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How many wrestle YEAR around?

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How many of our Kentucky Ranked and Non Ranked wrestlers participate year around? I'm trying to see if year round wrestling is better? Or if wrestlers should take a break to play other sports like Baseball or Football? As a coach would you prefer your team go multi athlete and play Other sports? Or year around wrestler like camps and tourneys and practice all during the off season? Can you be HAMMER only wrestling during the season? Thoughts?

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The best kids of course only wrestle, there are a lot of others that do cross country, football, etc. but if you are creme of the crop in wrestling you typically wouldn't want to risk injury in football unless you were that tier in that sport as well as the risk of injury is just too high. There is no sport that will prepare you for wrestling like wrestling with exceptions being BJJ, Judo, or another grappling based martial art. Working out and getting more athletic goes a long way, especially for guys that have been wrestling since they were little, a summer spent focusing on athleticism instead of tournaments can do wonders. If I was a coach and the kids didn't particularly want to play other sports I would encourage them to wrestle year around, most definitely. 

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I'm assuming this question is asked with kids in mind that are in middle school or lower.  With that being said I say it all depends upon each kid.  At this age, I strongly feel like our goal as parents/coaches is to help our kids love the sport.  That love will go away fast if they like baseball or football too but we force them to give it up.   They have to make that decision on their own.  Now the answer to your first question.

Although Zeke plays other sports, baseball & football, he does wrestle year round.  It could be something as simple as open mats when he doesn't have baseball practice or a game.  He also goes to a few camps during the summer.  During football season he stepped away from wrestling altogether.  I felt like it was a good break. Only a couple of months so not too much rust to knock off.  

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My kids are very similar to Richard's experience with Zeke. You can't force them out of other sports and push wrestling 365 down their throats. Ryan played football through 8th grade and has focused on wrestling year round with a lot of freestyle in the summer. I did discourage football for Spencer past 5th grade and he has replaced that with cross country and track. We get plenty of mat time, camps, and workouts in between those practices and events. 

But the bottom line is this. If you have lofty goals you must do something to reach them because there are kids out there working their tails off to keep you from reaching those goals. 

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Two very good post. I agree you have to let them decide what they want to do , if you force it on them they may lose their love for the sport. IMO I think kids are specializing too early and that is causing burnout for whatever sport it is. I encouraged my son to try everything and never kept him from playing any sport, they will find what fits them best.

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My girl works at Carr Academy usually in June and July and then will practice with Woodford because they start practice sooner than Anderson.She may also go to any free clinics nearby and practice with high school to,but Carr Academy is the best thing for a wrestler during the summer.

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In order to compete with some of the elite wrestlers you have to put the work in year round.  Off season is where champions are made.  My son wrestles year round, but we slow down (but don't stop completely) during football season.  One, he loves football.  Two, it is a great for developing speed and the workouts are pretty good.  Three, it keeps him diverse and interested in wrestling by switching it up a little.  I leave it up to him, and so far it has kept him biting at the bit each year for wrestling season.

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My son plays football from July till Thanksgiving. He usually practices two or three times before his first tournament each year. He has dabbled in some club wrestling here and there but nothing consistent. If I forced him to wrestle all year long he wouldn't go for it.  He placed third in 70 yesterday as a 4th grader.  He plays basketball after wrestling season and runs cross country during football season.

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I think most of your top kids does some wrestling year round.  Although our program does not go year round most of our best wrestlers do it on their own.  I think a lot of it has to do with the kid and the maturity level.  You don't want to burn a kid out forcing them to focus on one sport or practicing them to death. They may grow to hate it.  I think it depends on the kid if it's a good idea to go hard with year round training.  But to be competitive I think there has to be some off season work put in.  Just my 2 cents.

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Although the majority of Top Wrestlers from high school up through College are full timers. At the Youth and Middle school levels. I prefer my grandsons just to have some fun, compete, explore different sports, and find their own passion in whatever positive endeavor they choose. I personally discourage Football (too many injuries to young developing bodies)  

After this years Youth State Tourney My 9yr. old grandson who placed 2nd in the 62lb.class asked the 8yr. old who took 1st. in the 50lb.class if he was going to wrestle next year? He responded that he is not sure as he has already accomplished the goal he had set.

They currently run Cross country and play baseball.

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36 minutes ago, depperschmidt said:

Although the majority of Top Wrestlers from high school up through College are full timers. At the Youth and Middle school levels. I prefer my grandsons just to have some fun, compete, explore different sports, and find their own passion in whatever positive endeavor they choose. I personally discourage Football (too many injuries to young developing bodies)  

After this years Youth State Tourney My 9yr. old grandson who placed 2nd in the 62lb.class asked the 8yr. old who took 1st. in the 50lb.class if he was going to wrestle next year? He responded that he is not sure as he has already accomplished the goal he had set.

They currently run Cross country and play baseball.

I actually got to meet the 9 year old on Sunday working his table. Very nice little guy. And very good wrestler. Hope he sticks with it. 

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Thanks for the kind words,   he is so eager and is all in, love's wrestling, and I am pretty sure he will stick with it.  The 3rd. Grandson will begin next year and I think he may be the best one out of the three.  all attitude. and I think he's looking forward to scrapping with someone his own size for a change.  either way, It's going to be a fun decade for ol' gramps!

