wrestle87

The major hindrance to US wrestling is that currently, we structurally subordinate ourselves to an established system which we have seen is terribly corrupt. This kneecaps 99% of the talent and experience that comes out of US college wrestling, and just leaves it to wither and die on the side of the road. YET...folkstyle is the heart and soul of American wrestling. We should establish, monetize and elevate folkstyle beyond college. Folkstyle is the #1 grappling style for MMA, and is overly structurally limited at present. Folkstyle is the best, most creative form of wrestling that exists currently, and it deserves better. We should change this somehow. Other countries do a far better job of celebrating their domestic grappling style. We should as well. Because, frankly...the Olympics is dead. The shine is off it the concept. Not to mentioned current NIL money makes pursuit of olympic medals once again a comparative pauper's pursuit. The US has an ENORMOUS pool of wrestlers to pull from to keep folkstyle going further. This should happen.

As it turns out, the coaches and organizations giving out that NIL money care about those very results. I don’t disagree that the spirit of that stuff is in rather bad faith, but it's what is allowed.

Except that athletes completely forego the ability to accumulate better high school accolades as a result of getting that year of training/growth in earlier on.

This entire argument of “he should just teach techniques, he has no business giving life advice” is just out of date. Mediocre coaches teach technique. Great coaches show you the path objectively. As long as these are the rules in place, it behooves athletes to make the most of the ruleset. If a 19 year old can compete in high school, that kid will also be a year closer to physical preparedness to compete. NIL has effectively removed the viability of redshirt years, so it makes sense that the deferred year for physical maturation would still get worked in somewhere.

There are some club coaches who will give advice that is meaningfully practical for their athlete’s success, and some who will just teach techniques. The two are allowed, and go hand-in-hand. From a physical development and technique development perspective, a whole year makes an enormous difference, especially when you don’t have to spend that whole year just sitting in middle school classes, basically big group babysitting with some reading lessons. The coach is giving practical advice, if these athletes get good, they can make far more from NIL than they will with whatever “degree” they will earn. AA status—> half a mil—>investible assets and a property portfolio before you graduate college. What’s wrong with raising your kids to be smart entrepreneurs?

Getting held back is market standard for competitive athletes in wrestling, and has been for a long time now. They spend some time talking about that in the RBY documentary Flo did.

Gomez has the body of an 80 year old. I love watching him wrestle, but he doesn't have much left in him. His knees just can't take the torsion anymore.

I'm still seeing a lot of discussion elsewhere about why people are mad at all the transfers, and something occurred to me about why I get worried about high reliance on transfers. Transfers are good, but they also have a way of hollowing out a program. It turns into a revolving door of just purchasing wrestlers, as opposed to actually recruiting and developing. It never really occurred to me until earlier today, transfers aren't anything new, and I don't recoil at the concept of early-career transfers, but I do recoil at the concept of filling a roster with late stage transfers who have limited eligibility left, because I worry about the innate ability for the Iowa program to sustain itself and develop nationally competitive wrestlers. There are certain stalwart programs that are a bellwether of health of the sport overall, and Iowa running on transfers to me looks like the wheels starting to wobble because in-house development isn't going well. Ultimately, our sport is one that runs on healthy, competitive rooms. Reliance on transfers feels like an NFL lineman just pounding Toradol ignoring issues that are cropping up. The bill comes due eventually, just a matter of when you pay it, and how large it is.

No idea, just a reflex I have when I hear that somebody has moved to Michigan/Cliff Keen, they must have access to another passport somehow.

I just assumed that bc Woods went to Cliff Keen that he would be going the "mercenary" root and competing for another country this next cycle. And honestly, good for him, the US system I would say is #2 behind the russian system in terms of being an absolute meat grinder for making the team. If he can sidestep that, make some teams AND be relatively healthy, more power to him.

Would be fascinating, but that’s gotta be close to the big dinner in Godfather Part I at this point. I’d be extra impressed if Nolf knows the story to the split. It’s out there on the internet somewhere I’m sure, but that is a loooong row to hoe. Let’s just say that the OG DDS wasn’t exactly a Glory to God type of environment.

Thanks for listening @Husker_Du. Ads seem to kind of overwhelm the new mobile browser setup, at least for Safari. I have had a pages reload themselves on me a few times while typing out posts. The frequency of them in scrolling setups is also between doubled and tripled, and some encroach on the columns of the web page in a pulsing fashion. At times it’s a lot of moving parts for the eyes to take in.

