Kansas Wrestling Forums General Discussion Kids Folkstyle Table Workers Meeting State Tournament

A wonderful thing is going to happen at this years State Tournament, technology has caught us and we are going to use matside scoring using track wrestling. Which means scoring of all matches will be done on laptops for each mat. No more filling out bout sheets and running them to the head table. No more lost bout sheets. So since this will be new to alot of folks we have going to hold table worker meetings on Friday and Sataurday to train folks who will be working tables. Please try and attend one of these meetings:

Friday 4:30pm & 7:15pm Saturday Morning 11:15am

Please report to the Head Table for training. As a state tournament committee we are very excited about this next step in making our tournament one of the best in USA Wrestling.

State Tournament Committee

Want to give a big thumbs up to using this technology. We used it Saturday at District 1 and I have to admit I was nervous. Once we got past the first few matches, it was smooth sailing, no waiting for bout sheets etc...

btw, This is Lennie, not Lance....
...YAh...
I think TW is a great tool, and I'm glad it's going to be utilized. I feel like the key to making it work is having people who care about providing a great event for the kids, and KS definately has them, in abundance! We have learned so much in the past 3 years from working with people from The WC, Manhattan, Smokey Valley, etc. I think our Dist Championships were successful with TW this year and it sounds like many other programs around the state had success with it too. We ran "Weigh-In" a 1/2 late for the weather too, but started wrestling within an hour(ish) of our original start time. Once we got up, we had a great crew of mom's kick it on the 'puters and rocked it! I agree with a prior post that 1 full hour needs allocated from the end of Weigh-In to the start of Wrestling (not an issue with State). Matches ran long on some mats from the TW calculations, but how does a computer know that some age/wht groups have more competive matches (ot vs pins) than others. It was easy to move matches with their bout sheets from one mat to another. My input for the State Tournament Committee members would be:
Plan for 1 computer w/printer for every 2-3 mats, and get one good "Wrest'r Mom" (and dads!) on each setup to keep it orginized and print bout sheets and wall brackes.

And, ya didn't haveta yell at Lance about the alternate's, (we were hosting the Girl's State's on Sunday too.) Once we all get used to TW, we can keep everybody updated with results and brackets on line!

Using the laptops matside is great. I worked a table at the HS Pre-Season Nationals where they were using the laptops and it was a lot easier than the old fashioned pen and paper!

My only suggestion from that experience is to make sure you have a couple extra laptops....the table I was working had a laptop damaged when two wrestlers crashed into the table and one of the wrestler's hand slammed the laptop closed and that laptop would not restart.

Ned,
Using the laptops was good at DI on Saturday, thought it went well and I am sure it made the job of running the tournament much easier. I do have one request to hopefully make it better. Please emphasize in your table worker training that it is just as important to get how a match was decided accurately recorded in addition to just the result (who won/lost). Several of our brackets were done very well; scores correct, OT recorded, fall times correctly posted, etc. However, their were some that only had winners correctly posted. One bracket had every match except two in the bracket being decided by a fall in 4:00. Not only did I know for a fact their were very few falls in that bracket if any, they could not possibly have been in 4:00 the matches were all 1-1-1 periods.
It may seem trivial but there are some of us out here that do pay attention to how certain wrestlers match up and how close the matches are. Especially when you may not have a chance to watch a match involving someone you are going to have to wrestle. (understanding different kids match up in many ways and the results don't always indicate how close you will wrestle an opponent). Also, on fall times please make sure all your volunteers realize that the time should be recorded as cummulitive elapsed time not as time remaining in the round. I have seen it recorded that way many times on track wrestling brackets and it is frustrating when you are trying to get an accurate picture of matchups.
These may seem like small things but if we want to have the best state tournament possible then why not make sure the brackets are kept as close to perfect as we want everything else.

Thanks for your time and effort on behalf of the kids it is appreciated.