How to make you kid tough…

Ok, I saw this as a topic on a message board for youth wrestling. This was regarding a 5 year old.

I have been around wrestling for 35 years and never once have I seen a way to make a child “tough” or have a “killer instinct”. Because there are some men that I would like to make tough now, let alone a child. So if there is a way to do that let me know. Some dads need to look at themselves.

From all the years I have seen tender kids, insecure kids, aggressive kids, mean kids, and/or  tough kids. Pain tolerance is something you are born with. A child can may develop more tolerance as you experience different physical activities that cause pain. A person that can stand more challenges mentally and physically does have the upper edge in any competetion or in life in general.

What wrestling does develop is discipline and as well as physical and mental strength. But it is the parents that can make this a great experience for their child or not.

To be upset that your child is not as aggressive as others, at a young age is not right. You want to encorage your child to do the best they can do, and  be a good sport if they lose and not to complain during practice. Wrestling needs to be a positive experience if you want your child to continue on through high school or even college.

Make wrestling a special time to share. Going to the tournaments as a family, get togethers with other wrestling families, and just sharing the experience with your child. There is a certain bond that wrestling brings to everyone involved. Your child will want to do a 100% when it is a fun, family centered sport.

Cutting Weight

Cutting weight has been around since the beginning of modern wrestling. Adults and children both face the challenge of cutting weight. Sometimes dangerously lower than their ideal weight. What is a wrestler to do when all your other competitors are coming down 10-15 or more just for weight ins. I say just for weight ins because that is the only time they weight that much.

As soon as that weight in moment is over. They rehydrate themselves, eat what they need to eat and they up 10 pounds in less than 12 hours.

Nothing pains me more than watching a wrestler cut weight improperly. Sauna suits, steam rooms, starvation, spitting, etc. All you see is gray skin with sunken eyes. That seems healthy! There has been wrestlers that have paid the price later on in life with health issues. Why take a chance?

You can lose some of you extra weight properly if you do it correctly over maybe 3 weeks prior to the tournament. Not 15 pounds  in  a week before the competition. A good rate of weight loss is 2 pounds a week for a youth and 2-3 pounds for an adult. Men can lose weight faster, because of muscle mass.

If you are a wrestler that is wrestling at their normal, everyday weight what are you to do? It does not seem fair at all, and it is not!

Well, you need to stay concious of what you are eating. You do not want to be maintaining your weight on empty foods and calories. If you have a good base of strength and health, you are way ahead of the wrestlers that are cutting weight.

One thing is that the wrestler who is cutting weight can not recover in time to be a 100% to wrestle. A wrestler who is not cutting and is well hydrated, proper nutrition up to the moment of wrestling, can sometimes be stronger than the wrestler who is now weighting in a 10 - 15 pounds more.

You may ask, “Why can it be stopped or controlled? ” The wrestling community turns a blind eye to all of this. It is all about the weight in.

I think that there should be a mandatory BMI taken at the beginnig of the season and there should be an allowance of what a youth wrestler should be at. Remember these are kids! Most of the ideas of cutting weight is coming from the parents. I am sure young wrestlers are all excited about being miserable when they have to cut weight. Parents need to look at the situation and stand up to make a change.

There is nothing wrong about being at a healthy lean, weight. But what about when you go below that?

Next time while you wrestler is cutting weight, look in your child’s sunken eyes and ask yourself that.

Working Out

There is a saying “Strength is Endurance“. How important is it to have your son or daughter workout with weights and plyometrics besides wrestling pratice? Based on my experience, it is extremely important.

I have seen my own boys benefit greatly from weight lifting, as early as 5th grade. Light weights and high reps. Also lots of body weight exercise. I watched them have the advantage of being stronger.along with their wrestling technique. Having your child stronger will give them the edge to win and make learning easier. If you allow the sport to solely give the strength, it will be very frustrating for your child to enjoy the sport.

Wrestling is not an easy sport. It needs lots of discipline and dedication. But the results in the end will be a healthy, great self esteem, and a strong, well disciplined child. Is it not that what we want for all our kids.

