Timely Information for Takedown Scoring and Stats Users
Post Live Results Like A College Team!
Want your team to have more of a college-level presence? Don't have college-level resources? No problem.
Many colleges have resources to burn so they dedicate a person to type bout and event results on various online platforms such as Twitter. Most high schools are under-resourced but that doesn't matter when it comes to posting live results. All you have to do is score your matches with Takedown Scoring and Stats. You already score your matches, right? No additional resources needed.
Get College Level Coverage
On November 5th, we sampled live results posted to Twitter for ten NCAA wrestling programs. Of the 61 posts we examined, only two posts were "value-added" meaning that the posts contained information that Takedown Scoring and Stats wouldn't automatically post on the scoring team's behalf. So, by virtue of scoring your competition with Takedown Scoring and Stats, you can automatically generate roughly 97% of the live content posted by a typical NCAA college wrestling program's staff.
Other Free Stuff
When colleges type live results on their Twitter timeline, that's the full extent of the benefit: They realize a populated Twitter timeline of sometimes accurate, sometimes timely and sometimes comprehensive results.
When you score matches with Takedown Scoring and Stats, for no additional effort or staffing you get:
- Accurate, timely, comprehensive results auto-posted to Twitter.
- Real-time, score-by-score results auto-posted to our fan scoreboard, Takedown LIVE
- Always available basic and advanced statistics, easily tailored to your requirements
- Professional, wrestling-specific digital scoreboard
- Scoring graphics for match video
Get college-level content for your team without college-level resources! Use Takedown Scoring and Stats!
LevelChanger and WrestleStat Announce Partnership
Takedown LIVE data available on WrestleStat website.
We've partnered with WrestleStat, a really helpful and innovative website for wrestling stats, to make Takedown LIVE data available to more fans. Read about the partnership in our joint press release.
Takedown LIVE is an iOS app and while the Apple mobile market is significant, there are many wrestling fans with Android-based mobile devices and other fans that want browser-access to Takedown LIVE data on laptops and desktops. Our partnership with WrestleStat addresses this need. Now, any wrestling fan with a web-browser can access Takedown LIVE college results on the WrestleStat web site.
WrestleStat presentation of Takedown LIVE data
We are very excited to be working with WrestleStats to improve availability of "play-by-play" results to wrestling fans everywhere.
Takedown Scoring and Stats Release 2.8
Release 2.8. If you like typing information into the OPC on Trackwrestling, don't read this post. If you want to save yourself some late nights and headaches, read on.
Release 2.8 is available for download from the App Store. This is a recommended update for all users.
The significant new feature in this release is uploading match results and weigh-ins to the NWCA OPC which is currently hosted on Trackwrestling.
Upload Match Results or Weigh In to Trackwrestling account
Typing competition-related data into the OPC takes a lot of time. Mistakes are often made and navigating the OPC can be awkward and clunky. With this new feature, Takedown offers users a quick, easy and accurate way for entering competition data into the OPC. Just tap a few buttons and you're done, often in a minute or less.
Use this new feature to reclaim wasted effort, and improve the accuracy and timeliness of your OPC data entry. Download Takedown Scoring and Stats today and say good bye to the headache of manually entering data into the OPC hosted on Trackwrestling.
Here's a tutorial on Takedown's new Upload Match Results to Trackwrestling feature.
How Fat are High School Wrestlers?
Our annual look at fat percentage at certification.
We looked at various data from the weight certification process conducted by state high school wrestling associations during the 2016-17 season. For the 226,000 wrestlers in the database, average fat percentage at certification was 16.9%, up slightly from 16.6% in the previous year.
By grade, fat percentage at certification dips for eight graders then trends back up and levels off in 10th grade.
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By minimum weight class, average fat percentage looks very similar to the last two seasons.
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Lastly, a look at fat percentage at certification by state.
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New Mexico sure has some lean wrestlers! Note that the two states with the highest fat percentage at certification -- Oklahoma and Texas -- are the same two states that added the most wrestlers from 2010-11 to 2015-16. Hmmm.
High School Participation at the State Level
Think you're in a thriving state for wrestling? Maybe, but the odds aren't in your favor.
