Off the top of my head...The Legendary Dan Gable started at age 10 after trying competitive swimming. I could stop there but... Mark Schultz, Olympic and World Champion, did not even wrestle a full season until his senior year of high school. Before that he was a gymnast. I wrestled in high school and in a D1 college and believe that skill and experience is only gonna take you so far in this sport if you can not mentally or physically break your toughest opponents and or keep from being broken by them. Winning a wrestling match does not "always" come down to skill or even experience. Many times it is about the will and desire to win while training to win. Kids need to decide when they are ready to wrestle and then when they are ready to win... PERIOD. I fear that starting them too early in this sport will only teach most of them how to accept defeat or that they may never learn how to "love wrestling". It is not for everyone. Wrestling is pure battle and should not be confused with soccer or baseball or football or any other team sport. (No offense intended for those other team sports)

If you want them to embrace wrestling and shoot for success early then put them into the local little league baseball or football program and then see how they like sitting on the bench.. even when they are the better player. See how they feel about fairness and sacrificing playing time to give some kid who is less of a player a little game time. (sounds ugly but it's the truth) Cultivate their desire and ambition to win and to be rewarded for their own individual efforts. Put them into the "main stream" and see how they do and then when they complain or get angry because of the politics or what not .. offer them an alternative. How about you try wrestling? Get out what you put in..

I will keep from giving too much detail about my personal experience with my oldest son who is now 15 but I will state; last year was his first year of wrestling and we traveled all over the state competing and even competed in Iowa in USA Wrestling's 14u division. During his very first tournament of the year he lost all four matches.. 3 by way of pin. (that was his very first time on the mat) 3 months later he finished 2nd in the State Championships, in a bracket of 32 kids, falling in the finals to the defending middle school national champ 5-4.

Teach your kids to enjoy the sport and embrace it for all that it is and never ever put any doubt into their minds about weather or not they can win any match on any day in any place. Tell them that there is no shame in losing as long as you didn't let the other guy win.

Best wishes to you all and good luck.

I have to say - it is pretty obvious by this statement that there is a gap in understanding of what kids can accomplish at a young age. That being said - let me just establish the basic premise of why you should start your kids wrestling at 5 or even 4 like we did. My son is small for his age, in fact he is by far the shortest kid around. But he is a great athlete with awesome muscle control. On the contrary, he has a buddy who is same age and weight. I would say Aiden is a lot more natural athlete than his friend Vince in terms of speed, agility, body control. But Vince is a champion. He is focused, very strong and most importantly very smart on the mat. Plus he practices hard and works at his moves all the time. Aiden is not as focused, really enjoys other sports more and probably will never be much more than a middle of the road wrestler, third and fourth place type kid. SO, why the long example of kids. Well each started at 4. And each kid is a stand out in other sports they play. Aiden is the allstar type kid on the baseball, football and lacrosse field. Vince also excels at other sports as well. Both are very much smaller than other kids. But both are winners and most importantly both of them are in better shape than any kid in any other sport by a long shot.

So for us, Aiden will continue to stay around wrestling. First because it is a great "family" and his friends are deep and important to him in the sport. Second because it makes him better at every other sport by a long shot so he can be competitive, have fun and pick his best sport because of his success. Third, because the life lessons he has already learned, the discipline and focus he maintains in all other activities and the self confidence he has all comes from Wrestling. In the case of Vince... well he will be a national champion and probably wrestle for Iowa.

The only final point I will warn and Kolat is right on this point - your kid is not going to be better at 15 because he wrestles at 5. First it comes down to dedication. Second it comes down to genetics and third it comes down to coaching and experiences. MOST importantly for Vince's father and myself it comes down to the challenge we have to keep them interested, involved and having fun for that extra 5 years that the 10 year old didn't experience.

Coach Mike Billingsley - Broomfield, Colorado

I started my step-son wrestling in 7th grade. Living in a southeast suburb of Phoenix, AZ, my biggest mistake was not necessarily starting him too late - it was letting him wrestle at his middle school when I could have been taking him to Sunkist Kids at ASU and wrestling with the best coaches in the state during the winter! But my son wanted the letter jacket and the swagger that came with making the "school team" plus he was still playing baseball in the spring so we skipped the freestyle season to play ball. He gave-up baseball after middle school so now he wrestles the folk and freestyle seasons. He is already a better wrestler than I ever was; he made the varsity squad as a freshman this year and has a winning record so far. He will not be a four-time state champ but I'm not sure that is what he wants and that is a decision that is most definitely in his hands.

His next younger brother turned 5 in last March. I have been chomping at the bit to get him started younger partly to give him the chance to be more competitive by grades 6-8. (Okay, I admit that I secretly want him to DOMINATE by 7th grade!) On top of that, we moved from AZ to AL two years ago and Sunkist is a distant memory. Youth wrestling is growing in AL but I do not kid myself into thinking any club in AL could compete with what we had next door in Tempe. Another factor in my decision to start him much younger is size. I am 6'6" and 300 lbs. My 5 year-old son is off the chart on height and 85% (and dropping) on weight. He will consistently be wrestling kids older and stronger than he is within his weight classes and I wanted to give him a chance to begin building his catalog of moves early so he will be more competitive when he begins wrestling in tournamnets when he is a little older - maybe 6 or 7 - since we do not plan to enter any tournaments this year. The other thing I wanted to do was teach my son how to wrestle for maximum points at a younger age. If he is going to be 184 or 215 as a senior, I know he will need to be a proficient leg rider to compete at the state level and beyond and that is so much easier to learn at the lighter weights.

Cary is dead right about body control; my 5 year old son is learning the basic moves but it is coming with A LOT of repetition and without any regard to what his partner is doing. He has no "feel" for wrestling yet and it may be several years before he does. The short attention span of the 4 or 5 Kindergarten kids in his club puts them at the back of the pack learning each move and counter. The good news is that we started all of our children in tumbling and gymnastics as their first sports activities; so my 5 year old has the best cartwheels and forward/backward rolls in the room. We started him in Karate at 4 and he also knows how to act in practice. But he has no strength at this age. I doubt seriously that he will do a pull-up in the next year and if he can climb the rope by the end of the season it will be a huge accomplishment in coordination.

We have two more children behind our 5 year old and my wife and I have already vowed to keep them in gymnastics several years longer and start them in Karate when they are 7 or 8. We'll see if I can hold-off on wrestling for them until they are at least 7! : )