Wrestling Blogs - Matt Valenti

Did I see somewhere that you were planning on wrestling in 2012???

Something does have to change. However, I chalked this disappointment to several factors.

1) Youthful team with not much INTERNATIONAL experience.
2) The constant rule changes.
3) Not having wrestlers strive to be on multiple Olympic teams.
The third reason is the biggest. Imagine if Cael Sanderson had wrestled one maybe two more Olympic cycles? That is a proven guy who you can count to win you a medal. We are getting way too many first time Olympians. The Russias do have wrestlers that stay around a long time garnering experience over the years.

I'd like to pick up on a point Mafia makes and get a reaction regarding the effect on freestyle technique of mostly wrestling folkstyle:

Freestyle at the international level has become so different from folkstyle that the adjustment may simply be too great for our athletes to make and be successul.
It's not just par terre. Incidentally, I don't think anyone of our guys (except for Cejudo and Askren against the Hungarian) scored a single point from par terre, or in transition from the feet to par terre.
It's also that our guys didn't show the skills on the feet, which you would think would be the easiest adjustment. Is that because there's less emphasis on standing technique in folkstyle because of the two periods on the mat, unlike in freestyle, where you're right back on your feet throughout the entire match, unless you're actively generating exposure points.

just ask martin for a blog because every blog i read it gets old when i see you trying to outdo the actual blogger who is good enough to have their own blog. maybe martin will give you one to shut you up.

henry cejudo is a great example, if you wanna win the olympics train freestyle/greco right out of high school. if you wanna win the ncaas go to college. simple, right? also, henry is the future wrestling style, everything you want in a wrestler flexibilty, quickness, strength, and great conditioning

hahah. thanks for throwing out the: "It doesn't take an Ivy degree to see this one." well, it doesnt take an ivy league education to summarize this long blog.

we neeed change. how? dont know. russians are good, what are they doing?

I think it is the lack of preperation in a large percentage of our senior level athletes, these guys are coaching and training at the same time. They seem to just be focused right before us nationals or right before trials. 3/4's of the year they are concerned about college teams. So when it comes down to international competition they are not prepared enough. All these young guys that are competeting after college have plenty of time to coach after they stop competeting.

Great discussion here. I think it boils down to the lack of a strong support system--it being our declining performance overseas as evidenced most recently by the Beijng Games. That's not really constructive; it just is. We need more Joe Williams types (talent in it for the long haul), but that will continue to be the exception rather than the rule because of the lack of support, financial and otherwise. How about a little respect for this country's hardest-working athletes? I do think the Olympic Training Center in Colorado is a positive. Henry Cejudo and what he represents might very well be "the future." I'm not convinced that we need to substitute Olympic-style wrestling for our folkstyle. That could turn out to be a big mistake, especially with the whimsical organization that keeps changing the rules (and doing a horrible job). I have heard great wrestlers talk about the NCAA DI Wrestling Championships as the premiere wrestling event and that nothing compares. College wrestling is still in trouble, but that NCAA tournament is the best thing going. Iowa's resurgence this past season was just what our sport needed. But I am meandering now, so I'll stop.

Imagine if the "singular focus" in the Iowa, OK State, Iowa State, and Ohio State (etc.) wrestling rooms was on freestyle wrestling, with people like the Brands brothers and John Smith doing the training, and wrestlers like Escobedo, Scott, Metcalf, Askren, etc., developing under them--for five full years of competition. You can't say the US wouldn't be taking home more hardware from the Worlds and Olympics if that was the case. I'm not saying it will ever happen, or even that I want it to happen, because I love folkstyle. But the difference in the development of US freestyle would be huge. Even if we never sent a wrestler over the age of 23 to the Olympics, we'd still come away with lots of gold. Smith said so himself when asked about it in Fargo.

I watched nearly all of the Olympic matches in Men's Greco, Freestyle, and Women's Freestyle; I also attended the US Olympic trials, and watched the coverage of the US and Russian nationals on TV.

