So took my son to his first ever team wrestling tournament. He went 0-4. But he’s a kindergartener and all 4 kids he wrestled, were 3rd graders with 3-4 years of practice and matches. One is currently 11-0 and he went the full distance and only lost 2-1 to him.
But what was interesting is what the head coach came up and told me afterwards. He said that he has been coaching for youth and highschool kids for 17 years, (currently the high schoolers are ranked number 1 in the state, again), he said he’s never seen such a young kid as passionate or as thirsty for knowledge in all his years of coaching. He said that after every match, my son was coming back up, full of smiles, begging to go again, asking what he could do to win and what he did wrong. A kindergartener!
My son has had a whopping 9 practices and 5 matches and to get that said was shocking. This coming from a coach who’s produced multiple state champions and some of those turned in NCAA champs.
He also advised me to NOT push my son. He said let him ride the wave. If he wants to wrestle, let him wrestle. If he doesn’t want to go to the optional tournaments, don’t force it. He said he’s got a natural passion and instinct that is very rare. Raw and rare. He thinks he could be a force if he stays with it and continues to thrive to improve.
At first, I figured he was just blowing smoke, trying to encourage. But he’s also now invited my son to the “advanced” tourney on Wednesday. They never take kindergarteners or even first graders to the advance tournaments.