wrestle87

Really appreciate the physical beating this guy is putting on Tazh

This Kazakh guy is beautifully predictable

There it is…that’s what we were looking for. Also, I’m a bad fan blades is in a tight one.

Mus came to bang, he absolutely outclassed a very good wrestler.

Did Aliyev just bite him? what happened?

We do a very bad job of looking gently offended at every whistle as a team. The palms up hands out to the side “mr official really?” look of gentle indignation is a hallmark of strong European/West Asian wrestling.

Chest wraps have been basically legislated out of wrestling. We need to get that through our heads, officials are required to score it as an inferior attacking position.

Bad spur of the moment defensive/stalling decisions have been the name of the game this year, but it looks like seabass at least showed up ready for a scrap.

I can’t get over how much rivera’s shoes look like off-brand jordans

This iranian guy is giving off peak mohammadian vibes.

Spencer, Zain and Dake, how much of this is weight cut? We know for zain it is, bc he is literally the best in the world when up at 70kg.

Is this Iranian good enough to make the finals? And jiminy christmas we really suck at this weight, why are we so bad at 65kg?

The US women’s team is absolutely bringing it, but US-trained men’s freestyle wrestlers are not bringing front line technique these olympics, it’s really apparent. Either game plans are trash or the whole world went and upped it’s level and left us behind, but I have not seen a single US men’s freestyle wrestler just “have the answers” the way we have been so fortunate to see the past few cycles. Everyone is collectively wrestling predictably and, excepting Myles Amine, wrestling scared. Really hope Zain bucks this trend.

Kennedy Blades just put herself on 30 years of t-shirts with that throw

Thank you for wedging lunatic fringe squarely in my brain

She just did wrestling warmups…

JB has upped his game from NCAA’s about 1000%. He has done a great job, mixes action and background commentary with actual topical technical comments. I never would have thought I’d be saying it in March, but JB is doing a great job.

Yeah, whatever they were working on…it just didn’t work. It was the first time in a LONG time I can remember NLWC guys just look that off. Then watching spencer pull out the Iowa folkstyle playbook, even tougher to see.

The US team laid a bunch of eggs these past two days, plain and simple. Maybe resting on laurels, definitely a bunch of brain farts, and generally just quitting in the big moments. Maybe they all hung out with Noah Lyles and got the ‘vid, that’s the only way I can justify how spotty this was compared to what these athletes have shown they are capable of. At best spencer had a terrible game plan for higuchi, but that’s being generous, he really did nothing all match. Dake wrestled his old “chest wraps or bust” 2014-15 style, and completely forgot what a sprawl was. Parris basically gave up, and brooks stalled for the first time in his life, costing him a good medal. At least Miles Amine remembered how to go after it. It’s impressive to win a medal, but Dake should be in the finals, brooks should be a champ, spencer should be a champ. Parris was getting bounced either way, so can’t do anything about that I guess, but you can see he just stopped trying after he was down 5-3. They all know it and you can see it on their faces.

Single or double?

I do, at least I think so. The one I always think of is their russian nationals videos, one of the greatest videos they ever created. Back in the awesome Joe Martin and Bader days. https://www.flowrestling.org/events/5000279-2008-russian-nationals/videos?playing=5102961

Why is @Jimmy Cinnabon making a thread passing his own feelings off as those of “wrestling fans”….

I’m kind of astonished to hear this. He sounded rather done with the sport when they interviews him after world team trials. Can’t blame him, 99% of wrestlers end their careers that way.

Once we resign ourselves to the fact this is a solidly tier-2 or lower program, this will stop being interesting.

Coaches come in different types, disciplinarians, older brothers/uncles, hands off “that’s his problem” businessmen coaches, and coaches constantly patching up and covering up for their athletes when they do dumb stuff. The best wrestler to come out of ASU in the past couple decades has a documented baking soda problem. So much so that the AD took action, instead of the Head Coach himself. This is an AD at a school which often contends for the title of the biggest party school in the country. The bar for “moving the needle” on remarkable behavior is very high at ASU. There is no way you can be a coach and not know about things like “illicit habits” about your athletes. Dudes on the team just talk too much, you spend too much time together, especially when it is your program’s star athlete. Those relationships are 10x closer than with the backups. For an AD to step in and do something, making the announcement, etc. instead of Zeke, is a reflection of a dynamic that is a coach trying to protect his best kid in the short term (for personal gain), rather than help him in the long term. Both in High School and college I had coaches who would bend over backwards to patch up, humor, or cater to the “favorite son” on the team. It ruined team chemistry, and ultimately was pretty bad for the wrestler too.