Why not Greco?

[LJB]

None of you nerds ever did anything…

why did none of you switch to Greco???

[RAFWiki]

Is Greco what you call your wife's boyfriend, because it appears she did indeed switch to Greco

[LJB]

this is 5Xs best?

[BruceyB]

21 hours ago, LJB said:

None of you nerds ever did anything…

why did none of you switch to Greco???

I'll give one honest reply, do with it as you please.

Let me be clear, I am not speaking about what Greco is or can be at the higher levels, but what Greco was to me as a fairly successful high school folk and freestyle wrestler. I liked too shoot. I primarily scored off of my shot. I was never a big fan of just standing in there and banging around in the handfight. All I wanted to do was get to a decent position where I could get my hands locked around a leg. I felt like from that point, I was going to win a lot more exchanges than I lost. Scrambles are fun. Having a multitude of options to finish a shot as well as ways to defend a shot keeps positions fluid and constantly evolving which kept the sport from feeling monotonous and stale.

I didn't like how limited Greco felt to me. My opponent knows that I am trying to get to underhooks/bodylocks, he knows to watch for a headlock, and he knows to watch for an armspin. Those moves and a high-dive are about the only things I had in my arsenal. When I wrestled Greco, I found it difficult to get to good scoring positions and I didn't enjoy just standing there grabbing each others wrists and trying to pummel to get into good enough position to attempt a scoring move. There weren't as many scoring exchanges in Greco and often just a takedown or maybe two would be the only scoring in a match (granted this was the reverse bodylock era after the first minute of each period, and that was actually pretty fun).

I had just as much success in Greco on the state level as I did in Freestyle, but I just didn't enjoy it as much and I didn't feel like the style suited my strengths of scrambling and being able to out-maneuver my opponent once we got into wrestling positions. 

I am curious what you have to say in response to this part, since obviously your kids are doing exactly what I am about to say. I never understood, and still don't understand, how anyone can just go into the practice room and wrestle Greco every day. As I stated above, we would wrestle Greco for two-weeks before Greco State and I was so tired of pummeling and trying to dig inside for the same exact same positions over and over for just those practices. It felt so one dimensional and boring to me. I don't mean that to be disrespectful towards Greco, it was just how I felt about that style of wrestling versus Folk/Free. That is the genuine answer to why I never considering switching to Greco. I found it boring and one dimensional in comparison to the other styles. I am curious what your boys would say in response. It seems like once you reach the level that your sons are at, it would be incredibly difficult to have "fun" working on the very very minute details that separate very good Greco wrestlers from the truly elite Greco wrestlers over and over every day. Honestly, what do Otto and Max work on day to day? In folk/free that are endless setups, fakes, and combinations so that you can always continue playing with new ideas. It just seems like there are only so many different things you can do in Greco in comparison. That is my feeling as someone that casually wrestled Greco here and there in high school.

I'm sorry for going to long in my reply, but I am treating your question as a genuine one and wanted to give you an honest and genuine answer.

[LemonPie]

Because it gets you no respect.  Even as kids, we’d clown on our coach who  thought he was something for entering senior Greco tournaments and taking a match or two.  He was probably your buddy back in the day.  
 

 

[bnwtwg]

I AA'd more in greco than FS at Fargo and then later in juniors, so on paper should have been my preferred path. I found it to be as boring as playing soccer. Despite relative national success I could not use my full body, which would be fine if I did not know any better but I did play other sports with similar rulesets that did allow full use of my whole body (rugby, football vs soccer; free, folk vs greco). I did not find it to be physically more difficult or technique more difficult, it was just limited and boring.

Edited Sunday at 11:06 AM by bnwtwg

[Simpleman424]

2 hours ago, bnwtwg said:

I AA'd more in greco than FS at Fargo and then later in juniors, so on paper should have been my preferred path. I found it to be as boring as playing soccer. Despite relative national success I could not use my full body, which would be fine if I did not know any better but I did play other sports with similar rulesets that did allow full use of my whole body (rugby, football vs soccer; free, folk vs greco). I did not find it to be physically more difficult or technique more difficult, it was just limited and boring.

Hey, hey now…stop it

[alex1fly]

It wasn’t offered. Neither was freestyle for that matter. Our coach AA’ed at Iowa State and I suppose taught us what he knew. We did learn a few throws. 

[jross]

The man’s sport was not really offered or discussed in my tiny town and we didn’t have college wrestlers either.

[Simpleman424]

I did all three…I enjoyed all three. I was injured more/saw more people injured in folk than anything…but hey everybody’s experiences are different. If anything I’d say freestyle was the most physically (pace specifically) and technically difficult. You have all the variables of folk and Greco while incorporating a new scoring system AND no real regard for how you can get thrown/whether you can continue. Greco and Folk have their own difficulties but as a guy who wrestled them all that’s how it was for me…

[bnwtwg]

For me, greco was not only offered but encouraged. Trained at Overtime (Bormet's club back when clubs were starting to be a Big Thing) and Team Illinois began running roughshod on the country in free and greco at the high school level which eventually bubbled up to the collegiate folk level after a terribly long drought.