Wrestling Blogs - Jim Harshaw

It's tough for someone who has no understanding to be excited by a 2-1 match. Just like many Americans don't like soccer because of the limited scoring even though there is a lot of excitement in the game. The better understanding people have of the sport the more they will appreciate it. Score is not always an indicator of action.

Our greatest assets is our greatest fault. Too wrestling crazy. I know the sport is growing, however many kids are getting burned out. Number go down way too much for 6 years old to 12 years old, something like 50% .Hint, wt. cutting and gone every weekend, where is the fun in that. In addition, urban wrestling is growing, but rural wrestling is dying. I think marketing at a grass roots level will work better. Cut the 50% drop to 25%, by making the sport fun and enjoyable. Don't worry about wt.. Plus, I am tired of hiring if you want to be good it has to be like a job. Really at the age of 6 or even 10, that is realist, Come on.

Abraham has figured it out... your first paragraph below explains it succinctly. Now we just have to make people aware... there are specific actions to take that make that happen.

Good comments throughout. I think that building awareness is key - just like most people here do. Lots of people I talk to about wrestling (ours is not a "wrestling town") get interested when I talk to them, but never seem to be aware of when HS matches are happening, or they aren't aware of the kids programs available in our town.

They have no frame of reference for wrestling to be an "entertaining" sport to them. We're not on TV that much, we're not well advertised, and so people don't watch much wrestling and aren't familiar with it. The people I invite to matches are entertained (if they come) and show some interest. The problem is that there is nothing else to latch onto - aside from MMA. I'm a huge MMA fan and I think it will actually help the sport survive in tough times and maybe even thrive one day in the US (as one poster noted - a different discussion).

Take all non-wrestling fans to a near sold-out, wrestling meet at Carver-Hawkeye Arena with how rowdy that crowd gets and they'll be instantly hooked. Guaranteed.

Perhaps keeping our greatest wrestlers front and center within USA Wrestling. Promoting their legendary status thus the youth interested in the sport know these figures and some of the history of the sport. Title 9 is brutal, but clubs can be established just the same. Other countries have their national wrestlers gain celeb status. A way to get this going for the Herberts, Smiths, Gables, Sandersons, Baumgardners of the wrestling world would sure help right?

Maybe if USAW would get its head out of its A$$ then the sport would move forward. A change in leadership there is needed.

If wrestling were easy then everyone would participate, but it's not. Many do not have enough heart, discipline, dedication, or mental toughness to wrestle.

can you please make a movie about wrestling. ala bud greenspan or ken burns?

i think you can sell it to PBS or ESPN.

Dave I'll agree with you to a point. But the fact is that NBA franchises aren't closing their programs because the Bulls dominated the 90's or the Lakers or the Celtics. They don't have to worry about Title 9 either. As a Gator fan I'm enjoying our 2-3 year run, but there is so many D1 football teams the competition is such that on any given day a team can be beaten.

I think that most of us (on this board) agree that wrestling is the greatest sport out there. Part of problem we face is a lack of backing from certain colleges as well as the knife in the back that we all call "Title 9". I also agree with the poster that stated that very few teams win the National Title every year, which also hurts. Living in Florida where wrestling interest is skyrocketing (as is alot of states), and no D1 team is an epic failure. Every year we send our best (Eric Grajales, Kendrick Sanders for instance) out of State to wrestle. Now if we had our own D1 team, letting some our best guys travel out of state wouldn't be as bad. But now, all of our best travel out of state. Florida doesn't even have a D2, D3 or even NAIA. This is the same for places like Georgia, Texas, and several other states. Just about every wrestler in PA wants to go to Penn State, or Iowa kids want to wrestle for Iowa State and so on. Its a local pride thing.
The fact is that we need a revamping of the system to get HS wrestlers interested in attending these college events live, much like the football players would go see the Gators or the Nittney Lions or the Buckeyes or the Hawkeyes etc. In addition, to help defer costs (travel, facilities) of wrestling teams to the University (I know certain teams do it now), lets let families and fans who cant make it to these duals pay for live streaming webcasts of college wrestling events. If we can't get TV coverage, lets use the internet to our advantage. It's cheap to webcast events and could easily defer costs to the universities. I know that if my son were wrestling and I couldn't make it I'd gladly pay the fee to watch the event live. Look I don't know what the answers are, there's a whole lot of smarter people out there than me, but there is so much talent out there with fewer and fewer places to go, it just doesn't make sense. Not trying to be a "homer", but just imagine if say the University of Florida with its huge buying power recruited the Altons or kept Sanders or Grajales or even David Taylor and we had an actual "balance of power" in wrestling, instead of the same 3 or 4 teams competing every year. I may be off a little, but this happens in NCAA football all of the time, we need more rivalries and we need them publicized. The problems (besides Title 9) is that some of the Universities just don't care for sports that don't pull in money, and even though many teams can almost pay for themselves, they dont generate a big cash flow and that needs to change. Sorry for rambling, I may be completely wrong but we all can agree that a problem exists.

