Wrestling is a unique sport. Wrestling focuses primarily on individual achievement while participating in a team environment. Because of the way wrestling matches are run your child can and will develop more confidence and self-reliance than in any other sport typically associated with youths.

Most kids come into wrestling because they want to have fun. Their experience with the sport is usually from watching TV, the movies, or wrestling and roughhousing with their friends and siblings. Parents want to find a sport that will be fun for their child while helping to develop the child's physical and mental well-being as well as develop important social and people skills that will be so important through their lives. For the child that may be shy, too small, too big, or too slow for other typical youth sports wrestling may be the perfect sport.

By its very nature wrestling is a physically demanding sport and practices can be a physical and mental challenge for your child. To ease this challenge on your child the club's approach to the sport is to make it fun. We try to incorporate games into each practice so the time spent seems more like play time rather than the hard work it is. We provide constant positive feedback and encouragement parents to do the same.

The Federal Way Wrestling Club introduces boys and girls ages of 5 and up to the fabulous sport of wrestling.

We prepare the athletics for a future in competitive wrestling in later school years. We teach the same rules and moves the wrestlers will use in Jr. High, High School, and College competitions.

Led by Head Coaches Gerald Carpio   and   Chauncey Gammage , all our volunteer coaches strive to provide a fun, safe environment while providing your child the motivation and skills to become the best wrestler he or she can be.

Club membership is $65 per wrestler per season. This covers cost of the practice facility, insurance, and participation in most of the meets and tournaments. There may be an additional entrance cost, usually $10, to compete in some of the special tournaments held throughout the season.

To join you may come to any of our practices, contact   Coach Carpio ,  Coach Gammage ,  or print and fill out a registration form and mail it to the address below:

Federal Way USA Wrestling
Attn: Gerald Carpio
P.O. BOX 26282
Federal Way, Wa. 98003

Make check out to Federal Way Wrestling Club in the amount of $65.  Please include a copy of your child's birth certificate.

As with all sports there are miscellaneous costs associated with wrestling. Your wrestler will be asking for knee pads, sweats, wrestling T-shirts, video tapes, singlets, wrestling shoes ($20-$35), and headgear ($20-$25). The only required materials are wrestling shoes and headgear, all other equipment can be purchased at your discretion. Please consults one of the coaches before purchasing any extra equipment.

The Federal Way Wrestling Club is open to boys and girls who are over the ages of 5 years. For league purposes a wrestler's age is determined by his or her age on December 31. For league matches a child must also be in 6th grade or below.

Within the Pierce County Jr. Wrestling League there are 2 age groups: 8 years old and under and 9-12 years old. Within each age group there are weight classes.

Within the 8 and under group the weight classes are: 45, 50, 54, 58, 63, 69, 78, 90, 110 lb.

Within the 9 and older group the weight classes are: 55, 60, 63, 66, 69, 73, 77, 81, 86, 91, 100, 110, 120, 145, 175 lb..

When wrestling in USA Wrestling sanctioned meets the age groups and weight classes are different and may change from year to year.   For the 2003 - 2004 season the age groups and weight classes can be found  here

Every year for the last few years the number of girls learning to wrestle has grown. No one ever expects girls to out number the boys but there already enough girls wrestling to allow the girls to have their own State, Regional, and National Championship tournaments. Girls gain the same advantages that wrestling has to offer and learn the basics by training and competing with boys in local clubs like ours. We encourage you to bring your daughter out for the sport.

The club offers both Folkstyle  and  Freestyle  wrestling. The Folkstyle season begins in October and post season begins late in December for the Varsity & JV squads.   The Freestyle season usually begins in late February and continues through the end of April.

We compete in the Pierce County Junior Wrestling League , Western Washington Wrestling Association, and in USA Wrestling sanctioned events with meets and tournaments held throughout the season. To see our current schedule of practices, meets, and tournaments click here

In most sports you can drop off your child, the coaches take over, and you become a spectator.   However due to the length of meets and tournaments, the way matches are structured, and the demands on the coaches during a match there is a greater need for parents to be more than just a spectator.

