to make it... If anything, it's going to make our jobs easier and hold coaches accountable... No more saying, "Well, I'll play dumb if the opposing coach happens to ask for my previous weigh-in sheets like I'm supposed to have with me."

Too hard to explain to kids/parents? Enter weights, push print, tape printout to wall, point at printout on wall, repeat.

Too busy to enter weights into TW? You're probably one of those coaches who is too busy to enter dual results and press send to media while complaining about wrestling not getting any coverage. (See below)

TW is too difficult to understand/use? I'm guessing these guys can't find the forum and/or read, so I don't feel too bad saying this... It might be time for you to consider retiring... The sport is trying to evolve to stay relevant, and you're still stuck in the good ol' days when humans still had tails.

Not ready to hang up the whistle? Find any third-grader to pull up TW on his iPhone and tell him to do it for you... A nine year-old could probably do your taxes, set you up with an IRA and get you a better deal on car insurance, too, if you ask him nicely.

Here's Georgia's handbook. I think it answers a lot of questions; and, hopefully, the WIAA takes some pages out of it:

https://www.ghsa.net/sites/default/files/documents/wrestling/2015-16_handbook.coach.wt_mgmt.pdf

• Coaches must enter the wrestlers' weights into TW within 48 hours of the weigh in (or before the next competition, whichever is sooner).. If they don't, they can't print out their weigh-in sheet for the next competition, which provides a pretty good incentive to do so. The printout shows if the kid is eligible to wrestle at that weight, which answers the "how's it going to be enforced?" question.
• Assigned regional assessment sites- This is easy, and it should've been done years ago.
• Specific Gravity <1.025 - WIAA's is <1.020, which is an unrealistic level of hydration. Most doctors will tell you anything <1.030 is totally normal and healthy.
• Consecutive day of competition allowance does not factor into the 1.5%- i.e. If a kid weighs in at 105.5 on Friday, then 107 on Saturday, the one pound allowance is deducted from the 107, so he will still be able to wrestle 106 on Monday.
• BIA is used, not calipers- No, the Tanitas aren't perfect, but calipers are just as bad/worse and prone to human error/manipulation... Think about the kid with fatty legs and a ripped upper body... They probably have 3-5% higher body fat than the tri/subscap/ab skinfold measures.
• 7%/5% aren't set in stone- Georgia acknowledges that the testing isn't perfect and all kids are different. Via a physician's examination, a wrestler can drop below 7%, whereas the doctor can sign off on a kid dropping to a lower weight class. (i.e. If a kid 5%'s to 115, chances are a doctor will sign off on him to wrestle 113, especially when growth allowance kicks in and the weight becomes 115.)

[NoFear]

That rule isn't in effect until next year right?

[Coach V]

Ty Ty Ty,you nothing said at the meetings and now blast people who aren't as good on computers from behind a screen. I get it , its your opinion and that's fine. As we know Head coaching has become a record keeping session every day. Will it be more healthy and better? Who knows. So was so many things that wrestling has to do. If that' what it takes To COACH kids then I will do it because that's what it takes but not everyone will. I agree with A LOT of the things in the Georgia outline. Regional assessments, finding a more consistent body fat indicator, and especially the Doctors permission!! 3rd graders, 9 year olds..... come on.

[madeyson]

I get the forum is a great place for wrestling debate, but saying coaches should retire and comparing them to 9 year-olds is over the top! It IS a big deal, I am not a coach but a parent of a wrestler - and unless you are in a different world Ty you are not getting rich coaching wrestling. They have jobs, families and many other responsibilities. I would much prefer they have the time to coach and mentor my wrestler then spend time on a computer entering weights for a rule change that may.....or may not have an effect on weight management in our sport.

[DarkKnight]

RELAX, everything will be fine

[Ty Clark]

C'mon, guys, I'm barely being serious... Not to mention, I clearly said if you have found this forum, I'm sure you're apt enough to enter weights on TW, so I'm obviously not (even jokingly) telling any of you to retire. I guess I need to start using more emoticons...

That session reminded me of the Futurama episode when they visited the internet. In the end, it was a lot of bickering about what we can't and don't want to do instead of discussing what we need to do (kind of figured it would be). After hearing a few of the same worn-out and/or illogical arguments, I decided to stay out of it.

Me saying that a nine-year-old could handle the task is no more hyperbolic than the coaches who said they'll have to quit their day jobs to be able to find the time to enter weights on TW. If we follow Georgia's lead, we'll save that time, then some, by being able to print out official weigh-in sheets instead of filling them out by hand.

Anyhow, my whole point is to just RELAX... it's not going to be a big deal, unless you make it one. Instead of us complaining about having to do it (which is inevitable), we should be making our suggestions known about how we want it done.

[bigG]

I get the forum is a great place for wrestling debate, but saying coaches should retire and comparing them to 9 year-olds is over the top! It IS a big deal, I am not a coach but a parent of a wrestler - and unless you are in a different world Ty you are not getting rich coaching wrestling. They have jobs, families and many other responsibilities. I would much prefer they have the time to coach and mentor my wrestler then spend time on a computer entering weights for a rule change that may.....or may not have an effect on weight management in our sport.

