I tend to disagree, my son (a first year wrestler) is ranked a "C" wrestler only due to the fact that he is in his first year and lacks experience. However, when it comes to filling up an "A" bracket my son is usually taken up to that bracket because his coaches rank him just a slight bit higher than some of the other "C" wrestlers in our club in the same age/weight. At first I was alarmed that my son typically got higher rankings thus taking on tougher kids than the other "C" ranked wrestlers, but, knowing my son's attitude toward wrestling and his determination to improve every week, found that this strategy has forced him to work harder and thus improve his skill while gaining him experience that he needs and desires. Let me give you an example. At Salina TOC, in order to fill the "A" bracket they pulled my son up due to his being slightly ranked (by our coaches) over another kid from our club. At first I was like "This is just not fair putting my first year wrestler in with these State Placers!" However, when he got on the mat these kids did not overwhelm him at all and in both matches he only lost by scores of 9-6 and 9-5 respectively. He was a little bummed about not getting a win, but since he wrestled well and wrestled hard against these tough kids it was worth seeing the improvement made in his wrestling.
The next day we were entered into the Andover novice tournament where he wrestled with the same fire as the day before and took first as I and his coaches expected. In this novice tournament (4 man round robins with 8 wrestlers in his age/weight) he effectively used his skills and determination to get win all three matches
1. Pin in 3rd period score=12-2
2. won by score of 14-4
3. Tech fall in 3rd period 16-0
His coach on the mat at the Andover novice told him at the beginning of the day, "I know you can probably go out there and pin these kids, however, I want you to work your moves and score points on these kids for all your matches." I think that this has been a real turning point in my son's wrestling career, not only because of the way he wrestled and lost at Salina, but then was able to not be discouraged and work hard and improve his skill the next day at the tournament in Andover.
It was also rewarding to watch my son all day at the tournament going around to everyone's mats throughout the day cheering on his fellow teammates. If there was a match going on with a fellow teammate and my son wasn't wrestling at the time I could easily look around the gym and find him matside rooting on his teammates older and younger alike.
And by the way, my son was told by our club's head coach that Andover just might be his LAST novice tournament ever, due to him improving and gaining that experience so rapidly. Also due to a club rule that once a wrestler consistently places in open tournaments and/or takes 1st in a novice tournament, depending on the kids skill level, the kid will no longer be classified as a "novice" wrestler. We already entered him in Valley Center Open and Novice torney, but may have to scratch from the novice tourney upon the coaches wishes. I hate scratches though, so maybe ill let him decide if he wants to wrestle the novice tournament or not.