I have been thinking about our performances at nationals, the trials, and the Olympics as compared to what I have seen with Russia and other international teams.
"Athleticism"
I think one perspective to look at is raw athleticism. It became clear to me after watching a lot of international wrestlers that they are on average just better "raw" athletes than us. Other countries seem to be superior in flexibility and explosive power, two components that are heavily favored under the new rules; conditioning not so much. I think we lose a lot of our "raw" athletic talent to football, baseball, and basketball. Why you ask? It pays well, and garnishes a lot of notoriety. Many of our most athletic wrestling talents are leaving for other sports - Stephen Neal (World Champ vs Super Bowl Champ), Mo Lawal (starting MMA), Johnny Hendricks (starting MMA), Brock Lesnar (Pro wrestling & MMA), Dan Henderson MMA, Matt Lindland MMA, even Mocco and Conrad had try outs with some NFL teams; The money and the fame draws in the best professional athletes; that's what these other countries are providing.
"Technique"
I think the many years of wrestling folk style does have an affect on our performance. Why you say? I think simply because of the concept of back exposure in every position on the mat; This is something that a lifetime of wrestling folk style can never prepare you for, and I think it affects your comfort zone when performing all your go to technique; Henry focus on this from day one, and I think its why he is a champion now... not wrestling folk style in college helped him. Finally, angles.. it appeared we were out angled in every match I watch excluding Henry... the world champ Schwab wrestled first round gave him a clinic on getting angles, of course he did to almost everyone else in the tournament.
"Singular focus"
I think because we do not pay our wrestling athletes it is very difficult for them to have singular purpose in life, to allow wrestling to be the single thing that gets them up in the morning and puts them to sleep at night; when you listen to any of our great wrestlers of the past from Smith to Gable to Kemp to Baumgartner to Henson to Gruenwald to Hall they all had singular focus; wrestling consumed them; I believe there is a very small percentage of our US athletes that have true singular focus and passion about the sport; living in America presents a lot of distractions both positive and negative and a lot of out athletes fall prey to them.

Always enjoy reading your insight Matt.

Perhaps the USA needs to stop being dreamers and start being realist? I hate saying that, but maybe that's what we need. As a fan myself, I'd rather see the Adam Wheelers, the kid who wasn't all that great of a high school wrestler, refusing to give up on his dreams of being a great wrestler and despite all odds winning a Bronze medal at the Olympics and seeing that realization of that dream come true. Seems to me that we have a lot of guys/gals on our Olympic teams who fit comparable profiles.
Our Olympic coaches and teams seem to seek out guys who have the heart and desire to be Olympic champions. In Russia do they do that? Not from what I read. In Russia, they grab who they know who's going to win and if he doesn't have the heart and desire to be an Olympic medalist at first, they flash a little $$, propoganda and he soon does.
Maybe that's what they United States needs if winning is so important. Maybe they need to go grab Greg Jones wherever he's at and offer him financial gains and popularity status. Personally, I'd rather see guys like Andy Hrovat and Adam Wheeler bust their asses day in and day out in fixated goal oriented matter, to achieve their ultimate dreams of being an Olympian, but then again that's just me.
Perhaps Matt, our answer lies no further than Henry Cejudo. Maybe we need to be sending many more kids straight up to Northern Michigan, or Colorado Springs to skip out on the NCAA to focus strichtly on international wrestling.
I agree with what you said about getting Cerebral. That is an excellent point. We need to be learning the techniques and styles that are working. It seems that we've relied too heavily on our superior conditioning and strength and other countries have found ways to counter and out wrestle us. We have got to improve on our technique.

In an ironic twist, it seems from Duffy's point that the Russians Excel because their wrestling system is based upon a principle analogous to capitalism, rewards for success, and competition for great funding. While the American wrestling system seems to be suffering because it may have adopted a more socialistic philosophy in comparison. Russians are better b/c they are Pros who get Paid Well for their top level work, while the Americans dont compete as well because we don't have the same incentives and market forces as true 'amateurs' sharing in low profits of the sports income to survive, while the Ruskies actually profit and make a living as "professionals".

Ironic, given our two countries' inverse socio-political-economic approaches to almost everything else. Interesting....

