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Q: It seems like every year there are several new high school freshmen "phenoms" that are winning state and national titles and people rave about their accomplishments as freshmen. However, so many of these kids have been held back now and are 15 or 16 years of age as freshmen. While winning a state or national title at any age or grade level is impressive, should 15 and 16-year-old freshmen be praised as phenoms because they are winning as freshmen? More importantly, isn't this incredibly unfair?
One of the greatest things about wrestling is that one can experience success in the sport without a whole lot of innate physical ability if they have the right work ethic. Unfortunately, if parents continue to hold their children back to gain an athletic advantage, an incredible work ethic may not be enough to overcome the physical advantages that come with age. What is the solution to prevent this from happening?
-- Ricky T.
Foley: I think you are asking two questions. First, why are recent freshman so good? Second, if their development has something to do with redshirting your high school kid, how can that be prevented. There is some overlap, but likely not as much as you assume.
The normal high school kid is scheduled to graduate at 18 years old. Some, like me, are summer birthdays and don't turn 18 until just before college. It's a seemingly small differential, and would have remained a small causality had it not been for New Yorker columnist and New York Times bestselling author's book "Outliers."
In that book Gladwell goes to great lengths to describe why so many Canadian hockey players have the same birth month, and after pages and pages of analysis, presents the fairly straightforward opinion that the birth month (January in this case) had helped because in the Canadian system those boys had been bigger earlier, which in turn lent itself to several dozen secondary benefits like better coaching and more opportunity to make travel teams.
Moms and dads around the world read Gladwell's piece and immediately stuck their kids in preschool until they were old enough to drive.
Why?
Because your job as a parent is to give yourself every opportunity they need in order to help them succeed. Some parents give their kids cars, pay for college, and set up cushy internships and others simply tell Johnny that it's not time for first grade. From the viewpoint of the child it works wonders, but the problem comes when EVERY parent starts holding their kid back a year or two. What happens then is a fundamental shift in the equation.
School districts have started to address the problem of redshirting little kids. In Chicago a law was passed forcing every kid to be in school by his 6th birthday. Parents sued for the right to hold them back, but have yet to change the law. It's not surprising to learn that Texas parents were the worst offenders, largely because of the state's obsession with football and the need for children to excel at the game.
Looking around the current landscape of NCAA wrestling studs I'm not seeing too many who are obscenely over-age. One possible exception is Undrakh (Ugi) from The Citadel who immigrated from Mongolia last year while firmly in his mid-twenties. Another would be Ed Ruth, but he accumulated his years as a post-graduate and later as a redshirt at Penn State. He's a 22-year-old junior. Logan Stieber is about to become a 22-year-old sophomore. I don't know the details except that he redshirted. I'm sure some of the readers will explain. Penn State's Matt Brown is also in his young twenties as a sophomore, though he spent two years on an LDS mission in Africa.
The young guys are getting better because they have more access to information. Though it seems like it's been out forever. YouTube debuted in February of 2005, roughly the same time that many of our collegiate seniors were entering high school. Think about the impact of that much technique? They could suddenly access matches that used to only be found in your crazy assistant wrestling coach's garage. Those videos went mobile. Then came Flo. Add on to that an appreciation among parents for the value of college scholarships and the need for more individualized coaching and you have the perfect storm.
There aren't a ton of secrets about what you need to do to get better in wrestling, but the techniques you needed used to be difficult to find. Now they're essentially in the ether.
The younger wrestlers will continue to make an impact in college wrestling. And while some are doing it because they're 25, most will just be adapting and specializing in the sport of wrestling from a younger age. In many ways this type of youth explosion signals something that most curmudgeon wrestling fans would never admit: Right now we are in the Golden Era for our sport.
Be thankful.
Q: What do you think of Iowa's 125-pound backup, Cory Clark, beating Jesse Delgado 6-1 this last weekend?
-- Justin H.
Cory Clark (Photo/John Sachs, Tech-Fall.com)However, Clark does prove that if you have to wrestle with that maniac McDonough every day you will get better. You have to get better. McDonough is his reality and being that he's wrestling at Iowa and is likely walking up Carver-Hawkeye on his hands right now, he's a tough little monster. He's not breaking for McDonough.
I wonder if that win will be enough to make him the preseason No. 1 in 2013. That would make Ricky T. (first question above) lose his mind!
Q: My son is a 12-year-old sixth-grader and has been wrestling for the past three years. What do you think the appropriate level of involvement in the sport should be for a kid his age? (I believe in a previous mailbag you addressed this topic and if so, I apologize, I cannot find it). We live in New Jersey and the best kids at his age wrestle year-round. That said, I question whether success at the youth level has a high correlation with success at the high school level. Moreover, burnout and overuse injuries seem to be significant risks with year round training in any sport, particularly in a sport such as wrestling.
-- Tom C.
Foley: Jim Harshaw believes that his kid should run wind sprints after practice, so ... (Subscribe on iTunes!). I'm kidding.