Robert- I agree with you on many of your points. I do, however, think that wrestling is as entertaining or moreso than any sport. It depends on the marketing. Using your example, knowing the subtleties of a duck under is akin to understanding the 4-3 defense... I don't understand anything about the 4-3 defense but I still enjoy football (Go Steelers!)
Familiarity with personalities will help bring wrestling people back into the fold. From there we can build.

To the person who said that people aren't interested when the same team wins every year. Look at how many people jumped on the Bulls bandwagon when they dominated back in the 90s. People idolize sports dynasties.

A few more thoughts. I think the one huge reason amateur Wrestling is not a mainstream sport in the USA is the entertainment factor (or lack of). Look at the most popular sports and you will find obvious entertainment factors that most people can appreciate without a serious knowledge of the sport. Getting a ball into the end zone, through a hoop, or over a fence is not subtle and is something most people can relate to. On the other hand wrestling prowess is subtle. Most people who are not knowledgeable about the sport of wrestling cannot appreciate or understand a good duck under, a great gut wrench, a superb high crotch. These are subtleties only the serious wrestling spectator can appreciate. The technical aspects of the sport are not easy to understand unless you are a serious fan or have participated. I'm not saying its hopeless but I do think its very unrealistic to expect the sport of wrestling to achieve similar status to other mainstream american sports. The american public will never find enough entertainment value in wrestling because you have to delve into the sport in order to appreciate it on even the most basic level. To the average sports fan points scored in a wrestling match are just not as spectacular as the way points are scored in more popular sports. Thats why MMA has become more popular than wresling. A knock out is far more impressive and obvious to the average joe than a two point near fall. All that said it doesn't diminish the greatness of our sport one bit. I still think our sport is amazingly rich but its subtle and highly technical. It doesn't need to and probably will never be accepted by the public the way football and baseball are. Maybe we all need to come to terms with this and still feel good about our beloved sport.

The beauty of our sport is that it is not main stream, corporate America has not taken over and watered it down. Wrestlers in general are true sprortsman who are dedicated to something that they are passonite about. The value you gain from this sport is much deeper then a million dollar contract. We have become so intoxicated with fame and fortune we loose track of whats real.......

"It's exciting" "It's not exciting" "Singlets are gay" "Mine is a basketball school" "the reporters in my town don't like us" Every sport can come up with an excuse... (Football, Cricket, Soccer, Wrestling, Badminton etc)
Here's the crux- people are more interested in topics about which they are familiar. We can make people more familiar with wrestling or, more specifically, your athletes, your program, your tradition (like Roone Arledge did).
How?
First- define your target audience. (Hint: It's not likely the mainstream)
Then- do what businesses do (like the NCAA...but that's another topic)- reach them through marketing, PR, promotion
Need examples? email marketing, Facebook, mobile marketing, music at your events, sending press releases, having an announcer, blogging, informative event programs, an up-to-date website....

I have a couple thoughts on this topic. Firstly, I believe wrestling lacks greatly in marketing. Wrestlers, who understand the sport, can appreciate a great 2-1 match. We (wrestling fans) need to sell the other aspects of the sport (Arledge's story lines) while teaching the wrestling principles. I felt that is what was missing in Real Pro Wrestling.
Here is the double edged sword. What separates wrestling from all other sports is the omittion of excuses. It is not in the wrestling DNA to research background stories. It is fun to know where a wrestler came from, but ultimately we want to see them compete. For me, watching two wrestlers battle tells such a great story I don't need the history lesson. Those who don't understand the sport, need the lesson. Lets give it to them.
Humility among it's athletes is another corner stone in the sport of wrestling that separates it from the rest. A sense of entitlement is the American way. How do I get rich right now? To make a long story longer, I believe American Banks wouldn't be in the situation they are in now if they were ran with the principles associated with the sport of wrestling. Americans prefer sports that allow for excuses upon defeat. There are 10 other guys on a football field to point the finger at (not to mention the refs and other team). If you want to see parents teach children unaccountability, just go the a high school football game. Track is another that doesn't allow much room for finger pointing. You don't see much of it until the Olympics, but they do a good job of story lining there. I have never participate, but enjoy watching during the olympics and not as much during NCAA when the build up isn't as great.
The movie "Veritas" John Trenge story, did a great job of teaching the principles of wrestling while telling a great story centered around John's career.
We hook them with the story and teach them the principles.
That's what I'm thinking.

but on the real, maybe there could be some updates to the rules to make the sport more exciting? Tom M. says that some wrestling matches are excruciatingly painful to watch... and this is true. but on the other hand, almost every one of Darrion Caldwell's matches that i've seen are exciting! even metcalf's matches are often exciting and he wrestles a completely different style. maybe some rule changes to keep these 2-1/overtime/defensive/scoreless matches less boring and force more action and keep intact an offensive mentallity.

with that said maybe we should implement the use of a ball into wrestling...ike let me fold you up into a ball then dunk you/kick you/throw you in the endzone for a TD... or just leave it at the fact that we have balls.

