Load Management

[Wrestleknownothing]

I am not 100% sure what to make of this so I thought I would just throw it out there for discussion.

There has been a lot of talk (understatement alert) on this board about the decreasing number of bouts wrestlers wrestle these days. Some see water fowl wherever they look, while others see wisdom. After all this is a sport with a near guarantee of injury.

I decided to take a look at bouts wrestled throughout the years for NCAA champions. Champions only, because we mostly worry about seeing the best wrestle more often. And it was a heavy lift finding historical totals. I also selectively chose years (roughly every 5 years, but not always) because there are nearly 900 champions at this point. Think of this as my own form of load management.

The Data

My Observations

• The early years were so vey different. Travel was expensive and slow, making it very inefficient. So it just did not happen. Many teams did not bother attending the NCAAs in the years it was not near by. So usage rates were very low. 
• Prior to WW2 NCAA champions typically wrestled fewer than 10 bouts. With 3, or maybe 4, coming at the tournament, "regular" seasons were virtually non-existent. It is also possible that they existed in greater numbers, but there just is no record of them. Who is to say?
• In the post war era, there was a steady increase in the number of bouts through the late 1960's.
• But things really took off in the mid-70's. This also corresponds with the peak period for team counts. Hmmmm.
• The moment continued until bout totals peaked in the late 90's before beginning the steady decline we have all felt and bemoaned.
• 1980 was a weird and wonderful outlier of a year. Cal State Bakersfield wrestlers must not have attended a single class. The Roadrunners had two champs that year, Joe Gonzales and John Azevedo, who wrestled 55 and 53 bouts, respectively. All wins, by the way. With Howard Harris of Oregon State also putting it on the line 46 times (all wins), the west coast was THE hotbed of wrestling. 154 up, 154 down.

Have we found a natural equilibrium (fewer teams means fewer opponents)?

Or do we slide further from here (where for art thou holiday tournament?)?

What is the right balance between usage and giving the people what they want?

[NM1965]

I think Cael has discovered the sweet spot. The best number of matches to wrestle in a year is 20-25. More than that and you have more opportunities to get injured or to burn out. I know people are complaining that PSU's guys often don't have many matches, and I think that's by design, and I think it's pretty smart to keep guys matches at about that number. Yeah, guys can (and do) often wrestle a lot more matches than that, but they are risking their health every time they step on the mat. I think it's good to limit the number of matches and it also gives opportunities for the backups to get a little mat time. PSU has a ludicrously deep bench partially as a result, which is another plus.