Chris Mance II - Mental Skills Coach

Youth wrestling is unique when you compare it to most American sports. Kids don’t wrestle because of some dream of fame and fortune in some mythical future. Unlike the “ball” sports promoted by ESPN and other mainstream sports networks: basketball, baseball, soccer, tennis, and golf, there is no professional league waiting after graduation. As a result, most kids start wrestling typically because of one of four reasons:

1. The parent was a former wrestler and encourages wrestling
2. An older sibling wrestles or was a former wrestler
3. A friend wrestles
4. A coach from another sport (i.e. football) encourages wrestling to help their players become better athletes

Out of these four, anecdotally my experience has shown that unlike other sports, parents are by far the top reason why kids wrestle.

Assuming you’re reading this article because you are a parent of a wrestler that fits this description, I have a simple quote for you to live by.

No one has ever been successful doing something that they didn’t like.

John Maxwell

If you are a parent of a wrestler that started wrestling because of you, and you don’t want your child to quit the sport before high school, then you have one job above all else. Make sure your child falls in love with wrestling. If you push your child too hard to win at too young of an age then this won’t happen.

Winning is Not The Answer

Winning is not what makes wrestling enjoyable. Yes, winning feels better than losing in the short term. However, the process of getting to winning is what matters in the long run. You will get a better long term pay off than having your child be a youth national champion if your child enjoys:

• watching dual meets on the Big 10 network,
• going to high school matches,
• following NCAA tournament brackets, and
• listening to wrestling podcast.

In short, kids who love wrestling but are terrible youth wrestlers will have more long term success than a youth national champion who only wrestles because of a parent.