Little Apple Tournament 2020

coach drea reminding him how to get up off of the bottom

We attended this tournament, The Little Apple Grapple last year and had some successes.  Andrew got his first pin and we were very pleased with his try.  After last week, we had no clue how he would do.  We had ice the night before an even though we went to weigh ins, we figured we wouldn't be heading out in the morning due to snow and ice.  We got up at 6 am and were told the roads were fine, so we hurriedly got showers and headed out.  Except Andrew did NOT want to go.  He kept talking about getting hurt last time and how scared he was.  We finally convinced him to go and try and see how he felt.  I am SO glad we did.  While we didn't get any wins/pins today, we did see him listen to his coaches and try some things.  Still not the aggression we had hoped for but I see little tiny glimpses of it.

This is the first match of the day.  We talked about getting low and changing levels.  Yes, that is very basic stuff, but honestly this had NOT clicked with him till today.  He even realized the reason why the kid got him was because he stood up.  I call this progress even though he got pinned.  Again, not sour grapes, but his shoulder was NOT down, so I think he would have gone longer with this kid, but whatever.  He tried hard, that is all we ask my non aggressive child to do.  

I will say with the bigger tournament and lots of scratches  I am sure due to weather, that I felt like he was really well matched in his bracket.  He was bumped down into a bracket that was 73-76 with most of the kids being 75ish pounds.  The skill level seemed much better matched up today than last week.  

Our tiny goal for this match was continue to change levels, but also to have a successful sprawl.  His sprawl in practice is great and was great last year, but it has gotten not so great in matches this year.  

Goals met again.  Proud of him for showing a tiny bit of aggression.  Last match the goal was to go all three rounds. I knew this kid was good.  I had watched him wrestle previously and most of his opponents went down in 30 seconds or less.  Our goal for his match was outlast.  I think if he wouldn't have tripped on his own feet, he would have gone longer.  Oh well, lesson learned, don't cross over on your feet, shuffle.  

Again,  I love that even though he looses, he knows why.  He instantly gives suggestions on how he could do better next time and every time he improves, even if it is a tiny detail.  This is a huge step for him to even know what he did wrong and figure out ways to fix it.  Yes, the aggression is still lacking but he didn't let the second kid push him around.  I feel like things are clicking in his brain, even if he isn't winning.  

Things we need to work on:  

Confidence on the take down

Continuing to listen to coaches (did a better job this week, no stalling)

Being aggressive (sigh)

We have one more tournament we are entered in and then we will re evaluate.  There is one more tournament that is local in February and we do plan on continuing practice till they kick the level 1s out for the year.   I don't want to burn him out, but I also like the improvement however small I am seeing.