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I'm afraid it is too late. Coaches need to start at the Cadet level with instruction on post-match celebrations and interviews. It took Sammy Brooks (another ILLINOIS kid) months and months just to grow the mullet. Then, he had to learn what product would make it exactly as fluffy as needed.

Another area in which wrestling coaches need to improve on is the post-match interview. Again, there is almost a 100% correlation between post-match interviews and a big win on the mat. Now, this isn't true of all sports. In basketball, for example, they interview the losers as well as the winners because they think people want to hear what losers have to say, even if it is a loser talking about losing and whatever else the losing loser wants to talk about. "The ball kept not going in the hole." My friends, I guarantee you that Sammy Brooks wrestled 10% harder in his Big Ten Championship match against TJ Dudley because he knew that if he didn't win, the post-match interview he stuck in his back pocket would never see the light of day.

I've heard it said that sports are 90% mental and 10% physical. That is wrong and stupid. If that were the case, Stephen Hawking would have teched Jordan Burroughs at the 2012 Olympics instead of spending the afternoon in his London flat working out fiendishly difficult equations. The famous soccer player Mia Hamm said that the most important attribute a player must have is "mental toughness." Of course, soccer players with mental toughness also writhe around on the ground after another player touches them. They're running a 10k with a ball! Soccer players should not speak unless spoken to, in my opinion. But what about physical capabilities? It has been said that in sports, there are four physical traits an athlete must use: Strength, speed, conditioning, and positioning. Yet, the race doesn't always go to the swiftest, and the fight doesn't always go to the strongest. No. There must be something else. I've spent twelve years researching the relationship between athletic celebrations and success in sports. It is nearly a 100% correlation. I'm ready to call it causation. Whenever there is an athlete or athletes celebrating, a victory has been won. Examples: I think coaches have got it all backwards. First, teach your athlete a capital celebration, like Kamal Bey's Back Flip Superman or Zane Richards' Lezginka dance, and then they cannot fail. Statistics show this to be true. After that, maybe work with them on their pummeling or high crotch a little. With a superior celebration in their back pocket, your athlete will train harder. Because you only get to celebrate if you win. ___________________ This post first appeared at The ILLINI Wrestling Blog and Forum and Beyond.

This is truth. That whole recruiting class is bulletproof.

Zane and Kamal come to mind as immediate medal threats, so I guess it comes down to them. The Wraustler has made three Senior World Teams, so there is that. I think this is Bey's second at only 25 years old, and Zane has another National team under his belt. Other interesting questions: Could Zac Braunagel make an Olympic team next year while in college? Will he take an Olympic redshirt? At 25, does Kamal have his man strength yet? Will Rau go for the Olympics before Saturday Night Live steals him away?

Zane Richards is now 3-0 against last year's Silver and Bronze World Championship medalists. The combined match points were 22-9 in his favor. There appeared to be no problem with the cut at Final X. He beat the Iranian at the World Cup. No weight/gas issues there. Zane's in a very good place right now. The Albanian (former Russian) World Champion will be a problem, but he is almost a genetic duplicate of Richards. He could be Zane's older, uglier, slightly thicker-legged brother. So excite!

Prediction that cannot be proven or disproven but I think is very likely: Without that bodacious cast, Lucas Byrd at 60 kg Greco becomes the 5th IRTC wrestler at Final X. He had signed up to go to the Senior US Open, and once upon a time, he was an age-level world teamer. By the way, what a gorgeous power couple. Byrd is the ******* Wyrd!

Thanks for this @bnwtwg! I was hoping that they would start 57kg much later in the event, as it would give Gilman a chance to cool down. He always arrives to matches so sweaty.

I don't think Tom Gilman should SWEAT the small stuff.

They'll get the chair!

