I am told that allowing a wrestler to wrestle at the weight class that he certified at is new. In the past I think it has been that the wrestler was required to wrestle at the same weight class that he wrestled at state or higher. That rule change does open the meet up to more agressive weight cutting.
What I notice most was the number of one point losses that we had, or allowing the score to become tied and losing in overtime. Often this all happened after leading the entire match. You are not going to go out and blow anyone's doors off in this tournament. So our wrestlers got a lesson on how to preserve a lead, use the out of bounds to their advantage, to use the regular, injury, and blood time clocks to their advantage, when to ride and when to relaese; basically mat strategy.
These things need to be talked about in every wrestling room in the state. Also kids and parents need to be taught that becoming a winner does not mean avoiding tough competition, that you can learn from losses. For some finding this level of competition might mean travel.
Last edited by Gary Ulmer; 03/30/10 01:12 PM.
