wrestle87

To the gods and the mods of the boards @Husker_Du This new set up is entertaining, but please bring back the two most useful buttons on the entire forum. I'm sure Foie Gras with Grey Poupon really gets it done for a lot of people, but please let us have our PB&J too.

This right here, very nicely said.

This is the stance that humanity has taken at every single major scientific re-envisioning of the world and the physical structure of the universe as we conceptualize it. We know so little scientifically, that it is still entirely up to individual choice to construct beliefs and frames of reference on the bigger questions. We have no idea how we got here, or where we all came from. Nobody has any answers as to where "life" started, or where it goes, or how the entire fabric of the universe we inhabit got here in the first place. So, really, insistence that something doesn't exist is just an insistence in your own belief...=D

You are not wrong, I'm not sure I'd go so far as to say emasculate though. The juxtaposition of the message and the performance are a real conundrum. But maybe the answer to this success is that the hyper-competitive individual need something to balance the extremes of the psyche, and this is particularly effective. Or, maybe they view it as a spectacle to help others, to raise awareness for something, not really sure.

I felt that way for a long time, but then Flo and a few other places got some really good interviews with wrestlers who were in the room with him, and my goodness the stories they tell, but more importantly the look on all their faces when they talk about it. Specifically, the places where it comes through are if you go listen to interviews with both the Perry brothers, and then Daniel Cormier, Mark Munoz, Chris Pendleton, Jordan Oliver and Eric Guerrero all have some real stories to tell. That, plus watching the sort of condition that he put his guys out on the mat in over the past decade, and the crap he did to his wrestlers with weight cutting, plus basically breaking his own son's spirit and driving him out of the sport, J Smith in my opinion is like a Dan Gable/ Tom & Terry who didn't care about the long term wellbeing of his guys. Gable and T&T at least have an eye towards helping the most emotionally wounded or emotionally unstable, they have that fatherly drive to fix those they see their younger selves in(Gable --> Terry, T&T -->Desanto). I have never heard a single positive thing coming from a wrestlers mouth about how the experience of being in the Oklahoma State room did anything other than making them better technically as wrestlers. Now, I WILL say, Coleman Scott is doing something right. The team this year has kicked this trend. But if you go check out the teams of the 2010's, especially the late 2010's, oh boy, just a meat grinder.

[Like Button, Trophy Button]

Our entire societal structure is built around enhancing the individual and collective ability to control and manipulate the physical/material aspects of the world. It is competition-based literally from birth for most people in the US. The continued success of the system requires that people take on the premise of "more money = good, more things = good", and that they go forth fighting in the name of that particular set of principles. What brooks and kerkvliet are espousing is anathema to a society which functions based on the need for control and to fight for one's place within a physical world. I imagine that their point of view(s) and their messages would be received rather differently in Bhutan, for example.

The Iowa room is not an overly attractive room anymore. Other coaches have put together a lot of their own methods, and it is really showing. The brands and J Smith were the best game in town when the wrestling community believed that they needed to stay with anger as the only path to success. Some crazy fan version of stockholm syndrome that captivated the community for decades. Thankfully, that era is over, nail in the coffin. Iowa and Okie State will gradually continue to revert to local recruiting hubs, and yes they will have the "old" pedigree, but frankly, and I say this with great glee, we have entered an era where wrestlers don't need to be emotionally and verbally abused in order to be successful. It is clear that the teams who are good are the ones who have fun, and who embrace the upside in participating from a place of enjoyment rather than one of angry competition are more successful long term. Surprise surprise too, medical research is confirming that there are, in fact, enormous positive endocrine and epigenetic cascades that take place when you enjoy your life and your pursuits rather than being mad at it. J Smith and T&T have embraced a personality of anger for so long, they likely will not be able to unwind it all. It would require near total reconstruction of the self from within.

There is no more like button, which I am bummed about, but I would be giving you a trophy or a like right here for this.

Some would say that if him talking about finite existence and the importance of being comfortable with our temporary nature ruffles your feathers, you are exactly who that message is meant for. Is it frustrating for you that someone can be that dominant and be that calm at the same time? The Dan Gable era of "angry wrestling" is over. All of the best wrestlers are referencing "god" not because the big man has a direct hold on them necessarily, but because contemplating and being comfortable with the BIGGEST questions, which our society broadly hides, keeps a game like wrestling in perspective. As a result, the best guys feel less pressure, feel motivated and supported on the deepest level, and are able to perform accordingly. Also, the NCAA is the lowest of low, beyond morally bankrupt. Let's not use their behavior as any sort of bellwether or litmus test for what good and proper conduct is.