The National Wrestling Coaches Association's Blue Ribbon Task Force is looking at an alarming trend in high school boys wrestling: the five year decline in nationwide participation as reported by the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS). Relevant to this effort is a look at the state-by-state participation numbers from 2010/11 (peak nationwide participation) to 2015/16 (last year of available data). Here is the state-level data:
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The decline over the last five years seems widespread with the notable exception of Texas. Indeed, of the twenty-two states having more than 5,000 participants in 2010/11, only Texas experienced growth through 2015/16. The six largest states in 2010/11 -- California, Illinois, New York, Ohio, Michigan and North Carolina -- all experienced a decline relative to 2015/16.
Also, nine states lost more than one thousand wrestlers representing 14-20% of the total baseline participation in these states.
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Taken together, these nine states lost roughly 18,500 wrestlers during the period.
If the NFHS data is correct and I've done the aggregations properly (!), then perhaps focusing on these nine states would be a good start for the Blue Ribbon Task Force?
Also, what is up with Texas? With a regrettable mixed metaphor for you Boise stalwarts, in high school wrestling Texas is hitting the ball out of the park!
Whistling Past the Graveyard? Not quite yet.
We looked a college and now on to high school. There are one or two bright spots, but overall high school wrestling isn't healthy compared to tier one team sports. But, those girls teams! Wow.
Every year, the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) publishes program count and participation numbers for high school sports. It's a very useful database. We've spent quite a bit of time looking at college wrestling and now turn our attention to high school wrestling.
For both boys and girls, the number of programs across all states is in good shape trending up from 2002 to 2016.
Number of High School Programs by Year
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The number of girls programs has more than doubled over the time frame and boys program growth was 12%. This is good news -- girls wrestling is wildly successful and boys wrestling is growing slightly on a very large base.
Number of High School Programs by Year, Indexed to 2002-03
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In contrast to the healthy number of programs, participation on the boys side is in trouble. We've lost slightly more than 23,000 high school wrestlers from the peak of 273,732 in 2010/11. This decline has been precipitous in the last two academic years, 2014-2016. Should this trajectory continue, the 2016-17 numbers will fall in the 240-250 thousand range, the same level of participation as 2004/05.
On the girls side, participation is accelerating at a rate even faster than underlying program growth. More good news!
Number of High School Participants by Year
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WIth boys participation down and the underlying number of programs growing slightly, the net impact is a pronounced decline in the average number of participants per program. No small wonder that the JV dual meet format is all but extinct in many regions. If the current trend continues, the number of participants per team will drop below 20 by 2020.
Participants per Program by Year
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Lastly, we compared wrestling participation to tier one, seasonal team sports. The data is indexed to 2002 to make the comparison visually meaningful in graph form. Both basketball and football are slightly down from their post crash highs and football participation is surprisingly resilient given the concussion scare. Perhaps the bottom will fall out in 2016/17. Baseball, everyone's favorite in light of Boise, has grown over the time frame even compared to pre-crash (2006/07) levels. Wrestling doesn't look materially different from the other sports in the 2009/10 to 2013/14 range, but the last two academic years show a considerable decline while the other sports are flat to up. Continuing this trend, the number of boys high school wrestlers will be below 2002/03 levels by 2017/18.
As far as causes are concerned, that would be speculative. Some believe that the emphasis on tournaments instead of dual meets is a key contributor as parents/fans won't sit for eight hours to watch their favorite wrestler compete for a few minutes. I've been on the parent side of that argument and it has considerable merit. Coaches, generally, aren't thrilled with all-day events either but believe that more matches means better performance and the tournament format can offer a lot of matches. Also, some assert that dual meets attract larger and more engaged crowds not only due to the shorter duration but also because school-versus-school rivalries are more spirited. Another good point.
I've recently wondered if our wrestling "elevator pitch" is helping or hurting. The pitch usually contains variations on "work hard" and "life lessons." Not sure if that's effective. Haven't encountered many high schoolers seeking hard work and delayed gratification. Throw in "cutting weight" and our pitch is something like:
"Work hard and be a better future person. Lose uncomfortable amounts of weight. Join the wrestling team!"
Might make sense to reconsider our messaging.
Gable on Youth Wrestling
Most recent issue of WIN Magazine had an informative interview with Dan Gable regarding youth wrestling.
