wrestle87

Aaaaand...we've entered the area where non-wrestlers have to pretend to speak about wrestling in a semi-intelligent way...f*ck me

True-that, having to hold and maintain interest in a positive and educational fashion gets tiring. School I worked at had 80 minute classes, sometimes 3 of them in a day, I barely knew left from right at the end of a day like that.

Greco was my favorite style as a wrestler, but at the upper levels greco has gotten whipsawed around because FILA/UWW believe they need to keep greco and freestyle rulesets as similar as possible. If greco were allowed to be officiated and structured more enjoyably, it would be way better. As it is now…it’s trash. The era of 2 minute periods absolutely ruined greco, and it has never recovered.

Well, respectfully, if you have been watching wrestling since the mid-60's, you have either not been paying too much attention, or you were REALLY confused 15 years ago, whereas now you are only gently confused by the ruleset, because things used to be MUCH worse. 1. The point of international wrestling isn't pinning, it's turning. They have the pin on the books, but it is borderline outdated. The pin could be removed from Freestyle and Greco and it wouldn't change anything. 2. The replay happens on a matside monitor that they record with matside cameras (I believe). If you are in the arena you can see it, I have never seen a remote broadcast where they show you the actual footage they are reviewing. 3. The shot clock is a tiebreaker system they have implemented which exists to drive action and make it so that guys don't just hang out and wait to score in the last 30 seconds. It is close to stalling, with the added nuances of understanding that basically, the ref has to choose someone to hit first, and if things continue, the second guy will get put on the clock. With the last point scoring giving criteria, being put on the clock first is a good thing in a slow match. 4. Like exposure, takedowns are about achieving a position, not achieving definitive control. I don't know all the positions by heart, but for instance, the high crotch crackdown is a takedown in freestyle within certain bounds, whereas in folkstyle it never is. 5. That might be a bit of an overestimation about most fans not understanding...but if you are looking to learn, this is a good place to ask specific questions.

Well...the country's collective medal count really likes it...so I'm on board. Getting the spot isn't the end goal, winning hardware is, and this structures things to preferentially handle those who have a track record of bringing in hardware.

Brent Metcalf has so much perspective, it's so refreshing to hear from an elite wrestling coach "yeah, I was really disappointed, but it's wrestling it's not the end of the world, you get over it and you move on." SO refreshing. I really enjoy that thinking around the sport is evolving to actually treat it like a sport and not an all-consuming "love it and hate it at the same time" prison.

Yeah, it was dumb. It's just part of NBC doing what they have to do to keep a monopoly on the olympics. They have always had trash coverage, so at least they did a good job with the videography...they did a better job than the big ten. I do think they could have done a better job, but I will actually say something good about it. They DIDN'T do the same lame horsecrap that wrestling broadcasts tend to do, which is think they have to just explain the basics tirelessly. They presented the broadcast as if they expected their viewers to be people who knew the rules, knew the athletes, and knew what was going on. That made things WAY more enjoyable. The "this is how wrestling works" commentary always gets in the way of actual analysis of technique and strategy, and makes it a total bore to watch. NBC cut that out. And I give them major credit for that.

Gwiz or Vinson pleaaase. I could see Vougar, but he has maybe ten years in him at most. We are really getting to the point where relatively younger coaches need to be filling these positions. Old ass mofo's who have already run ten programs into the ground need to start going fishing. Just like Mckenna should have been yesterday afternoon...

I also learned that Shane sparks can actually do a real play by play rather than just being a man powered entirely by coffee grinders and nose beers. I forgot it was him speaking for most of the broadcast because he actually said good things and wasn't trying to be a warner brothers cartoon character.

Because burroughs didn't make weight today...and he needed to in case somebody other than MM came through for 3rd.

This is...very funny.

I do, vividly, he didn't take a shot or try anything the whole second match, and he was furious when he walked off the mat. Looked like he had a price, they hit it, and part of him hated the decision he made.

He looks much better at this weight than the last olympic cycle. He has energy, he's on his game, he doesn't look like he hates the process.

kerk continuing to show that he also has some of that hendrickson blood..."yeah I got this in the bag...wait...what happened..."

Did they just manufacture that nonsense about retherford joining a finance company so he could take a payday and they could get free advertising?

Further away from the weight cut, zain is looking a solid 5 lbs bigger than the last match

Kirk cares now bc he's brook's drilling partner and he needs to get on the team so he can get travel covered

Don't count them out until the fat referee scores the same sequence as a pushout, then as a 4, and then just empties his bag of penalty points all over the final minute

And the knees, his knees are his largest weakness, and he is worryingly willing to get in this acute angle scrambles on single finishes.

It did look exactly like the sort of effort Bo put forth against taylor when taylor was coming back from his knee injury

Not gonna say I called it....on second thought...I might say just that

taylor is notably less muscled this year than last year

mckenna just had the referees job his opponent out of another win...this dude should have been eating burgers yesterday. Slay must have put a special memo out to the refs that "this is our RTC guy this year, please give him all the special treatments"

the wrong leg hooked in merkle style negates a takedown by rule in freestyle

Lol usually its two raccoons in a feed sack