jackwebster

Word, that's why I'm suspicious of calling that shrug and trip "attacks." Re folk/free: you're right, of course, but he did use that leg wingroll from a quad-pod -- a la Kendall Cross -- to expose Gilman in that best of three. I think that was the deciding sequence in that match and possibly the defining moment of the series. Edit: I think RBY said something like "Fix is pretty traditional, but Vito is dangerous bc of his ability to attack from any angle." This sounds about right.

I think you're right about the "opening up" criticisms. It's not that he's holding back or too tentative. He just doesn't have a a leg attack beyond the lefty Hi-C and, as you note, it's "straight-on." He can't get to it in the middle of a scramble or from a variety of ties. I don't agree with the last part. He has two "above the waist" attacks, though "attack" might be the wrong word. Early in his career, the over-tie shrug and over-under inside trip (I consider this as an upper body tech) were his go-tos. His early success with these techniques sorta ended up being a curse. Esp the inside trip. Big time, crowd-pleasing technique when it worked, but the opportunities just weren't there when folks recognized he didn't have much else. (BTW he had a similar problem on bottom. His go-to was a leg wing-roll?). Another area that I imagined would improve was his scrambling. Again, early in his career, he had success with a few flashy techniques: the rubber-knee to that switch position reach thing, the water-fall position far-ankle scramble, and combinations of the two. Problem is that he got too comfortable giving up his legs.

Your post points out the Catch-22 of these debates: we slag one-and-done guys --even Sanderson -- bc they compromise USA Wrestling's depth, and we slag guys for their Uncle Rico fantasies.

I guess I need to order the secret decoder ring. This is some Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn shit.

Ionel appreciates your support.

When I read online debates, I get the false impression that two voices, each defending one side of a binary opposition, are speaking from on-high, Moses-style. All nuance is lost as I sort, strike, and taxonomize the polyphony into a warring, contradiction-filled dialogue. At some point even the binary opposition is lost, and I just hear the single oracular voice of the Internet. Everything all at once with divine authority.

My question for Rash is: Retire to do what? As far as I can tell, his life has been devoted to wrestling since ever. He's had success since ever. And, he's still better than all but a handful of people in the world. Most importantly, it sounds like he doesn't want to hang up the boots. (This last bit is really the only thing that matters . . . unless he has obligations that wrestling would interfere with.) Imagine if my dad was convinced he had to sell his herd bc he wasn't Charlie Goodnight. Imagine if Na-Kel Smith called it quits bc he wasn't Tyshawn Jones. Or ... more to the point ... Don't most of us get up everyday knowing we aren't the absolute best at what we do but still manage to find something satisfying about out lives, something satisfying enough to make us get up the next day and do it again?

Godwin's law for the win.

I can't imagine he was confused, in the sense that he was surprised that the dude wrestled from a knee and had incredible grip strength. McD knew AR's tactics and strategies. Obviously, he didn't have the feel, but he wasn't taken unawares. He just didn't have the best game plan.

Again, I didn't see it. AND I don't say the movie was gross. What I said was that if I got one tingle in my spine bc of thinking about successful marketing strategies I would feel gross.

My AI generated posts? Sorry to disappoint, but I cribbed it the old fashion way: from a Steve Albino interview.

Maybe, but the idea that film about marketing might afford me aesthetic bliss is gross.

All over the place. Three or four at the same time. I used to be circumspect with cookies and such, but I stopped a cellphone ago. Imma customer, crony.

I'm biased against tattooed prep school kids. You can't wear ties to class and be white trash. . . Now that I type this, I recognize that I'm also racist. Who knew?

Abra abra cadabra, I'm gonna reach out and ... throw myself on my back.* That's all I got. My brain is mush. There's gotta be a joke with .. "Round about the mat he go; / setting up his fail·ed throw.”

mark my words The color commentator will misleadingly refer to Wittcraft's wild, ill-advised attempts to lat drop whomever as "exciting" or "dangerous."

Most of the new atheists rub me the wrong way. Their crude reductions ignore vast categories of human experience. But, every once in a while, they dropped a nugget of wisdom: However, one thing that grave illness does is to make you examine familiar principles and seemingly reliable sayings. And there's one that I find I am not saying with quite the same conviction as I once used to: In particular, I have slightly stopped issuing the announcement that "Whatever doesn't kill me makes me stronger." In fact, I now sometimes wonder why I ever thought it profound. . . In the brute physical world, and the one encompassed by medicine, there are all too many things that could kill you, don't kill you, and then leave you considerably weaker. Nietzsche was destined to find this out in the hardest possible way, which makes it additionally perplexing that he chose to include the maxim in his 1889 anthology Twilight of the Idols. --CH

BTW what's the etymology of "goat roper"?

It was certainly louder, but my ear picks up something else. I hear either .. 1. "chal · lenge · LOST" -- two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed. Or 2. "CHAL · LENGE · LOST" -- three syllables with no difference in stresses. A native English speaker would say ... "CHAL · lenge · LOST" -- the standard heartbeat (iambic / trochaic) pattern. This undulation takes away the bite. Sorry ... I'm done. And thanks for the pic.

English has a natural undulation of stressed and unstressed syllables. When we (English speakers) want to be demonstrative we often stress several syllables in succession, I.e. spondees. French is generally a "flatter" language with each syllable receiving the same stress (there are exceptions that are marked with various notations). As a result, French speakers often describe the sound of native English as a roller-coaster. And English speakers often describe the English of native French speakers as rude. When we hear that "ShallengeLoast" guy putting the same stress on every syllable, we interpret it as overly forceful. . . but maybe he just has a poor feel for the rhythm of English. Or maybe the guy was on a power trip.

Before ionel feigns confusion, edit your post to read "for him ..."

Oh... I watched a practice vid where Chris Notte was cutting up while JWS was going over a technique. Smith just gave him a cold stare and everyone turned and did the same. A moment later Notte rolled his eyes and shrugged his shoulders. I drew the conclusion that there was a tension in the room. After that, I started noticing how often Smith looked disgusted with his athletes when they walked off the mat. It didn't much matter if they won or lost. Nobody got a pass, but Heil really seemed to get under his skin. Yeah, we saw a different reactions with Dieffenbach over Perry, Picc over Lee, Perry over Brown, etc. But, man, Jamal Parks must have had a tough time. In any event, that's how it started. And, I'll let it drop from this point on.

You're right. The shtick was kinda funny the first few times, but it's lame now. Thanks for the real talk.

Ionel is adamant that this kid had multiple chances ... or maybe more ... to stop embarrassing himself, his team, and his school. He did not. He is a kid with some potential but had not yet realized this potential in terms of AAs or NCAA points. Am I wrong to assume that similar accommodations were made for many potentially solid wrestlers under the old coaching staff? What about truly great wrestlers: were they more or less allowed to run wild as long as they won (Brian Bosworth situations)? How long had this been going on? Since Chesbro? Before? It's impressive that a team known for hard living, hard cutting, and hard training cycles and was led by a coach who seemed to hate his athletes was successful for decades. Plus there was that asshole EG. Hats off.

I assume that the previous admin handled things differently? Idk.