wrestle87

I'd just like to say, not everyone will appreciate the level of excel-ing that's going on here. But I see you. Much respect for your sheet enthusiasm.

This is awesome. Hearing one or two of his interviews over the years, I was blown away by his level of understanding of the sport and the degree to which he understood both the technical and mental side of wrestling in his own way. The only person I've heard discuss wrestling in that level of detail and nuance is Ben Askren. I felt similarly while he was at OSU, but the more I look back the more I feel like he really didn't have an option, "expected behavior" so to speak. Iowa State seems to really be turning into one of those programs for coaches and wrestlers who just love wrestling.

Though rare, there are people who simply perform better on these diets. Really comes down to the individuality of the gut biome. I personally despise a vegetarian/vegan diet. Makes me feel like trash. One of the biggest dudes I've ever met said eating vegetarian helped him sleep better... We pretend we know why this diet stuff works, but we really don't. Commercial science just makes aggressive claims for commercial purposes.

If you go watch the Bader Show the Chance just did, the editing makes a lot more sense. Part of it is about not rehashing old childhood stuff, but Chance also takes a ton of accountability in that interview, and it sounds like he intentionally wanted to highlight his own missteps and his own process back. He has received a ton of outreach from people, and sounds like he was pretty aware that he might well kickstart this sort of outreach. Understanding that he was going to be kicking off a new community start point, he had a choice to emphasize accountability and positive process, or to make the film a source of commiseration and "woe is me" introspection and ruminating. After listening to his interview, I feel like this whole exercise was about accountability and sharing his story of substance abuse to recovery. His interview with Bader is just as good as the film itself.

Yeah, I’d love to see hendrickson best kerk just for pride, but steveson is the best hwt in the world, he just to not apply himself. If he somehow doesn’t win, this weight will get the trenge asterisk next to it.

Is Mizz really bad at NIL, or has NIL really tanked the culture in that room? I really wonder what’s happening down there, they used to be world beaters.

Was very well crafted and structured, really a bit of a harrowing story, but you could also sense that, whatever the actual meat of the story is, they danced around it at Chance's request. It's an incredible story of vulnerability, resiliency, and the power and importance of relationships in our lives. No question, without his wife, Chance likely isn't alive today. She is the epitome of love the universe gives to you that simply won't go away and won't give up on you. Chance has done incredible things, most importantly, he is, unwittingly, the buffer between generations, and has been tasked with doing the work of turning whatever anger and pain he had fed into him from a young age into something more positive, kind, and caring. Seeing how much his wrestlers love him (his wife too) was an incredible testament to who he is despite his trials. What is so important to acknowledge here too is that it only takes one person, one helping hand to step in and show compassion in those early years to help Chance sidestep many years of anguish. Never underestimate the impact you can have by simply showing up and demonstrating that you care.

80% of the guys I saw take the mat in Okie State orange over the past 10 years finished their careers with a considerable amount of unrealized potential. J Smith was not building athletes, he was breaking them to try to grind out AA's. I don't care which team or athlete won, the enjoyment is in the surprise outcomes, but I do feel for guys who left a lot on the table, and who didn't realize their dreams for one reason or another. Especially guys who ran into coaching situations where the coaches were more about their own ego and legacy than doing what was necessary to progress the kid in a way that worked for the kid. In his final stanza, J Smith as a coach was not a positive influence on his athletes or his program. I respect what he did as an athlete, and the accomplishments he pulled together in his career are impressive, but he succeeded by standing atop the broken bodies and psyches of his athletes. Break 5 so one can succeed. That is the ultimate selfish endeavor.

Nothing, he’s just trying to invite people aboard the troller-coaster. The upper lower case is how little kids mock people online.

Jesus christ. Give the boards a rest and step out of the clown car my guy. You picked an interesting person to throw a fit at. There are few people who have rooted harder against fix in his NCAA tenure, and concurrently more for penn state, than me. No matter how you put it, J Smith/the culture of his room was an albatross around the necks of his athletes at the end of his tenure, he made them worse, not better. For fix to stay steady in that environment across that long of a tenure is extremely impressive because virtually every guy had a good first year or two, got injured, and then hated life bc of weight cut and mentally quit, or were too injured to compete. DT brings a penn state training ethos, which is much more centered around enjoyment and a balanced, emotionally stable approach to life, whereas J smith (and the brands/gable of old) were just rage, piss, vinegar, and lots of booze to numb your emotions. That’s basically how the entire sport was for most of its existence. The new guard is changing that, and absent that sort of a negative environment, I believe fix would have thrived far more than he did, and with the creativity of DT, would have innovated a great deal. That said, RBY came to cowboy rtc with taylor, ostensibly the coaching contingent there now is of meaningful importance to him. Minus taylor and friends, I don’t think RBY progresses above 3rd. And with DT, I think fix has the creativity and mindset, plus a better gameplan, for at least a 2-2 record in his finals matches.

