Fewer high school wrestlers means what to college wrestling?

[Tofurky 596]

http://intermatwrestle.com/articles/14772

Edited August 17, 2015 by Tofurky

[cornercoach 448]

.... participation predicted to increase this year .....

[Cletus_Tucker 890]

Means nothing really.   The percentage drop is so small, there can't possibly be any noticeable implications to college.   One would have to think wrestlers who are going to end up wrestling in college are probably not the ones who make up the group which failed to pursue HS wrestling. As it is, a very small percentage of HS wrestlers go on to compete in college.   The smaller numbers make virtually no difference.  

[Tofurky 596]

.... participation predicted to increase this year .....

 

Based on?

[Pinnum 796]

A lot of sports are seeing a decrease in population with a rise in talent pool.

 

For instance, if every kid use to play football and wrestle but now each kid specializes in only one sport you will have half the participation number but the talent level of those fewer kids will be much higher from the increase in time spent focusing on the sport.

 

However, this also makes kids less likely to pick up sports in high school or to casually compete since they are so far behind the kids that have been competing year around for so long.

 

This won't have an impact on Division-I.

Edited August 17, 2015 by Pinnum

[Zebra 545]

Add to that the rise of club and private events makes this totally irrelevant to college athletics except in the area of recruiting where more kids get seen by more coaches.

[Tofurky 596]

Driving kids to become single sport athletes at such a young age, to me, is a sad trend.

[BobDole 967]

Driving kids to become single sport athletes at such a young age, to me, is a sad trend.

You are right, but try telling that to the crazy parents who think their kid is going to be a professional world class athlete in XYZ sport.

 

There is a soccer club here that wants a 9 month commitment for 9 year olds. At that age they should be playing 5 sports instead of 1.

[Tofurky 596]

You are right, but try telling that to the crazy parents who think their kid is going to be a professional world class athlete in XYZ sport.

 

There is a soccer club here that wants a 9 month commitment for 9 year olds. At that age they should be playing 5 sports instead of 1.

 

Agreed 100%. Whatever happened to kids being kids and not commodities for coaches and parents to exploit for their own gain and profile?

 

A famed story in my house is when we were trying to find things for my oldest to do, my wife came across a free tap dancing class for boys in our town, and asked him if he wanted to try tap dancing. My son replied, "YEAH! What is it?"

 

At the end of this past wrestling season, my kid came up to me and said, "Dad, I think I'm a basketball player and not a wrestler." While I was slightly heart broken to hear that and my own ego took a bit of a bruising, all I could think was, "man, if b-ball is what you love, then let's do it." Since making that comment, he's actually wanted to wrestle more than play hoops.

[WillieBoy 713]

You are right, but try telling that to the crazy parents who think their kid is going to be a professional world class athlete in XYZ sport.

 

There is a soccer club here that wants a 9 month commitment for 9 year olds. At that age they should be playing 5 sports instead of 1.

 

The reason is simple. Soccer is so damn boring that if they let them play anything else they don't come back to soccer.

 

You know who 200,000 American Kids pay soccer? So they don't have to watch it.

[zhawk 33]

Brent Metcalf posted a series of pics on his Instagram account over the past few weeks showing him participating in a bunch of different sports as a kid. The caption on the first one was "I often get asked by young wrestling parents, "when is the right time for my kid to Specialize in wrestling only." My answer. Probably never. College, if they get there. Growing up I played just about every sport I could from one season to the next. Some stuck, some didn't. Follow me this week as I reveal some classic photos of me and all the different sports I did." 

 

Here's the link to Brent's Instagram feed if you'd like to see them.

[Pinnum 796]

Brent Metcalf posted a series of pics on his Instagram account over the past few weeks showing him participating in a bunch of different sports as a kid. The caption on the first one was "I often get asked by young wrestling parents, "when is the right time for my kid to Specialize in wrestling only." My answer. Probably never. College, if they get there. Growing up I played just about every sport I could from one season to the next. Some stuck, some didn't. Follow me this week as I reveal some classic photos of me and all the different sports I did.[/size]" 

 

Here's the link to Brent's Instagram feed if you'd like to see them.

A college professor I know was a coach of a AAA baseball team at one point. He conducted a study where he surveyed all the players that came through the program. His findings were that very few of the professional baseball players he surveyed actually specialized in baseball in high school (I want to say it was something like less than 10 percent) but nearly all of the ones that specialized wished, in hindsight, that they would have played other sports. While very few of those that didn't specialize wished they would have.

 

I have watched as many multi-sport high school athletes have gone one to excel in college at various sports while their peers that specialize don't fare as well despite having similar projections.

 

I am of the opinion that the specialization leads to burnout and other social issues while playing multiple sports (even if only one is the real focus) allows for cross training and social interactions that help an athlete in the long term.

 

I believe there was a feature on the US women's national team from this summer's world cup where nearly all of the members of the team were multisport athletes.

