What do you think of matside weigh-ins?

Does anyone have an opinion on this? If so, what is it?

With all the weight certification stuff and restrictions, I think we may be headed this way. I have heard that a number of grappling events go this route.
Essentially you weigh in before you step on the mat to wrestle. It may eliminate extreme weight cutting and make things more level. Currently in high school, a kid can cut a ton of weight for a tournament and likely get a lesser skilled opponent the first couple of rounds in most tournaments while he recovers. Then come finals, he may be 15+ lbs over the weight class. It will also eliminate biased weigh-ins where some kids or teams may get a "friend" coach/ref to weigh them in at tournaments and give passes. I have heard about this quite a bit last year at several large events including state.

The flip side is that weight management is part of our tradition. What other sport deals with it the same way we do?

free passes at state?!?

should be done at state especially.
then you can see how good some guys really are. guys like cunnigham and gilliam would have def been higher. like 112-119 and 145.

I understand both sides. Looking back, nothing in life has taught me more discipline than taking special care in my diet: watching my friends eat breakfast pizza at school, counting calories, dehydrating my foods to avoid excess water, early morning workouts. While mat-side weigh-ins would create a more equal and safer playing ground the lessons I learned from weight-cutting far outweigh anything else I learned in high school.

I think there are a few of ways to look at it:
First-It may actually be a better way to promote disciplinewith weight. Think about weight classes from 119-152. If a kid does not maintain his weight and misses weight matside, it can throw off a lineup as well as screw up advancement in a tournament. Really, a kid would have to watch what he eat and his weight as much or more than some professional weight cutters. That could be a good thing.
Second-If guys still felt the need to cut down to wrestle smaller kids, they would definitely be taking more of a chance than they are now. It would be closer to college. They generally wrestle 1-1.5 hours right after weigh ins. Its different than when I cut. Most Div guys now have their weight tapered down to within 4-5 lbs in season. Now it is all about optimum performance as opposed to just being bigger. Look at Jake Varner going up in weight and winning it. Then going up from 197 to 211.5 for the world team.
Third-It puts the emphasis back on wrestling technique. strength, and endurance. A big reason why a lot of people cut so much now. To make up ground in those areas. This would hurt the teams that rely on sheer size and athletes most likely.

All in all, I think there are some benefits. I do think there will be a more even playing field. Guys can still cut, but if they do not do it right, they will likely be much less successful.

I don't know where I stand. Personally I like to see the matchups of guys who rely on size and strength versus the technically sound guys. I like seeing guys get broken in the 3rd from being out of gas. The way it is now, it is kind of "Pick your poison."

At the college level though, you rarely get fish first round. So cutting too much can be a dtreiment. Those kids looking that route need to consider that. If cutting to wrestle little kids is your plan, it just won't work at the next level. Recruiters know that. Hopefully your coaches do too.

