wrestle87

You asked this seriously so it merits a serious answer. The best thing I can offer is first go watch a film called bigger faster stronger. It is extremely honest and very well done. Then, go do some reading about the history of exogenous testosterone supplementation in athletics. Modern athletics and training evolved on the back of the development of the exogenous androgen/anabolic supplementation. They are intimately linked simply because they work, not just for performance gains but also maintenance of joint integrity and tissue recovery under enormous training loads. There are some old interviews back in the day with the 1950’s-60’s wrestling coaches where they went drinking with the german coaches after the olympics one year, and the dude got too hammered and told them they’d been supplementing with a test derivative, I don’t recall which, it was relatively new at the time. Anyway the US coaches went back the next day and put the whole team on it. Guess who did really well that next cycle. It was unknown and nobody cared. Which is the way it should be. Steroids got vilified when people started having things to sell (professional sports and WWE mainly), and IP’s to protect(Pharma). It’s much easier to control people’s actions by manufacturing morality rather than explaining a complex topic, this was entirely where Reagan came in and just…did Reagan things. Steroids and protein powder, creatine etc are all the same vein of concept, even sports in general, it’s something with a risk reward profile that people participate in for a desired outcome. Our society just vilifies certain things out of convenience or in support of ulterior motives.

They're not telling the truth.

Shhhh….we’re not supposed to speak to athletic realities when it’s about americans, only about big bad non-ally country athletes.

I couldn't agree more. I am so thankful for current athletes that coaches are gradually doing away with the concept of using coaching to exorcise their own personal demons on their wrestlers. That used to be 90% of coaches in the sport. Now it seems like, at least at the collegiate level, it's more 50/50. The Iowa program is a fundamental part of the sport in the US. We need them to be successful based on the modern standard. It used to be that broken and angry was good enough to win titles. It's not anymore. Depending on the match I'm 50/50 whether I root for a hawkeye wrestler, but I will always root hard for the program. If that program struggles, the entire sport will be facing some bad headwinds in the near future.

I seriously underestimated where they would land, especially after conferences where it looks like the whole team was about to lay an egg. Guess coach Taylor thoroughly subscribes to Dan Gable's old chart of peaking workload a few weeks before tapering to peak for performance. Whatever my worries were, and they were certainly there, he gets to put his coaching stamp on the two biggest (over)performers of the tournament. Yeah, he knows what he's doing, and is going to be a problem for many coaches for a long time.

I would love to be very very wrong about him. If we're being completely objective, the trends just don't support it. If you watch the matcast, he walks up to the other coaches and says "I did that (tried to rip his arm off) because he fishhooked me during the match." 99% of the college wrestlers I ever met and competed with, myself included, went their entire athletic lives without ever getting into anything other than a series of handshakes after a match regardless of the result. How many wrestlers have you met who start flinging excuses the first thing after a loss? It's rare, a bad look, and typically a rather revealing look into the individual. If you take one of these things alone, I'm 100% on board "yeah, it happens, just leave it be". Gets into it with an opponent he's clearly dominated the whole match AND comes up with excuses as part of an interview after his 2nd consecutive loss? That just smacks of a sore loser. Again, I hope he's healthy, stays healthy and never has any health issues and can finish out his career because he is a massively entertaining wrestler. He is also still a young man who should be given leeway on his road to maturity. That said, when someone is still growing and behaves poorly, they need to be called out on their antics.

Have you ever wrestled? The way you conduct yourself in a match says boatloads about your character...

To actually address the point at hand, it would be less surprising than the sun coming up if kasak was indeed drinking a few extra dbol milkshakes during practice. God is good, but so is louie simmons, and louie built a lot of much bigger benches.

Every athletic director at all levels does. Athletic directors are really physical performance entertainment directors. The only time somebody gets busted is if they are so eye-catching as to start raising fake ethical questions which wind up threatening revenue streams. Steroids are already all over sports, they are a serious boon to orthopedic longevity in high impact or repetitive motion sports. We have just arbitrarily vilified them because....? Nobody has an answer why...we just have. Don't worry about high fructose corn syrup though, that is...you know...well there's nothing wrong with it keep buying your coke and your ozempic please.

The irony in an iowa wrestler pointing a finger at a PSU wrestler is...worth observing. Gear is everywhere. This is professional sports.

