Tournament Format Preferences

[piratepride05]

We are always looking to improve our tournaments and want to make sure we are running a tournament style you are looking for.

[babywhales]

Depends on the kid and the time of year. I have never been a fan of a 4 man bracket. 

Year round for the younger kids and the less competitive kids I like match up based duals, lots of matches.  The competitive more serious wrestlers are fine in this format, as well, assuming a decent number of teams are present.

As these are not as common, early season especially for the competitive kids I like 5 mans so the kids can get at 4 matches, hopefully 2 of them are quality.

Later in the season I like to see the kids get some 8man brackets and start learning to wrestle to the right.

 

[wrastle63]

I like 8 man brackets, but then you get into the problem of finding 8 similar kids in weight, age, etc. 5 mans are my least favorite.

[DocWrestling]

The key is to get three quality matches against kids in similar ability.

8-mans can only work with huge tournaments otherwise you end up with kids of all abilities in same bracket and it will sort out but they may only get their second or third match against a similar wrestler rather than.

I would rather have 4 beginner/average kids in a 4-man and 4 good/excellent kids in a 4-man than have all 8 of them in an 8-man.

[wrastle63]

The key is to get three quality matches against kids in similar ability.

8-mans can only work with huge tournaments otherwise you end up with kids of all abilities in same bracket and it will sort out but they may only get their second or third match against a similar wrestler rather than.

I would rather have 4 beginner/average kids in a 4-man and 4 good/excellent kids in a 4-man than have all 8 of them in an 8-man.

Agreed but if you have a big tournament I like an 8 man as opposed to 4.

[Hillbilly]

Most tournaments are just fundraisers for the hosting club.   If I had to run one it would be 4man round robin.  Get through 3 rounds of wrestling and get everyone out.   

The style of tournament I most enjoy taking my kid to is the team dual setup.  They don't keep team scores or anything.   Nobody gets any medals or trophies.   10 teams are invited.  4 mats are set up.  Each mat is divided into half mats and then one side is divided into quarter mats.   You can have up to 3matches at once on each mat.   Coaches match up the kids.   8 of the teams are matched up 1 on 1 and 2 of the teams are on break, probably hitting up three concession stand.   The teams wrestling have 75 minutes to get as many matches as they can wrestled.   Then everyone rotates to a new opponent with 2 new teams on break.  This format allows kids to get a lot of "fair" matches.   It's more or less a really big organized scrimmage.   It's a great opportunity for newer officials to gain experience, without crazy parents yelling at them.   It's nice that only kids and coaches are down at the mats.  Since there is no first place, coaches have no incentive to purposely create mismatches. 

Is this style of tournament for everyone?   Sure everyone can get something from it.   Will it replace tournaments where people finish in 1st-8th place?   No it will not.   We will always have competitive tournaments with place finishes available.    Do I wish more of these competitive scrimmage type days were available?   Yes I sure do.   In fact I'm only aware of 3 places who do something like this. 

[SayNo2Stalling]

8 Man

[nutman]

A lot of club tournaments in SE MN and NE IA use this format and it is really great for a "local" tournament.

They have 2 sessions  (4k-2)   and (3-6) to confirm weights (8:30-9:00 weight check for 1st group wrestling- wrestling starts at 9:15)  Second group (9:45-10:15 weight check with wrestling to follow session 1).

In session 1 they have two groups (4k-K  & 1-2)
In session 2 they  have two groups (3rd-4th and 5th-6th).

They organize into 4-person round robin.

In session 1 to start they call all the 4K-2 to a bull pen/hallway (yes-I know for some of you---you're going to quit reading...but just wait)

They send two groups to a mat.  We'll say Bracket #1 and Bracket #2.    Both those brackets alternate back and forth until all wrestlers have competed against each other-then they are done.  In this example on the mat assignment it would go in this order: 
Bracket #1 starts with Wrestler A vs. B followed by C vs. D.                                      Bracket #1 kids stay right by the mat.  Bracket #2- Wrestler A vs. B followed by C vs. D. 
Then it goes right back to Bracket #1 with Wrestler A vs. C followed by B vs. D          Bracket #1 kids stay right by the mat.  Bracket #2- Wrestler A vs. C followed by B vs. D
Then it goes right back to Bracket #1 with Wrestler A vs. D followed by B vs. C          Bracket #1 kids stay right by the mat.  Bracket #2-Wrestler A vs. D followed by B vs. C

Both groups are done in 15 minutes or less and head to awards.  The parents stop with their wrestler and award to get a bite to eat and are gone.  If you only have a kindergarten wrestler, with pre-registration you are in and out in less than 1.5 hours. 

The advanced high schoolers help ref. and the 7th and 8th grade help with tables.  Again, I wouldn't do this at a national tournament, but you would be amazed at the amount of room that clears out after 4k-K are done (and how quiet it gets).  It gets the kids some mat time, and it gets parent the heck out of there.

If you do pre-registration it's even quicker.  I really liked it on a down weekend to get the kids some quick mat time.  It was always capped at 250 - 300 kids depending on the facility.

[DocWrestling]

The thing I look most for when choosing a tournament is the fact that it is on trackwrestling and they are NOT having weigh-ins.

Show up an wrestle.  I used to complain years ago about all the wasted time after weigh-ins for time to bracket.  Now that time is not needed so it is even more annoying when a tournament has a weigh-in and then does bracketing.  Then finds mistakes.

Bracket up night before, mistakes will be caught early and wrestle.

Weigh-ins prevent bad parents from lying about weight.  I really don't care about those parents.  My kid will survive.  Not worth waiting two hours for bracketing for a few lying parents.

Skin checks are even pretty silly at youth tournaments.  It is really just for show with a lot of untrained eyes.  If you have WIAA refs then have them look for it on the mats.

If you seriously don't trust parents, then develop relationships amongst clubs and allow club coaches to e-mail in weights of kids ahead of time rather than getting info from parents.  More tournaments are going to this which is a good way.  Allow coaches to enter the weights for kids.  Easy to do.

All tournaments should strive to set a time that wrestling starts and then show up by then and wrestle.