Eagle26

I agree in most instances there’s a huge difference in NCAA tournament and US open (which is why we see much more MFF at the open). But in Lee’s specific case there’s really no difference. Iowa had approximately 0% chance of winning the tournament at that point. Lee missed his goal of 4x champ and the difference between 3rd and 6th meant nothing to him. And his next goal was to make the world team and he needed to recover and not risk further injury when the Open was coming up that soon. In his situation, I can’t understand why it’s so unforgivable to MFF. Also, the fact that he MFF in the championship bracket at the Open proves that he is truly injured. No way he does that if he isn’t hurt severely

I agree. Wrestling the consis at NCAAs wouldn’t have gotten Lee into WTT/Final X either (in fact it would greatly decrease his chances), and it wouldn’t have gotten him another chance at his goal of 4 NCAA titles. So what would be the point, and why all the criticism??

If he was able to finish the match against Ringer, how was he not able to wrestle back the next day? He’s clearly hurt (Like Lee and many others) but was clearly able to wrestle when he really wanted to. Exact same situation as Spencer. I’m not denying he was injured and I don’t blame him for MFF out, but it’s crazy that he gets a free pass and Lee gets crucified.

I like the idea… NLWC wouldn’t like the salary cap idea though ;-)

No I’m saying if it’s folk style, it’s tied and you take him down with a minute left all we get to see is a ride out. In freestyle, you can’t shut down at all because you aren’t just riding out or even just defending a takedown… you can’t even step out of bounds!

It’s pretty simple… freestyle is more action packed and more exciting to watch. Just look at the matches as whole. How many come from behind wins were there?! You can’t just sit in a lead or ride a guy out in freestyle. This is also one of the underrated benefits of the step out… it’s hard to take someone down but now there’s another way score so it creates more action. Folk style has more of a traditional following and as others have mentioned the team following in the NCAA is the big thing. Which is another reason to put more emphasis on duals. So while folk style is still clearly more popular, it’s definitely not more exciting to watch right now. It could be though. It wasn’t that long ago that freestyle wrestling was relatively boring to watch too.

It can be (and is) both physical and mental. They go together and it’s pretty much a chicken/egg argument on what comes first, but most coaches will agree that the mental aspect is more important for peaking for the postseason. That doesn’t mean they ignore the physical side of things though. I guarantee you that everyone including Iowa is tapering their physical training before NCAAs.

No and Brands isn’t either

Seems like you are taking everything out of context. He basically says that peaking, overtraining, and burnout are mostly mental. Which is true. It’s pretty evident that Cael is getting his guys to peak at the right time with more mental training than physical training.

I know this is totally trolling but I’ll bite. No way he would have done better at Penn State. At Lock Haven he got a ton of attention and mentorship from the coaching staff. Not that Penn State would’ve ignored him, but he would not be one of the guys that is their main focus. I think going to another big university would have had similar results as OSU

That’s my understanding as well. Live wrestling in the Penn State/NLWC room must be brutal though! Imagine the kind of shape you have to be in to withstand someone like Nolf, N. Lee, or Brooks constantly attacking you! It’s probably more grueling than any kind of conditioning you can do.

I’m guessing maybe they just train hard? Not sure why they would do that though… don’t they know winning on conditioning is an outdated strategy only used Iowa coaches living in the past??

Well, why not go for another quad and possibly GOAT in any country? I don’t really disagree with you… just making a point. I do believe injuries played a factor in Smiths decision to retire, but I also believe having to make an actual living back then was a big factor as well.

FIFY

I guess, but I feel like he has lived up to these. Everybody wants him to come out with an excuse, but he won’t make excuses. He’s clearly struggling with some sort of injury but he doesn’t use it as an excuse. Instead he gave Ramos the credit. I respect that. I’m just tired of the double standard and the ridiculous criticism he is up against. For example, you didn’t hear one peep about Starocci MFF out of the tournament (rightfully so). He finished his match in the championship bracket, so why couldn’t he finish in the consis? We all know the answer… it wasn’t worth risking further injury at that point. Same exact thing for Lee at NCAAs… wasn’t worth risking further injury with the open coming up. Unfortunately, it still wasn’t enough time to heal, and now people still think he is just mentally weak?? That’s crazy

I’ve always been in the camp that the world medalists have earned that right. However, I think you bring up a fair point. Our depth right now is really good (in freestyle anyway). Last year, the men medaled in 8 out 10 weights. Winning a bronze medal doesn’t really make you an all-star on Team USA anymore. I would be fine with World champ gets a bye to Final X, and bronze or silver gets a bye to US open finals or something like that. It would make sense to have a distinction for world champions.

Why did Gable and Smith stop wrestling when they were both in the peak of their career then? Just playing devils advocate here, but Spencer has already wrestled through worse injuries than those listed. I mean the guy won NCAAs with two torn ACLs! I remember watching him wrestle the state tournament in high school and we could tell something was wrong but he told no one beforehand and decided to wrestle anyway. As we learned later, he had torn his acl just a few weeks before and I remember being impressed with how tough he must be for a high school kid to make that decision. Most people would have simply retired with the slew of injuries he had (like Smith and Gable did). What does the guy have to do to be tough enough for you?! I’d love to see all the internet tough guys try to compete at that level with those kind of injuries lol

Is that actually what was said? That sounds more plausible. I was just making a joke.

I would say when the match ends, they declare a winner, and they raise his hand. Or at least before the wrestlers leave the mat. If a coach wants to challenge the final score, they need to throw the brick and stay there. They need to take time to get it right before they walk away and officially end the match. It looks really bad to change it after the fact. Do any other sports reverse entire outcomes after a winner has been declared? (Honest question…not sure).

But they had Bartlett winning on the scoreboard and raised his hand. It was only 3 seconds left but he deserves to know if he is losing and have chance for a quick score. What if it would be 10 seconds, or 30 seconds, or a minute? What’s the cutoff where it’s ok to just reverse the winner? They to pause the match to make sure the table has criteria right

Gable: “Man, you are lucky I decided not wrestle NCAA this year so you could win the National Championship and Hodge trophy.” Parris: “Yeah, you are right. Thanks. I appreciate it. Please go back to WWE for 2024”

So sad to hear about Lee. I hope he takes time to fully heal and comes back with a vengeance next year and wins an Olympic gold! It’s a shame the process has to start so early for qualifying for worlds. Maybe he would be healthy by that time but we will never know

Maybe we could have an individual tournament that crowns the best individuals and a team tournament that crowns the best team???Crazy concept, I know…

I would guess he is thinking it is the best place to help him become a national champion and then be able to give the glory to God on national TV. It’s more about having a platform to share your faith. If he went to a private Christian school, who would he have to share his faith with?