We are in the process of rewriting this How-To guide. Originally we threw this up on the website to get it out there, but since more clubs are now using this process more questions are being asked we are working on a more detailed version. Stay tune!!
How to Run a Youth Wrestling Tournament
This whole process is based on the use of our Tournament entry spreadsheet and the use of one of our bracketing spreadsheets which Round-Robin Bracket Spreadsheet or 8,16,24 and 32 Man Bracket Spreadsheet. This whole guide is more of a high level use of these two individual tools, but we will add a few of our lessons learned to help you on your way to running a good tournament. The other good news is other then the printing of the check-in/weigh-in cards the learning curve is so small that most people can figure it out without any training.
You might ask yourself why this whole process came about? We are sick of commercial companies taking money that can be used to help youth wrestling, sick of parents leaving tournaments early because they are running so far behind schedule.
Equipment
We recommend having at least 1 computer per 50 or so kids in a session. Each computer must have Microsoft Office on it and should have the fastest laser printer possible. You can pick up some cheap refurbished laser printers fairly cheap plus if taken care of they can last many years. Please verify the printing works before the day of the tournament.
Overview
A youth wrestling tournament is usually composed of three major parts.
- Registration/Check-in/Bracketing
- Wrestling
- Everything else (Flyers, concessions, awards, management, volenteers,...)
This How-to: guide is specifically concerning item #1 the Registration, Check-in, Weigh-in and Bracketing of the competitors.
The Registration/Check-in/Bracketing Process
The Registration/Check-in/Bracketing is composed of three major parts.
Registration
The registration process is fairly simple, you should already be used to what wrestling tournaments ask for in your area. Competitors name, age, birthdate, weight, and so on.
Create a Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet with the first row having the title of the fields.
| First Name | Last Name | Weight | Age | Division | Bracket Group | Club | Wins | Losses | Paid |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tim | Thomas | 75 | 10 | Open | 10 & Under | Team Test | 4 | 0 | Not Paid |
You can check out our sample tournamenet spreadsheet for a sample version of the check-in/weigh-in process.
Tournament entries should be inputted into the Tournament entry spreadsheet. Take the time to make sure the spreadsheet data is correct, it is difficult at times when registrations come in and you get different names for the same wrestling club. (Jr. Cowboys, Junior Cowboys, Jr Cowboys) are all the same club. Take the time to clean these up by using Excel's Filter and cut/paste to clean these little issues up. Remember to save and to save often.
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Check-in/Weigh-in
The check-in/weigh-in process is composed of three seperate major parts.
- Check-in/Weigh-in Cards
- The Actual Check-in (Not covered in this how-to guide, you should be able to figure it out)
- The Actual Weigh-in (Not covered in this how-to guide, you should be able to figure it out)
The hardest part of the Check-in/Weigh-in process is creating the cards.
There are two ways of doing registration for a tournament, with cutoff and without cutoff. If your going to cutoff registrations on a certain day/time/number that is the easiest way of doing things, but I understand that some tournaments will accept registrations up until weigh-ins are shutdown, that is fine, but you need to set a specific cut-off for the print process. We recommend shutting down pre-registrations the night before the tournament to give you time to run the check-in/weigh-in card prints.
Using a nice little feature in Microsoft Word called "Mailings" in combination with Avery 18163 2x4 Labels we can take data entered into a spreadsheet and the label stuck onto index card.
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Using Microsoft Word for "Mailings" for Check-in/Weigh-in Cards
Open in Microsoft Word click on Mailings, pull down the Start Mail Merge and select labels. You now have the option of selecting your label that you will be using. Again we used 18163 for our testing and our actual tournament we used Avery 5163. Once you have the label chosen, select Mailings and pull down the Select Recipients and select Use Existing List, browse for your Tournaments Registration Spreadsheet, select the appropriate tab for your master worksheet (Make sure the First row of data contains column headers is checked)
Now you can start building the format of your labels by using Insert Merge Field into the upper left label area and use the update labels to correct all the other label areas, design it to your own liking.