Yeah, the Iowa room DEFINITELY has never ever seen a stray needle in its time either. This is a dumb conversation entirely. "No wayyyyy, the NCAA doesn't test in any meaningful way because it's ultimately entertainment for pay?!" Kids are on gear in high school and it's blatant. Those same kids get recruited and wrestle. We think that enrolling in college is going to DECREASE the amount that they take and have access to?

Learn how to read words and do a little research. I'm sure you're all in your feelings because of something unfortunate that happened to the young man. I've watching enough of shapiro to know that, and this is putting it as charitably as possible, his behavior is "unpredictable" when his emotions get bigger than he knows how to control. This is not a new thing. In no way am saying I wish him ill, but accidents don't excuse poor behavior or being a douchebag. They also don't excuse you from being called out for same. Go to 1:25:40 and watch from there, you'll see enough.

You want a better nickname than captain america, for a dude who makes the superhero look small? No, he is captain america. Only other one I’ll consider is the lion tamer.

I have very little to say in support of anything shapiro says. He was a complete tw*t at the end of one of the matches he won, maybe his quarter, and this is just sour grapes from him. If he had been composed and a gentleman, I might listen politely and then ignore him, but this is his ego just continuing to run the show. Really love to hear what he has to say about getting big brothered by antrell taylor too. After all he’s been through with his concussions I just treat him like antonio brown. Highly talented, but unbelievably predictable, and mentally just on mars.

This is why it’s so important to show appreciation and build connections with all young athletes, so they can see and understand that they have value and identity that they appreciate outside the sport. Guys who are missing that take unnecessary risks to hang onto the only thing they value about themselves.

A lot clearly, both in technique but even more between the ears for hendrickson. He was notoriously the 3rd place king because he always had hiccups against kerkvliet. He had to get over those mental boogeymen just to have the chance to wrestle steveson, and he kept a TON of poise throughout that match.

Manning and nebraska had an outstanding year and an amazing tournament. Because people like doug schwab, lee roper, and neil erisman exist, I’m not giving manning that crown though. Antrell taylor had a fantastic tournament, lovett and hardy are both 35.

Iowa better buckle its seatbelt. It’s about to be a loooong couple of years. Bright spots were Kennedy and Keuter obviously. Kennedy placing was my favorite result of the tournament until captain america stepped in and took rob rohn’s place as the next coming of larry owings. Even though he low AA’d, heavyweight is wide open next year, Keuter is an immediate “probably” for at least the semis if not the finals. Ayala is also ENORMOUS at 133, will he make the move to 141 next year? It really looked like the weight cut just wore him down by the end of the year. Been there. There are things that food, water, and rest can’t put back into you for a long time after consistently cutting a lot of weight. Being a 2x bridesmaid is a lot of pressure, but corey clark did it. Also, lol at Ferrari the youngest being homegrown.

Dude go back to reddit. This is a forum for wrestling. @Husker_Du can you zap this thread pleeeease, for all of us.

We can say all we want. I rooted for captain america super hard. It was very cool of Steveson to actively encourage the crowd to cheer for hendrickson while they were on the awards stand. That is something his namesake is incapable of to this day. Imperfect, heel, what have you, he showed class and grace towards hendrickson in that moment, which was a big thing to do.

We very quietly just watched the most complete team performance in ncaa history. 1st - x2 2nd - x1 3rd - x5 5th - x1 6th - x1 They had a “disappointing” showing and beat a second place nebraska team that wrestled out of its shoes by 60 points. We are (rightfully so) a little distracted right now by the biggest upset since larrold owings, but this is something that will likely never be done again in our lifetimes. To me this is more impressive than their 5 champ year, because their floor was a heavyweight with a blown knee who med forfeited to 6th. That is outlandishly impressive.

Gotta be, beating kerk and steveson on the way to your title. Only other option is hamiti.

Burroughs, Dan Gable, and John Smith have a ton in common. Their wrestling obviously speaks for itself. Much of this is their own self worth being intricately intertwined with performance in the sport. It makes them bad commentators, because they can’t relate to and empathize with other wrestlers. They just say “he shouldn’t have done that, I would have done something else.” Burroughs is a tremendous wrestler. Never came across as a dude I’d want to have long conversations with. He’s so hyper competitive he expresses himself as self-centered and one-dimensional. Almost like that’s what you have to be in order to be the very very best at something. But, I agree 1000%. Hidlay is so fun to listen to. The finals always have trash commentators.

He certainly did in our household, not just because he won, but because he took a title chance away, and we can get off the media circus with the most dislikable person to enter the sport I can remember in my lifetime.

Bono’s a lock, his guys legitimately outperformed this tournament.