Dual Tournaments

This is an interesting time of year in the wrestling world. Tomorrow, the Junior Duals national tournament begins. Recently, the Cadet and Schoolboy national dual meet tournaments took place. Additionally, several dual meet tournaments are taking place across the state. Dual meet events have taken over the summer training and camp experiences. It's feeding a culture of athletes, parents and coaches whose primary interest is competition, not practice.

I've shared my distaste for the national dual meet tournaments with several other coaches and get the sense that many believe they're not necessary, they're "too much," and the timing is not conducive to being successful in Fargo. Why aren't we talking about it openly then?

I've had many conversations with coaches and parents about summer dual meet events hosted by high school and college programs and hear similar feedback to what I believe: that these events aren't making kids better wrestlers. Then why do those same coaches take their team? Why are we investing so much time and money into opportunities that aren't improving our wrestlers? Why can't we have this conversation?

Not enough coaches are asking the important questions in regards to summer dual events. Why are we going? Some say to build team chemistry. Is it working? Can that actually be measured? Or is it all just an illusion? Are teams that participate in dual tournaments improving? I mean, are they getting better? Is it money well spent? High school and college programs enjoy hosting dual tournaments because it's easy money (and they need it to help support a program, I get that). Is that why we're doing it?

On a national level, do the Cadet and Junior duals make sense? Is is wise to wrestle 20 matches in four days? Does this make kids better? Does it burn them up for the rest of the summer? Is it cost effective? Why do we do it? USA Wrestling and other organizations endorse it, is that reason enough for us to do it and does it benefit our wrestlers? Are we becoming a you-rah-rah team sport and are we supposed to develop superficial friendships through experiences like this?

I have a lot of questions about dual meet tournaments and it seems like I'm the only one asking them. When I do, I get answers that lead me to believe that I'm not alone on the potential harm of these events in June and July. Why aren't we talking about it at board meetings, on the forums, at tournaments, etc.?