Tournaments – Are they Right for my Wrestler?
You may be hearing a lot about wrestling tournaments and wondering if they are right for your wrestler. Here we’ve put together some common questions and tips to help navigate the exciting world of tournament wrestling and figure out if it’s right for your wrestler.
What is the difference between our site matches and tournaments?
At our site matches the wrestlers are intentionally paired with wrestlers of similar age, weight, experience, and ability levels to try to give them the best learning experience. When this process works best, your wrestler should end up with a record of wins and losses that promote and understanding of the sport, how moves work in a competition setting, and how to find the drive to go out there and compete against an unfamiliar opponent. At these matches the reward is the experience itself and to be honest, that is a great reward for many wrestlers.
At tournaments everyone who signs up for a weight class is in that weight class, and all have to compete their hardest to try to earn an award. There are varied differences between tournament formats (explained below) but the concept is the same, go for the gold. It is here you will find other wrestlers doing that “extra” competing above and beyond their team requirements. Tournament wrestling is not just for learning, but is about competing for that title or award. It’s the “next level” of competition so be ready to go hard and give it your all.
What is the difference between NOVICE and OPEN?
Open is a term that means anyone in the appropriate age/weight can sign up for this. It is open to the best of the best, should they choose to attend. In an OPEN division you will find the highest level of competition available at that particular tournament. It is here that wrestlers need to learn not only inner strength and grit, but also use proper technique and speed. This is the most difficult division and sometimes discouraging to first or second year wrestlers who don’t have much experience.
Novice is a term that is widely accepted as a 1st or 2nd year wrestler. If your wrestler is in their first or second year and hasn’t competed in tournaments yet, this is what I would recommend looking for to start. Find a tournament that has a NOVICE division and go out to compete against other wrestlers in your age group that are less experienced than you will find in the OPEN division. Once you start winning 60-70% of your matches in NOVICE or constantly placing in the top 2 positions of NOVICE, congratulations! It’s time to bump your wrestler to the OPEN Division and let them develop their technique around the next level of competition.
Why bump up if they can technically compete in NOVICE? It’s simple, the “1st and 2nd year” is more of a rule of thumb, with exceptions for those who have developed beyond a NOVICE skillset. If they are winning too many matches with “bad habits” being used, they begin to believe those techniques are “good enough” to carry them through. Simply put, it’s harder to break those bad habits than develop good ones. After all, if they find the competition is too tough in Open, they can always enter the next one as Novice!
What is a Round Robin Tournament?
A Round Robin tournament is one where wrestlers will be grouped (often groups of 5 or 6) other wrestlers to compete for the best record. They will wrestle every other competitor in their bracket and then one who wins the most matches wins! If two opponents have the same record on the day, the tie breaker is simple, whoever one when they faced each other is the higher place winner.
In a Round Robin tournament you have a good chance of getting to wrestle more than 2 matches so they are a great experience builder for wrestlers. These tournaments are often run on the Madison Weight System.
Contrast to the Round Robin is the traditional format of tournament is different where you have to compete without losing to stay in the Championship bracket and try to make it to the finals. If you lose you move down to the consolation side of the bracket and have to win the rest of your matches to make it to the consolation finals. If you lose a second time you are out of the tournament, don’t let that discourage your wrestler from trying again. Tournaments are tough and a great way to learn to compete against other good wrestlers.
What is the Madison Weight System?
The Madison weight system is often used when running a round robin tournament. This system decides brackets after weigh-ins are complete. They will group together a predetermined number of wrestlers based on their closest weight. So if “6” wrestlers all weighed between 60 lbs and 62 lbs they will be grouped together to compete against one another. The contrast to this is the traditional weight classes. In the traditional weight classes you will typically see about 5 lbs between weight classes and even if 32 wrestlers sign up between 60-65lbs all of those wrestlers will have to battle it out for a spot on the podium.
What are Weigh-Ins?
For our site matches we had our official weigh in at the beginning of the year, and that carried through for the whole season of matches. For tournament competition you have to weigh in for each event you attend. So make sure you sign your wrestler up for the right weight!.
In a traditional weight bracket you will have to weigh in UNDER your listed weight class or RIGHT ON. Example, if a wrestler registers for 60lbs they can weigh 56 lbs, 58.2lbs or even up to 60.0lbs. At a strict tournament, even a weight of 60.1lbs will not grant access to compete in your weight class.
In a Madison weight system you still have to weigh in, they will just group you based on your weight so you don’t have to worry about making a certain weight class.
What if my wrestler is over their registered weight?
Each tournament handles this differently, at some tournaments you can move up at the scale to the next weight class. Sometimes this is a free service and sometimes there is a fee to move weight classes. Sometimes there is no exception and you have to make weight to compete. If you choose to wrestle in your assigned weight you will have to weigh in again (often after a workout or “sleeping it off”) and try to make it at or under your weight limit. The best way to handle this is to monitor your wrestlers weight and simply sign them up for a weight class that they will make comfortably. I do not encourage “cutting weight.”
How do I know what tournaments are good ones to go to?
That’s a tough one to answer, some tournaments try to entice you with a certain type of award, like a Hammer or a Belt or a Giant Trophy. That doesn’t always mean the day will be a pleasant experience for you and your wrestler. Sometimes those ones are great and sometimes they are not. The best way to know is to talk with other parents who have been to tournaments before and get their feedback to decide if it’s right for you. Sometimes the best tournament experiences come from spending the day with other Rams and friends. This helps the time between matches pass quicker and it’s always nice to have teammates and friends there cheering you on!
We have put together a page to show you what tournaments other Ringgold Youth Wrestlers are attending.
How do I know what tournaments our coaches will be attending?
Also on our Tournaments Page you can find what coaches will be attending what tournaments directly under the listed event. If you do not see a coach listed, there are no Ringgold coaches planning on attending at that time. Tournaments are not team events and there are not always coaches there. If you prefer to attend tournaments where your wrestler will have one of our coaches in their corner, look for ones on the tournament page with coaches listed under. If you’d really like to attend a tournament but don’t see a listed coach, please reach out to Coach Kevin and we will see if any coaches are able to attend.
Tournaments are an extra level of commitment.
Extra commitment can be a great thing for a wrestler. In these extra experiences valuable lessons are learned. It is still a big commitment of time and sacrificing a day of rest or play. To some kids and families you just can’t get enough! And that’s great! But all kids are different and it’s important to keep an eye out and make sure they are enjoying themself, too. Doing site matches and tournaments every weekend can take its toll on anyone if over-done. I encourage doing as much as they want to do and you are also able to comfortably commit to, while checking in with them and making sure they aren’t going to “burn out.”
Written by: Kevin Roche