Wrestling meets and tournaments can last all day and even through wrestling is a team sport, matches are individual affairs that demand the attention of the coaches and parents are needed to be available to watch over and help control their children while matches are being held.   More importantly parents play a much greater role in motivating, encouraging, and comforting their young competitor during and between matches.   In the Federal Way Jr. Wrestling Club, we all watch out for and encourage each other so your attendance and participation is expected and valued.

Occasionally the club will be host to a dual meet or a tournament, at those times we may have need for parent volunteers to man the scoring tables, concession stand, and help with weigh-ins and staging.&nbsb  All these positions are important for a successful meet to be held and we hope that you will help fill many of these positions when the time comes.

We do not allow parents, wrestlers, or coaches to blame the referees or anyone else for our losses.   Wrestling is about learning to take personal responsibility for your actions or lack of action.   We believe it is better to lose with diginity than win with shame.   Win, lose, or draw we expect our wrestlers to be good sportsmen, to shake the hands of their opponents, and to congratualte them on a well fought match.

We expect the same show of good sportsmanship from the parents as well, remember you can wipe out years of training in a few minutes of losing your temper in front of your child and a gym full of spectators.   So please excerise self-discipline during all events and practices.

What you feed your wrestler will affect their performance.   Never feed an athlete a big breakfast the morning of competition.   Your body wants to take a nap when it has a large amount of food to digest.

Wrestlers, especially young wrestlers, tend to eat the same junk food as everyone else.   If your family already has healthy eating habits, don't change a thing.   However, if you are having problems getting your child to eat correctly then maybe wrestling and to meet his or her weight for a match might provide the incentive you need to change your child's eating habits.

An excellent article on feeding your wrestler can be found at  Wrestler's 10-Step Diet

Wrestling, like all sports, has the risk of injury.   Wrestling injuries tend to be soft tissue truma to tendons and muscles.   Rarely do wrestlers get the bone crunching injuries that we associate with other contact sports.   Your wrestler will get bumps, bruises, mat burn, and bloody noses.   Don't panic, it's all part of the sport and your child will never be asked to wrestle if they are hurt or not feeling well.

Your wrestler is more likely to get hurt in practice than in competition.   The wrestler spends very little time in actual competition.   Matches are usually 3 and a half minutes long and the wrestler is on guard and ready to protect themselves every minute of a match.

We are start each practice session and competition with warm-up The time spent in the wrestling room is measured in hours and children tend to goof around.  We try to structure our practice sessions in such a way as to keep it fun, fast paced to keep your child's interst, and to minimize time for rough housing.   A child that is not paying attention winds up getting hurt.  

Here are a few things you can do to make sure your child's participation in wrestling is a safe and healthy experience:

There are 3 styles of wrestling that are practiced in the US,  Freestyle, Greco Roman, and the style that most of us are familar with, Folkstyle or Collegiate. Freestyle and Greco Roman are the styles that you find wrestled in the Olympics and at international competions, Folkstyle is the style that is wrestled in high schools and colleges.

Freestyle  and Greco Roman wrestling are very similar with one primary difference, in Gecro Roman a wrstler can not attack his opponent's legs nor can he use his legs to trip, lift, or execute a move. Both Freestyle and GrecoRoman wrestling are aggreesive styles of wrestling where the primary purpose is to score points and take risks in scoring those points. The more complicated the takedown or throw and therefore the more risky the move gets the wrestlers the greater number of points. In Freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling a wrestler does not have to gain control of his opponent to score points.  Here are some of the basic points about Freestyle:

Folkstyle wrestling is about controlling your opponent and eventually pinning him. In Folkstyle wrestling the most complicated move will get you no more points than the simplest of moves. A Folkstyle wrestler must gain control of his opponent to score points and a opponent may gain points by breaking that control and escaping or reversing his position.   Here are some of the basics of Folkstyle wrestling:

For more information try the following site:   Freestyle Wrestling Rules