Vermont Wrestling

no  i just dont understand why they cant use the head lock its part of the game. sorry i am so helll bent on it, maybe the person who made the rule got thrown in a head lock in a big match and is still  resentfull? i am not saying it is responible for for are poor showing at new englands, this is a new rule.  i am just saying it is a big kink in the armor.  and its hard to translate junior high to high school. some kids in junior high have not hit pubirty yet. so its hard to come pare those new england tournments. i agree they should be able to wrestle more then 5 matches a day.  just let the kids wrestle. and every thing will fall in to place.

JH eligibility for new englands would require a VPA change. I agree that this is how many states are filling their rosters, and I agree that it would be a very good thing. It would also solve some of the issues that we are having with respect to the JH season. Again, this is another good issue to bring up at the spring coaches meeting.

Speed622, the headlock rule was addressed at last spring's youth coaches meeting and not a single coach wanted to get rid of the rule. The only thing people wanted was clarification of the rule. Any standing head and arm, hands locked or not, is to be called a potentially dangerous move.

Takedown, first off NH wrestles mostly by grade as does ME. Here is NH schedule, http://www.nhwrestling.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4722 , this is why NH has to have a separate qualifier for New Englands. Secondly, the 5 match rule is a national rule, that is not to say we couldn't change it for our state, but it is not a limitation imposed by VT. It is a rule according to the NFHS rule book that we use. Lastly, there is a reason why the youth season looks like it does, let me give you the history. Probably about 10 years ago the VT K-8 season ran very similar in length to the other states. The K-8 coaches got together to discuss how to make our wrestlers better, and one of the popular ideas was to change the season to a longer 7-8 season, and a shorter K-6 season. The thinking behind this was that baby sitting K-2 was holding back our ability to give the 7-8 kids better coaching, and the 7-8 athletes had a much better probability of actually wrestling in HS. When this change happened 7-8 wrestling was added to the VPA jurisdiction. I do think that a better split possibly would be K-4 and 5-8. 5-8 would still have to be two divisions, 5-6, 7-8, as the VPA would not allow them to wrestle each other. Lastly, NH is going through this same debate right now about one bracket versus multiple 8-man brackets at states on their forum. They do it similar to us. I don't feel strongly on this, one way or another, but it would be good to have input from the people who run the tournament as to why this is being done. Right or wrong, I am sure there is a reason why.

I would like you to consider that the references to VT b/s might be un-called for. Most of the people who influenced these changes did so because they thought it was best for the sport. Many of these people are responsible for the fact that the sport even exists in VT, and without them most of us would have never been introduced to wrestling at all. Isham, Baker, Kerin, Fournier, Legacy, Brown, etc.. have worked their whole lives trying to make the sport better in VT, and they deserve at least respectful criticism. I am sure that their pride would not stand in the way of making changes for the good of the sport, as I know these men personally and they are of a quality that is rarely found today. These suggestions should be brought to the coaches meetings. I have personally attended almost all of the coaches meetings for the last seven years, and frankly have never heard any passionate discussion of these suggestions. Do you attend the coaches meetings?

If I may weigh in on this. 

One of the issues many programs struggle with is lack of coaching.  The same coaches that coach High School and Middle School generally are the same ones that run the youth program.  There are some exceptions (I know here at MAU we have been fortunate to have many qualified coaches willing to help out at various levels, but we seem to be the exception).

Starting early is god if you have the coaches to get it done.  Personally I have traveled all over the east coast going to different youth tournaments.  Each format has its own ups and downs.  I think that age (at the time of tournament) and a 4 man round robin or more is the best, again only my opinion.  By grade can sometimes pit the younger "summer baby" against a kid that may have stayed back.  Age seems to equal things out a bit.  Round Robin Madison Weights work well because you never know how many kids and what sizes show up at tournaments.  The Madison system helps manage the event better (and easier).  Round Robin guarentees mat time.....

As for the standing headlock.  I (we) hate the move and only regularly works at the lower levels (for the most part).    I think having 7-8 under the control of the VPA is fine.  As a school sponsored sport I think it offers up more opportunities to families that have financial problems (school generally provides everything but shoes) where as a club only sport,  parents are responsible to pay for most everything including tournament fees and travel to and from events.

Bottom line is we have to work together and promote the sport.  We should be recruiting year round and make the sport as accessible to as many as we can.  The rest are smaller details that can be worked out collectively at coaches meetings.  It was nice to see the spike in HS participants this year at states.  Hopefully we work hard and together to keep the numbers and interest up.

yea its in awful move its not like it dint help darrion caldwell.

My son has been wrestling sence he was in 3rd grade now he will be a freshman i was their when this rule was put in. It seemed like the only take down kids would do "not all of the kids but lots of them" was the standing head lock
 Does it stink maybe should it be changed maybe i think the kids now have moved on from just throwing the standing head lock. Now my son has moved on to HS so it dosn't affect us but i think it should be 5-8 wrestling same time as the rest of the states,not after they are all done now that said each town will have to find coaches.7-8 did very good at NE this year i don't now about 5-6 but we had a very good showing three 1st a few 5-6 places and  some 7-8 places and these kids lost both very close matches and some food for thought MA had three qulifiers and each weight class had 15 kids thats 45 per weight

Seriously, get over the rule that VT set for no standing headlock.  Anyone can throw a headlock.  This forces the kids to learn takedowns.  How many times have you ever seen a headlock thrown at the high school level (good wrestlers, not fish), yet alone in college, very seldom.  So, I agree the rule should stay in place.  All I would suggest is allowing it at states, but that alone can cause some confusion for the wrestlers. 

I am in complete favor of the headlock rule as it stands and think it simply slows down the learning curve of more sophisticated takedowns and combinations.  You let the kids use it and they just want to stick with it exclusively (at the expense of learning more important moves).  Why develop these bad habits in the first place.  Its not as if the headlock defense is difficult to teach.  I have to admit I'm cofussed about using it states?  May I ask what the logic is there?

so why have the rule in general if you can do it in mass? i mean maybe we should do it more like mass, sence they kick are ass. but thats upsurd! and i am crazy for evan suggesting it!