Strange as it seems, here is video of Gilman versus Iran's Sarlak. Just :25 seconds into the match (5:35), Gilman is already sweating like an Exorcist on day three. One second later, the ref blows the action dead. Sarlak removes his collar tie from the back of Gilman's head and looks at his hand like WTF? Twenty days ago a MLB pitcher was ejected for violation of the foreign substances rule. Automatic 10-game suspension. Less than a month before that, another pitcher was ejected and suspended for the same thing. Missing 10 games might equate to hundreds of thousands of dollars, and yet they still break the rule. From a 2022 article about how bad the sticky substances issue had become in baseball: "With the use of foreign substances 'more prevalent' than the league had anticipated, MLB instructed umpires as of June 21 to begin performing periodic checks throughout the game on both starters and relievers." To gain an advantage, a wrestler might rub oil into his skin, perhaps even put some type of grease on the back of his head. He is unlikely to touch it, but you can bet his opponent will. I don't know if it is true with Gilman, but there needs to be an even playing field. There is no question that Gilman is too sweaty at the start of matches, and it is even worse in the second period, after his towel guy dabs him the way a new father swabs the ear of his baby.

The full quotes from Brands and Cassioppi: "Brands also thought Hillger had an unfair advantage during the heavyweight match. 'Guy was oiled up too, guy was oiled up, print that,' Brands said. 'I don’t know if he had oil or anything on him, he was just kind of slick,' Cassioppi added. 'I just had to brush it off and just keep wrestling. Maybe keep that mind that I’ve got to really, really secure that leg or really, really secure that wrist when I wrestle.'" I don't know if Gilman pampers his skin with luxury product, whether he only wrestles with a 103° temperature, or his body exudes some type of mucusy substance like a snail. I just know that he starts the match against tough opponents as shiny as a bald head at a strip club. Ref needs to check that.

I've finished my Moneyball look at Thomas Gilman. First, let's correct a preview of the Richards/Gilman match that is on FloWrestling's front page. It states: "Gilman’s tried and true game plan of using underhooks, forward pressure, and single legs to score step-outs and takedowns, has proven highly successful. You know it’s coming, but you can’t stop it." The tie that the NLWC wrestler prefers is actually a right-handed collar tie, while he hand fights with his left. Against 10 recent credible opponents, he spent 74.3% of the time using a collar tie, only 5% of the time with an underhook. As far as not being able to stop it, that's another thing. There is a certain type of wrestler who has been successful against it: The shorter, quicker foe. Think Zelimkhan Abakarov or Daton Fix. Abakarov blunted Gilman's forward pressure by hitting an arm throw early in their match. Much less forward pressure after that. Fix used his speedy go-behinds to score takedowns. He also blunted Gilman's forward pressure by not engaging and moving laterally. Those are two things that Zane Richards does well. It should be noted that Gilman has had great success against tall and lanky wrestlers like Mongolia's Zanabazar Zandanbud, Joe Colon, Horst Lehr from Germany, Udit Udit from India, and Alireza Sarlak from Iran. That's because he can usually handle strength versus strength. It's the strength versus technique or speed that will get him in a bind. Second, the most amazing data involved turns. In 7 of 10 matches against worthy opponents, Thomas Gilman never even attempted a turn. In the three matches where he did attempt a turn, his only successful gut wrench was against a decent German wrestler who forgot to get to his stomach. How do you say "D'oh" in German? On the other hand, Gilman doesn't get turned himself. Thing is, I hope the refs are watching for him grabbing hands and feet while on bottom. He will do that when he feels legitimate pressure. Also, the refs need to warn him about interlocking fingers if he decides to go that route. He does it a lot. Finally, I hope they make sure he is sufficiently rubbed down, as he sweats like a Nazi in Harlem. He also starts matches suspiciously shiny. I know as a former boxer, we used Vaseline on our faces, but boxing is not supposed to involve any grabbing and holding. Old Spice body wash? I guess it's just a mystery!

It's been three crazy days. ILLINI fans are blessed to have large contingents wrestling Freestyle and Greco in both age divisions. That means I get to watch a lot of wrestling and have no time to add to The ILLINI Wrestling Blog and Forum and Beyond. I did manage to get one short highlight video done, and it includes that Ruth/Brawlnagel match: My research has found two previous matches between the two. At the Cadet National Duals about six years ago, Edmond won by tech fall for Team Pennsylvania. Last year at Nationals, at 79kg, Brawny won by a single point. For the folks complaining that they should've wrestled each other yesterday: Braunagel wrestled 8 matches today, while Ruth wrestled 5. They both wrestled 4 matches the day before to get to the third-place match.

