alex1fly

100%. The “change everything to freestyle” arguments come up when we do poorly at an international event. As if the system is failing. Those same folks are quiet when we do well at an international event. Funny enough, though, when I talk about wrestling to non-fans I almost ALWAYS say freestyle wrestling. Because goal #1 gets them to not think of WWE/WWF. Then if they’re actually interested or Im feeling zesty I’ll explain folkstyle or college wrestling. But heck I didn’t even know it was called folkstyle until I joined these forums a few years ago. It was always just college wrestling or Olympic wrestling.

Fascinating. How is the third party determined/regulated? also happy to read up on it on my own if you have suggestions, I just haven’t found any specifics on how it is actually going to work.

For real? I haven't quite caught up with what the new rules actually do.

International freestyle is a mess. I've seen junior high sports that are better organized and better attended. It's embarrassing anytime I try to share it with a non-fan and annoying when I try to watch anything. This is where Flo has actually been helpful with being able to find replays. Though that takes someone to go through all the footage and upload/code each match separately which they don't always do but I'm grateful when they do!

I don't see many perks with B. Kids get pushed to do things they don't want to do by parents with unfulfilled dreams. Parents have to spend tons of time and money shlepping their kid around the country - I'm talking tens of thousands of dollars a year. This prices out the majority of families and makes specializing in a youth sport the realm of rich people with flexible jobs. And it's not like the level of play is high enough to be objectively entertaining - you cheer and attend because you care about the person playing, not because a bunch of 10-16 year olds are executing incredible athletic techniques. A is better for kids and families. Life lessons, exercise, camaraderie, scheduling, more accessible to more people. And B is still absolutely an option if the kids are passionate about it but really in general athletics should be part of a well rounded growing up experience.

I agree with you. Would like to see Lockett let his coaches handle the refs. If he has an issue with the how things are being called or not called, communicate it to his coach. Focus on getting back to center and getting the next score.

I'm not following. Why does professional folkstyle in the USA need freestyle fans. Seems to me you would do better by building on the existing folkstyle fanbase. There's a formula for monetizing/growing small sports, no need to re-invent the wheel. Many sports were small-time until they got consistent marketing and money behind it.

Never heard of CWA. No forums or FB pages talk about it. Flo doesn’t mention it. You go their website to see who competes and the Teams links just go to a bunch of logos. Tough to follow a group that doesn’t do outreach or list even the names of their athletes. From the site it seems like this is exactly what we’re talking about but man it’s lacking some details.

Thanks! Those mid 90s OSU teams were the stuff of legends. I was a little kid in the stands every week just in absolute awe. It’s too bad there aren’t more recordings. Weigel of course was later and battled injuries but when he was healthy he was a tank. You wrestled Schmidt? Have you recovered? Haha jk would love to hear more about your wrestling experience in general. The board benefits from hearing from athletes.

I'm here for it as a fan. We follow these kids for a decade or more and then post-college they have to change styles completely to keep competing. It's not a good way to sustain a product. I don't dislike freestyle but it makes sense that viewership suffers because a bunch of storylines die on the vine and the action isn't "better wrestling against better competitors" its "different wrestling with different rules". Like if baseball players play cricket after college because cricket is more popular globally... the MLB would be toast. Trouble is, there is no American system for post-collegiate wrestlers. The argument is that there isn't a fanbase to sustain a professional wrestling organization... but the same was said about football/baseball/basketball and now the NFL/MLB/NBA are massive.

Steven Schmidt Alan Fried Teague Moore Preston Weigel

Yeah you just need people to be recording all that stuff. It'd be a lot. My cousin records stats for his daughter's junior high softball team... it takes two of them to record all the stats for just their team, and there's actually breaks in the action to enter the data and chat with each other. To do it for a wrestling match you'd need that many people or more. Now imagine an 8 mat tournament! Or maybe footage could just be reviewed after the fact. Either way, a big effort.

I’ve long thought that stats would be a great way to enhance the sport. Average takedowns per match, average riding time, stuff like that would be cool for fans to get a vibe for matchups before they take place.

Rake fighting? Count me in! Great point actually. A big part of the fun is tuning in to my team wrestling a collegiate season. Freestyle is cool but way less organized and less accessible. Is this an AI post or did you actually look all that stuff up? Tons of great comparison info here. And agreed, it’s an opinion, I’ve long said it would be interesting to hear from D1 wrestlers across the board what they prefer rather than having a tweet here and there kick off debates.

You are exhausting. Just talk about the topic man.