The angle that destroys knees in wrestling is pretty much universal. When the knee is bent, toes are held out, and the foot gets pulled outside the frame of the body (ie heel is wider than the hips) to a meaningful degree, this is when knees get blown apart. If the top wrestler stays completely glued to the bottom wrestler's back, this doesn't happen, but when there is a gap between the two, or once the turn has happened and the top wrestler continues walking the foot towards the head, this absolutely wrecks knees. Generally, and definitely with a guy like Mekhi, the straight-on angle isn't available for the bow and arrow, he's too strong, so angles that line up with small muscles and ligaments instead of the hip flexor are what must be used. Now, I just went back and watched it to double check...Starocci didn't wreck Mekhi's knee with a bow and arrow, he did it by being an absolute douche. He had the bow and arrow, and bc he held onto the ankle, stood up and leaned forward on it as far as he could. I had not seen that before, but he just became the first Penn State wrestler I will actively not be rooting for in the Cael era. That sh*t is gross. Go to the 7 minute mark in this match and watch for 15 seconds and you'll see what people are talking about.

Lol, it was a combination of my ever child-like brain fusing the Mormon belief that Jesus has or will show up again with the fact that Jeff Bridges in the big lebowski looks like a chilled out fat surfer version of Jesus. The idea that the Big Lebowski was in fact the second coming of Jesus really hit my funny bone.

Well, I see what you are aiming at, and you’re right with Carter we don’t know what he’s got going on. I would see the ragging on Carter being more justified, considering he has leaned into his public persona a bit. But with Spencer, we know he wrestled the entirety of his college career through his Junior year on one ACL, and then blew that one out in a leg scramble in the Big Ten Finals, then did the no-leg shuffle through the entire tournament. Then he took a year off to get BOTH knees done, which is silly, bc that should be a two year process. But he laid it all on the line for the program. He was clearly at odds with his coaches, which only happens with every great wrestler T&T have ever had in their room for more than one cycle. He laid it out there to go for it, but the likelihood that the healing was done completely on his knees is very low. Given what he sacrificed at the alter of the sport during his career, and the way he clearly changed, going from happily being the flag bearer to gradually dropping into the background his senior year and being more private/less vocal, that (to me) spoke to him being at odds with his coaches. Starrocci hasn’t been embattled by Cael or anyone within his own organization as far as I can tell, not Cael’s style.

This is dumb. Starrocci is back getting treatment. The mothership has access to WAY more stuff, and when you are working to get ready in the face of that kind of injury, every minute counts. Also, if Cael had to hold him back from wrestling, him being around being in the environment just getting angry he couldn’t compete would drive him crazy…which is not conducive to healing. It’s like some people on this board never got hurt wrestling before.

This is the dumbest thing I've heard anyone on this board say in a long time. The idea that Spencer Lee...who sacrificed who knows how many ACL's and knee surgeries to Iowa and the sport of wrestling...hurt the sport, is ludicrous at best. He went out there and went balls to the wall literally every match he had...obviously to his own detriment. We have no idea what sort of condition his knees were in when he wrestled his senior tournament. Look at this knees here, that he carried the entire Iowa fanbase on for half a decade, which is a solid 20-30% of the entire sport of college wrestling's fanbase, along with the coaching careers of T&T, being the reason that Austin Desanto went from a kimura-launching maniac to a passionate but composed young man, and go check that nonsense.

.....this part...I'm not so sure about. Jeebus is a really good wrestling coach apparently. All the best wrestlers are thanking him for their wrestling success. Maybe they're onto something. Cael-trained and Askren-trained wrestlers say "yeah nah, those guys are alright, but let me tell you about my man with holes in his hands" I personally choose to believe that the mormons had it right, and that's why they made the Big Lebowski.

That Haines one was amazing. I was thoroughly convinced the ref had a prop bet placed on the match after seeing that call.

What we have said here and hoped for here is all the way it approximately should go. Realistically though, they could pull garbage out of their buttholes the way they have so many times in the past, and the EIWA guy (Ramirez), could even get put behind Caliendo. Seeding rooms get veeeery weird. I’m not saying it’s what should happen, but, to quote young frankenstein, we are suspicious…

Hard to argue with. It will be unpopular, but he just outplaced what seems like all the best in the weight.

I'm really enjoying that Elam just Doucet'd Doucet.

Nah it doesn't. Sounds like he really tore things up, and they just waited as long as possible to see if he'd be able to go.

I mean...there are lots of rules that are in place to make it so refs can penalize him for his style. There have been maybe 3 wrestlers who have been able to penalize him for being plodding and patient. It's pretty clear that he must feel like he's made of wood. Every D1 wrestler is capable of pushing when they sense an opponent is vulnerable. There is a reason he doesn't get stalled out. Something about tying up with him scares his opponents enough that they decide it is better to play his game than to try to blow the doors of the match with pace. I agree it's not fun to watch. But aside from NCAA's, I'm never seen someone put incredible pace on him except for AOC in the NCAA tournament last year.

Yeeeah, that didn't look like a cursory injury. His knee was bent in the same direction that starrocci's was when it grenaded. Didn't look like an ACL position, but an LCL quite possible. Head to toe scrambles claim another knee.

“CaLiEnDo’s GoInG to ClOsE tHe GaP!”

Really looking forward to Mesenbrink Hamiti