Mat side Weigh-in
by Tony DiGiovanni, Head Wrestling Coach, Solon High School, Solon, OH (27 year head coach).
This commentary is in support of a simple mat side weigh-in which would absolutely ensure the safety of all competitors. It has proven to be impossible for wrestling’s governing bodies to eliminate dehydration. It still occurs at every level, including the NCAA, even after installing hydration testing.
However, the National Federation Rules Committee can eliminate re-hydration by installing a mat side weigh-in. This procedure would render dehydration useless because you cannot wrestle dehydrated unless you have time to re-hydrate.
In the mid 1990s, amateur wrestling sustained a blow that threatened its very existence. The tragic fatalities of three college wrestlers shook the wrestling community and focused all eyes on the sport of wrestling rather than the circumstances that caused the unfortunate events. Wrestling, the world’s oldest sport, had never sustained a weight related death before these incidents. What went wrong?
It was extreme dehydration, linked with creatine use, combined with 24 hour weigh-ins, and only one weigh-in per weekend that allowed such a harmful abuse to occur.
The new hydration and body composition procedures are an administrative and logistical nightmare. It is costly, time consuming and rife with corruption and deceit at every level. At the core of this situation is the traditional belief among the wrestling community that it is not cheating as long as you make weight. The only truly safe, fair and immediately effective system is to instate mat side weigh-ins. The key to its effectiveness is not only its simplicity, but its ability to eliminate all the “methodsâ€? used currently in the college programs at the start of the season to fool the test/testers in order to drop another weight class. More importantly, mat side weigh-ins will also eliminate the weekly bouncing of extreme weight that still occurs within the current NCAA system.
With a mat side weigh-in, athletes will police themselves. Even small amounts of dehydration or weight control abuse will dramatically reduce their ability to perform. This is the ultimate correction for our sport. Wrestlers would consistently develop and maintain more healthy dietary habits throughout the season as well as throughout the year. The one hour weigh-in rule has proven to be an effective method to protect kids but we know that a significant amount of re-hydration can occur in that one or more hours before their individual match. Mat side weigh-ins would eliminate all re-hydration and thereby eliminate any significant dehydration. Problem solved. No need for a costly mandate requiring state officials to spend inordinate amounts of their time managing an unpopular program that rewards cheating, deceitfulness and the knowledge and ability to beat the system.
If you question the truthfulness of this commentary, talk to 10 NCAA wrestlers and I can promise you at least 10 different ways to beat the system. In addition, almost all of them will tell you that the test is beaten by any wrestler who wants to beat it.
The key to mat side weigh-in is that the wrestler himself will not want to cut weight incorrectly. We all know that you cannot wrestle a match when you are dehydrated. Please do not subject our nation’s high schools to this “knee jerk reactionâ€? proposal. I would hate to see high school athletic and education department administrators use this additional program’s cost and associated administrative difficulties as a reason to eliminate our sport from small, rural, large, or inner-city high schools whose budgets are already stretched to the limit. Let’s get the fans and parents more involved. Take the secrecy out of weigh-ins. The media, fans and family will no longer sit in the stands and swear that “that boy can’t weigh 103 lbs.!â€? They will see it with their own eyes.
Proposed mat side weigh-in (MW) vs. Current hydration testing(HT)
MW - Truly safe, no time to re-hydrate, eliminates dehydration, dramatically reduces weight bouncing...HT - Somewhat safe, allows re-hydration time, allows weekly weight bouncing

MW - Zero cheating...HT - Uncontrolled Cheating
MW - Easy "total" enforcement...HT - Impossible to uniformly and fairly enforce
MW - Fair to all participants...HT - Unfair because every trainer, doctor, coach, and site are different
MW - No paperwork...HT - Unmanageable paperwork
MW - Fan, media, and family involvement...HT - Public relations nightmare
MW - Cost effective, no cost...HT - Costly
MW - Promotes healthy dietary lifestyle...HT - Promotes some re-hydration, 1-3 hours
MW - Understandable and exciting addition...HT-Complicated and discourages involvement It is my sincere conviction that the one hour weigh-in has demonstrated its ability to protect our high school athletes. However, it is evident that some wrestling executives felt a compelling legal responsibility to do more, and it is clear their current dog and pony show is not designed to protect athletes from rampant, continued dehydration/ re-hydration. Its purpose is to generate income at the expense of financially depleted high school programs and eliminate any potential legal responsibilities. IF MORE MUST BE DONE, and I’m not sure that is the case, then let’s do the only right thing: For the SAFETY of the kids…For the SANITY of the coaches… and For the SECURITY of wrestling in the future.
MAT SIDE WEIGH-INS: AN OLD IDEA WHO'S TIME HAS COME!
If you support Mat side Weigh-in, please voice your opinion to your state wrestling coaches association, state high school athletic association, as well as posting your thoughts on wrestling forums and websites. We must take action and do what is best for high school wrestling, before it is too late.

How would weigh ins be for a individual tournament. Would you weigh in only once or weigh inbefore each match

Before each match. That is the point. It eliminates drastic cutting and creates more realistic weight classes. It also eliminates biased weigh in's or cheatingby biased or overly sympathetic officials/coaches.

It's simple. Train and get to an OPTIMAL weight you can compete at healthy. Then weigh in and wrestle, healthy.