Are there height/weight requirements for wrestling? For example, if my child is X years old, Y tall, does he have to weight at least Z to compete. I know that there wasn't height requirements when I competed, just wondering if there is now.
Also, where would I find the charts?
No, there are no height requirements/provisions. The weight classes depend on the competition you are entering. Some tournaments have a "madison weight" system, where they group wrestlers as close as possible. Some tournaments have specific weights, even for the younger wrestlers. If your son is still pretty young, I wouldnt even worry about making a specific weight, I would just let him weigh in at whatever weight he weighs and wrestle.
Thanks sm,
My son is actually realllly young. 5 weeks to be exact, but this stems from a conversation my wife and I had the night before last. She's worried about one day letting our son wrestle, because of the bad press it has received over the last 5-10 years with weight cutting. I wrestled from the age of 5 and always cut weight, just not to the level of unhealthy. I was trying to find some info that would ease her discomfort with the sport. Not really important at this stage, because he's got several more years before then. I was just trying to lay some groundwork.
Southfan -
I think you can tell her that she doesn't need to worry. The bad press that wrestling received regarding weight cutting stemmed from one six week period. In 1997 Creatin (weight gain powder/formula) had just come out. Three different wrestlers at the college level (college- NOT youth league) died when they were cutting weight through dehydration while using Creatin.
Creatin has warnings ALL OVER the label about risk of dehydration. I don't mean to sound callous, but I don't understand why there were guys who were taking WEIGHT GAIN supplements while CUTTING WEIGHT, and especially why they were cutting weight through dehydration while on a supplement with dehydration warnings all over the friggen bottle!!! It's a tragedy that these guys died, but I have to say that they are borderline Darwin Award candidates for what they were doing.
That's where all of the bad press came from.
Anyway, the bad press did indeed force the wrestling world to clean up it's act regarding weight cutting, and they've started really clamping down on it. The weight making rules at the college level were completely changed around to make it much more difficult to cut weight. High schools take the issue much more seriously. And honestly, any youth league coach that encourages elementary-school aged kids to cut weight is simply an asshole. You just don't see many youth league coaches do that.
So I don't think your wife needs to worry too much. Also, with your experience in wrestling, you'll be able to monitor what he's doing and if he's cutting any weight - you'll also be able to tell if he's got f-ed up youth league coach, etc. As long as your son wants to do it, it'll probably be a cool experience for him.
Thanks Chip.
No problem. Sorry for the rant. :)
Can you tell I've had a few dozen people over the past few years say something like: "You wrestle? What's with, like, 100 guys dying every month because they cut 68 pounds and didn't eat or drink for, like, 3 weeks, and their heads all exploded, and their dicks fell off, and..."
It's gets a little old after a while... haha.