Specialized Sports

[Ciecon 4]

I’m curious... what is the overall  consensus for specialized sports in Ky. Do your kids wrestle year round and do no other sports? My son has always done football and wrestling, now as we look to high school we plan to focus solely on Wrestling. I’ve done some research and found studies that indicate that kids who specialize in one sport tend to have a higher injury rate. Of course with any sport injuries are expected but with Wrestling it’s a given. It’s a tough sport and that’s how it goes. I just wonder how many are like us and just plan( or have been) focusing solely on Wrestling? 

[Bluesdad 73]

My son "Blue" plays baseball, football, and wrestles. He also played basketball until 7th grade. I've talked to a few parents of kids who only wrestle. They've never really mentioned any down side to only wrestling year round. There is injurys in any sport it just comes with the territory. There are plus and minus in doing it either way. 

[Coach T 5]

Same here.  My kid has always been wrestling and football.  He has decided to give up football and stick to wrestling year round. I have been coaching for a long time now, the injuries can happen no matter what.  But, proper training is key to avoiding them.  Playing a second sport does not help prevent injuries, its the different type of practices and training that will focus on muscle groups that might get missed in specialized training.  I put my kids that wrestle year round on a different fitness program during the "off season" than regular season.  We focus on strength and flexibility.  So far (knock on wood) my son, or any of my kids have had any injuries.

[Ciecon 4]

1 minute ago, Coach T said:

Same here.  My kid has always been wrestling and football.  He has decided to give up football and stick to wrestling year round. I have been coaching for a long time now, the injuries can happen no matter what.  But, proper training is key to avoiding them.  Playing a second sport does not help prevent injuries, its the different type of practices and training that will focus on muscle groups that might get missed in specialized training.  I put my kids that wrestle year round on a different fitness program during the "off season" than regular season.  We focus on strength and flexibility.  So far (knock on wood) my son, or any of my kids have had any injuries.

Exactly ... we try to focus on different muscle groups as well as strength and conditioning during off season. I was just meaning the research is out there for increased injury rates for those that focus on one sport. That being said... it’s a sport... injuries happen. I worry every time he steps on the mat bc there is no way to completely control what happens during a match. 

[Bluesdad 73]

7 minutes ago, Coach T said:

Same here.  My kid has always been wrestling and football.  He has decided to give up football and stick to wrestling year round. I have been coaching for a long time now, the injuries can happen no matter what.  But, proper training is key to avoiding them.  Playing a second sport does not help prevent injuries, its the different type of practices and training that will focus on muscle groups that might get missed in specialized training.  I put my kids that wrestle year round on a different fitness program during the "off season" than regular season.  We focus on strength and flexibility.  So far (knock on wood) my son, or any of my kids have had any injuries.

I agree with Coach T proper training "strength, flexibility, aerobic, conditioning, and nutrition" are very important in trying to cut down on injuries. 

[grappler-of-old 44]

     I personally have been on record as stating how I loath the specialized sport mentality. Ultimately this thought process is hurting our sport.  Like it or not wrestling is a minor sport. Football, Basketball and baseball are the big three.  If kids do not participate in multiple sports than our numbers will decline.  

     I have conceded to specialization when a kid reaches his Jr. year in high school.  At this time a kid usually has found his/her sport that is their best chance for a scholarship in college.  Being a well rounded kid will help them in the long run.  I personally became a specialized sport kid when I started high school and only focused on wrestling. 

     As a parent and those that will be parents in the future. Having firsthand knowledge at least in the basics of many sports will be helpful in parenting in the future.  If your kid decides that they want to play another sport and maybe specialize in that sport you will have a basic understanding of that sport and be able to help them along the way. 

     It's never a good idea to have blinders on. 

As always these are the opinions of GOO nothing more and nothing less. You can take them or leave them, in the grand scheme of things it really does not matter. 

GOO OUT> 

[Notorious 15]

It's hard to compete at a high level and not participate year round! Summer wrestling creates Winter Champions. Many SCHOOL programs shut down after the season is over. We NEED a summer open gym for those wrestlers who want off season work. But unfortunately the school say's the seasons over. See you next year. ARE WE THE BAD NEWS BEARS? It would be nice to have a PROGRAM open its doors and say come in. We will help you get better. Back to ORGINAL question? We have done it year around once. We play baseball, football, and intermeral basketball, and of course wrestling. But if you want to be on the top podium? I think you almost have to go all year in the same sport. At least in wrestling. Football and Wrestling teams either work together? Or the coach wants his football players in the weight room.

