i am pleasantly surprised...
it is rare to read a greco post that is knowledgeable, nuanced, and not total rubbish...
**tip of the cap**
the ivanov situation is interesting... i was super hopeful when he took that job... then some things happened that i was not impressed by even a little... i have no knowledge whether this was his decision or USAW's decision, but, it could have been either just as easily... he was not making friends within the program... the world team camps last summer were awful... lots of coaches alienated with little to no tact... the actual training was suspect at best... large number of athletes not impressed and not looking forward to repeating that training philosophy... and most importantly, the results were the exact same...
i was willing to look past all that having had good experiences with ivanov personally and knowing how little USAW actually cares about greco... gotta shake things up... cause some waves... and if people are not happy then that is what was needed in the program...
clearly, the hiring process for the OTC coach was the tipping point... i was not even a little impressed with how that has been handled... how some clearly qualified candidates were not even granted an interview... it was not encouraging in the least little bit...
and some athletes were told not they were not allowed to train with particular coaches...
i heard grumblings about the OTC being used as a "commercial" for side businesses'...
blah, blah, blah...
point being the fit was not great and a large number of the greco community were not unhappy with last weeks news...
i would encourage everyone to read timmy hands full thoughts on the twitter verse... they could have come from me word for word...
all the issues in the program still remain, but, as the eternal grumpy optimist i see things happening that are going to impact the program positively coming up... we have a coach back on the scene that is proven, highly motivated, and showing the best technique in the country and there is not even a close second... he has some outside financial support and they are doing some things that no one else is doing at the moment...
and...
as important right now, rulon is coming back for a very specific reason... he could very easily turn some heads at the open...
https://www.instagram.com/p/Clh0ZbisJ6f/