Some takeaways:
Winning is Subordinate to Retention
"Retention within the sport should be even more important than winning at the youth level."
Coach the Entire Team
"Coaches should be coaching for the sake of the sport and not just for the elite young wrestlers."
You Talk too Much
"[Youth wrestlers] have been in class all day long. Give them a break by not just giving them more instruction."
Positive Experience is Paramount, Winning Isn't
"... coaches have to do a great job of making sure these kids enjoy some positive results. That doesn’t mean that they have to win..."
Good Match-ups Are Critical
"One thing that is important to include is a kid’s won-loss record because it will show how much success they are having...If there is a match-up that does not look good, [the coaches] should not have it."
[Note: Takedown Scoring and Stats is a great way to record match outcomes and share win/loss records with other coaches prior to competition.]
Fun Fact About Dan Gable
"My first organized event did not happen until junior high school."
Where's the Growth in College Wrestling?
It's not the NCAA. Surprisingly, most of the growth is from...
Digging further into the wrestling data set from the Dept. of Education, we looked at how the number of college wrestling programs has changed over time. Certain colleges -- such as public military academies -- are excluded as they are exempt from the reporting requirements, so upfront I recognize there are some holes. Not sure they are meaningful.
As of 2016 there are 349 college wrestling programs in the data set, up from 299 in 2003-04, for a total growth of ~17% or 50 programs. Except for the season following the 2008 financial crisis, there was a net gain of college wrestling programs every season during 2004-2016.
College Wrestling Programs, 2003-04 through 2015-16
Source: US Dept. of Education (certain colleges excluded -- click here for more info)
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Here's the breakdown by sanctioning body. NCAA is on the left scale, all other sanctioning bodies on the right scale.
College Wrestling Programs by Sanctioning Body
Source: US Dept. of Education
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From the above chart, here's the year-to-year change in number of programs by sanctioning body. The NCAA had net additions in six seasons while the NAIA had net additions is eleven seasons (out of twelve total).
College Wrestling Programs, Annual Additions by Sanctioning Body
Source: US Dept. of Education
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Here's the cumulative impact of program additions, by sanctioning body on left scale and total on right scale. Since 2003-04, the NCAA has added (net) eight programs and the NAIA has added (net) thirty programs. During the entire period, non-NCAA colleges accounted for 84% of the growth in the number of college wrestling programs from 299 to 349.
College Wrestling Programs Cumulative Additions by Sanctioning Body and Total
Source: US Dept. of Education
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NAIA is growing substantially faster than other sanctioning bodies, albeit from a much lower base relative to the NCAA. Still, the NAIA accounted for 60% of the total growth in number of programs from 2003 to 2016.
College Wrestling Programs, Contributions to Growth by Sanctioning Body
Source: US Dept. of Education
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What to make of this? NAIA seems to be doing well, wrestling-wise, and that's great news. In contrast, the NCAA added a total of eight programs (net) over the period on a base of 217 (2003-2004). I'm not sure that kind of growth is going to get us where we need to be. I know there are organizations trying to fix this very hard problem and I don't envy their task.
Wrestling Classic (Dapper Dan) Results 2017
Pennsylvania v. USA at the Wrestling Classic (Dapper Dan) 2017
Wrestling Classic (Dapper Dan) Results 2017
Stats generated by Takedown Scoring and Stats.
Click on any of the images to enlarge.
Takedown 2.6.3 and Takedown LIVE 1.1.6
Details on new releases.
These new releases add robust tournament pairing along with bracket/round tags. Pairing allows you to arrange match-ups in advance which can be optionally loaded into the scoring interface. The pairings feature allows match-ups to be tagged as Championship/Consolation along with Round (Finals, Semis, Quarters, etc.). We've included a Match Type -- Regulation or Exhibition -- for unusual circumstances, a beneficent tournament director giving your "one and done" wrestler an little more mat time, for example. Bracket and round tags are also included in Takedown LIVE and Twitter posts. Use them!
For college, just in time for the qualifiers and championships, a riding time advantage (RTA) clock is now in the Takedown LIVE display. The Takedown LIVE RTA clock display counts down in five second increments though we're experimenting with single second countdown, too. Stay tuned.
Please download these new releases from the App Store. Good luck in the post-season.