[Ciecon 4]

18 minutes ago, Notorious said:

It's hard to compete at a high level and not participate year round! Summer wrestling creates Winter Champions. Many SCHOOL programs shut down after the season is over. We NEED a summer open gym for those wrestlers who want off season work. But unfortunately the school say's the seasons over. See you next year. ARE WE THE BAD NEWS BEARS? It would be nice to have a PROGRAM open its doors and say come in. We will help you get better. Back to ORGINAL question? We have done it year around once. We play baseball, football, and intermeral basketball, and of course wrestling. But if you want to be on the top podium? I think you almost have to go all year in the same sport. At least in wrestling. Football and Wrestling teams either work together? Or the coach wants his football players in the weight room.

We are fortunate enough to have a year round program. We can work out and drill but we don’t usually travel and compete. I am at a disadvantage that I can’t coach my son on the mat. If so we would be all over getting the in during off season. Would be great if other clubs would be able to practice as well. I know how lucky we are to be where we are. 

[Notorious 15]

On December 13, 2017 at 4:21 PM, Ciecon said:

We are fortunate enough to have a year round program. We can work out and drill but we don’t usually travel and compete. I am at a disadvantage that I can’t coach my son on the mat. If so we would be all over getting the in during off season. Would be great if other clubs would be able to practice as well. I know how lucky we are to be where we are. 

If your school programs works out year around? You all are definitely blessed.

[Ranger123 43]

As a statistician, I can tell you research can and will show whatever those conducting the study or paying for it want it to show. It is possible that specialized athletes have a higher rate of injury, but that is likely because they are training at a higher intensity. Those kids have decided to focus and put a lot of effort into that sport. With increased volume and intensity comes higher injury rate especially when compared to the kids who just show up for the fun of it. 

My oldest has focused on wrestling in HS and it has served him well. Played other sports up through 8th grade. Younger boy is in a different sport every season and is even talking about trying soccer in the spring. But he does get on the mat year round to continue to improve his skills. 

[REscalera 189]

I say leave it up to the kiddo. If he/she wants to play other sports so be it.  If they prefer to play one so be it.  I also feel like freestyle, greco and folkstyle should be considered different sports being that they're different disciplines. It's like wrestling folkstyle and then taking judo or boxing.  As for injuries, I personally believe that cutting is the biggest culprit behind a lot of injuries.  Wrestling is a very demanding/physical sport that constantly breaks down the body.  When our kiddos are not refueling properly their bodies will not rebuild properly, which leads to small nagging injuries from middle school turning into big lasting injuries in high school.  

[rjs4470 103]

1 hour ago, REscalera said:

I say leave it up to the kiddo. If he/she wants to play other sports so be it.  If they prefer to play one so be it.  I also feel like freestyle, greco and folkstyle should be considered different sports being that they're different disciplines. It's like wrestling folkstyle and then taking judo or boxing.  As for injuries, I personally believe that cutting is the biggest culprit behind a lot of injuries.  Wrestling is a very demanding/physical sport that constantly breaks down the body.  When our kiddos are not refueling properly their bodies will not rebuild properly, which leads to small nagging injuries from middle school turning into big lasting injuries in high school.  

Couldn’t agree more.  For many kids, wrestling isn’t their main sport.  If you force them to do tons of offseason stuff, cut weight had, or give them grief over being just “in season wrestlers”, they will simply quit.  Not every kid has the desire to do this sport in college, or be a national contender.  The kids that do have plenty of opportunities to get better and improve.  We need to make the sport more accessible to the casual kid to grow it.  Right now, I feel like we are pushing that kid out of the sport.

[grappler-of-old 44]

1 hour ago, rjs4470 said:

 For many kids, wrestling isn’t their main sport.  If you force them to do tons of offseason stuff, cut weight had, or give them grief over being just “in season wrestlers”, they will simply quit.  Not every kid has the desire to do this sport in college, or be a national contender.  The kids that do have plenty of opportunities to get better and improve.  We need to make the sport more accessible to the casual kid to grow it.  Right now, I feel like we are pushing that kid out of the sport.

You have hit it on the head. 

You articulated my thought process much better than I ever could. 

Casual kids cannot be left out. 

[REscalera 189]

28 minutes ago, grappler-of-old said:

You have hit it on the head. 

You articulated my thought process much better than I ever could. 

Casual kids cannot be left out. 

