Poll: How do you feel about Greco?

[peanut]

How do you feel about Greco?

[forkemaz]

Boring but fixable in my opinion. Of course people would hate how I would try to fix it and thus my opinion but that's about how it goes here. 

[Paul158]

Folkstyle very exciting. Freestyle ,tolerable. Greco ,not so much. Folkstyle has so many more elements to it. Neutral position. Bottom and top wrestling. 3 periods. 3 point takedowns. 2,3 and 4 points for ( controlled) back exposure. Riding time is not needed but it is there. They use normal brackets. Thats a big plus. They have full wrestle backs for consolation. That is a huge plus.

[JuanMogen]

39 minutes ago, Paul158 said:

Folkstyle very exciting. Freestyle ,tolerable. Greco ,not so much. Folkstyle has so many more elements to it. Neutral position. Bottom and top wrestling. 3 periods. 3 point takedowns. 2,3 and 4 points for ( controlled) back exposure. Riding time is not needed but it is there. They use normal brackets. Thats a big plus. They have full wrestle backs for consolation. That is a huge plus.

Folkstyle embodies the purpose of wrestling too. It isn't a rolly-poly, starfish on the ground, throw a brick during every set of points style. Something about "control".

[Lleynor]

Par-terre should be almost guaranteed to happen in Greco-Roman, in my opinion. 

Karelin is probably the true GOAT of wrestling. He made it super exciting. We need that for GR to thrive. 

[Voice of the Quakers]

Par terre is practically guaranteed in Greco - it's the only way anyone scores at the elite level. They even given a point when they simply give the advantage.

I wish par terre would replace the shot clock in Free. Being forced down should be a penalty for the passive wrestler. But UWW is more concerned with simply getting a point on the board to determine a leader in the match whether it is Free or Greco.

[wrestle87]

Greco in its current iteration has no continuity.  OB is such a penalty that the sport has become Sumo with Par-Terre, minus the cool parts of Sumo.

Last point scoring criteria also ruins the sport (I think it's trash for freestyle too, I hate that criteria).  

[forkemaz]

2 hours ago, Voice of the Quakers said:

Par terre is practically guaranteed in Greco - it's the only way anyone scores at the elite level. They even given a point when they simply give the advantage.

I wish par terre would replace the shot clock in Free. Being forced down should be a penalty for the passive wrestler. But UWW is more concerned with simply getting a point on the board to determine a leader in the match whether it is Free or Greco.

I know this thread is for GR but I think you are right about FS. Ditch the shot clock which very often decides matches and give the active guy a chance on top. Let the wrestlers score the points.

[NM1965]

I've never really understood Greco. FS is good because it stresses takedowns, but I like Folk best because I think being able to work over guys for nearfall points is the funnest part of the sport. Plus it has neutral takedowns just like FS. Folk is the best

[Ragu]

I think Greco is a staple and needs to stay. People seem to think getting rid of Greco would just automatically mean we get 10 MFS Olympic weight classes. I’d argue the contrary and that if the Olympics were to get rid of it, it would just open the door to more wrestling going too. Almost already happened

[JuanMogen]

23 minutes ago, Ragu said:

I think Greco is a staple and needs to stay. People seem to think getting rid of Greco would just automatically mean we get 10 MFS Olympic weight classes. I’d argue the contrary and that if the Olympics were to get rid of it, it would just open the door to more wrestling going too. Almost already happened

Canary in the coal mine. Can’t attack the canary’s legs though, only the wings. 

[ILLINIWrestlingBlog]

Greco is a manly pursuit and not for everyone.

[GreenandGold]

I love greco, personally my favorite style, but American greco has gotten tough to watch for the most part. 

[CHROMEBIRD]

On 4/21/2024 at 9:24 AM, forkemaz said:

Boring but fixable in my opinion. Of course people would hate how I would try to fix it and thus my opinion but that's about how it goes here. 

