A Changing Sport Requires More Thought

Go back and find a really old wrestling mat from the seventies, you might find that the big circle on the mat has a one foot green stripe on one edge of the circle and a one foot red stripe on the opposite edge. Shoot, if you keep looking you might even find a mat that has a square instead of a circle with those same green and red markings at the edge.

So, what are those little green and red stripes for?

People my age that started wrestling in the seventies can recall that “back in the day” wrestlers started a match by placing one foot on the out of bounds line waiting for the whistle to blow. To attack there opponent they would have to shuffle a good fifteen feet before making contact with their opponent.

This is a far cry from today’s rules where two wrestlers are closer than arms length at the start of the match.

The rules of wrestling have changed, the scary thing is that some people that represent our sport still operate there programs under the rules that have long been left behind.

By no means do I mean that coaches are still coaching, kids to start the match on the out of bounds. However, if you take a close look, many programs have yet to modernize their structure.

A good example is how often some clubs run tournaments without adequate liability protection. This past summer, I was speaking with a coach that despite not having solid research made the claim that in his state “many youth tournaments operated without having any insurance purchased by the local organizers.”

I pressed him a little; hardly believing the possibility, but the stern faced coach stuck to the claim, and stated he knew of about a half-dozen tourneys that operated this way.

A tournament with no insurance coverage?

Then, I got to thinking back to my high school days. More than a few times wrestlers would head to the mats for an unscheduled workout after school. It’s probably a pretty safe guess that more than a few kids nationally can access their wrestling room and get a good tussle going on their own.

The scary thing is that these two examples exemplify, how our local leaders can lead the sport we love at risk. Without closing these wide and possibly negligent gaps in our wrestling community, we will have failed to protect the sport that so often I hear people proclaim an undying love for.

Some things need to change, and these two examples are a good place to start.

Let’s take a look at the first big loophole in protecting wrestling in America, the situation of uninsured events nationally. I can venture to guess that young kids that enter wrestling tournaments give no consideration to whether or not the tournament carries an insurance policy. It is probable that very few moms and dads take a whole lot of time thinking about this until something bad happens.

On the other side of the spectrum are the tournament organizers. Generally, these are good altruistic people who are volunteering their time to offer kids a wrestling experience on any given weekend.

Another “back in the day”, policy of wrestling is the use of a liability waiver. Liability waivers are those forms that parents sign for kids stating in some form or another that they give up the right to sue in case of injury to their child, supposedly leaving the tournament harmless.

A quarter of a century ago, waivers held a stronger place in our system of law and liability. Today, however, operation of a tournament, club, or clinic with a liability waiver as the sole protection to the organizer is a mistake of epic proportions.

Like the starting point on a wrestling mat the times have changed. And, no one should make the mistake that a liability waiver alone will protect them from financial ruin.

Over the past couple of decades, people have turned to litigation as a way to solve problems quicker than John Smith can fire-off a low-single. As cases have come and gone, the law that we thought was solid and unchanging has morphed into something that hardly resembles what was prudent more than a few years ago.

Upon doing a little research for this article, I came across the web-site for the Center of Sport and Law. Its information on liability waivers was enlightening—very enlightening.

Because case law is constantly evolving the strength of liability waivers as protection has greatly dwindled in the last twenty-five years. There are many cases nationally where liability waivers have been tossed aside, letting the merits of the case to move forward.

Over the past couple of years I knew that waivers were not the end all be all. But, I wasn’t prepared for this.

A scary notion that people need to consider is that when they volunteer at a local wrestling tournament their own personal fortune can be a target. More than a few legal precedents have been found that even though a person volunteered they still carried the burden of liability. All that a person has worked for their whole life can have a calculated value as part of a settlement in a case coming out of a youth sports event.

It is a scary proposition.

Across the country frivolous lawsuits are occurring at an alarming rate. Local organizers for the sport of wrestling must pay particular attention to ways that they can manage risk and liability and still be able to offer young people wrestling events. Going it alone, and relying on a liability waiver is not the answer.

Another area that should be of real concern for coaches is the number of times that kids get on the wrestling mats at a high school outside of the regular scholastic season.

Now, of course, we want kids to get in more mat time. Getting in a good drill a few extra times a week can make a good wrestler great. So, what is a coach to do turn a blind-eye and hope lightning doesn’t strike?

Some coaches recognize the liability aspect of having open mats for wrestlers; yet, they continue to let kids wrestle without assuring themselves of adequate liability protection. Nothing more can be said than they are tempting fate.

Wrestling is a contact sport and there is an inherent risk to injuries that range from things as minor as sprains and tears to catastrophic injuries.

Even a minor injury can lead to a coach having to pay out of pocket for legal counsel and possibly even medical bills if there is negligence found, such as a lack of supervision.

Too often, coaches nationally would prefer to focus on the fun side of the sport, getting on the mat. Some prefer to leave their personal fortune at stake. Others, however, honestly believe that their school’s insurance policy will give them adequate protection.

The clear advice to coaches that prefer to go down that road is you better make sure you know it is true when you rely on school policy. Because once a terrible incident starts in motion and you find that you don’t have the insurance you thought you had, then your life will probably change dramatically for the worse.

More and more schools because of budget shortfalls have had to opt for insurance that carries a lot less coverage. What may have been true ten, five, or even last year might not be true today.

Throughout America there are kids that are going to get on the mats outside of their season; a coach encourages this which is great. However, it leaves the coach’s security perilously open.

USA Wrestling can help tournament organizers and coaches across the country by participating in the membership, club, and sanctioning programs of our national governing body.

Instead of relying on the go-it-alone approach and tempt fate. The answer is very simple. As school starts each year so does a new USA Wrestling membership cycle. September 1^st is the time for coaches to start their USA Wrestling club.

Starting a USA Wrestling club is a very simple process and in most cases the fee is $50. For the club to follow the insurance agreement all wrestlers and coaches must have a current and valid USA Wrestling membership.

When followed properly, the club and its participants all will be covered by the USA Wrestling insurance policy that works for over 150,000 members nationally. The insurance provided acts as a secondary policy and provides a much higher value of benefits, especially in catastrophic cases, then sport insurance policies being used in wrestling today.

For the tournament organizers, a sanctioning fee of $50 covers their tournament provided that all participants and coaches are USA Wrestling members. Instead of paying $2-$5 per participant for individual insurance, or worse yet leaving things up to chance and hoping that no injury occurs a local event can be covered as a another event in USA Wrestling’s nearly two-thousand events offered annually nationwide.

A simple twist of fate can considerably cost a caring coach, volunteer, or tournament director, if they were careless and unconcerned about the legal ramifications when running a practice, tournament, or clinic. The sport of wrestling needs its local leaders to care about the security of the sport, and that means we must evolve in our thinking. Just like the rules for a match has changed so too must our approach to liability.