Great points!!  But I feel like we put too much responsibility/blame on our local school's program including the coach.  I don't know of any other state that runs their youth/middle school programs like we do.  States that compete nationally at a high level have embraced clubs.  In fact, Iowa middle school teams are for the casual wrestler or those new to wrestling.  The majority of middle school wrestlers aren't even a part of their middle school team. Instead they go to a club and compete under the club name. Several parents  have voiced on here how they think its criminal for one to charge for such services.  

[grappler-of-old 44]

I don't know about Iowa, but I can tell you for certain that one middle school team in Nky that has about 30 kids on it right now, would have close to 0 kids on the team if it were a club and forced to charge.  The only reason they have any kids is because the school charges $0 to participate in any sport high school or middle school. 

Your comparing Ky to a state with a long long history for wrestling.  There 1st state tourney was 1921 compared to Ky 1964. They have a 40 year start on Ky to get generations involved. 

[grappler-of-old 44]

As mentioned by many people on here already.  They have open mats Free of charge and only get a few kids out now.  

Just because it works somewhere else does not mean it will work here.  

You say I keep making excuses but there not excuses they are facts.  It is what is happening, like it or not these are the reasons/facts/excuses given by our kids/families.  We have to deal with what we have not what we want. 

I don't disagree with anything you say here but it just is not happening.  I've been trying for years to change the attitude of families and kids.  It's happening just not as fast as we would all like it to. 

 

[Bond James Bond 30]

Around High School is when I would recommend, year around traing. That's if your child competes in different sports other than wrestling. If they do not participate in any other sports. I would consider giving them a break from wrestling. I have seen too many great baseball players get burnt out from travel ball and just get to where they play because they are good. But it's no longer fun for them and eventually quit the sport. But to each his own. Parent the way you feel is best. Just my 0.2 cents.

[REscalera 189]

9 hours ago, grappler-of-old said:

I don't know about Iowa, but I can tell you for certain that one middle school team in Nky that has about 30 kids on it right now, would have close to 0 kids on the team if it were a club and forced to charge.  The only reason they have any kids is because the school charges $0 to participate in any sport high school or middle school. 

Your comparing Ky to a state with a long long history for wrestling.  There 1st state tourney was 1921 compared to Ky 1964. They have a 40 year start on Ky to get generations involved. 

I think you're absolutely right.  The middle school team here would lose quite a few kids as well.  I'm not suggestion that middle schools charge though.  We're talking about improving KY wrestling, right.  If we are serious, at some point we are going to have to change the way we are doing things.  My comment was only explaining how more competitive states are developing their youth. They aren't depending on their middle school.  They are going to clubs.  Sooner or later we will have to adopt that same approach if we too want to compete at a higher level. 

[grappler-of-old 44]

I would love to see a club based  youth league.  It would be great to have a system similar to the AAU basketball. 

If this happened then I think the middle school teams would work great "During season".  Ky has had success in other sports in this way.  There are middle school Football and basketball teams which only compete locally. 

[Bouttefam 1]

I grew up in Kentucky and never knew there was such a thing as youth wrestling until living in Kansas.  We actually learned about it because the coach of the Fort Riley club had a booth set up at the PX on post to raise awareness.  I think Kansas is in between what I just read about Iowa and what I have learned about Kentucky wrestling from here (and we have been to a camp and tourney in Louisville so the grandparents could see).

-Kansas youth is all clubs until 7th grade.  You are not allowed to wrestle middle school until 7th grade period.

-Prices for clubs vary tremendously from free to $200.  Sometimes you pay for your own tournament entries sometimes they are included.

-For youth you choose what tournaments you want to go to.  Only the larger tournaments like state and tournament of champions even have a team score and state you have to individually qualify for.  Basically you choose to do however many tourneys you feel is right for your kid.  

-Middle School and High School cannot wrestle club until their school season is over and most clubs don’t charge them to join.  They just have to get a USA Wrestling Card.

-After folkstyle there are Regional Training Centers for Greco/Freestyle.  Some are free, some charge a small amount.  Most kids do not do this 2 month season but enough do to keep the mats going.

-Off season folkstyle tourneys are few and far between and use Madison brackets so weight cutting shouldn’t be an issue.  Lots of camps to go to though if you want.

I hope wrestling continues to grow there.  We enjoyed Bluegrass Nationals and plan to be back next season.

[grappler-of-old 44]

I know that Ohio does the same thing with middle school 7 and 8.  I think because most middle schools in Ky are 6-8 is why we include 6th grade kids.  Ky schools are much smaller than most other states so they need the 6th grade in them for cost purposes.