One of the biggest reasons I decided to make an account is that my young children are starting into wrestling this season. While I spent a little time wrestling,I spent much more time playing other sports and hunting and thus, do not have the hands on experience most of you likely do. I love wrestling and have become a die hard follower of the sport. That said, my eldest son is 6 and starting this week. He watches duals and other matches with me and his younger brother, 4.5 years old, and him love to wrestle each other. I've tried showing them some starters,basics and introduced terminology. My question really is, what are some things that would help my boys start out? They're so young I primarily want them to just try it out and see if they enjoy it, but I also do not want bad habits formed AND they're more likely to enjoy it if they're not getting pinned in a few seconds every match. Thanks in advance.
General advice for youth wrestlers starting out
- Thread starter Misalorales
- Start date
I am sure others will have better advice than me. To start, focus on fun, don't worry about the results. Plenty of PSU guys started out wrestling when very young and struggled. Don't lose any weight, not fun at all. Focus on attack, attack, attack. Develop an attacking mindset. As David Taylor said, it is a mindset, you don't wrestle close matches for years and then all of sudden become a bonus machine in high school/college. Focus on fundaments. That is the one constant with PSU wrestlers, no matter their style, they are all fundamentally sound.
Make sure they play other sports in addition to wrestling.
Make sure they play other sports in addition to wrestling.
Ask Jordan Burroughs. He seems to think HE'S the preeminent authority on how to introduce kids to the sport and coaching them up.
All of this.
Also, if they go to any tournaments, focus on the format. For them, round robin or pod formats are far better than traditional. Going 0-2 and sitting around while everyone else gets to wrestle isn't much fun.
Likewise, if they miss weight at an event, don't be the psycho parent who makes them run laps around the gym. If they miss by an ounce, go pee and we'll try again. Otherwise, let them go at the next weight up.
My six year old is wrestling in CO. We have gone to one tournament. Kids weigh in at club on Monday, then the tournament on Saturday is a round-robin with kids placed by relative weight and experience. There is no weight to make. He got three matches and we were in and out on 90 minutes including warmup and shoot the **** time. Way more efficient than the all day slogs with morning of weigh-ins I remember growing up.
have fun is the key. other than that - body control. A lot of Europeans do nothing but gymnastics early on...
Bingo start with tumbling and gymnastics hard to ask a kid to do wrestling moves when they can't control their body . Practice until 5th grade or so then enter competitions. I wouldn't be entering them any earlier let them love the sport first. We lose so many kids because they lose and the parents don't know how to be positive.
We actually did start both boys in tumbling, and the little ninja classes they had to. I'm most worried about getting along with other parents as I am very much a believer when my kid is participating in the sport they are the coaches kid, not mine and no one should be hollering out stuff except the coach. I e seen a lot of little kids confused as heck because they have 5 adults yelling what to do ha
Exactly and why I say dont compete at that age just practice. Some kids mature quicker maybe its 10 years old but the yelling and confusion is never a positive.
Yea I figured I will see how much they enjoy it. From watching it with me and playing at home they certainly are excited to start. I definitely saw some eye opening negative examples last year watching my young nephew start. Dad's having the "are you hurt or injured "conversation with a 50lb kid
Pulling from my time as a youth coach and once a year novice ref here but: be positive, yet realistic. Winning takes time so any given kid is gonna screw up regardless of their age. It’s perfectly normal. Keep their head up and tell them what they did right/well. Also tell them 1 (or 2 max) thing(s) they’ve gotta work on. It’s an even handed approach because it teaches them that progress can happen in bad matches and there’s always something to sharpen, big or small.
As for tournaments, novice tournaments are your friend. Especially if they’re 6U, 8U, or 10U. Kids 15 and under shouldn’t be cutting mass amounts of weight. Their body needs fuel and nutrients, not starvation and the development of poor relationships with food. A gradual descent over the course of a season is fine. But it has to happen with a good diet that is feeding their body. After all, weight loss ultimately comes down to calories in versus calories burned so it’s vital that they are taking in nutrient dense foods. Round robin tournaments and/or Madison weight classes are extremely beneficial as well. I currently coach JH and I try to sprinkle in at least 1 or 2 round robin tournaments a year so my less experienced kids can get as much quality mat time as possible.
When it comes to technique/practices, it should largely be focused on the basics. Learning how to use your body in a way that works together rather than against itself. I always tell my kids that everyone thinks college wrestling is this big top circus where you learn all of these cool, unique tricks. In reality, you’re refining your fundamentals and positioning a lot of the time. The best guys are so unbelievably fundamentally sound, you can’t get them out of position because they’ve been in that position 1000’s of times before. If they’re a novice kid, practice should be FUN. Tumble, do gymnastics, practice simple things like getting in a good stance or running a half. Those will help kids learn strong fundamental skills that will help them throughout their careers rather than just win immediately.
As for tournaments, novice tournaments are your friend. Especially if they’re 6U, 8U, or 10U. Kids 15 and under shouldn’t be cutting mass amounts of weight. Their body needs fuel and nutrients, not starvation and the development of poor relationships with food. A gradual descent over the course of a season is fine. But it has to happen with a good diet that is feeding their body. After all, weight loss ultimately comes down to calories in versus calories burned so it’s vital that they are taking in nutrient dense foods. Round robin tournaments and/or Madison weight classes are extremely beneficial as well. I currently coach JH and I try to sprinkle in at least 1 or 2 round robin tournaments a year so my less experienced kids can get as much quality mat time as possible.
When it comes to technique/practices, it should largely be focused on the basics. Learning how to use your body in a way that works together rather than against itself. I always tell my kids that everyone thinks college wrestling is this big top circus where you learn all of these cool, unique tricks. In reality, you’re refining your fundamentals and positioning a lot of the time. The best guys are so unbelievably fundamentally sound, you can’t get them out of position because they’ve been in that position 1000’s of times before. If they’re a novice kid, practice should be FUN. Tumble, do gymnastics, practice simple things like getting in a good stance or running a half. Those will help kids learn strong fundamental skills that will help them throughout their careers rather than just win immediately.
Just research a guy by the name of Steve Sanderson. I think his kids did well in wrestling and became outstanding individuals.
Good luck, always be positive, don't rush things and let them have fun.
Good luck, always be positive, don't rush things and let them have fun.
i'm a dad of a 7yo who's about to enter his 3rd year wrestling and there's a lot of good advice here so far. something that our club coaches have said that i think really helps is to give your kid a minute after every match, win or lose, to decompress before reacting at all. let them go sit on the wall and cry if they need to or celebrate with their teammates, then let them come to you and you reward their effort. remind them that you're not proud because they won, but because they had the courage to go out there try their hardest. then buy them candy from the snack bar.
Live by the 10 min rule don't say anything for 10 min . Then tell them what they did well. Don't coach your own kid during matches let someone else do it.