My favorite J-School professor -- the man for whom Aaron Sorkin indirectly used as inspiration for his Newsroom character Charlie Skinner -- once gave our class the best piece of advice I've ever heard about how to handle a moral conundrum. Find a friend. Make that friend your lifelong ally when matters of the morality come up. Call that friend and lay out what's bothering you and then when you ask their opinion, don't listen to their response. Instead, pay attention to what YOU are actually saying to that friend. The best advice is your own, and it sounds to me like you're letting the pressure of the NJ system influence future decisions, or make you doubt older ones.
Wrestling isn't easy. I'm not a parent, but unless my kid is flinging himself at a wrestling mat and sleeping in a headgear, I'd rather him stick to ball sports until his 11th birthday. I think -- and maybe this is where you should tune me out -- it's silly to push your kids into too many practices and summer camps at too young an age, especially if he's uncertain if he likes the sport. Wrestling is right for some kids, but the high school and college wrestling seasons are awfully long and filled with injuries and frustrations. Why put that on a kid who probably just wants to hang out with his friends and kick a soccer ball?
Wrestling is a contact-heavy sport. Oddly, I'd recommend jiu-jitsu for young kids interested in grappling. There is a ton of discipline, kids stay humble, and it stretches a child's problem-solving skills. He or she will also be able to defend themselves for a lifetime, increase their flexibility, and be a monster on top should they ever choose to wrestle.
Whatever you decide, don't allow this to happen ...
More Multimedia Halftime Videos ...
Cutting weight? Jesse Thielke (Wisconsin) posted this on Facebook. It looks like the Japanese women's team is helping one of their athletes lose the last bit of weight via hip toss. I don't know how that works, but it brings up two very interesting discussion topics. Should 16-year-olds of any nationality or gender be cutting this much weight? And what does this video tell us about why the Japanese are the best in the world?
Lots of good judo grips on display. The Ukraine: Pretty much one of the worst countries to find yourself in a parliamentary brawl.
Q: Do you think the MHSAA's (Michigan High School Athletic Association) restricted mile rule of 300 miles (including no team can be at the event that traveled over 300 miles) hurts their wrestler's scholarship potential at all? With so many large tournaments in the Midwest with teams from all over the country (that Michigan teams cannot attend) it seems like wrestlers from other states have a better chance at being seen.
-- Tom B.
Foley: Restricting the travel of high school teams to out-of-state tournaments, or placing mileage limitations on travel absolutely hurts their chances of earning a scholarship. The rule exists across the country, and it seems inspired by Footloose, where memory of long ago car accidents and rumors of bad stuff happening impacts the child's ability to expand their boundaries.
Is there an appeal process?
Q: You have featured questions about how deep 165 and 184 are going to be this year. Here is a link about how deep 285 is going to be this year. Perhaps an argument could be made how deep every weight is, every year.
-- Eugene L.
Foley: You can certainly make an argument for any weight you like, but 165, 184 and 197 stick out to readers because they have more than one NCAA champion at the weight. And in the case of the first two weights they also have very deep rosters filled with multiple-time All-Americans and NCAA finalists.
Q: In past years the Big Ten Network's (BTN) coverage of wrestling was somewhat respectable and seemed to get better each season. However, this season's coverage by BTN is pretty pathetic; two PSU matches, two Iowa matches, and only one or two Minnesota matches (others included but only those for the top tier programs of the conference). Sure, they have an online package, but it costs additional money, even if you upped your TV package to get BTN (more money for something they should televise anyway). It's crazy that I have to see other sports so overdone (basketball, football, and women's volleyball), but the sport that the Big Ten dominates year after year gets such little respect from its own network. Is there any way to organize a coordinated effort to lobby BTN to up their coverage?
-- Ryan P.
Foley: I posted your question on Twitter and received several types of responses. Many thought that the BTN should air more coverage on the broadcast channel, and most scoffed at the idea of paying more for the online coverage.
The BTN is a big company that's driven by profits. When I reported this story last season their PR person made some salient points about viewership numbers across sports and how the viewing habits of wrestling fans impact their need to show matches live. Unfortunately, it seems like not much has changed over the past year. The sports that make money are still given first run and after that they spread the remaining time slots fairly evenly across the sports.
Wrestling is not going to be covered in prime time on any cable or satellite channel, with the notable exception of the NCAA tournament. We need to be realistic about what we can achieve and then develop a plan to cater to that market. Is spending an extra $10 per month for three months ideal? No. But you get what you want relatively cheaply.
Also, I know that BTN's Student U broadcasts can be atrocious. The journalism kids aren't always wrestling junkies, but on the level they do a good job, and since part of the deal is to have the students run some of the broadcasts, they aren't going anywhere soon.
We should voice our displeasure in a respectful way and see where that takes us. But for now lets be understanding of the learning curve, appreciate the access we do have, and find new ways to enjoy our favorite teams compete.
Q: Boehner v Obama?
-- Tom C.
Foley: "Charisma" and "Big Balls."
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