Agreed on the tournament day time commitment, especially with multiple kid families. This is compounded for large tournaments.
Weigh-ins:
It is also helpful when tournaments have a Friday night weigh-in option (when the travel time makes it worthwhile). For us this helps with cutting down on the additional things/considerations for tournament day. Friday nights dinner is much easier to deal with and breakfast on tournament day is also not a concern (assuming btw, that ones kid made his weight on Friday night).
I think it might be helpful in speeding up the weigh-in process if the various clubs would help get their wrestlers nails cut ahead of time, thus making the nail inspection time and subsequent cutting/grooming essentially nothing.
Organization:
Tournaments that are WELL ORGANIZED are greatly appreciated. Although Derby is a great tournament (pretty much a must attend) from the wrestlers standpoint, for a parent, it is one of my least favorite due to the vast numbers of bodies. Also, there is only ONE bathroom available and runs into supply issues. With over 900+ wrestlers, and accompanying parents, coaches, etc..., it makes for a long difficult day. I didn't run into any parents who enjoyed anything outside of watching their wrestlers. And btw, Derby, for the number of wrestlers, is a good organized situation, but could be improved (IMO).
Separating Novice/Open:
Perhaps separating days for Novice and Open might help (but then we'd have more of the trophy/medal hunting parents trying to double-dip...those kids who are Open kids also participating in Novice when they are in clear violation of the guidelines for Novice...which is another thread/can-of-worms for sure). Separating a tournament into separate days for Novice and Open obviously would incur additional expense for the operators, etc... but would help on the congestion, especially with large tourneys.