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1 hour ago, depperschmidt said:

Thanks for the kind words,   he is so eager and is all in, love's wrestling, and I am pretty sure he will stick with it.  The 3rd. Grandson will begin next year and I think he may be the best one out of the three.  all attitude. and I think he's looking forward to scrapping with someone his own size for a change.  either way, It's going to be a fun decade for ol' gramps!

The year may not be done for your oldest, he wants in on that KWOA tourney at Central Hardin. I'm talking to the other coaches and seeing if there is an interest from other kids.

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Wrestling year round is a tough one.  My opinion is every kid is different.  I would suggest that any parent with a young wrestler should talk to some older wrestling parents and see what worked best for their child.  

The first and most important factor is the goal of the young wrestler.  Does he want to make it to state?  Maybe they fell a little short last year and they are just looking to improve.  Maybe they want to be a State Placer or State Champ.  Does the wrestler want to wrestle in college? No matter the goal, working in the offseason will improve their chances of achieving those goals.

If you consider a normal wrestling season for most kids.  This season starts mid October and ends mid February.  That is a total of 4 months on the mat.  Imagine if that wrestler had an additional 4 months of training in the offseason.   He could basically gain an entire wrestling season on most of his competition .  If the wrestler trained year round it would be basically 3 wrestling seasons in a calendar year. 

This brings me back to every kid is different.  I am friends with many wrestlers and parents.  I know many kids that wrestle just during the season and many kids that train year round.  It seems to me that the majority of the kids that train year round are looking to wrestle in college.  However, my guess is that we will have some KY kids that will wrestle in college that don't train year round. Once again, I believe the wrestler needs to have realistic goals and then its up to the parents and coaches to help him achieve the goals.

My personal experience with raising a wrestler has probably been like the majority of parents.  I have spent countless hours in the wrestling room, weight room, tournaments, road trips, camps, etc.  Sometimes we forget that wrestling is a entire family commitment depending on how involved the wrestler is in the sport.  I'm sure some people know what I am talking about.  I always say, "imagine if my son would have continued to play basketball".  Would be pretty cool to go to a game and be out in an hour.  On the other hand I imagine I would have still been at basketball camps, weight rooms, tournaments, etc.

So back to the question "How many wrestle year round?"

My son was involved with basketball, baseball, soccer, football, and wrestling until the 7th grade.  Since then he only plays football and wrestles.  Mason started lifting weights in the summer going into the 7th grade.  We all teamed up with Ranger and would go over to Campbell County and do workouts 3 days a week.  The workouts were tough and not to mention the stink eyes from some of the Campbell parents.:blink:  That was a joke by the way.  I believe that weight training is an important part of wrestling.  I can tell you it is hard to put muscle on skinny.  

We also spend a lot of time at Jeff Jordans. We have been to a ton of camps over the years.  There were two reasons we always went to Jordans when they were younger.  First, you will not find tougher competition at a camp.  We would always ask Jeff to sign our boys up for the "hammer camp".  This is the week he puts all the top guys in one group. They would usually take some serious butt kickings.  Second, he shows a handful of technique that your wrestler will actually use.  They will drill those same moves hundreds of times during that week.  So if you are looking for standing leg cradles or flying squirrels this is not the camp for your kid.   We also always traveled in packs.(Ryan, Blake, Spencer, and Mason)  I would say that is an important part for the kids.  They have the chance to hangout with their closest friends and not just dad who is probably worn out from the 10 hour tournament. 

Once they move into the later years of high school the boys are more independent.  They have spent years with kids all over the state and now they usually train together.  Most of our group trains at ETC during the offseason.  I believe there are multiple clubs available in all parts of the state.  Most of the group are going to camps in the offseason at the colleges they would like to attend.

I assure you that I don't have all the answers.  There are many parents that have raised multiple wrestlers and might of done things differently.  Who is to say what success looks like?  Wins? Titles? College? No matter where my son ends up I would say it was successful.  I would not trade these memories for anything.  I can tell you that I watched a lot of wrestlers and parents over the years.  I tried to talk to parents and coaches who had already been through the journey.  I took some of their advice and did what I thought was best for my son.  He tells me all the time "Thank you"  The older they get, the more they really understand.

Hope this helps anyone with younger kids.  Hopefully some other parents with many more years experience than me will add some insight.

 

 Man, I didn't expect to write a book.

 

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Excellent!  I have always remembered fondly my father who has gone on now, who was at every match I ever had and would take his vacations to go to state, worked overtime to send me to a summer camp, money was tight as there was 5 of us. And I know in my heart that it didn't matter what I was interested in he was there to support me. If I had played the flute in the band I would have had the best flute and teachers he could provide

The memories and bonds you have made are shared ones between the two of you, And I'm sure will be cherished by both of you for many years to come. And as time goes by, if your son is blessed with children of his own you can have all the fun again without all the work!

excellent Post  Dutch

 

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On ‎2‎/‎7‎/‎2017 at 1:37 PM, Dromedary Dad said:

The year may not be done for your oldest, he wants in on that KWOA tourney at Central Hardin. I'm talking to the other coaches and seeing if there is an interest from other kids.

Super news hope it works out,  I will stay tuned

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