alex1fly

This is funny for real lol This is a key piece. It's not just the two arrests. It's also failing to do what's required of you. If he didn't do the court ordered activities - which is honestly probably 4 days' worth of work - then what else isn't he doing? No knock on JW, I was young and got in trouble and didn't do stuff I was supposed to do too so I get it. I feel for the kid and have been rooting for him for several years now. It just finally caught up to him regarding his status on the team. Hopefully it's a wake up call to stop getting sloshed or at least reign it in while in public.

Totes. This is where I’m at. I would love to understand freestyle better. The emotional appeals (with zero backing data) are a bit much. If freestyle is about two athletes and a ref competing together, then that’s what it is lol A par terre clock makes a lot of sense to my folkstyle-influenced brain

TBH I need a freestyle buddy to watch with that can explain the ref behavior. Rules can be learned but with free (and Greco to an extent) I'm often wondering why the refs are doing what they're doing. They seem to be given a lot of say in not only who wins the match but with how the wrestlers interact with each other - set ups, TDs, tie ups, how much time par terre lasts, all of it. Some if it makes sense but sometimes it reads like favoritism.... which is acceptable/expected according to posts here.

There seems to be a fervent belief that switching from folk to free will somehow save American college wrestling from itself. Maybe, maybe not. Nobody has done that so anyone is just guessing. Freestyle wrestling isn't a top American or global sport. There are things that could be done, and have been done, to make NCAA wrestling more exciting. The improvement in production quality, good commentators, and wrestling media is a big one that's made following wrestling MORE exciting in the last couple of years. Y'all hate on Flo but they changed the game in getting wrestlers and wrestling fans together and plugged into a community. ESPN+ and BTN do a great job as well. Shorter matches, shorter review times, more duals and fewer tournaments, round robin duals, combining duals with high school teams, combining men's and women's wrestling events, and doing exhibition style events would be some other steps that IMO would make NCAA wrestling more exciting. Also if you want to attract casual fans, lose the singlets.

Great take. Love hearing from folks that have actually done the sport. Agreed on everything you wrote here. Freestyle is fun to watch for takedowns that's about it. And the refs get really involved which is weird. Folkstyle matches could be a minute or two shorter and I'd be fine with that. Also more double stall calls. Both of those things would increase the action, if that's the goal.

IME with competition or performance settings you can design a perfect system and still not achieve the results you want. Likewise you can have an imperfect system and achieve the results you want. There’s always a human/luck element to it. Long way of saying USA *should* be top competitors given the history, resources, and culture.

I mean that on the whole most par terre points seem to come from those two moves because they can be set up quick and chained together. I don’t see many arm bar tilts, halfs, etc in FS. Of course it doesn’t help that the top guy has only a few seconds to set something up, plus there’s no reset in FS like there is in folk. Just observing.

I kind of agree? There seem to be two moves in par terre, leg laces and guts. We would lose all the awesome tilts and pinning combinations.

Soccer is huge internationally but USA professional soccer has low viewership. Even though the USA women’s has won the World Cup and just won the Olympics. So I don’t think you can claim that switching to freestyle wrestling would increase viewership.

I worry a bit about the throws and kids health. Disagree that freestyle is a better product. Different. Would be an interesting switch though for sure. Curious what athletes think about it, they’re the ones actually doing it.

100 In my view Lee outperformed expectations. Zain, Parris, and Brooks were not expected to medal. “Six gold medals in MFS!” would’ve been awesome obviously but that was never realistic this round.

Same. Though the definition seems to waver.

Yep. Not feeling it now but definitely do at times. Part of sports fandom. Somehow we keep coming back tho

100%

I do wonder if he knows how disrespectful towards these athletes that he comes across or if it’s just part of the fun.

Need a freestyle and Greco buddy to watch with. I get the rules but not the ref interaction. Refs talk to wrestlers and stop matches way more than I’m used to and every match I’m scratching my head wondering why they’re getting involved in what seems like a normal sequence. Lee as always seems to just be better than his competition. Well done!

Wait until an agnostic wrestler thanks the possibility of God for their success lol

Every Jimmy thread is a regurgitation of some narrative from social media & Flo so no surprise here lol

It’s clearly a different way to run matches than folkstyle. Passivity and slip throws have me confused regularly.

Today and yesterday I learned that Greco isn't nearly as boring as I thought it would be. Those folks are explosive. Pretty cool to watch history get made just now! He made it look easy.

Thank you both!

How are y'all watching WFS? I am only seeing a stream for Men's Greco right now on Peacock.

Look if I can't get mad about gender, race, or religion, what's the point of the Olympics?? lol

See how would this not make an incredible feature film, lol

For some the storylines are the point