Our newest feature — Paperless Weight Management — is built into Releae 2.11. More information on this feature here: https://www.levelchanger.com/weight-management

Download this release from the App Store. Recommended for all users.

Does Wrestling Have A Concussion Problem?

Wrestling may or may not have a “concussion” problem in the form of unhealthy or extreme weight loss, perceived by prospective wrestlers or the parent community. To be sure, parents are more attentive to health-related risks associated with contact sports and guide their children accordingly. It is also a fact that high school wrestling participation has been trending down for a number of years.

Fortunately, in most states “official” weigh ins — those associated with competition — are tightly monitored and controlled. On the other hand, how wrestlers manage their weight between competitons is loosely monitored and uncontrolled. Extreme weight loss — up or down — can and does occur in the inter-competition period. Stories abound — and parents are aware — of wrestlers gaining a lot of weight post-competition and losing too much weight just prior to competition. This is risky and potentially unhealthy behavior, especially at pre-college levels. Yet, sanctioning bodies — state or national — exercise no oversight of between competition weights.

Impractical for Many Teams

Coaches are in a difficult spot. Recording weight for each wrestler before or after wrestling practice is time-consuming and labor intensive. Further, , organizing, interpreting and sharing the data is non-trivial. Lastly, alerting wrestlers (and parents) to unhealthy weight excursions is yet another task. Most teams don’t have the time or resources to undertake this effort in a systematic way. Some teams avoid the systematic approach by cherry-picking which wrestlers to monitor or checking weights only as needed or both. In a huge leap of faith, about one-third of coaches delegate to the wrestler the task of keeping their parents apprised of weight-related issues.

Paperless Weight Management is Here

We’ve had paperless weight management in our development plan for a few years but it never made the cut. Late last spring, Befour, a leading supplier of wrestling scales, approached us about a partnership to integrate paperless weight management into Takedown. The timing was right as we were finishing up video and having a heavy-weight (sorry) partner made the opportunity attractive. Befour has proven to be a reliable and helpful partner.

Takedown’s paperless weight management feature makes it easy and time efficient to record weights. In addition, our Reports now include three visualizations — a table and two graphs — that make it easy to identify unhealthy or non-compliant weight loss. These visualizations, like all Takedown Reports, can be emailed or exported in spreadsheet format from within the app. For the first time, a systematic, time-efficient approach to weight management is possible for any wrestling team.

For more details about Takedown’s paperless weight management, see: https://www.levelchanger.com/weight-management .