6th tournament of the season: Rumble at Rock Creek

My hope for this last tournament was to end on a good note.  We started out the season so strong and i wanted to end strong.  Of course who knows what goes through a 6 year old's mind.  I knew his confidence had taken a hit because he had become very reactive, waiting on his opponent to always make the first move.  As always my criteria was to have him try hard and never give up, not win.  Winning is just icing on a very yummy cake of hard work.  

trying to get his mean face on

I was a little taken aback when I looked at his bracket.  Several of the kiddos in his bracket hadn't lost but a few matches and most had won those matches by pin.  Instead of stacking a bracket with the good kids in one and the beginners in another, it seemed as they had mixed them all together.  Doesn't matter, you have to take the ass whippings to learn.  My kiddo has never been aggressive or competitive really.  I keep hoping some day it will come and yes, we have lots of years to discover it.  You have to be the aggressor in wrestling and until he is ready to be that, we will always be fighting from the bottom.  

Here is his first match.  It was over quickly.  The kiddo was really, really good.  Notice the body slam.  OUCH!

Second match was a little better.  Some fighting back happened.  That is all I ask, don't give up.  He actually got out of a half and did a little defense here.  I was proud of this match because he is listening to his coach.  This match was also 60 matches after his first match since we had a bye in the second round.  That is a long time to wait!

He was kind of bummed after his loss, BUT I like that.  That means he actually cares.  Coach McNutt was so good with him today, getting him pumped up and helping him with specific moves.  He even used his own kiddo to show him what to do during a match, which was cute!

Third match was the kiddo he pinned at the Manhattan tournament.  I was hoping he would have confidence to actually try and take the kid down.  Here are the three periods and they are kind of painful to watch as they mostly danced around.

I really wish his wins would come off of better matches, but it is what it is.

Go figure, those two matches were only 8 apart after sitting for over 60 matches and waiting.  Then we had another wait for our last.  The kid was once again super good based on his track wrestling record, so I knew how it was probably going to end. Again, I just wanted effort, not a win.

I am proud that he fought back and didn't just give up because once again, this kiddo was really good.  Plus, this was the end to a very long day and Andrew had done really good at getting ready for all of his matches, something that we needed help with.

  

We ended up 4th out of 5 wrestlers and ended the season on a decent note.  He actually tried one of the moves that Coach McNutt went over with him on his last match, so I call that a win.  This season has been full of ups and downs with our first win, our first pin, and our first of many body slams to andrew and to his opponents.  I have seen his confidence bloom and then wither and then start to peak out again.  He always goes on the mat with a smile and comes off mostly with a smile, so we will give it another go next year.  We love our Wamego Raider Wrestling family and have some true friends there.  Andrew has gained some new friends too via playing video games in the stands and that makes me so happy to see him excited to be with them and travel with them.  I hope we can figure out something to do this summer, so we don't loose our skills we have gained.  I know we will have baseball and most if not all of our wrestling family plays baseball, so we shall see them on the diamond.  

Till next year wrestling!