Prep wrestling weight classes changed and more

The National Federation of State High School Associations announced that it will change prep wrestling's weight divisions for the 2011-12 season, keeping 14 classes for competition. The new classes include 106, 113, 120, 126, 132, 138, 145, 152, 160, 170, 182, 195, 220 and 285. It was one of 17 rules changes the NFHS board approved at its meetings April 4-6 in Indianapolis.

The increase includes three pounds to the lowest weight class, while eliminating a weight class between the 125 to 145-pound range and adding an upper weight. Four weights remain the same, including 145, 152 and 160. The heavyweight class will also remain at 285.

“The change in weight classes resulted from a three-to-four year process utilizing data from the National Wrestling Coaches Association (NWCA) Optimal Performance Calculator,” said Dale Pleimann, chair of the NFHS Wrestling Rules Committee and former assistant executive director of the Missouri State High School Activities Association. “The rules committee was able to analyze data from almost 200,000 wrestlers across the country, with the goal to create weight classes that have approximately seven percent of the wrestlers in each weight class.

“Throughout the process, each state association was kept completely informed and was provided multiple opportunities for input. The results of the last survey of each state association indicated that the majority of states favored a change, and the committee listened and acted accordingly.”

Iowa High School Athletic Association Assistant Executive Director Alan Beste said the IHSAA will adopt the changes on the national level.

"We will," Beste said about implementing the new weight classes for the 2011-12 season in a phone interview Tuesday. "We follow the National Federation rules so when they change we'll follow suit."

He said he has received many calls about the changes and coaches have had mixed emotions about the different weights. He said many coaches apply the current state of their program and conclude whether it is an immediate fit for their personnel.

"I've received some comments. Coaches are pretty well split," Beste said. "We need to give it some time to see if its a positive."

Iowa City West Coach Mark Reiland said he wasn't sure if many programs have an abundance of larger wrestlers to call for adding a larger weight class and thinning out the lower weights, including moving the lowest weight up three pounds.

"I don't like taking away from the little guys," Reiland said. "Especially when big guys are playing football and not wrestling.

"I don't know if the thinking was for less weight cutting to make it easier for the smaller guys."

These results were drawn from scientific data compiled from more than 200,000 wrestlers. The last significant change was in 1988 when coaches used a less scientific method to determine the current divisions.

"It served us well for 21 years," said Beste, noting the hope is for these changes to be even more accurate. They made some good guesses."

The issue of the number of weight classes also brought up a concern of whether too many exist. Beste said he hopes the change in weight classes will provide some insight in a few years of whether the number of weights need to be decreased. He said he thought that could be one of the more interesting products of this change down the road, but right now it is holding at 14, which is more than college and international competition.

"Our focus is on participation," Beste said. "They're focusing on competitiveness of those lower (fewer) weight classes."

Reiland wasn't opposed to dropping a weight class and that even number of weight classes isn't as good for dual competition. Ties could easily be decided by number of matches won instead of a number of different criteria. It also would help teams to fill out a lineup with one less position.

"I think an odd number of weights is a better fit," Reiland said. "With the number of forfeits we see, losing one weight isn't going to hurt anybody."

The IHSAA Board of Control will meet tomorrow. On the agenda is a possible vote to bring the State Duals tournament to Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines. The move could bring the State Duals tournament to the Wednesday after districts with the traditional state tournament returning to a three-day event, beginning the very next day and concluding Saturday also at Wells Fargo Arena.

"We are anticipating a vote and put that to bed tomorrow," said Beste, noting that it might not be decided until June.

See what people are saying on Social Media sites about the change (All comments are followers or friends of the writer):

Twitter

jims1958 Jim Schultz @ @kjpilcher I like the shifting of the weights to separate them, but it will still be hard on some schools to fill all 14 weight classes

snipes130 wes gast @ @kjpilcher 14 classes is good, don't like raising the min lbs. Some kids just aren't big as frosh/sophmores. I was only 85lbs as a frosh

AustinBlythe77 Austin Blythe @ @kjpilcher 106 is too heavy!

Facebook

Matt Sauer I like the addition to the upper weights but there are a lot of good light weight kids that are gonna be hurt by this. Tons of good 100ish pound kids that are going to be at a disadvantage.

Calvin-Mindy Henderson i like!! even tho in a year i will have one of the light weights and 106 is big he saw that it changed and said it was ok to have that snickers..lol (My son) is happy about them as his weight has not changed from last year..so the 138 spot is going to be great. so if ur small EAT!

Below is the official release from the NFHS and the link:

[naviga:h1 id="ctl00_CphMain_HdPageTitle"]Weight classes changed in high school wrestling

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Bob Colgate

INDIANAPOLIS, IN (April 26, 2011) - The most significant changes in weight classes in high school wrestling in 23 years will take place in the 2011-12 season.

