Excellent scientific article on the best age to start wresting

[SeanR 2]

 
 

[SeanR 2]

Interestingly, they found on average the age was 10 (although plus or minus 2.5 years). This is older than many may think, but explains well why so many kids that start too young burn out. Also, in these examples many of the wrestlers started wrestling full time. As a strength and conditioning coach I know that it is better for young kids to play many sports to build better neuro-muscular programing and not to specialize until they are older, say in high school.

This article also found that there were differences based upon size. Larger wrestlers need more time to grow into their bodies. That means a heavyweight needs more time for his body's coordination to grow into his constantly changing size. Smaller kids do not have this problem. That means a big kid might be a fish his freshman year but a stud by the time he is a senior or older.

Finally it found that it takes a full 15-17 years to peak.