New to Wrestling? Start Here | River Falls Wrestling

First-year families

Five steps, in order.

Nobody expects you to know any of this. Here is the whole thing, front to back. The paperwork takes about ten minutes; everything after that is driving.

Find the program that matches their grade

Programs go by grade, not by age and not by experience. Every child in a grade is in the same room whether they have wrestled for three years or have never seen a mat. Find your grade below, and note the practice night attached to it ... that is the night you will be driving.
Register and pay the club

One form for the whole family on the registration page. Add every wrestler, pick their grade, pay once.

There is a family cap on program fees ... the figure is further down ... but it only covers wrestlers on the same registration, so add them all to the one form rather than registering one now and another in December.
Finish the USA Wrestling card

Every wrestler also needs a USA Wrestling Athlete Membership. It is USA Wrestling's own product, not the club's ... it carries the insurance and makes your child eligible for sanctioned events, and it is valid through August 31.

As soon as you have paid, the registration page hands you straight to our club's own page at USA Wrestling, so there is nothing to look up.
Come to the first practice

Bring the short list below and come a few minutes early the first night, so there is time to find the room and meet a coach without being the family walking in during the warm-up. Nobody is behind ... in a first-year group, most of the room has never wrestled either.
Ask when you are unsure

There is no office and no front desk. youth@rfwrestling.org is the address for registration, practice times and tournaments, and (715) 308-8009 is the phone. A question you think is too basic is almost certainly the one three other families are also sitting on.

Which program, by grade

4K – Kindergarten

Pre-K / 4K through Kindergarten

Wednesdays, 6:00 – 6:30 PM

January – March. Once per week · 30 minutes
Grades 1 – 2

First and second grade

Wednesdays, 6:45 – 7:30 PM

January – March. Once per week · 45 minutes
Grades 3 – 5

Third through fifth grade

Tuesdays & Thursdays, 6:00 – 7:30 PM

December – March. Twice per week · 90 minutes

Grades 6 to 8 register through the middle school, and grades 9 to 12 through the high school. Practice start dates move a little each year with the school calendar ... the youth calendar carries the days as they are set, and the schedule page has the dates a season gets planned around.

Door and gear

Your first night.

A family does not need to buy anything before the first practice. Loaner shoes are there, and gear can wait until your wrestler wants to keep going.

Which door

River Falls High School wrestling room, 818 Cemetery Road. Use the back entrance closest to the football and soccer fields.

The main high school doors are not the ones you want on a weeknight. Use the back door by the football fields, at the turnaround ... the same entrance the swimmers use. The door is unlocked on practice nights.

What to bring

Short list, and most of it is already in the house.

Wrestling shoes, or borrow a pair The club has loaner wrestling shoes for first-year wrestlers ... ask a coach. Street shoes never go on the mat.
Shorts and a t-shirt Nothing with zips, buttons or pockets ... those catch on a partner and on the mat. A fitted shirt beats a loose one.
A water bottle with their name on it Fifteen bottles look identical by week two.
Long hair tied back Off the face and off the neck. Nothing hard in it.
No jewelry Earrings, necklaces, watches and rings all come off before they step on the mat.
Fingernails trimmed short Checked at tournaments, and worth doing before practice too.
Headgear, if you have it Not required at practice, but wearing it is a good habit. It is the padded ear guard that stops a wrestler getting cauliflower ear.

One hour in the room

What a practice looks like.

It is loud, it is busy, and it is less alarming than it sounds from the hallway. Roughly, an evening goes like this.

What parents do

There is a little room along the wall inside the wrestling room. Parents can also watch from the hallway or walk the track. Dropping off is fine too.

Warm-up

Running, tumbling, sprawls, partner games. For the youngest group this is most of the night, and it is doing real work ... balance, coordination and the habit of getting off the floor quickly.

Technique

A coach shows one move, breaks it into two or three pieces, and the room drills it with a partner at walking pace. Nobody is resisting yet. This is the part where a brand-new wrestler catches up fastest, because everyone is learning the same thing.

Live wrestling

Short bursts, usually a minute or two, where both wrestlers actually go. This is the part that looks like a fight from the doorway and is not one ... coaches stop it constantly, partners are matched by size, and a first-year wrestler is paired with someone their own size and level.

No surprises

What it costs, honestly.

Two payments and one commitment. That is the whole bill.

Program fee

4K – Kindergarten Once per week · 30 minutes $60
Grades 1 – 2 Once per week · 45 minutes $60
Grades 3 – 5 Twice per week · 90 minutes $140

Capped at $200 per family, on one registration.

USA Wrestling card

$60 per year, per wrestler

Athlete Membership, valid through August 31. It is USA Wrestling's own product, not the club's, and it is not something we can discount.