This right here, what @Interviewed_at_Weehawken said is spot on. Colleges, Universities, and the NCAA asymmetrically benefitted from a contrived moniker of "amateur" for many decades, using this to pretend that the education they weren't giving their athletes was actually worth something. That entire era was hot garbage for athletes. Schools could and did behave any way they wanted towards their athletes. Administrators weren't and still aren't held to any moral standards or codes, they just get paid to keep the money machine running. Being an AD is really an in-house tv negotiations and PR exec position at the big schools. Maurice Clarett is a perfect example. He didn't play ball with the Ohio State AD, got railroaded out of a very lucrative career bc he wouldn't kiss the ring. Kids are finally getting what they are worth in the market, and institutions which have done everything in their power to arrange asymmetric agreements with everyone they do business with throughout history (hello student loans being resilient to bankruptcy) are just salty they have lost hold of power they once had. TV and the NCAA did a great snow job on us, and yes old school games and matches were fun to watch, but let's not pretend that just bc we like watching college sports that it was any sort of fair and equitable arrangement for the athletes. Our enjoyment and pleasure on saturday evenings in front of the television came at the expense of thousands of young people's health and futures. NIL, while different, does right by the people creating the entertainment product and putting their bodies and their health on the line. That is 100% the way it should be.

I’d like to bid you all a great year and a great farewell, so long as this format keeps up I’m gone. This is practically giving me a seizure just looking at the screen. My brain feels so scrambled looking at this. @Husker_Du I hope this let’s you buy a nice house, bc this is too rough for my dainty eyes. In the meantime, bye everybody.

Yeah he definitely did, there are a lot of trends that make it an uphill battle for grad-transfers, training age chief amongst them. That is one thing folkstyle has going against it, it wears you out so hard. Not that the other styles don’t but, the as an athlete the folkstyle college season always felt like it was three years long. Was his 6th year the year that Gabe decamped and just left wrestling entirely, or did that happen as soon as they left Cornell?

I have noticed this in a big way too. There seems to really be an adjustment period to being in that room for some guys. Probably bc transfers are used to being the big dog in the room and show up and just get wrecked their first year. Reassembling the ego takes two years for most. DT and Bo both talked about how rough redshirt year was.

Re the Iowa culture, the departure of Zach Glazier should say everything. Dude was the soul and resident exorcist of the Hawkeyes last year, and is putting on his south dakota shoes after his coaches recruited over top of him for his final year of eligibility. Glazier is the epitomé of an in house program guy. How are the Brands any different from Jerry Jones at this point? I’m curious to know now, what is the going rate per win at NCAA’s nowadays? How much can wrestlers make per team point earned?

T&T are not creative enough thinkers to compete with the top guys. We’ve rehashed this a few times, but they are the last holdover from a previous era. The Iowa brand has only ever been Gable, T&T have their positions bc they remind people of Gable, and the support they receive comes from keeping those memories alive. The sport is not what it was, training definitely is not what it was, and I would hope that Iowa would be daring enough in another 5-10 years to make a move similar to what Okie State did, completely wiping the slate clean and starting a new era and a new dynasty. We are just in the second Gable post-script era. Now, in T&T’s defense, they have a top 3 domestic brand at their fingertips, and rightfully so, the Iowa room certainly isn’t a bad one. We can reference prime’s interview about barely taking high schoolers anymore. Points towards the top always help. But until they put that development piece back in (they are 20 years behind on technique development), they won’t close the gap.

Lol sorry, I shouldn’t type while sleep-deprived.

This is a fascinating knock-on effect.

Realistically, should read “CSU the next program to sell its soul at the alter of a head coach’s ego”

This is my favorite comment in a very long time...

At least in wrestling. He may very well be working towards the MMA route.

Well, he's an exceedingly good grappler, ADCC finalist, hair away from tapping gordon ryan (his old training partner), but he's also hands down the biggest social media name in jiu jitsu because of his tireless Australian sense of humor. He effectively comes from the Jiu Jitsu version of the Dan Gable Hawkeyes, but he didn't forget how to laugh and poke fun at people, jiu jitsu, and himself.

Yes, $10,001 to be precise. ADCC gives champs $10K, so Craig decided to give all entrants $10,001 to be able to say “you’ll earn more just by stepping on the mat here than you will if you win the whole thing over there.” CJI was just a well funded and very successful grass roots assault on a rigid monopoly, and really just Craig (and now everyone) flipping the bird at ADCC.