Weight Allowance is Dumb!!! Change my mind PLEASE

[yount19]

A wrestler never having to make scratch weight makes little sense to me. I thought back in the day we had to "certify" at scratch weight before Christmas to be able to wrestle that weight the rest of the season.

I like the idea of having to make scratch weight before Christmas. It's not a "growth allowance" if a kid never weighed that much to begin with. This would go a long way in reducing the amount of "cutting" that happens late in the season.

That being said, the rules are what they are now and I don't begrudge anyone from taking advantage of them.

[CLC FAN]

I hate growth allowance and even extra pounds for consecutive days.  All rules that benefit the kid that cuts the most.  Yes it may hurt a couple kids that grow but then they have to cut.  As far as coaches planning out, that is silly.  Simply pick weight classes at beginning of year they can grow into and coaches would know there is no growth allowance.

Making scratch weight once would not make any sense as that would be easy to do.  I do like the Minnesota rule but would take it even further and make kids weigh in at the weight class they want to wrestle at regionals at least 90% of all weigh ins 30 days after the season starts. 

Wrestling needs to stop rewarding the kids that cut the most, especially those that only cut down at the end of the season.
Reward the kids that pick the proper weight class early in year and grow into it and can make weight all season and even make scratch weight on consecutive days.

Need to get away from this notion that we need kids to weigh 145.0 to wrestle 145. 

It makes no sense that the 106 lb state champion will weigh in on championship Sunday 111 lbs and then likely weigh 115 lbs when he takes the mat at 6pm that night.   We are all just pretending and fooling ourselves and making things way too complicated.

This.  My only problem with it is you understated the weight cutting.  If we checked weight matside this year on Saturday night I'd be willing to bet some of the "106" pound finalists couldn't make 120 even with the growth allowance. 

I understand how we got to this point, but if you took a fresh look at the system you might just say... "the weights stay the weights.  If kids grow, they go up."  Like Doc said, we are trying to make sure the kid who is cutting too much weight doesn't suffer.  Or... stop cutting too much weight.

[Kyle]

The reality is, it just leads to more cutting at the end of the season.  I think we should consider granting the allowance only to wrestlers who have made scratch weight at one point.  Seems logical, that if the intent is to have a "growth" allowance, that it should apply to pounds of gain from the scratch weight, not just a closer weight class to the higher one to cut down for,

Absolutely. It also leads to kids moving down and bumping their teammates at the end of the season.
Kyle

[Numbers]

If weight classes were reduced to 12 and separated to at least 7 pound increments, maybe I could get on board with weight allowances.

Why give everyone 3 pounds of growth allowance during the season (plus 1-2 more for consecutive days) when some weights classes are only 5 pounds apart?

If someone grows, move up a weight class.  That is why we have different weight classes.

Instead we have wrestlers move down a weight class in February?     How can that be?  They are growing!

[DocWrestling]

Who decided on the amount of growth allowed?  Was that supposed to be an average?  Then some probably grow more than that right?
When is the last time we heard about a wrestler that grew so much they had to go up a weight class.

If I am a naive idiot that knows nothing about wrestling and looked at what happens at end of season, I would have to conclude that the majority shrink over the course of the season with the amount of kids who just dropped a weight class.

I get it that cutting weight and dropping can be an an advantage because of the system we have.  Just don't understand why we have the system.  The ultimate is to have mat side weigh-ins as that would pretty much end cutting as we know it except for those that just want to torture themselves.

We are better than my college days when we weighed in the day prior.  That brought some serious cutting like we see in UFC now.  Moving the weigh-ins closer to competition helped but now we could take another step forward.

If I go to practice on Friday night and wrestle on Saturday I have to make 108.  If I wrestle in a dual on Friday, then I get to make 109.  Why is that?  Because he did not have time to work out and cut and dehydrate?

[guillotine]

If weight classes were reduced to 12 and separated to at least 7 pound increments, maybe I could get on board with weight allowances.

Why give everyone 3 pounds of growth allowance during the season (plus 1-2 more for consecutive days) when some weights classes are only 5 pounds apart?

If someone grows, move up a weight class.  That is why we have different weight classes.

Instead we have wrestlers move down a weight class in February?     How can that be?  They are growing!

Right on!!!  The number of weight classes and the weights being so close to each other make this a system doomed to fail.
Lower the number of weight classes and spread them out and you will have kids using the growth allowance like it should be used.

[1Iota]

I hate growth allowance and even extra pounds for consecutive days.  All rules that benefit the kid that cuts the most.  Yes it may hurt a couple kids that grow but then they have to cut.  As far as coaches planning out, that is silly.  Simply pick weight classes at beginning of year they can grow into and coaches would know there is no growth allowance.

Making scratch weight once would not make any sense as that would be easy to do.  I do like the Minnesota rule but would take it even further and make kids weigh in at the weight class they want to wrestle at regionals at least 90% of all weigh ins 30 days after the season starts. 