You can check out our sample tournamenet spreadsheet for a sample version of the check-in/weigh-in process and see an example of this process.
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Bracketing
The bracketing process is seperated into three major processes.
Sorting
The sorting process is fairly self-explainatory. Spread your weigh-in cards on a table and group then into your 4man-32man groups based on your tournament parameters. You need to adapt to oddities, if you have to call a coach in and discuss the problem, see if it is ok for kid to give up 5+ pounds, it could be that kid giving up 5+ pounds could be a butterfly watcher and just couldn't handle giving up that much. Or possibly the kid who you just can not match because he is huge for his age if they would be ok for him to go up an age group,... stuff like that gives coaches and parents confidence that you are trying to do good by the kids and gives you the best possible solutions to problems an automated program just cannot handle.
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Mat Assignment
You need a mat plan or mat assignment. This is something that can be easily overlooked, but truthfully it is fairly important. I hate going to a tournament and having to switched mats multiple times. Basically just make sure you have approximately the same number of brackets at each mat. Count up the number of brackets and divide by the number a mats if that number is 5 then brackets 1-5 on mat 1, 6-10 on mat 2, 11-15 on mat 3 and so on.
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Making the brackets
Hand off to typers, they are going to use the 2, 4 & 6 man Round Robin Bracket/Scoresheet Excel Spreadsheet or the 8,16,24 and 32 Man Bracket Spreadsheet process. Figure it takes one person a minimum of 3 minutes to do one 4-man bracket, you say that is a lot of time, well it includes typing time, printing time, verification time. So 30 brackets for a session at 3 minutes each with 1 computer would take 90 minutes minimum to complete. 2 computers take 45 minutes, 3 computers 23 minutes. Plan ahead for redo and problems!! Better to sit and relax instead of almost killing your typers with a heart attack. We recommend having at least one non-typer helper feed index cards to typers, collecting prints, keeping brackets organized, keeping people away from the typers and making sure every thing has been done and is ready for the next session. When all prints are done, everything verified it is time to tape the brackets to the wall. Please give youself extra time, the time scale was figuring 100% at the computers typing. If you are having your typers grabbing the prints, putting them in folders and anything else you will be adding time to the process. A 150 man session using 3 computers and 2 laser printers actually took us 35 minutes to complete.
People for the Making the brackets: (1) Computer person, someone who can adapt troubleshoot problems, doesn't nessicarily need to know wrestling. (1) Assistant Wrestling Coach to actually match kids on the table. Most of those coaches know some of the "Monster" kids and know your kids so they can do a fairly good job matching up the kids. The computer person and the assistant coach can match up the weigh-in cards, once done the coach can go back out to help with coaching kids on the mats. Keep an eye on the clock, you can tweak the brackets all day long, but when that deadline hits you need to just suck it up and get them to the typers. (1-3) typers, anyone that can type, no wrestling experience is needed, moms or older siblings. Once the matching is completed have the computer person be the one passing cards to the typers and retrieving/organizing the prints.
Prepare for the worst case: We had 3 laser printers and 1 very fast inkjet, one of our lasers broke in the middle of a session and the very fast inkjet was too actually too slow so we ended up networking two computers to our best laser printer.
Setup: (2) Tables 1 for spreading out weigh-in cards and matching them up. 1 for transfering cards to typers and for keeping track of the printed brackets. 1 stand alone computer with Microsoft Office and a fast printer per 50 or so kids in a session, we had 4 computers for our 600 man tournament but only really used 3. Have a spare setup ready to go just in case. Plan to bring extension cords, power strips, printer cables, USB cables, toner, paper, ... OVERPREPARE It is better to be safe then sorry.
The first session/round: GIVE YOURSELF EXTRA TIME to get through this... it takes time to work out all the kinks and problems. I would say 1 1/2 to 2 times your estimated typing time. Our first session had 120 kids but took us 45 minutes to complete and we have used this process twice.
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