Saturday, March 21, 2015
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Sunday, May 23, 2010
How Old Should my Boy Be to Start Wrestling?
This is a question I get all the time and one that is really quite important.
I have seen 4 year olds that are ready to begin wrestling and I have seen 5 year olds that are not. I would say as a general rule of thumb, 5 years old is a good age to begin.
An important factor in the decision, though, is how much does the boy seek or avoid physical contact with others? Many times in a family where there are two young brothers relatively close in age, they are wrestling and tumbling with each other around the house as soon as they are old enough to walk. These are usually the boys that are ready to join a wrestling program at a younger age. Some families that have only one child, or maybe have mostly girls might have a boy who is not used to physical contact. He might require the added maturity of another year or two before he's ready.
In the IKWF, there are a couple of years that are more difficult than others. those years are 9 and 11. The difference between 8-U and 9-10 is pretty substantial. The 8-U group might have a few tough or experienced kids here and there, but for the most part it's made up of beginners. The 9-10 group has some beginners, but I would say the VAST majority of kids in this age group have over 2-3 years of experience. Some even have 4-5 years of experience. Imagine a beginning 9 year old facing a 10 year old who has to face a 10 year old who has been wrestling since he was 6. That's a tough task.
The only bigger change that that is the change to the 11-12 year old age group where some of the 12 year olds are attending wrestling schools in addition to their local clubs and some are even lifting weights. Once again, for a beginner 11 year old to face a 12 year old with 6 or 7 years of experience who is physically dominant as well, can be a disturbing experience for a kid - especially if he's used to being the best football or baseball player on his team. Being a good athlete is good enough at age 8 or 9, but by middle school, the experienced wrestlers almost always dominate even the best athletes who are just beginning the sport.
So - the best time to begin wrestling is 5 or 6 years old. If your kid is 7 or 8, that's a good age too. If he's 9 or 11, keep in mind that he will be having limited success for his first year and he might be best off trying an off-season club first.
I have seen 4 year olds that are ready to begin wrestling and I have seen 5 year olds that are not. I would say as a general rule of thumb, 5 years old is a good age to begin.
An important factor in the decision, though, is how much does the boy seek or avoid physical contact with others? Many times in a family where there are two young brothers relatively close in age, they are wrestling and tumbling with each other around the house as soon as they are old enough to walk. These are usually the boys that are ready to join a wrestling program at a younger age. Some families that have only one child, or maybe have mostly girls might have a boy who is not used to physical contact. He might require the added maturity of another year or two before he's ready.
In the IKWF, there are a couple of years that are more difficult than others. those years are 9 and 11. The difference between 8-U and 9-10 is pretty substantial. The 8-U group might have a few tough or experienced kids here and there, but for the most part it's made up of beginners. The 9-10 group has some beginners, but I would say the VAST majority of kids in this age group have over 2-3 years of experience. Some even have 4-5 years of experience. Imagine a beginning 9 year old facing a 10 year old who has to face a 10 year old who has been wrestling since he was 6. That's a tough task.
The only bigger change that that is the change to the 11-12 year old age group where some of the 12 year olds are attending wrestling schools in addition to their local clubs and some are even lifting weights. Once again, for a beginner 11 year old to face a 12 year old with 6 or 7 years of experience who is physically dominant as well, can be a disturbing experience for a kid - especially if he's used to being the best football or baseball player on his team. Being a good athlete is good enough at age 8 or 9, but by middle school, the experienced wrestlers almost always dominate even the best athletes who are just beginning the sport.
So - the best time to begin wrestling is 5 or 6 years old. If your kid is 7 or 8, that's a good age too. If he's 9 or 11, keep in mind that he will be having limited success for his first year and he might be best off trying an off-season club first.
Barrington Folkstyle Tournament
Today at the Barrington folkstyle tournament, Lenny took first beating the 2010 Greco State 85 lb. runner up 6-0 in the finals. Michael wrestled in the Freshman / Sophomore division against 3 high school varsity wrestlers. He won 1 match 6-5 and lost the other two by scores of 5-1 and 5-2. I couldn't be prouder of both of them.
Saturday, May 8, 2010
Trevian Freestyle Clubs Cup
Today we're at New Trier High School for a unique event - a HS Freestyle dual tournament. 8 teams from the area - including one from Wisconsin. Michael won two wrestle-offs to make the varsity team as the 103 lber.
It's kind of fun to see him out there with the high schoolers.
Sent via BlackBerry - please excuse brevity.
It's kind of fun to see him out there with the high schoolers.
Sent via BlackBerry - please excuse brevity.
Friday, April 16, 2010
AAU Elementary School Duals
Photos from this past weekend's Elementary School Duals.
The AAU Elementary school duals are a great experience and I recommend them to anyone that has the opportunity to participate. Our team - Inferno - was made up of kids (mostly 5th graders) from the following clubs:
St Charles North
Force
Lincoln Way W.C.
Martinez Elite
Bolingbrook
Wolves W.C.
Lyons W.C.
Villa Park W.C.
Arlington Cardinals
Falcon W.C.
Lincoln W.C.
Hinsdale W.C.
Mahomet W.C.
Downers Cougars
O.F.A
Truly an "all star" team.
We left Plainfield at about 6:00 PM and after a tourturous drive through the mountains, arrived at Kingsport at about 6AM. Weigh ins and lunch, followed by a little sleep, then came the wrestling!
Our first series of matches was in the "pool competition". We were in Pool 'A' along with the following teams:
Georgia Black
Indy Gold
Iowa Gold
Michigan Myway
Pennsylvania Blue
Tennessee
We wrestled Iowa Gold at 7:15 and Michigan Myway at 8:30 on Friday night to get a good start on the pool. We won them both.
Next, on Saturday morning, we lost to PA Blue at 10:15, beat Tennessee at 11:45, beat Georgia Black at 2:15, and lost a squeaker to Indy Gold at 4:00. This was good enough to get us into the GOLD bracket where we wrestled Iowa Black at 8:45. These guys were tremendously good, and beat us 61-12.
That put us in the consolation bracket of the Gold bracket where we wrestled Indy Gold again on Sunday morning. Unfortunately, they beat us in a squeaker AGAIN.
We were able to pound on the Indiana Brawlers in the 7th place match.
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