Absolutely agree. For some reason our culture seems to favor "ball" sports such as football, baseball, basketball, soccer, etc. I think we need to be realistic......wrestling in the USA will not rise to the top of sport popularity any time soon. That said we can try to expose more kids to the "greatness" of our sport particularly in states where its not part of the athletic culture. I live in such a state and its painful to see some of the best athletes go into other sports because they haven't been exposed to wrestling. There are some states where being a wrestler carries "status" such as Pennsylvania, NJ, Ohio, etc. Its deeply ingrained in those states athletic culture. I think good youth programs, good coaching, and good role models help make that happen but it takes time and committment.

A few things that I thought of as I read this and other responses:

Wrestling is NOT the most exciting sport in the world. In fact, a lot of times it is absolutely boring. For example, look at the last NCAA finals. Donahoe/Nickerson, Poeta/Burroughs, King/Howe, Varner/Brester, Ellis/Dudziak. Half of the finals matches were excruciatingly painful to watch as there was so very little action. All of us here don't need to be sold on wrestling, but when it comes to excitement, football, basketball, baseball, gymnastics, MMA, boxing and others have more to offer than a 2-1 tie breaker following three overtimes and a sum total of four shots between both guys.
Wrestling is not a team sport. This doesn't mean you can become a kids, state, national or Olympic champ by training all by yourself. Simply, many people working together is more exciting to Americans/humans (see futbol, rugby, cricket and others outside of the U.S.) than individual accomplishments in most cases. Michael Phelps, gymnasts and some MMA guys would be an exception to that rule. I don't know why this is, but it is.
There's no professional option for pure wrestling in the U.S. Like it or not, the sport is "legitimate" or not to most Americans based on this. If we had guys and gals out there wrestling for a living and not living hand to mouth while making a craeer from being a wrestler and earning multiple medals on the world stage, people might begin to care and take it more seriously.
Wrestling is flat out a tough guy sport, for the most part. That's not to say that other sports don't have tough guys in them, but it's a martial art; a fighting sport. Because of that, wrestling is going to attract a certain type of person to it, like MMA or boxing or some other martial art. Most of those who take it up tend to fall off soon there after because of how tough it can be.
We don't need to be convinced about this. We're here because we love the sport. Instead, the marketing folks here should be working more closely with the heads of our sport at all levels and then with the publications and shows that promote them to a world-wide audience. I often see all of this internal refelction and complaining on pages associated with wrestling, but little of that is taken constructively and shared with the people who aren't convinced about wrestling like we are. How about next steps from there?

a agree with some of you, i think that we need more of it on tv, if more people knew about it they might be intrested, i also think that UFC is helping our sport its giving awareness to our sport and its creating bigger outlook init

I hate to say it but maybe if not the same 2-3 teams won it every year more people would be interested. It's a lot tougher to get interested when your team never wins. Not sure how you fix that but if you look at football, the same few teams don't win every single year

We need a fixed schedule tailored for TV viewing audiences in order to really expand our fan base. Football, for example, has an incredibly set schedule where each team plays once a week, almost every week on the same day. Wrestling NEEDS this, imo. Also, should probably pay attention to how UFC is raising their fan support since wrestling is easily comparable to that sport. UFC does an outstanding job of tailoring itself to it's fans. Walk-out songs combined with an elaborate entrance for each fighter is one way they really go out of their way for the fans

i think UFC is helping our sport but thats another subject

the difference is vegas. b/c right here in the mighty usa, everything is ran by the dollar. look at the other major sports. every team itself is structured like a corporation and those teams are an entity in a larger corporation. combined that with gambling, man youve just created about 'xx amount' of dollars.

if there wasnt ufc wrestling might be more popular also if there was striking in wrestling... bottom line iis its boring unless you know about just like it would be boring for us to watch a game of cricket if we dont know about it

Just want to point out that in certain countries, wrestling is the official national sport. Maybe we should be asking whats the difference between them and us more than wondering about the difference between football and wrestling.

Why not end the butt-drag (no pun) as a legal move? Nothing turns off audiences more, and understandably so. Doing something like that off of the mat can get one sued for a lot. We're supposed to expect folks to prefer the matroom ambience when that's still allowed? C'mon....

WRESTLING, the ONLY real sport! I love this sport and I want to be wrestling 12 years from now, too. I want to be on the 2012, 2016, and maybe even the 2020 Olympic Wrestling team for freestyle!