 

Edit: Tried to google the article on the USWNT and didn't locate it but would this and thought some of you may find it interesting. http://www.soccerwire.com/blog-posts/when-should-my-child-specialize-in-one-sport/

Edited August 18, 2015 by Pinnum

[ValkyrieWrestling 3]

Fewer high school wrestlers will not mean much to college wrestling because:

 

1. Wrestling more high school athletes per college spot than any other NCAA sport. (Wrestling 41:1, Football 16:1, Basketball 30:1, Baseball 15:1)

 

2. One year datum vs. decades long trend does not have much meaning.

[tightwaist 388]

In my area, the trend is moving toward lacrosse.  Our HS program used to have 40-50 kids out every year, up until Lacrosse started.  Last year, the team had 13 kids.  It is a different time and era.  Lots of kids don't want to put the work in that wrestling requires.  Add in football coaches who want their kids lifting year round instead of getting tougher, and I don't see it changing much for our particular area. 

[Plasmodium 1,603]

Fewer high school wrestlers will not mean much to college wrestling because:

 

1. Wrestling more high school athletes per college spot than any other NCAA sport. (Wrestling 41:1, Football 16:1, Basketball 30:1, Baseball 15:1)

 

2. One year datum vs. decades long trend does not have much meaning.

By 'spot', do you mean scholarship?

[LHN94 82]

Add in football coaches who want their kids lifting year round instead of getting tougher, and I don't see it changing much for our particular area.

 

If I were a football coach I'd encourage all of my football players to wrestle, especially the big guys. They can still follow a lifting program and there isn't anything they can be doing November through March that can make them better football players than wrestling.

[GranbyTroll 430]

Wrestlers like Burroughs who started wrestling at 5 and went on to succeed at the college and world levels, succeeded in spite of wrestling at a young age, not because of it.  Anecdotally, 9/10 first grade wrestlers quit after one season.  

[WillieBoy 713]

Am in rural North Dakota. We have a number of schools that have moved from 11 man football to 9 man football due to declining enrollment in school. It appears these programs are not counted, just 11 man football.

 

We have co-op agreements for sports in many of the rural schools. Not enough kids overall with population going down so two to four or more towns will combine for sports programs to field teams.

 

Wrestling has always been a hard sell. The singlets are not liked by many who might otherwise try the sport. The amount of work put in scares away others. Lack of support from administration is a real problem. Add in few students and the number of sports offered takes a hit. Try any sport when the Senior class is 2 or 5 students - and they have to drive 15-35 miles one way to a co-op school to participate.

 

Then, we have farms. Main supplier to the US in 8 farm crops and in the top 10 in 20. A kid needed to help with spring planting and fall harvest has a hard time making 'two a days' in town. One neighbor kid is in 10th grade this year. He goes 22 miles to town twice a day for football practice while his sister goes once for Volleyball. The rest of the time he is on a combine, driving a grain hauler or a full sized Kenworth with 60 foot grain trailer that 22 miles into town to the Grain Elevator. He and his three siblings all do farm work and chores with the parents supporting their school involvement. Other farm kids don't have it as well with the family needing them to work during harvest so spring and fall sports are completely out.

 

Fewer HS wrestlers as feeder programs will be felt. The bigger problem is school administration who won't support wrestling. Worst are States whose Main State University does not have a wrestling program. They are giving the message these HS kids do not count - let them go elsewhere to try their sport.

 

 

[Bloate 61]

There are two main points that keep kids from wrestling.

 

1) Practice conditions: Wrestling practices are not fun. Not only are you working your body beyond natural limits, but you're doing it in a controlled enviornment where the temperature is often 100 degrees +. Even taking a break can be miserable. You will see kids and adults play other sports recreationaly in parks and playgrounds all over the country. Have to go to the Middle East to watch school yard wrestling just for the fun of it.

 

2) Psychological: It's no fun getting your ass whipped on a regular basis and this is what happens to the vast majority of kids that wrestle. There are only a very special few kids that start at a young age and win consistently through their school years. We emphasize the special wrestlers that are perennial champions on this sight. For every kid that is a multi time state champ and being recruited by D1 and D11 schools, there are hundreds that never even qualified for their state tournaments.

 

In short it takes a different kind of cat to participate in the sport and that's one reason why it's the worlds greatest sport.

[BobDole 967]

Wrestlers like Burroughs who started wrestling at 5 and went on to succeed at the college and world levels, succeeded in spite of wrestling at a young age, not because of it.  Anecdotally, 9/10 first grade wrestlers quit after one season.  

Reece Humphrey started in 7th grade, he's done quite well. I believe the Churellas all started around that time too. It goes to say something to start a little later.

[ValkyrieWrestling 3]

By 'spot', do you mean scholarship?

No. Team members.

[GranbyTroll 430]

Reece Humphrey started in 7th grade, he's done quite well. I believe the Churellas all started around that time too. It goes to say something to start a little later.

I coach kids wrestling and fully believe that 10-12 is the perfect age to start, or possibly "get serious" about wrestling. Grade schoolers often don't have the cognitive skills to understand or the physical ability to execute technique. They almost always pick up a few bad habits because of it that take years to unlearn. Plus, competitive wrestling in grade school puts kids at a serious risk of burnout.

 

Granted there are exceptional kids who take to wrestling like a fish to water. However, you can start a kid at 10 and still catch up.