USA Wrestling Supporting Project Play

Statistics show that 70% of children in the USA drop out of competitive sports by the age of 13. USA Wrestling has taken action, in partnership with the USOC, The Youth Sport Safety Task-Force, and The Aspen Institute, to develop and promote strategies for eight sectors in sport that influence the lives of children. USA Wrestling National Coaches Education Program (NCEP) Manager, Mike Clayton, will represent USA Wrestling as a panelist at the 2016 Project Play Summit in Washington, D.C., working with key sport leaders of these efforts to share and discover new opportunities to build healthy communities through sport. USA Wrestling's Director of State Services, Tony Black, will also attend the summit.

First Lady Michelle Obama will be the key speaker. More than 60 other leaders, journalists and athletes will also speak during the Project Play Summit, the nation's premier gathering of leaders at the intersection of sport, youth and health. The half-hour conversation with the First Lady begins at 11:40am ET on Tuesday, May 17th and will be live-streamed at www.aspeninstitute.org.

The 2016 Project Play Summit highlights eight youth sport developmental strategies, with conversation on each of the following topics:

1. Ask Kids What They Want
2. Reintroduce Free Play
3. Encourage Sport Sampling, How can PE, clubs collaborate?
4. Revitalize In-Town Leagues
5. Think Small, Can we systematize creativity in play spaces? 
6. Train All Coaches, How to engage the hardest-to-reach?
7. Design for Development, The American Development Model (ADM)?
8. Emphasize Prevention, Brain Injuries: How much science do we need to act?

US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, in his keynote address at the 2015 Project Play Summit, said, "You have built a very powerful roadmap" that will help sport serve the needs of public health."

NCEP Manager Mike Clayton said, "USA Wrestling wants to ensure that our athletes not only learn and grow in our sport but that their coaches and parents have the info they need to develop positive health and athletic skills at appropriate ages. Getting your hand raised is always a great feeling, but coaches and parents of youth wrestlers can help kids enjoy the sport and learn valuable life lessons by being supportive of process improvement and reduce the focus on winning and weight cutting at youth levels (under 12)." 

USA Wrestling has built an Athlete Development Model (ADM) that helps wrestling coaches and parents keep proper focus on key developmental areas by age. Coaches, parents and athletes can access the USA Wrestling ADM info at Long Term Athlete Development Poster (short version)​ ​