-For my high school on a given date before our first meet, we would all have to weigh in at our "natural weight" in front of the athletic director. Of course a lot of us actually cut weight for this weigh in, so it looked like we wouldnt be cutting very much weight to go the weight we wanted. They didnt do piss tests to see if u were dehydrated or body fat tests. I guess u could say we were cutting weight to cut weight!
-Certifying means that you have officially told the state of kansas that you will be wrestling at the weight for regionals and state...i think. At my high school, our coach would just ask us on a weigh in day for a meet if we wanted to certify. Some of us certified early and others waited til the deadline to certify. The coach sends that certification weight to the state and thats the weight u can compete at regionals and state.
-For the love of god, do not cut a lot of weight ur freshmen year. u will hate it and have a really bad impression about wrestling ur first year. Its best to stay 5-6lbs max around a weight class and just go for that. Since ur like 175, just go 171. If u cut weight frosh year, u will probably burn out and want to quit.
-Id say the average high school wrestler on varsity cuts like 8-12lbs. JV kids probably around 5-6lbs.
For me it went like this:
Freshmen 112lbs...was actually under and didnt cut at all. Undersized and probably shouldve went 103. I had a .500 record on jv.
Sophomore 112lbs...cut about 8-10lbs a week and hated it. i was like 5-7 and fairly tall for my weight, so that really made cutting weight harder. Went about 8-9 for the season on varsity. Didnt qualify for state. Cutting weight sorta evened the playing field strength wise ( not really thought, still skinny and needed to hit the weights).
Junior 119lbs...cut about 8-10 a week and hated it. Grew an inch and that just made it more difficult. Not to make excuses, but i had a pretty tough weight class that year and seemed like every tourney or duel i had a ton tough kids. It was like i just couldnt get a break ( very frustrating stuff). I went like 14-18 and didnt qualify for state. I hit the weights but still was just skinny as crap.
Senior 119lbs...cut about 15-16lbs a week and u guessed it....i hated it!!! The weight cutting was almost unbearable. I was like 5'9 at this point and just cutting way too much weight. I had like maybe 1-2% body during the season and being so tall for my weight just really killed me every week. On the other hand though....qualified for state, had 30 wins, and placed at state. Fairly strong for my weight. Weight cutting really leveled the playing field strength wise and i was sometimes overpowering pretty decent kids with strength alone. Cutting a lot of weight helped me my senior yr, but on the other hand it could hamper ur performance.
-All and all, Id say give ur frosh year a break from losing a lot of weight. If u want to cut weight as a soph and beyond, id say its worth doing. Just dont cut more than 12lbs and u shouldnt feel burnt out. Good luck on the season. By the way what school for u and whats ur name?