Handicap in Tournaments??

[Insidious]

Just went to my states big tournament on Saturday. We had a dude in our club who's 17 but a real big guy two weight divisions up on me. We'll he signed up for the under 17 division and all was well till suddenly me and him get called to the mat for our first match?!?

Apparently there was no one in his weight division for under 17 so they moved him into the adult division but then put him in two weight divisions down because hes only 17 wtf?!? Why wasn't he moved into the next weight class down in the under 17 or into the adult at his actual weight? Anyone else seen tournaments organizers shift the boundary's and give people such handicaps/advantages?

[Rufio]

Our weight classes are supposed to be seperated at 170-179, 180-189, 190-199 ... etc, but there are always shifted because we do not have a lot of people show up for the tourneys. Moving a guy down 2 weight classes is way extreme. He should have been moved up to the adult weight class and had to deal with it in my opinion. I personally dont believe in handicaps. Sorry that happened to you.

BTW. What is the difference between a 250lb 17 year old versus a 250lb 30 year old when you are on bottom? <--- Facial hair, and that is no reason to give a handicap.

[Insidious]

Unfortunately there was a lot of shifty movements in the divisions last minute. And apparently someone made a fuss about there 16 year old fighting someone older so they got shifted into the under 15 while the other bloke who was 17 got pushed up as I said before. Ridiculous. I got my butt whooped by the kid but that's my own fault and I am happy the win still went to our team but still the divisions are there for a reason, especially in white belt where weight still is a big deal.

[jamesc]

Sounds like too much politics...

[Future SWAT]

Our weight classes are supposed to be seperated at 170-179, 180-189, 190-199 ... etc, but there are always shifted because we do not have a lot of people show up for the tourneys. Moving a guy down 2 weight classes is way extreme. He should have been moved up to the adult weight class and had to deal with it in my opinion. I personally dont believe in handicaps. Sorry that happened to you.

BTW. What is the difference between a 250lb 17 year old versus a 250lb 30 year old when you are on bottom? <--- Facial hair, and that is no reason to give a handicap.

Well there would def be a vast difference in strength. As at 17 your technically still just a kid I know when I roll with the guys under 20 I can feel the difference in strength. But still giving someone a20lb weight advantage is a hell of a handicap. Also I don't know about the whole teammates competing against each other either. Especially in the first match maybe if it was for the gold but even that seems wrong.