Wrestling needs to stop rewarding the kids that cut the most, especially those that only cut down at the end of the season.
Reward the kids that pick the proper weight class early in year and grow into it and can make weight all season and even make scratch weight on consecutive days.

Need to get away from this notion that we need kids to weigh 145.0 to wrestle 145. 

It makes no sense that the 106 lb state champion will weigh in on championship Sunday 111 lbs and then likely weigh 115 lbs when he takes the mat at 6pm that night.   We are all just pretending and fooling ourselves and making things way too complicated.

This.  My only problem with it is you understated the weight cutting.  If we checked weight matside this year on Saturday night I'd be willing to bet some of the "106" pound finalists couldn't make 120 even with the growth allowance. 

I understand how we got to this point, but if you took a fresh look at the system you might just say... "the weights stay the weights.  If kids grow, they go up."  Like Doc said, we are trying to make sure the kid who is cutting too much weight doesn't suffer.  Or... stop cutting too much weight.

I can tell you with absolute certainty this is happening.  A few years ago wrestler in the 106lb weight class at State was reffing a youth tournament that Sunday (day after state) and he confessed he weighed 126lbs that morning. 

[bigoil]

I hate growth allowance and even extra pounds for consecutive days.  All rules that benefit the kid that cuts the most.  Yes it may hurt a couple kids that grow but then they have to cut.  As far as coaches planning out, that is silly.  Simply pick weight classes at beginning of year they can grow into and coaches would know there is no growth allowance.

Making scratch weight once would not make any sense as that would be easy to do.  I do like the Minnesota rule but would take it even further and make kids weigh in at the weight class they want to wrestle at regionals at least 90% of all weigh ins 30 days after the season starts. 

Wrestling needs to stop rewarding the kids that cut the most, especially those that only cut down at the end of the season.
Reward the kids that pick the proper weight class early in year and grow into it and can make weight all season and even make scratch weight on consecutive days.

Need to get away from this notion that we need kids to weigh 145.0 to wrestle 145. 

It makes no sense that the 106 lb state champion will weigh in on championship Sunday 111 lbs and then likely weigh 115 lbs when he takes the mat at 6pm that night.   We are all just pretending and fooling ourselves and making things way too complicated.

This.  My only problem with it is you understated the weight cutting.  If we checked weight matside this year on Saturday night I'd be willing to bet some of the "106" pound finalists couldn't make 120 even with the growth allowance. 

I understand how we got to this point, but if you took a fresh look at the system you might just say... "the weights stay the weights.  If kids grow, they go up."  Like Doc said, we are trying to make sure the kid who is cutting too much weight doesn't suffer.  Or... stop cutting too much weight.

I can tell you with absolute certainty this is happening.  A few years ago wrestler in the 106lb weight class at State was reffing a youth tournament that Sunday (day after state) and he confessed he weighed 126lbs that morning.

One thing I will always take with a grain of salt is wrestlers talking about how much they weigh. Different scale, clothes on, after breakfast, etc so many things are likely not apples to apples. I don't doubt he weighed significantly more than he did Saturday morning.

[1Iota]

I hate growth allowance and even extra pounds for consecutive days.  All rules that benefit the kid that cuts the most.  Yes it may hurt a couple kids that grow but then they have to cut.  As far as coaches planning out, that is silly.  Simply pick weight classes at beginning of year they can grow into and coaches would know there is no growth allowance.

Making scratch weight once would not make any sense as that would be easy to do.  I do like the Minnesota rule but would take it even further and make kids weigh in at the weight class they want to wrestle at regionals at least 90% of all weigh ins 30 days after the season starts. 

Wrestling needs to stop rewarding the kids that cut the most, especially those that only cut down at the end of the season.
Reward the kids that pick the proper weight class early in year and grow into it and can make weight all season and even make scratch weight on consecutive days.

Need to get away from this notion that we need kids to weigh 145.0 to wrestle 145. 

It makes no sense that the 106 lb state champion will weigh in on championship Sunday 111 lbs and then likely weigh 115 lbs when he takes the mat at 6pm that night.   We are all just pretending and fooling ourselves and making things way too complicated.

This.  My only problem with it is you understated the weight cutting.  If we checked weight matside this year on Saturday night I'd be willing to bet some of the "106" pound finalists couldn't make 120 even with the growth allowance. 

I understand how we got to this point, but if you took a fresh look at the system you might just say... "the weights stay the weights.  If kids grow, they go up."  Like Doc said, we are trying to make sure the kid who is cutting too much weight doesn't suffer.  Or... stop cutting too much weight.

I can tell you with absolute certainty this is happening.  A few years ago wrestler in the 106lb weight class at State was reffing a youth tournament that Sunday (day after state) and he confessed he weighed 126lbs that morning.

One thing I will always take with a grain of salt is wrestlers talking about how much they weigh. Different scale, clothes on, after breakfast, etc so many things are likely not apples to apples. I don't doubt he weighed significantly more than he did Saturday morning.

I know this kid and wasn't exaggerating or guessing.  He weighed himself on the scales that were being used by the tournament.  This is not unusual and the more we pretend it is the worst our sport looks.