Winning isn't everything
(12/20/02)
The youth wrestling season is approaching fast and most programs are within a month of starting practices. I look forward to the youth season just as much as I did the high school season. I love being able to watch the youth wrestlers develop from beginners to good wrestlers. At the same time I go through the local high school line-ups and look at the many wrestlers that have come through the local programs. I look at the kids that have went undefeated in their youth wrestling seasons who now are lucky to win half their matches. I also look at the kids who have lost half of their matches in their youth wrestling seasons who are now qualifying for state. One reason I came up for this is that there is more emphasis on winning in the youth than there is preparing for the future.
The reason some of the kids that went undefeated in their youth seasons struggle in high school is because they would do anything to win when they were younger. How many times have most of those kids won by a throw or some kind of crazy move that pins their opponent. Those are the same kids that when they get to high school they wonder why they barely win half their matches. The reason is because those crazy moves don't work as often in high school as they do in youth wrestling.
The reason those kids that didn't achieve much success in their youth qualify for state in high school is because they spent their youth seasons practicing fundamentals and trying to get better. They didn't want to win on a head-steal or a cowcatcher. They were more worried about setting their opponents up for a sweet double leg takedown. They were probably well coached and were told to be patient that wins would come when it counted. Maybe if all those kids that won by head-steals when they were younger had developed a shot, they too would be qualifying for state, and some of them probably did develop a shot and are really successful.
The biggest reason for all this is parents and coaches. Nothing bothers me more than going to a youth tournament and having parents yelling at their kids after a loss, or coaches yelling at the volunteer refs because they messed up a call that
could have won the match for their wrestler. Not all parents yell, but the ones that do should take after the ones that don't and start encouraging their kids and explaining to them what they need to do to get better. Just like the parents not all coaches yell at the refs, but the coaches should understand that without those refs there would be no matches. They should be teaching their wrestlers not to let the ref decide their match. When they do yell at the refs they are teaching bad habits to their wrestlers.
Now don't get me wrong winning is fun and wins are nice, but they are a lot nicer in high school than they are in youth wrestling. Some of the natural athletes out there are fortunate enough to win in youth wrestling, high school wrestling, and even collegiate wrestling. One more thing to think about as I leave you, a lot of youth tournaments these days are offering trophies instead of medals. Is it possible that by having trophies that we are putting too much emphasis on winning and that this is the reason for the growing poor sportsmanship?
John Elmer
For
Wiwrestling.com
Written for WIwrestling.com by Freelance
Columnist John Elmer
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