Don't Plan on It

Think you have to cut weight to win 4 NCAA titles?  Think again

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  photo from http://devsoc.cals.cornell.edu/

Hopefully you made time last Saturday to watch the NCAA Division 1 Finals.  If you didn't, you're crazy.  There were several great matches, most notably the 165 pound bout, where Cornell senior Kyle Dake made history by becoming only the third wrestler to win 4 NCAA titles, the first to do it without taking a redshirt year, and the first to do it in 4 different weight classes.  As impressive as 4 titles is, it's probably almost as unheard of for a college wrestler to move up a weight class every year.  Dake won his titles at 141, 149, 157, and 165.

On the other hand, two-time NCAA Champ and three-time finalist Matt McDonough of Iowa had the misfortune of not even making it into the top eight this year.  The striking difference between his career and Dake's: he wrestled at 125 each year.  I'm not saying that it's impossible for a college age wrestler to be the same size for four years, but it is very difficult to maintain that, and I have no doubt in my mind that the weight cutting wore McDonough down, while the lack thereof made Dake stronger.

My college coach once told me that on average, college wrestlers wrestle at one weight class for their first two seasons, and move up a class for their final two years.  But just because that's the tendency, it doesn't mean that everyone can shoehorn themselves into that.  The same goes for wrestling at any age level; everyone grows at different rates.

A few weeks ago when I was at the OAC State Tournament here in Ohio, there were some dads/coaches that were discussing what weight they thought their sons would wrestle at the following year.  It just seemed so absurd to me.  Here it is March, and these growing boys won't compete again until December - how in the world can you predict how big your kid will be then?  In my opinion, if a wrestler is eating well and staying active, they shouldn't worry about their weight during the off-season.  Instead of planning their weight class in advance, they should just let themselves grow naturally and see where they end up next winter.

There will always be some people that don't follow that advice, but if you want some solid proof that this theory works, I'd reread the first two paragraphs.

Cutting's clearly not necessary,
Jeff