Iowa Youth Wrestling Camps

[Kookie4IU]

Has anyone sent their kids to the Iowa Youth Wrestling camps? If so, how was it?

Some background...I have a 5th grader that is a first year wrestler that has absolutely gone head over heels in love with the sport. His old man played football and basketball and I know next to nothing about it. The biggest thing is wrestling was his choice and I literally can't keep him off the mat right now, and he would happily wrestle 7 days a week if he could ("Dad, I have a lot of catching up to do."). It's been awesome to see.

Even tho he's totally a beginner, he's had some success and won quite a few matches and even a couple tournaments in his first 2 months. He is getting coached by Chad Red, who's son is Chad Red Jr the freshman at Nebraska...who went 189-0 in HS. Coach Red is a no-nonsense dude and told me that he's really got some unnatural natural ability in the sport and even more so he has the drive to get better. I'm really proud of him...and trying to foster that right now since, like i said, this is the first sport that's "his" and not because mom and dad signed him up for it!

Anyway, I also have some reasons to visit IC, so I wanted to check into the Iowa camps this summer. Any feedback is appreciated!

My biggest question is that he is a beginner, and while he's gotten beat by some more experienced and more "elite" competition, he's never gotten totally worked over (yet). He's always at least been competitive and fought. So I don't want to send him to camp if he's going to be holding back his wrestling partners due to lack of experience.

And even if that were to happen, that's all part of the process and he's been mature enough to not like it, but understand it. Just looking for some others experiences! TIA!

 

[championhawk]

There is a free kids camp before the Wisconsin dual. Let him get a taste of it. It sounds like he would love it. I was going to start a thread with info.

 

[pumpdog20]

To be fair, I don't think this parent is looking for the free clinic that occurs annually before one of the duals. You're talking about maybe an hour of instruction of learning 1 or 2 basic moves from Ubasa. I think that's more suited for young kids who are already at the dual to watch and feel the "awe" factor of being on the mat in CHA.

 

[championhawk]

To be fair, I don't think this parent is looking for the free clinic that occurs annually before one of the duals. You're talking about maybe an hour of instruction of learning 1 or 2 basic moves from Ubasa. I think that's more suited for young kids who are already at the dual to watch and feel the "awe" factor of being on the mat in CHA.

I was going to post this regardless. Do you think he may have a chance to talk to somebody in Carver that could answer his questions about the summer camp?

 

[Kookie4IU]

I should have also added...I am in Indiana. I just happen to have a "kid", former player that currently plays football for the Hawkeyes so I usually like to drop in and check up on them anyway...and this player is my son's "friend" and idol...so this is a way to kill 2 birds.

And I was talking about an overnight camp...I should have been more clear so my bad.

Thanks for the responses.

 

[artradley]

IMO most camps are fairly useless. A few days of wrestling -- which always includes a ton of down time -- isn't going to help much. Guys will show you about 50 moves during the time, but kids won't actually learn any of them. That said, don't worry about him holding anybody back; these camps are filled with beginners.

If he wants to get better at the sport, the best bet is to find a local club where he can wrestle two or three times a week all year round. The instructor will have some pet skills he likes to teach, so your kid will have five or ten of those skills taught to him over-and-over; to the point that he'll actually learn them and be able to use them in matches. More importantly, so much of wrestling is developing instincts and muscle memory; regardless of skills taught you get better simply by wrestling and wrestling and wrestling. Enter an occasional - occasional - tournament just to get him some taste of competing as opposed to practicing and to see what he needs to work on.

Congratulations on your son discovering the sport. As a youth coach and father of a former wrestler, I can tell you it has the opportunity to teach self-confidence and life lessons in a way incomparable to any other sport.

 

[Kookie4IU]

IMO most camps are fairly useless. A few days of wrestling -- which always includes a ton of down time -- isn't going to help much. Guys will show you about 50 moves during the time, but kids won't actually learn any of them. That said, don't worry about him holding anybody back; these camps are filled with beginners.