There are some great books that can help you get started. One that can get you started is Strength Training Anatomy
and a great book for inspiration is Mind Gym : An Athlete’s Guide to Inner Excellence.
So give your athlete the advantage and design a work out program with them Maybe it can be something you can do together. On a weekend go and do some hill training, go to the track and run. Show your child that getting in shape is important to you as well as to themselves.

Where do I start?

You want to start your child in a sport, but you are not sure what you want to introduce them to. You wrestled in high school and really liked it. They say once a wrestler always a wrestler. You know that there are such things as kids wrestling clubs, but where do you find them?

• Well online is a great place to start. Most good and organized clubs have websites or information links. Check out  http://themat.com/ and the camp listing on this site.
• Check out the parks and recreation for holiday and summer camps. Many of the area high school teams put on holiday camps to help with fund raising. But this is a great place to see if you son or daughter has the personality to wrestle. There are a ton of camps out there, but you want to keep it simple in the beginning.
• Ask someone you know who wrestle where the best wrestling to to go to.

The most important thing is to make it fun and positive for your child.,which  will help make wrestling, something he or she will want to do for a long time. Wrestling is a individual sport that has a team. Wrestling is a sport that is different than any other sport out there.

News - U.S. Future Olympian Rankings

Here are the guidelines:
1. The points will automatically accumulate throughout the season as USA Wrestling events are held. Wrestlers can check on their ranking by visiting TheMat.com (www.TheMat.com)

2. Wrestlers will be placed in the weight class where they competed at the last event of the year.

3. At the end of the membership year, the top three placewinners in each weight class at each age level will receive a special reward, and the top 25 in each weight class will receive a certificate.

4. The Top 10 point scorers in each age division will also be recognized at the end of the membership year.

The events which will be utilized for the U.S. Future Olympian Ranking in 2008-09 are as follows:

Intermediate (ages 9-10)
• All USA Wrestling Folkstyle Tour of America events
• ASICS Folkstyle National Championships
• Your region’s USA Wrestling Kids Regional Championship (FS and GR)
• ASICS Kids Freestyle and Greco-Roman National Championships

Novice (ages 11-12)
• All USA Wrestling Folkstyle Tour of America events
• ASICS Folkstyle National Championships
• Your region’s USA Wrestling Kids Regional Championship (FS and GR)
• ASICS Kids Freestyle and Greco-Roman National Championships

Schoolboy (ages 13-14)
• All USA Wrestling Folkstyle Tour of America events
• ASICS Folkstyle National Championships
• Your region’s USA Wrestling Kids Regional Championships (FS and GR)
• ASICS Kids Freestyle and Greco-Roman National Championships

Middle School (Grades 6-8)
• USA Wrestling Folkstyle Tour of America events
• USA Wrestling Middle School Folkstyle National Championships

Cadet (ages 15-16)
• ASICS Cadet Folkstyle National Championships
• All USA Wrestling Cadet Regional Championships (FS and GR)
• USA Wrestling FILA Cadet National Championships (FS and GR)
• Cadet National Championships (FS and GR)

Junior (Grades 9-12)
• ASICS Junior Folkstyle National Championships
• All USA Wrestling Junior Regional Championships (FS and GR)
• USA Wrestling FILA Cadet National Championships (FS and GR)
• USA Wrestling FILA Junior National Championships (FS and GR)
• ASICS/Vaughan National Championships (FS and GR)

A year-end ranking from the 2007-08 year, using this point scoring system, has been published, showing how the wrestlers were ranked last season.

Wrestling Takedown

Tight Waist Arm Chop Wrestling Move

Youth wrestlers demonstrate wrestling moves like the tight waist arm chop move in this free instructional wrestling video, on competitive wrestling, taught by an expert wrestler and coach.

BASIC WRESTLING STANCE

Learn basic wrestling moves, starting positions and stances, like the sugar foot, and wide stance, from an expert wrestler and coach, in this free instructional video clip on competitive wrestling.

HIP HEIST