It's a timing thing. This is how USA Wrestling promotes the Greco matches: Event Schedule Friday, June 2nd U23 Greco-Roman and U20 Greco-Roman Session 1: Greco-Roman U20 Greco-Roman World Team Trials Challenge Tournament - Preliminaries, Quarterfinals, Semifinals, Challenge Finals & Consolations 10:00 a.m. - 2:15 p.m. 10:00 a.m. which time? Eastern? Central? I have no idea where Geneva, Ohio is. Is it in Central or Eastern time? Everybody shows up late for weighins. Seriously, though, about 200 registered for U23 Greco, while there are about 800 registrations for U23 Freestyle. Numbers, always the numbers.

That's the point. Or, at least part of one point. An important duty of a coach is to scout your wrestler's opponents. When they share the same room, there has to be ground rules. Would you want your "game plan" divulged to your opponent?

Fallacy. You are basing judgment on past scenarios that were different. I believe NLWC had 5 freestyle athletes involved in Final X 2022, and there were zero matchups between their own athletes. As far as I can tell, they had 6 coaches, which could handle 5 athletes. Now, they have 8 athletes in freestyle, still 6 coaches, and two of the matchups involve their club athletes going up against each other. Finally, there are more non-PSU wrestlers in Final X wrestling for NLWC with the arrival of Dake in September 2022. I would be quite surprised if they haven't considered these issues: Have they taken measures to mete out time, money and resources in an equitable manner? Do they have appropriate Chinese Walls to protect their athletes who have to face off against their other athletes? Are there provisions to detect and eliminate possible subliminal biases against athletes who came over to NLWC after college?

You are working with athlete "A" and another coach is working with his future opponent athlete "B." Still another coach has been working with athlete "C" in the wrestling room at the same time as athlete "B" and his coach. Over some beers, the coach for athlete "A" asks the coach for athlete "C" what athlete "B" has been working on. Problem. Not only is there a problem with coaches, but there is a problem with practice time. Sure, the athletes can work out together on occasion, but when a wrestler is working on specific techniques to use in his match against his teammate, he'll want a separate gym or at least a separate time. LSU football closed their practices in 2017 and won a national championship in 2019. The Patriots have had dates on their practice schedule closed off to spectators. It has worked for them. I hope the NLWC staff have put some thought into these issues. Was this one of the reasons Gilman left Iowa in the first place?

It's actually a cost-savings technique, both in terms of time and money. For example, the final strategy session can be accomplished in one sitting with both wrestlers present. It might go something like this: SANDERSON: [WATCHING FILM] "Did you see that? Did you see that, Aaron? David always posts the elbow and pushes his opponent away from the collar tie with his other hand before his ankle picks." BROOKS: "Duh, sure coach." SANDERSON: "So, David, I want you to avoid the elbow and instead use a couple of snap downs to get Aaron thinking about them before going with a half-a-snap-down to an ankle pick. Got that? TAYLOR: "Duh, sure coach." SANDERSON: "Aaron, I want you to look for those snap downs because an ankle pick is right around the...." I guess they have to set up a bunch of Chinese Walls as there are 8 athletes and 6 coaches involved. Not enough to go around? That, in turn, raises additional questions: Do the coaches play favorites when it comes to information, time and resources? Wouldn't it be likely, even just on a subliminal level, to favor Penn State University athletes over those that come from, say, Cornell or arch-rival Iowa? Lots to consider.

I'm going to guess Burroughs in three.

That's what I thought. He's the Austin DeSanto of comedy. First period is strong but a bit of a feeling-out process. By the third period, he's going strong.

BTS Chicago is amazing. Facilities, coaching, whole life education. I'm a big fan. That organization will produce a lot of talent and be a feeder program for the whole city. I am as hopeful as you. The kids who come out of that program will be the leaders in their high school rooms.

The Brawlnagel beat that young fellow by even more at the recent US Open, and then there's this:

With the ILLINI's Zac Braunagel also on the way to Final X, Coach Medlin will have to devote time to him as well. So, the super-massive attention advantage that Zane Richards had over the NLWC is now only a very large and massive advantage. Below: This is the throw that the Brawlnagel used to defeat his finals opponent. Was it an underhook and a shove? Or, maybe it was a combination of Judo and Magic? It was freaking elegant. That sounds strange, but, yeah, it was elegant. Could be he's discovered the Kung-Fu-five-fingered-death-punch equivalent in Greco?