Unfortunately, it would be inhumane and cost too much to make Greco wrestlers compete on a metallic spiked mat floating over a bottomless labyrinth

 

[alliseeisgold]

8 hours ago, Ragu said:

I think Greco is a staple and needs to stay. People seem to think getting rid of Greco would just automatically mean we get 10 MFS Olympic weight classes. I’d argue the contrary and that if the Olympics were to get rid of it, it would just open the door to more wrestling going too. Almost already happened

Greco is the best reason to have wrestling in the Olympics. Mans oldest sport. Is Greco. It has an honorary exemption status forever. And is carrying freestyle on its backs. Without that history....wrestling would be excluded 

[CHROMEBIRD]

1 minute ago, alliseeisgold said:

Greco is the best reason to have wrestling in the Olympics. Mans oldest sport. Is Greco. It has an honorary exemption status forever. And is carrying freestyle on its backs. Without that history....wrestling would be excluded 

Right. Just like Pankration.

[1032004]

It’s ok.

I would like to see more of the really good but not necessarily the best of the best FS/college guys try it

Some guys I think could have success:

Eric Barnett

Matt Ramos

Dylan Ragusin

Ridge Lovett

Bryce Andonian

Lenny Pinto

The Hidlays

maybe even Pat Downey

 

[Jim L]

On 4/22/2024 at 4:43 PM, alliseeisgold said:

Greco is the best reason to have wrestling in the Olympics. Mans oldest sport. Is Greco. It has an honorary exemption status forever. And is carrying freestyle on its backs. Without that history....wrestling would be excluded 

The rules of Greco Roman are not ancient. There are lots of forms of grappling that don't allow any hold below the waist. It's history really starts with the modern olympics 

[WrestlingRasta]

On 4/21/2024 at 2:30 PM, Voice of the Quakers said:

  it's the only way anyone scores at the elite level.

You really should watch more greco if you're going to make such statements.  I watched a kid score from bottom, TWICE, in this weekend's (Olympic Trials) greco tournament.  Just one example.

Edited April 24 by WrestlingRasta

[Jim L]

On 4/21/2024 at 12:36 PM, Paul158 said:

They use normal brackets. Thats a big plus. They have full wrestle backs for consolation. That is a huge plus.

Those are criticism of how International tournaments are run, not of the style of wrestling. I assume if you changed the format of tournaments to double elimination with full wrestle backs you still would not be a GR fan

[Jim L]

Just now, WrestlingRasta said:

You really should watch more greco if you're going to make such statements.  I watched a kid score from bottom, TWICE, in this weekend's greco tournament.  Just one example.

Definitely this. GR at the highest level is hard to watch because it so hard to score/throw a world class level athlete. They don't get out of position. And the consequences of a failed throw are so great it does not make sense to take a lot of (any) chances. 

Many high level Folkstyle matches suffer from the same issue. Yes, I talking about you, Daton Fix and Will Lewan, if you are reading this

[WrestlingRasta]

On 4/21/2024 at 12:36 PM, Paul158 said:

Bottom and top wrestling. There is bottom and top wrestling in international wrestling. One of the US biggest hurdle in international wrestling is that we do not understand this.

3 periods. six minutes.  What would be the point of three two minute periods in internation wrestling.  There is none)

 3 point takedowns. 2,3 and 4 points for ( controlled) back exposure. There are 1,2,3, and 5 point opportunities in international wrestling.   

They use normal brackets. Has nothing to do with style of wrestling.  Besides, what is 'normal'.......what I'm used to? (hint, we didn't invent wrestling over here) Thats a big plus. They have full wrestle backs for consolation. International wrestling is not about everyone gets matches, it is about determine three colors of medals and move on.  

 

[Jim L]

On 4/21/2024 at 1:18 PM, JuanMogen said:

Folkstyle embodies the purpose of wrestling too. It isn't a rolly-poly, starfish on the ground, throw a brick during every set of points style. Something about "control".

Folkstyle embodies the purpose of wrestling that you are used to. Other grappling styles have other purposes. Judo & Greco, the purpose is a throw. BJJ wants to have a submission. To a submission grappler, seeing Folkstyle mat work is completely non-sensical

 

[Jim L]

On 4/22/2024 at 10:20 AM, ILLINIWrestlingBlog said:

Greco is a manly pursuit and not for everyone.

It has been decades since I did a very limited amount of GR. And even then it was a lot better sport to participate in than to watch. Same can be said about almost every wrestling style

[Paul158]

2 hours ago, WrestlingRasta said:

 

I think this is about preference. I prefer folkstyle wrestling over freestyle and greco. Just like I prefer College Football over Pro football. I prefer a well marbled steak cooked on a grill over a hamburger at McDonalds. It doesn't matter to me what your preferences are. You are a grown man you will have different preferences.