Wrestling blog:
http://www.obsessedwrestler.com/blog/reflection-on-my-unborn-sons-wrestling-career-when-should-i-introduce-him-to-the-sport/

Good read. The sooner the better I say about mat time

USMCdevil2005;1681630 wrote:Good read. The sooner the better I say about mat time

Thank you! Unsurprisingly, based on the feedback from other people who have read this article on other forums as well as social media, most of them are in agreement with you.

It's never too early for exposure, by that I mean taking them to a match to watch get down on the mat yourself with them and just wrestle around. Once they become aware of what's going on with the sport then start looking into clubs. But I wouldn't enter them into any matches or tournaments until they are mature enough to handle it, and with that depends on the child.

wraith51;1682121 wrote:It's never too early for exposure, by that I mean taking them to a match to watch get down on the mat yourself with them and just wrestle around. Once they become aware of what's going on with the sport then start looking into clubs. But I wouldn't enter them into any matches or tournaments until they are mature enough to handle it, and with that depends on the child.

100% agree! Had my son going to Bishop Ready's youth program at 6-7 yrs old and he got hammered by 9-10 yr olds (due to his size/weight) every day for 2 years before he decided that wrestling wasn't for him. In hindsight, I should have eased him into it instead of trying to force feed it to him (8th grader now, almost 6' & 160lbs, playing football and basketball). Live and learn I guess!! :huh:

Early exposure is good. I'm not a huge fan of early competition (early being 1-3rd grade). Or at least early heavy competition. Personally, I've never understood the whole 7 year old "hammer" thing. In my circle, I've seen more kids burn out than prosper, by starting young.

I started my son in 6th grade, specifically because I wanted him to wrestle in middle school and didn't want that to be his first exposure to the mat. He's on the young side for his grade, so facing 8th graders up to 2 years older would be tough enough, I wanted him to cut his teeth before 7th grade.

6th grade club season was tough because he faced a lot of kids who'd been wrestling since 1st grade. Got his rump kicked pretty good all year and only won once the whole season. It did help him learn the rules, understand the basics, and get over those first match jitters though, before he started with the middle school team. By the end of 8th grade, things 'clicked'. He understood his body and began to have demonstrable success on the mat.

If I could do it all over again, I could see starting him as early as 5th grade. I would not go earlier and I definitely would not start later than 7th.

Just my two cents.

My younger son is 9 and in 4th grade. I've asked if he would like to wrestle, but he seems to be following "big brother" and focusing on football (I only let him play flag until middle school) and basketball.

Really want him to wrestle, but I don't want to be "that dad"! :thumbdown:

This is all great feedback, guys. I'm starting to hear some similar ideas on other forums and on social media, that is, perhaps introducing my son as a 7 year old, for example, but not entering him into competition until he's 8 or 9. It's an interesting and strategic idea, I think.

What's great for me is that my fiance` hates basketball and doesn't want our future children to play so I at least have that support from the spouse to push wrestling a little bit more lol.

My nephew is a freshman in HS right now and has no interest in wrestling, he does like to watch, he'll sit there and watch it on the Big Ten Network with my Dad and I and he'll go to some of my meets when I coach but doesn't want to wrestle himself. I don't blame him, he doesn't have that mean streak you need, plus he's a heck of a baseball player. When he was born I was still in HS and my sister would bring him to my matches and when I was in college we would go watch OSU and he'd love it. When he was 4 my Dad and I took him to the kids club my old head coach ran just to get exposure and allow him to roll around with kids his age. Everyone there except my coach's son was a newbie so there were no egos and again he enjoyed that. But once he got to about 7 or 8 my Dad took him to his local club and only did it one night and no more after that. He never wrestled competitively, always just rolled around, around 6th grade he talked about wanting to wrestle but since then never has. Even being a wrestling coach I hate seeing a kid focus only on one sport but I think my nephew has made a good choice sticking with baseball. I guess the point of the story is even with early exposure some kids just don't want to do it and that's ok.

wraith51;1682507 wrote:What's great for me is that my fiance` hates basketball and doesn't want our future children to play so I at least have that support from the spouse to push wrestling a little bit more lol.

My nephew is a freshman in HS right now and has no interest in wrestling, he does like to watch, he'll sit there and watch it on the Big Ten Network with my Dad and I and he'll go to some of my meets when I coach but doesn't want to wrestle himself. I don't blame him, he doesn't have that mean streak you need, plus he's a heck of a baseball player. When he was born I was still in HS and my sister would bring him to my matches and when I was in college we would go watch OSU and he'd love it. When he was 4 my Dad and I took him to the kids club my old head coach ran just to get exposure and allow him to roll around with kids his age. Everyone there except my coach's son was a newbie so there were no egos and again he enjoyed that. But once he got to about 7 or 8 my Dad took him to his local club and only did it one night and no more after that. He never wrestled competitively, always just rolled around, around 6th grade he talked about wanting to wrestle but since then never has. Even being a wrestling coach I hate seeing a kid focus only on one sport but I think my nephew has made a good choice sticking with baseball. I guess the point of the story is even with early exposure some kids just don't want to do it and that's ok.

Your last point is a good one.