In its April 4-6 meeting in Indianapolis, the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) Wrestling Rules Committee approved an upward shift of the weight classes, beginning with the 103-pound class moving to 106 pounds, which resulted in new weights for 10 of the 14 classes. The changes in weight classes, along with 17 other rules revisions, were subsequently approved by the NFHS Board of Directors.

The 14 weight classes approved by the committee for 2011-12 are as follows: 106 (pounds), 113, 120, 126, 132, 138, 145, 152, 160, 170, 182, 195, 220 and 285. Three middle weight classes – 145, 152 and 160 – were retained, although they are 7-8-9 in order now rather than 8-9-10. The largest weight class (285 pounds) remains unchanged as well.

“The change in weight classes resulted from a three-to-four year process utilizing data from the National Wrestling Coaches Association (NWCA) Optimal Performance Calculator,” said Dale Pleimann, chair of the NFHS Wrestling Rules Committee and former assistant executive director of the Missouri State High School Activities Association. “The rules committee was able to analyze data from almost 200,000 wrestlers across the country, with the goal to create weight classes that have approximately seven percent of the wrestlers in each weight class.

“Throughout the process, each state association was kept completely informed and was provided multiple opportunities for input. The results of the last survey of each state association indicated that the majority of states favored a change, and the committee listened and acted accordingly.”

The last wholesale shift in weight classes occurred in 1988, when the lowest weight class was increased from 98 to 103 pounds. The only other changes since then were in 2002, when the number of classes went from 13 to 14 and the 215-pound weight class became mandatory, and in 2006, when the 275-pound class was increased to 285 pounds.

Among changes in wrestling holds, the Figure 4 around the head has been ruled an illegal hold/maneuver. Previously, the Figure 4 was illegal around the body or both legs.

“This move was being used by high school wrestlers more and more on the head, so to minimize the risk of injury, the committee voted to outlaw the Figure 4 on the head as well as around the body and both legs,” said Bob Colgate, NFHS assistant director and liaison to the Wrestling Rules Committee.

Another significant change was made in Rule 2-1-3, which now makes the boundary line inbounds and, thus, expands the wrestling area. Previously, a wrestler was out of bounds if he or she was touching any part of the 2-inch-wide line which marks the wrestling area.

An additional exception was added to Rule 8-2-1 stating that if the second injury time-out is taken at the conclusion of the second period, and the opponent already has the choice at the beginning of the third period, the opponent would then have the added choice at the first restart after the beginning of the third period.

“Previously, at the end of the second period and before the third period, Wrestler A takes his or her second injury time-out, which now gives the choice to Wrestler B,” Colgate said. “However, it's already Wrestler B's choice by virtue of the original flip of the disk. Therefore, Wrestler B gains no advantage or benefit from Wrestler A's second injury time-out. With this change, Wrestler B would now have his or her choice at the first restart after the beginning of the third period.”

In other changes, a revision in Rule 3-1-13 allows the referee the flexibility to determine his or her best position to monitor the clock and wrestlers during injury, blood or recovery time-outs. Also, language in Rule 6-2-2 was changed from “forfeit” to “disqualification” to reflect correct terminology.

The rules committee also devoted considerable time to developing rules for multi-team dual meets and team-formatted tournaments. Previously, the NFHS Wrestling Rules Book addressed only dual meets and individually bracketed tournaments. Definitions for individually bracketed tournaments, dual meet/team-formatted tournaments and combination tournaments will be contained in Rule 1-3.

“In recent years, high school wrestling has moved from dual meets and individually bracketed tournaments to tournaments incorporating a dual meet/team format,” Pleimann said. “The new Rule 11 will provide rules coverage for this type of tournament format.”

“High school wrestling is in great shape across the country as participation numbers continue to increase. The rules committee did propose 18 changes to the rules book, but approximately two-thirds of those changes resulted from incorporating the new dual meet/team format rules,” Pleimann added.

The final change is one that has been approved by the NFHS Board of Directors for use in all NFHS rules books regarding the meet referee's jurisdiction. The rule extends the clerical duties of the referee beyond the end of the meet through the completion of any reports required from actions that occurred while the referees had jurisdiction.

Points of emphasis adopted by the committee for 2011-12 include communicable diseases, injury time-outs, coach/referee conference, and concussion recognition and management.

Wrestling is the sixth-most popular sport for boys at the high school level with 272,890 participants in 10,363 schools during the 2009-10 season, according to the NFHS Athletics Participation Survey. In addition, 6,134 girls were involved in wrestling in 1,009 high schools.