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Discussion Topic: Question about youth wearing t-shirts & shorts at tournaments
Mike Schweitzer added to this discussion on December 2, 2009
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We've all heard the "I won't wrestle if I have to wear a singlet" statement before so wanted to get everyone's opinion of what I'm seeing lately. My son wrestles in the Cincinnati Youth Wrestling league as part of a local club and it is surprising to see the number of kids who are going out there in a t-shirt and shorts vs. a singlet (have seen more in two tournaments that I did all of last year). I'm all for growing the sport, but feel that these kids should at least wear an Under Armor knock off ($8 at WalMart) to prevent the broken finger potential if they refuse to wear the singlet.
As an aside, it was really funny in the first match of the year-----a kid, about 9 or 10 yrs old, gets on the mat in t-shirt and shorts and you could tell that the ref was trying to get him to take off his shirt because he was not in a singlet. The kid looked up horrified at the ref and shook his head as if to say "hell no, I'm not taking off my shirt". I know---you had to be there, but the look on the kid's face was priceless. The tourney director came over and told the ref (high school kid) to let him wear his shirt.
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Discussion Topic: Question about youth wearing t-shirts & shorts at tournaments
Mark Palumbo added to this discussion on December 2, 2009
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I would like to see more of a cut off wet suit type singlet either knees to elbows or full lenth wrists to feet. The one thing that can kill our sport is the skin funk. No way mom let's little johnny go out for the team if he has a chance of getting MRSA or other crud.
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Discussion Topic: Question about youth wearing t-shirts & shorts at tournaments
Mike Schweitzer added to this discussion on December 3, 2009
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Steve----because of the "skin crud" my son now wears a long sleeve Under Armour shirt underneath his singlet----and am thinking about having him wear the UA leggings too. Unfortunately I don't think the crud spreads so much from kid to kid as it does from kid to mat and then mat to kid, another kid, another kid, etc. I'm just not sure we do a good enough job keeping the mats sanitized. We went to a youth BJJ tournament up north over the summer where most of the kids (about age 6-13) were grappling shirtless---granted, the gym was about 90 that day-- but what surprised me was that each kid received a skin check before the match, and then about halfway through the day they took a break to sanitize the mats. My son has had ringworm twice and was wearing a singlet in both cases. Other boys on his team----who he did not wrestle----also got the worm at the same tournaments so it was pretty easy to figure out that it was coming from the mat and not the kids.
To get back on topic (sorry for long post) I would prefer to see these kids who are in t-shirts and shorts either wear the knock off under armour stuff, wear no shirt like the BJJ kids mentioned above, or best of all---tell their team's coach that it's "singlet or don't wrestle". Sure, we may lose a few if they have to wear a singlet----but once they get to middle/high school they won't have a choice. Best to get them in line now!
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Discussion Topic: Question about youth wearing t-shirts & shorts at tournaments
Jeremy Craft added to this discussion on December 3, 2009
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My son wears underarmor pants and shirt under his singlet b/c he is allergic to the mat.
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Discussion Topic: Question about youth wearing t-shirts & shorts at tournaments
Mike Schweitzer added to this discussion on December 4, 2009
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Jeremy---we have a kid in our club with the same situation. Tell your son he is not alone.
Just for the heck of it I took an informal pole of a few of the kids last night at practice and asked them if they had a choice would they rather wrestle in a singlet or t-shirt and shorts and they OVERWHELMINGLY answered "board" or "fight" shorts----and one of them said "yeah, and no shirt" and all the others started yelling (you how kids get excited when they like something they hear) in agreement saying that it would be cool if they could wrestle like that. Must be the UFC on TV effect. Or maybe I'm just getting old.....
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