The Russians are the best at wrestling because their athletes are professionals. If you are a Russian and you are pursuing your dream to be the best, you are paid for it, you are supported with the best facilities, you don't have to worry about where your next pay check is coming from. It is a business. And as a business, during the serious training periods, you are sequestered in training camp, you are curfewed at specific hours; you are basically under contract. Our athletes have top-notch coaching, and the American coaches have all the technique and the savvy that the Russians have. But our coaches don't have the power to sequester our athletes and focus them in the same way that the Russians can. I would be very surprised to find out that the Russians, when they are at international competitions, would be allowed to go out on the town, go to Karaoke, go shopping and such. They're all about training, training, and focus all the way to the medal stand.

If we treated our wrestling like a business and we provided the resources like the Russian government does, we would be churning out champions at every World Championship, yearly. It has nothing to do with too much "folkstyle" or not enough "freestyle", etc.,....wrestling is wrestling...it's the focus part. Saitiev and those guys make their living wrestling. They don't have a business like a T.C. Dantzler who is out there hustling and making a living for his family and training at the same time. The Russians make their living wrestling.
The whole "amateur" quality of the Olympics is just a big joke. There are no "amateur" wrestlers in Russia, there are no "amateur" gymnasts in Russia, China in many of our competing countries. (our olympic bastketball either) The reason why Russia is the best in wrestling is because their athletes are professionals and they are given every possible resource to succeed;, i.e. facilities, coaching, a way to make a nice living.

Did I miss something Valenti never stated he's going for gold in 12 did he?

I would first like to say for the first time in years the rules that change every year to promote action went in the opposite direction. In Greco every match that I watched had two wrestlers stalling on their feet to go parteer. I didnt watch much of any style because of this. In the Mocco match he lost the other wrestler didnt try one throw or leg attack for 3 periods. Also what do we do for our athletes in America so that they can afford to train? We do not send the best at any one sport in this country only the best with the proper funding. How many NCAA champions even give training for the Olympics a try?

Here's something to chew on. 7 returning world champions failed to win gold medals. With that being said, it also takes a little bit of luck. We sometimes forget that this is man's oldest and toughest sport. Let's also remember that wrestling in some of these stellar countries is like Basketball in America. I'm sure every wrestler who competed in Beijing and didn't reach their goals are devastated! Sure we'd like to have seen more hardware, but, it is what it is and all these comments are pointless. One final thought, the men and woman who wrestled were there, we were not. They have to live with this for the rest of their lives, as for all of us, we will have moved on in November.

We will never be able to narrow it down to just one thing. It is probably due to a lot of factors: experience, the new format, USAW, the pollution in Bejing, and most of the guys just seem to be in a funk. We cant just look at one problem and try to fix it, but rather step back and look at the big picture and adjust what works and what doesn't.

The problem is I would not be suprised to see Brands head back to Iowa and get ready for a big time college position in 2009-10 season.

I agree, my own arm is pretty sore from all of my monday morning quarterbacking.
I agree with directly below this post, that the unique rules of freestyle adds randomness, and does not benefit most people. Though I thought that we do have a best of 3 qualifying series of matches in the trials (but im not sure...). Perhaps our discussions here are simply reflecting the discussions we should have had back when many favorites in the trials did not win. Who knows. But I do sleep well at night knowing that Brands will keep things in the right directions, along with the other excellent coaches.

watching the olympic freestyle and the little other freestyle that i have watched, i think that the rules in freestyle,such as winning periods instead of the whole match, and the clinch position, add randomness to the match. randomness will tend to favor the weaker athlete. i will hazard a guess that this is why there were so many upsets in the olympic trials. if there was a different way to qualify for the team, such as possibly having the top N in each weight wrestle multiple times to determine who makes the team, then i think we would be better harvesting the wrestling talent of our country. also, depending on weather conditions such as heat and humidity, what works to cut weight here may not work in other places in the world. i think that not understanding this hurt not just America's wrestling, but also our teams in other sports that have weight classes (think about the boxer who collapsed while cutting weight).

Since everyone is throwing out ideas, I will throw out mine and it probably has been mentioned.

