Mandatory "Dead Weeks or Weekends"

[aaacoach11]

With the ever growing problem of skin issues, would it benefit to have mandatory dead weeks or weekends periodically throughout the season where no competition can take place? Only practice allowed. I would think that maybe once in January and then once the week and weekend before regionals. I know this would be a tough spill for us who love the sport to swallow, but we must deal with reality. We have a huge black eye right now on our sport. Being a wrestling guy I was approached by many people throughout the weekend and today at work about the situation. The snide comments and fear of what a wrestler is exposed to was disheartening. What are others thoughts on this idea?

[Bearhugger]

With the ever growing problem of skin issues, would it benefit to have mandatory dead weeks or weekends periodically throughout the season where no competition can take place? Only practice allowed. I would think that maybe once in January and then once the week and weekend before regionals. I know this would be a tough spill for us who love the sport to swallow, but we must deal with reality. We have a huge black eye right now on our sport. Being a wrestling guy I was approached by many people throughout the weekend and today at work about the situation. The snide comments and fear of what a wrestler is exposed to was disheartening. What are others thoughts on this idea?

If such a thing would be imposed, I would recommend the weekend and following days before the regional tournaments.

Of course any given coach could set up their schedule this way now if they wanted.

I "heard" that doctors were going to be at the regional tournaments going forward. I hope somebody can comment on this.

[aaacoach11]

I would love to see a full 2 weeks between the last regular season competition and the regionals. For most that would be your conference tournament. I really do feel that this would benefit the sport. College has 2 weeks off before their conference and another 2 weeks between conference and nationals. Also, I like the idea of having an onsite doctor at regional weigh ins. Lets clean up the sport. We have done wonders with weight management and savage weight cutting, now lets find a way to protect our wrestlers from skin issues.

[coach_williams]

First and foremost, I would tolerate no snide comments about wrestling because of skin issues. These issues do not just magically appear in the wrestling room. They are often carried into the wrestling room by football players who spend their entire season wallowing around in mud and dirt that is literally loaded with bird and animal feces and urine and waste products from trash and the environment. Three years ago our middle school team had a season-long battle with ringworm and impetigo and I personally witnessed a football player walk into the room with ringworm on him the first day of practice. Cleanliness starts on Day 1. Inspect your wrestlers the first day they arrive for practice. If one of them has a skin issue, send them to the doctor and report the skin issue to your AD as having arrived ( and clarify that it arrived on a football player, if it applies) and make sure they stay out of the wrestling room until it is cleared up.

With that said, taking a week/weekend off is not necessary. What IS necessary is coaches who actually care more about the sport and athlete's health than having all of their wrestlers on the mat. Our wrestlers had zero skin issues all of the practice period, but as soon as we hit a few tournaments we had impetigo in the room. That came from other wrestlers, no doubt about it. You can bend over backwards to try and prevent skin diseases, but if just one coach looks the other way and sends a wrestler on the mat with a skin disease, not only will the other wrestler have it, but every wrestler that wrestles on that mat afterwards is at risk as well.

[matcoach90]

I'm liking the ideas posted above. I do think a main problem is some coaches, wrestlers and even parents, looking the other way or even trying to hide some skin issues. This practice is very inappropriate and so irresponsible... which should go without saying. There should be skin checks at every practice. Another issue is middle school and peewee wrestling. How many HS programs allow peewee and/or middle school to participate with or practice on high school mats? I know there are a few at least, and I'm not condemning this, because I think this interaction is good for the sport. Which brings me to my point... I have personally seen many weigh ins for open tournaments, both peewee and middle school, not doing a skin check, or at least not doing an adequate check. This should be intolerable. Everyone from peewee to high school should be more responsible and held accountable for the skin health of our wrestlers. I was even chided on another post on this site by someone for worrying so much about HSV1. The fact these skin diseases exist never discouraged me from my wrestling career, nor the career of my son. However, this type of thinking that it shouldn't weigh on ones mind is a little shortsighted in my opinion. Anything to make our great sport safer and more responsible should always be on the table.