Should wrestlers talk to their parents between tournament matches?

[jross]

Some coaches want the wrestlers to...

• sit with their team the whole time
• watch videos after the tournament is over, not in between matches
• not allow parent instruction/coaching between matches

Does the relative knowledge of the coaches and parents matter... 

[scourge165]

6 hours ago, jross said:

Some coaches want the wrestlers to...

• sit with their team the whole time
• watch videos after the tournament is over, not in between matches
• not allow parent instruction/coaching between matches

Does the relative knowledge of the coaches and parents matter... 

During a duel, fine, but a tournament? Nah, that's silly. 

You're stuck in a fieldhouse all day. Sorry, but what type of dick is going to say, "hey, don't go over there and spend the 95% of the time you're not Wrestling with those people who traveled hours to watch you Wrestle.

As for the videos...again, indifferent. If I have(had) a 2 seed, I didn't want him watching the top seed every match. I'll watch him and if there's anything specific, I'll let him know. He's also GOING to watch because kids don't listen, but I want them to take their minds off Wrestling. This sport is a grind. And if it's the Beast of the East(we didn't go to that, just a hypothetical) I actually WANT my kids to go spend time with their families, laugh at stupid videos, or just hang out with their teammates screwing around and joking.

 

The key is just having good leaders on the team and a good culture. The program I stepped into had both. I didn't need to do a whole lot. We had a team warmup 45 minutes after weigh-ins(in-between the trainer would do the taping and whatnot). An intense, 15 minute drill session to work up a sweat, loosen up the muscles. 

Then we'd have a quick team meeting after every round. They knew exactly where to be. Just a quick check up. But I'd spend time with the parents myself and the kids would be in the stands with uncles and parents whenever they wanted. 

 

 

Edit-In terms of the coaching, that's something you just have to deal with. And some of the guys had parents who'd wrestled for years. There's always a lot of pain in the ass parents, but that's part of dealing with kids. And you need to know when to bite your tongue. Parents complained I didn't yell enough during matches(because yelling "out, out, out!" is super effective). Some that I yelled too much. Some that I yelled at the refs too much, some that I didn't work the refs enough. You're never going to please the parents of the ~20 kids you'll have Wrestling varsity. You shouldn't try to.

 

But the larger point, Wrestling isn't "fun." The sport is great, it's rewarding, but I'm not trying to make the tournaments more grueling than they already are with the Wrestling.

Edited February 24, 2023 by scourge165

[nick]

For me

in duals, don’t allow phones out on the bench and you have to be cheering and involved. No leaving to see parents and all matches are recorded in MatBoss so no reason for phone.

For tournaments, you do you. Odds are it’s on Track and I’m not gonna tell you when your up so you’ll need your phone for that and I typically bring two full teams to tournaments so no way I could even manage any sorta rule there (we bring our B and JV teams to tournaments in Kentucky while varsity wrestled in Indiana)

For the varsity kids, we will do team meetings between rounds to go over stuff but that’s about it