WRESTLING TOURNAMENTS COMMENTARY

For those whom this may be their first wrestling tournament, this somewhat anecdotal section may be of interest to you. First and foremost, wrestling tournaments are, more often than not, an all-day event especially if your child is winning. Depending on the number of wrestlers, the size of the facilities, the number of breaks, and a myriad of other things a tournament can last upwards of 8 hours and in rare occasions even longer. The upside to this is that you and your child will meet and get to know a lot of new people. As your child’s wrestling career continues you will begin to see more and more familiar faces from not only your own team, but many others.

Wrestling tournaments are very noisy and chaotic. This cannot be understated! There is a lot of yelling. The coaches are yelling instructions to the kids, the parents are yelling at the kids (and sometimes the referee, although this is generally frowned upon), the announcer is calling matches, and there are hundreds of kids playing any number of noisy games while they are waiting for their matches. If this is your first tournament, be prepared.

Wrestling is a physically and emotionally tough sport, but it teaches a lot of things. Courage, respect, and sportsmanship are to name a few. It is not uncommon for one or both kids to come off the mat shedding a few tears. It is not also uncommon for those same two kids to be seen playing together five minutes later. While many other youth sports have been plagued with aggressive behavior among the spectators, mostly by the parents, wrestling has seen relatively little.