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Attrition: A Wrestling Disease Worth Curing
By Chuck Harman – Board Member International Fraternity of Wrestlers
In 2015 there will be about 275,000 young men and about 9,500 young women competing in wrestling at the high school level. The exact number is a little hard to come by but let’s use these numbers to demonstrate the attrition / loss gap in wrestling. About 1/3 are graduating seniors or about 90,000 young men and about 3,150 young women.
Here’s the issue – “Freshmen entering college wrestling ON ALL LEVELS” – there are only 2,500 young men entering wrestling on Division I, II, and III level, the NCWA club level and the Jr college levels combined. As for young women there are only about 80 freshmen women wrestling at the next level – the college level.
The total number of graduating high senior wrestlers moving on to the next level is a grand total of 2,580 from a total graduating group of wrestlers totaling about 93,150. This means 90,570 wrestlers are leaving the sport every year. Lost to ATTRITION!
Wrestling needs to keep most of these exiting wrestlers connected. This is a top priority for the sport to develop a spectator base, stabilize the sport and begin growing the sport back to the mid 1970’s levels.
All of them have respect and passion for the sport – the question is how to keep them connected to the sport of wrestling long term beyond their competitive years. The International Fraternity of Wrestlers believes it can be the platform to retain about 45% of those leaving. If that’s true look at what happen with the numbers over a short five year period with an 85% retention rate at the membership level.
| Retention Rate Of Previous Year Members |
Members Retained | |
| Year 1 | N/A | 40,756 |
| Year 2 | .85 | 34,643 |
| Year 3 | .85 | 29,446 |
| Year 4 | .85 | 25,029 |
| Year 5 | .85 | 21,275 |
| Total Members Retained | 151,149 |
Now let’s look at what the next 25 years would look like if after 5 year the retention rate of that group remained at 100%, basically stabilized – those that leaving are replace by someone who graduated in the same year. 20 x 21,275 (# retained after 5 years) = 425,500 plus the retained 1st 5 years 151,149 = 576,649 total members.
So you may ask – why this hasn’t happened in the past? The answer is very simple – There has been no platform to keep them connected. Some have been retained as officials and volunteer coaches. But the fact of the matter is these formerly competitive wrestlers only come back to the sport if they have a Son or Grandson and / or most recently Daughter or Granddaughter who gets involved in wrestling.
Using the power of social media and a business model that has a “Little from Many” ($49.95per year) making it work the International Fraternity of Wrestlers is the answer.
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Join today, and show curing attrition is worth it!