Keuter is a classic heavy tweener, he has to push calories because being 215 is a liability at HWT. Tervel gave a great interview about this back in the day, he was a 220-30 tweener kind guy and really put on some mass after missing out on the olympics in '08. It immediately helped, but was quite onerous for him. Powerlifters, Strongmen etc also give major insight into what this is like. If you're REALLY putting in the time to be hwt competitive, eating is a full time job, and becomes pretty unpleasant.

Probably 2-3x champ if taylor is his coach. Fix regressed throughout college, carrying the brand, a struggling coach's career, and the ENTIRE Okie State brand is a really tall order for any person.

Even Zahid left.

VT is always a sneaky tough room. Stewart looked stale, maybe weight is an issue. I’m a jersey boy, gotta pull for hometown a bit, but not a lot to pill for. Poz is my favorite wrestler from rutgers in a long time. He looked like he was ready to hang up the shoes. The bump to 197 has not been positive for his performance. I get the weight thing, and he looks like he’s in much better shape this year, but he also looks like he mailed it in. He also practically just doesn’t have the style to make his smaller frame work against super lanky dudes. It’s a really tall task to attack the hips straight on at the big boy weights. Maybe he can give mark hall a ring and get some pointers about what to do when you are always the smaller dude.

The UFC broadcasts college wrestling matches on fight pass.

My guy realized pretty quickly but a season too late that he had it really really good up at Cornell.

Okie State will vie for a title out of the gate

I would go back and watch/listen to burroughs when he was putting it on dake and taylor before they turned the corner. He is very much in the old school J Smith style crush 'em and forget about 'em sort of camp, it may not have been what got him through, but he was definitely very big on buying into his own story (I'm trying to phrase it politely). He's never been immensely disrespectful, but he's also never been one to hide it when he had something to say about somebody either. Nature of competition certainly, but he has a strong "bitter competitor" muscle. He, J Smith, the Brands, Gable, are all cut from the same cloth. Massive respect to all of them, but when you become the type of dude who foams at the mouth when things get heated or who yells, mopes and pouts when you don't win, you often miss or lose the ability to give yourself a gentle farewell. Being pissed about losing clouds the ability to have the perspective to craft such a moment. It makes great winners, but great winners never want to be done winning.

Nearing the end of his 30's, I have to think we would have seen more involvement in the careers of others from JB if coaching was really on his mind. I could be completely incorrect, but he has always struck me as a very self-driven self-oriented lone wolf type of wrestler, much more like Sammy Henson or Cary Kolat more than DT or some of the other more team, group, room oriented wrestlers. Again, I could be very off base on this, but to me JB has always come across as being about JB and doing what is necessary to make JB successful. This is in no way bad, just an observation of personality types that succeed on certain paths vs others post competition.

Put another way, is competing really the highest and best use of his talents and experiences? Dude is a very experienced competitor, but the sport has clearly moved on. He is, however, an amazing voice and ambassador for the sport. I'm sure the fire will always be there, but he has the ability to be the actual face of the sport for the next many decades. We should definitely be actively encouraging of that, his is one of the top handful of wrestling minds to come out of our country in the past 50 years.

Well, good feeling's gone.

100% This is a really great move for Zahid. Show’s a maturity and openness I admit I would not have expected from him. Really tough for ASU, they just went down a solid two rungs, and this looks like an actual exodus now. Teemer, Parco and Zahid all bouncing in the same year? Bad news bears.

The math on Ivy educations for athletes is going to change a GREAT deal unless ivies throw actual NIL at their kids. So many kids can walk away from their career with enough scratch to become entrepreneurs, that it saves them 5-7 years professionally. Unless you are dead set on becoming so and so lawyer or business person, it really doesn't matter anymore. A quarter to half a yard invested and cashflowing makes for a much more enjoyable 20's, 30's and 40's.

I understand that sort of a feeling, but at the same time, being a college athlete has real monetary market value. It is an adjustment period, but I think the net positives for the athletes a far outweigh the negatives. We’re not used to it, and I do not mean to dismiss the notion that this has brought out new levels of sliminess, but those sorts of gross people have always been in the sport (I was def coached by a few of them.) It is weird to have wrestling be setting down its mantle as the “working man’s unsung rewardless gladiator sport”, which is an ethos it has carried for a century, but now kids can actually change their lives by being good at wrestling, instead of just getting injured, abused in the room, and having nothing to show for it. Things will adjust, and some rules are probably warranted, but at the same time our memories of the vision of the sport are from a made up marketing pipe dream peddled by the NCAA to line their own pockets. I love this sport dearly, and always will, but I have a hard time siding with NCAA institutions (the teams themselves) over individual athletes getting their fair and due at a market rate.

Yianni is from a different era. Kids get paid nowadays, this is change your life money for many of these kids, and will completely overhaul the old narrative for what it meant to be a college athlete (broken and retired coaching at a high school because your dreams didn't pan out.) Now it can be independent small landlord and entrepreneur...that's an amazing shift. Go pursue the kids coaches, do your thing!