By CARLON SCOTT
In the sport of wrestling, there is a big focus on weight. A wrestler is required to weigh in at the weight class which he has chosen to compete before every meet. In some cases, a wrestler will try to drop as many as 15 pounds in the days leading up to a match, a practice known as 'cutting weight'.
It was this practice that caused the deaths of three collegiate wrestlers in the months of November and December last year. More specifically, it was the methods these wrestlers were using that were dangerous. These methods were the subject of an NCAA investigation that followed the three deaths.
Jan. 14, following a two month investigation, the NCAA announced stiffer regulations for wrestlers and their methods for cutting weight before meets.
According to the new rule changes, wrestlers may not use saunas for water loss, and rubber suits and diuretics cannot be used for any reason. The NCAA also asserted that hot rooms were not allowed to be used as a exercise areas. The NCAA defined a hot room as any room with a temperature above 79 degrees.
To show how serious it was about the new rules, the NCAA issued severe penalties for violators of the rules. According to BYU wrestling coach Mark Schultz, the penalty for the first violation is the coach and the wrestler are banned from the meet that they are preparing for. If there is a second violation, the whole team is banned from competition for a year.
In addition to the rule changes, the NCAA changed the official weigh-in time from the day prior to two hours before the meet. Schultz discussed the strategy behind this change.
'If you do dehydrate, it's going to be detrimental,' Schultz said. 'They don't give you time to rehydrate, it encourages non-dehydration.'
In order to further discourage wrestlers from cutting huge amounts of weight, the NCAA declared wrestlers will only be allowed to compete in a single weight class or in the classes they had already wrestled in prior to Jan. 7.
The BYU wrestling team hasn't had to put a big stress on the players to cut weight. This is in large part because of Schultz's views on weight classes.
'I had good coaches that taught me not to cut weight,' Schultz said. 'They said its better to go up weight classes, since you already know how to wrestle like a little guy. Little guys are the best wrestlers because they know how to switch off from move to move faster than the big guys.'
Schultz did his master's thesis on the effect of selected physiological variables in a Division I wrestling season. Schultz found there were no real physiological changes in the wrestlers from the beginning of the season to the end.
'The real changes don't come in conditioning, the real changes come in technique and timing,' Schultz said. 'Skill is what we should be working on, not so much running ourselves to death.'
'We should be improving our brains, learning how to wrestle and becoming students of wrestling. Because then you become a more efficient machine and you use the physiological variables you've gained more efficiently.'
The new rule changes are, however, putting an interesting twist on the BYU wrestling team this season. 'Its affected BYU's wrestling team adversely in the opposite direction. We've got guys now that aren't weighing enough, because we've got injuries at 167, 177, and 190 pounds,' Schultz said. 'Because players aren't allowed to come down in weight, the lighter class wrestlers are being forced to come up and fill the heavier spots that they are actually underweight for.
Schultz had to ask freshmen Doug Sturm to come out and use up his freshmen year this season. Because Sturm came out, the team was able to win its meet against Oregon State. But Schultz made it clear he agonizes over these types of decisions.
'Corey Anderson is our 177-pounder who has started for us all year, now he is injured. Well who do we put in his place?' Schultz said. 'Do we put in our second string 177-pounder, the only other guy we have at that weight, who is a freshmen, hasn't started all year, and even if we wrestle him one match during the second half of the season he loses his entire year. Do we burn that kid's year? Whose year do we burn? That's been the problem for us, we don't weigh enough.'
Schultz is hoping for the best. 'It looks like now, guys are starting to come back off of their injuries and we are not going to have that situation as much, but we'll still have it somewhat,' Schultz said.
Despite the difficulties placed on his team, Schultz said he approves of the rule changes. 'Physiologically its not beneficial to dehydrate or to starve, so I'm glad they put in the rules,' he said.