Postby aacoach52 » Sat Feb 18, 2017 12:22 am
coach70
I have thought about this and the wording since the rule came in. I think it should be 50% of all matches/weigh ins after a wrestler is eligible for the weight class. I don't think it has ever been stated that way though. The way it reads now, IMO, is if you never reach your mww, you never have to worry about the alpha date at all because it only applies to your mww. The only way we could check to see if someone was following the rule as it should be would be to log into trackwrestling and get the wrestlers full weight loss plan and know exactly when they were eligible for each weight class not just their minimum class. If your alpha date is on the first day of regionals, you are allowed to drop to that class for regionals. If that is the case it would have to be someone that had a high body fat % and was allowed to continuously lose weight throughout the season or someone that had their initial weight assessment late in the season and was still allowed to lose weight in mid February.
Also, whoever said it only applies to going down in weight class was right.
Another thing that is not quite clear is the minimum weight allowed for a wrestler. I'm pretty sure it doesn't apply to the 285 wrestler from the discussion, but I have seen it happen twice now that the minimum weight was not the same for everyone. From the example if a wrestler that wants to wrestle a heavier weight for what ever reason, and weighs in at 195.1, and has never weighed in under 195 (made scratch as we call it) then he/she is eligible for 220 and 285. The argument against that is that he/she doesn't meet the minimum but every wrestler that weighs in is eligible for two classes, the one they are in, and the one above.
I had a kid that I used at 132 most of the year bump up to 138 for a match. The other coach protested and said that he couldn't do it because he only weighed 127. something and it was the second day of the tournament so he was eligible for 126 according to the weight on the sheet. Unfortunately for us the young man's mww was 132 so he would never be allowed to wrestle 126 that year at all. In addition to that, he had never made 126 anyway so he was not allowed to take the 2 pound growth allowance or the extra pound for consecutive days. My argument for our wrestler was that he should get the two classes like everyone else and that the two classes were 132 and 138. The refs agreed and we went on. The next week it happened again to another kid from a different team. I spoke up and it was applied the same way.
If the kid mentioned above made 182 then he would have to be above 197 to wrestle 285 and above 198 on day two to stay at 285.
interesting