If he wants to get better at the sport, the best bet is to find a local club where he can wrestle two or three times a week all year round. The instructor will have some pet skills he likes to teach, so your kid will have five or ten of those skills taught to him over-and-over; to the point that he'll actually learn them and be able to use them in matches. More importantly, so much of wrestling is developing instincts and muscle memory; regardless of skills taught you get better simply by wrestling and wrestling and wrestling. Enter an occasional - occasional - tournament just to get him some taste of competing as opposed to practicing and to see what he needs to work on.

Congratulations on your son discovering the sport. As a youth coach and father of a former wrestler, I can tell you it has the opportunity to teach self-confidence and life lessons in a way incomparable to any other sport.

Thank you. I appreciate the insight. Here in our corner of Indiana we are incredibly blessed to have 2 great private gyms / clubs close in addition to our HS having a great program and club. So lots of options and opportunity.

I especially appreciate your comments on occasional tournaments. I have maybe been doing that all wrong, coming from a basketball background where getting as much game action is key. Lol. He loves to compete and has been enthusiastic about competing, so we were going gung ho with tournaments. I will look to cut that back now...as what you say makes sense.

Thanks again. As I told my kid...he's way tougher than his old man. I made it all of 1 practice before I decided this wasn't for me and I headed back to the hardwood! So I'm learning myself...

 

[artradley]

Thank you. I appreciate the insight. Here in our corner of Indiana we are incredibly blessed to have 2 great private gyms / clubs close in addition to our HS having a great program and club. So lots of options and opportunity.

I especially appreciate your comments on occasional tournaments. I have maybe been doing that all wrong, coming from a basketball background where getting as much game action is key. Lol. He loves to compete and has been enthusiastic about competing, so we were going gung ho with tournaments. I will look to cut that back now...as what you say makes sense.

Thanks again. As I told my kid...he's way tougher than his old man. I made it all of 1 practice before I decided this wasn't for me and I headed back to the hardwood! So I'm learning myself...

As far as tournaments go -- if he loves them then go ahead and keep entering. I just would make sure it doesn't consume so much of your time that it takes away from club time. Because a one hour club session will involve 20 minutes of instructions and 20 minutes of live wrestling. A small tournament with 8-man brackets usually means an entire day in a stinky gym for maybe 5 or 10 minutes of live wrestling. It's just a time-management issue. It is a lot different than basketball, where a couple of games of basketball involves a LOT of playing, even in blow-outs. Catch a weak bracket in a disorganized tournament and you might waste ten hours to get two or three minutes of wrestling.

btw -- do you have a local youth program where they have weekly meets, or youth dual teams? My son had a rec program that had Saturday morning meets throughout the winter, culminating with two tournaments. They also fielded a dual team that had an eight-meet schedule, with its own tournament at the end of the year. He also entered the USAW youth state tournament; so he had a lot of competition built-in without going to open tournaments.

If you don't have that kind of organization I suppose he will need to enter a lot of tournaments to get organized competition.

 

[Old_wrestling_fan]

IMO most camps are fairly useless. A few days of wrestling -- which always includes a ton of down time -- isn't going to help much. Guys will show you about 50 moves during the time, but kids won't actually learn any of them. That said, don't worry about him holding anybody back; these camps are filled with beginners.

If he wants to get better at the sport, the best bet is to find a local club where he can wrestle two or three times a week all year round. The instructor will have some pet skills he likes to teach, so your kid will have five or ten of those skills taught to him over-and-over; to the point that he'll actually learn them and be able to use them in matches. More importantly, so much of wrestling is developing instincts and muscle memory; regardless of skills taught you get better simply by wrestling and wrestling and wrestling. Enter an occasional - occasional - tournament just to get him some taste of competing as opposed to practicing and to see what he needs to work on.

Congratulations on your son discovering the sport. As a youth coach and father of a former wrestler, I can tell you it has the opportunity to teach self-confidence and life lessons in a way incomparable to any other sport.

I agree with this. ^^ FWIW, one of my boys was initially interested in soccer and attended some camps, etc. But when he joined a club where he practiced regularly and attended the "super skills" nights where they taught specific technique he bloomed virtually overnight. Similarly, when he later got interested in wrestling, the real difference maker was the local club time on the mat and more personalized instruction.

Most of the camps are "farms" and very little actual technique is retained v. regular club activities.