It is very hard to be a full-time employee and coach wrestling these days without some techy skills. I no longer coach and sure don't miss this aspect of the sport. I love it when folks throw it out there that it's just a few minutes of your time. For some of us, it's not a few minutes; furthermore, we don't have many more minutes left in the day with which to enjoy our families if we just keep "few minutes"-ing. I miss coaching wrestling; but sure don't miss the "few minutes"-ing and , every time I consider coming back, I remember that.

Easy for the techy folks to cut us old farts down. Have at it and enjoy your few minutes.

[MNbadger]

I concur.  It already is too much of "a few minutes".  the biggest thing is is that it changes nothing in an appreciable way.  We have screamed for years that wrestling is too much about weight cutting nd then we do things that make it much more so.  We are obssessed with it.  And it is all to "fix" a problem that never really existed.
As I have said before, wrestlers want to win, coaches want to win, parents want their wrestlers to win.  If you cut weight wrong or too much, you don't win.

I get the forum is a great place for wrestling debate, but saying coaches should retire and comparing them to 9 year-olds is over the top! It IS a big deal, I am not a coach but a parent of a wrestler - and unless you are in a different world Ty you are not getting rich coaching wrestling. They have jobs, families and many other responsibilities. I would much prefer they have the time to coach and mentor my wrestler then spend time on a computer entering weights for a rule change that may.....or may not have an effect on weight management in our sport.

It is very hard to be a full-time employee and coach wrestling these days without some techy skills. I no longer coach and sure don't miss this aspect of the sport. I love it when folks throw it out there that it's just a few minutes of your time. For some of us, it's not a few minutes; furthermore, we don't have many more minutes left in the day with which to enjoy our families if we just keep "few minutes"-ing. I miss coaching wrestling; but sure don't miss the "few minutes"-ing and , every time I consider coming back, I remember that.

Easy for the techy folks to cut us old farts down. Have at it and enjoy your few minutes.

[Ty Clark]

20 years ago, probably 75%+ of the state champions only wrestled from November-February... I wonder where that number stands now... 5-10% max?

If we expect our wrestlers to work on their wrestling skills in the off-season to keep up, then why shouldn't we coaches expect ourselves to work on our coaching skills in the off-season, as well, even if that means becoming tech-savvy enough to continue to do our jobs effectively? I'm sure you'd rather work on your coaching skills in ways other than bettering your computing skills, but I'm sure kids would rather work on their wrestling skills by playing video games...

Also, remember calling in match results to the newspapers? How long did that take you (not to mention, terribly inaccurate)? I'm pretty sure the time TW saves you there will cover the entering of weights.

MNBadger- I agree, but we both know that minimum weight certification isn't going anywhere. Even if we had iron-clad studies showing it causes more harm than good, the second we tried to get rid of it, we'd be ostracized. The headlines would read, "Coaches Vote to Allow Unlimited Weight-Cutting in High School Wrestling"... We have bigger and better (and winnable) battles to fight.

[padre]

While there are definitely kids that cut a bunch out there, much like the much larger percentage of kids that don't wrestle out of season the larger percentage of kids aren't dropping any serious weight.  Why do we have to be soooo consumed with what everyone else is doing as far as weight....they will get around this just like anything else if they want to.

Trying to understand this....coaches need to put each wrestlers weight in 48 hours before every meet?  Like what they weight that day?  Or what they weighed at the last meet?

[bulldog]

In regards to entering the information...my suggestion...utilize resources. Does the head coach have to be the person entering the information? I see teams with 2-3 managers keeping stats at every meet. I would guess these managers (usually a HS kid) could figure out how to enter in the information. Many teams have a couple assistant coaches...maybe that is an option. Heck every team has that parent that wants to be more involved...maybe utilize that resource. There are options. I may be oversimplifying a bit but I don't think by too much

[Handles II]

If a head coach wants to be sure that the job is done on time and correctly, he/she at the very least will have to double-check every entry.

This micro-managing of everything regarding weight is another part of what is hurting this sport. It doesn't need to be that way at all.
Use 7% minimum, end it there. If a kid weighs 160 to wrestle a dual on Tuesday as a way to help his team, but wrestles at 152 on Saturday to help themselves (if that is helping himself) so be it. He/she will either have success or not. They may realize the weight loss is too difficult, or it might seem pretty easy.

I'm not sure who the people are that are continuously pushing for more and more complicated and time-consuming methods to come up with a  team win or a disqualification of a wrestler based on a 10th of a pound from six days earlier, but if it's you, please stop. 

[MNbadger]

You are dead-on Handles.  As I said before, all this came driven much by trying to make the sport less about weight-cutting and all the rules make it MORE about weight -cutting.
Solutions for a problem that never existed.

[woody53]

What this is doing is coming down to an Assistant Coach or a Manager for a smaller school team. This has a potential to create a nightmare if there is a mistake. A lot of people can loose their jobs because of the intense parent involvement and the legal system.
Making it easier to be a coach, RIGHT ?

[bulldog]

Okay...what am I missing? I thought the skin fold and hydration issue came about in the 90s partially (maybe primarily) because a couple college wrestlers died because of bad and uncontrolled weight loss practices. Weight cutting is happening in the sport and unless the sport (WIAA) is willing to commit to random hydration testing at weigh-ins it is going to keep happening. I would guess added restrictions or added management requirements are being instituted because what is currently being done is not having the desired effects under the current system.