Volunteer commitment

5 volunteer hours per family

The same whether you have one wrestler or five, plus $50 in concession items over the season. Families who do not meet this are invoiced $200 the following season. We email each family a running total mid-season, so ask youth@rfwrestling.org any time. You can sign up for shifts on the volunteer page.

Every figure here is read from the same place the registration page prints from, so the two can never disagree. If money is the thing standing in the way, say so to youth@rfwrestling.org ... it is a volunteer board and a phone call has solved it before.

Register your wrestler

December to March

The season, in one paragraph.

The youth season runs across the winter and ends in March, and every group finishes with an end-of-season celebration.

Grades 3 to 5 usually start in the first week of December and practice twice a week. The youngest groups, 4K through 2nd grade, usually start in January and practice once a week, back to back on the same evening, so a family with a child in each group makes one trip. Nothing on a day means no youth practice that day. Start dates move a little each year with the school calendar, so the youth schedule has the exact dates for the current season.

Whether they compete

4K – Kindergarten: No formal competitions ... the emphasis is on learning and enjoyment.
Grades 1 – 2: One team competition is available for interested families; participation is optional.
Grades 3 – 5: Victory Conference duals, the team dual and the River Falls Youth Tournament. Wrestlers are encouraged to compete in at least one event; total matches should not exceed the number of practices attended.

Tournaments are a separate sign-up and they go through the USA Wrestling website, not through us. Many weekend youth tournaments run on an honor system: you enter your wrestler's weight when you register, and the brackets are set before you arrive. Some events still have a weigh-in. At the River Falls team dual, doors open at 8:00 AM and weigh-ins run 8:00 to 9:00 AM, with wrestling from 9:30. Weigh your wrestler at home close to registering and enter the real weight, so they are matched with kids their size.

The jargon, defused

Words you'll hear.

None of these are explained to you at the door, so here they are up front.

Folkstyle: The American school style, and the one wrestled all winter. It rewards control on the mat ... escapes, reversals and riding an opponent ... as well as takedowns.
Singlet: The one-piece competition uniform. Practice does not need one ... shorts and a t-shirt are fine all winter.
Headgear: The padded strap-on ear guard. It exists to stop cauliflower ear, which is what happens when an ear takes enough friction to swell and then sets that way.
Weigh-ins: A scale check before a tournament so the brackets can be built by size. Many weekend youth events now use an honor system instead: you enter the weight when you register. At the River Falls team dual, weigh-ins run 8:00 to 9:00 AM with wrestling from 9:30.

More words, for later in the season

Waiver code: A code the club gives booster club members and coaches. Enter it on the registration form and the program fee comes off at checkout, so you are never charged and never waiting on a refund. It does not apply to the USA Wrestling card, which is not ours to discount.
Dual, or duals: One team against one team, wrestled straight through the weight classes, with a team score at the end. The opposite of a tournament, where each wrestler works through their own bracket.
Freestyle: The international style, wrestled in the spring and summer after the school season. More scoring from the feet, less credit for holding somebody down. River Falls runs a beginner freestyle tournament for first-timers.
Victory Conference duals: The River Falls youth team enters about four duals in the season, then a bracketed tournament at the end decides placement. Our grades 3 to 5 wrestlers won it in the 2025-26 season.
Victory: The Victory School of Wrestling, a separate wrestling school here in town run by Kevin Black, on Main Street across from Domino's. It is not part of the River Falls club.
The team dual: River Falls hosts one every winter ... a youth and middle school team dual tournament at the high school, with a youth division for grades 3 to 5. Teams enter through USA Wrestling; there are no walk-in teams.
8U through USA Junior: USA Wrestling's age divisions, youngest to oldest. 8U is eight and under; USA Junior is the high-school-age group at the far end. You will see them on tournament entry forms.
Big Rivers: The Big Rivers Conference, which the River Falls high school teams compete in. It does not apply to youth wrestlers ... you will just hear it around the program.
Regional and Sectional: The two rounds of the Wisconsin high school postseason: win far enough at a regional and you go to a sectional, and win far enough there and you go to state. High school only ... youth has its own qualifier and state.
Copper Level certification: USA Wrestling's Copper-level coaching certification. A parent who wants to coach mat side at the state qualifier and the state tournament needs one.
SafeSport: Abuse-prevention training every USA Wrestling coach completes, alongside a background check, before they are on the mat with your child.

Beyond the mat

For parents.

You do not have to know anything about wrestling to be useful here. Most of the people running this did not either.

The booster club

The River Falls Wrestling Booster Club is the volunteer board that runs all of this ... fundraising, events, and promoting wrestling in town. Join it and your child's program fee is waived for the season: ask for a waiver code and enter it on the registration form. The USA Wrestling card is separate and is not something we can discount.

Hear about things first

Schedule changes, tournament dates and the things that come up mid-week go out by email. Join the mailing list, and subscribe to the youth calendars so changes land on your phone without you checking a page.

New to wrestling? Start here.