We have some good talent in our country as evidenced by the fact we won several medals at the junior worlds. I would like to see USAW create a development program that identifies the best young wrestlers in the country and they go to Colorado Springs to live, train and go to school. We are seeing this in other sports and it is successful. You are not talking a big number of wrestlers so it is not going to hurt college wrestling at all. Guys that still want to go to the collegiate route still have that option.

This whole situation since the end of the Olympic Games reminds me of listening to talk radio on every Monday when our team does not play well. Every person that played once in their life all of sudden became an expert and knew more than any NFL coach. I never realized that we had so many experts in our midst. It is good to know that we have plethora of knowledgable people out there.

Do you not think USAW will be evaluating the situation and looking at what happened and will make changes?

a few other ideas too: maybe the coaches are right in that these guys may be savages in the Next olympics, since they are young and gaining valuable experience. I can see that.

But then again, think about the trials. There were a lot of upsets there, and a lot of people that the coaches had worked with for a long time in developing their best team, actually were defeated in the olympic trials, and as the coaches stated in several articles and interviews back then, there were big question marks about some of these guys. Perhaps we need to improve our Qualifiers/Trials so that there is less chance for upsets... I dunno that much about the format though, admittedly. Im just spectating and tryign to stir the pot with contributory ideas towards the plethora of actors that converge on the points we are all similarly making.
Maybe change nothing, and hope this olympics was a good investment towards a stellar corps of guys for London 2012. I guess thats a coaching decision.

When we talk about age and experiences at elite international events think of this: The Russians that took to the mat at 84, 96 and 120, only Keotev at 84 had ever competed in a senior level world championship prior to the Olympics. There ages were 22, 23 and 21. Their medal placement: Bronze, Gold and Silver. The experience arguement does not carry much weight.

Very well put ! My Dad and I had a lot of the same thoughts .
Little Sal

How many first time Olympians did this US team have? How many guys had a lot of international experience? I can see half of these younger guys coming back in four years and dominating if they can continue wrestling.

Undoubtedly, you're right it's no one single factor.

But I don't think it was a coincidence that Cejudo medaled and no other freestyler did: I think it was because he devoted himself exclusively to freestyle. Certainly, from a stylistic standpoint, he was a lot more dynamic than any of our other guys, who tended to look more static & plodding.
Having said that, the trials produced the team they did. But I don't think we brought the best team we had. Too many of our guys were more defensive type of wrestlers lacking offensive firepower. My sense of watching the Olympic matches is it favors scorers. A lot of the matches came down to the last seconds of each period, and it was the guy who could score those last points who won. For example, for all their dominance, the Russians had to come from behind in quite a few matches. They won because they were able to do that consistently. Generally speaking, leads going into the final seconds tended not to hold up.
I also think experience had something to do with it in this sense: as the coaches themselves said, too many of guys on our team did too much standing around. And with the studs at the international level, if you're not taking it to them, they're bringing it to you AND THEY WILL SCORE. I bet our guys understand that now a lot better than they did before. For instance, I don't think guys like Schwab and Mocco believed that anyone could hit a three point move on them from the feet with the match on the line. Now they know.
Finally, I think Terry Brands is on to something as evidenced by the fact that his guys (the guys who had been with him the longest) - Mocco and Cejudo - went furthest in the tournament of anybody. I would be inclined to give him more say in running things. I think we'd be better for it.

i like what Addante said, i can relate and really understand where hes coming from, he has a good mind and knows what the sport truly needs

To Rick: I think your missing alot of what the bigger picture is. Kids that are focused on playing other sports besides wrestling most often times are not going to be the best wrestler. The top level wrestlers are not big meat heads that lift weight all the time. They wrestle and lift hard both with passion, i dont see that to be a problem. Also anybody that watched these olympics would notice that the US's shape and intensity was beneficial. We are doing the right things training wise however we as a country, not just as a world team or an olympic team, MUST compete more outside the country. Bottom line, we cant be comfortable wrestling the same guys our entire lives, it must be expanded to the world! I have a feeling that coach brands and jackson will be taking these individuals to a lot more world events these next 3 yrs.

I feel that folkstyle wrestling and collegiate style wrestling as are being perfected in the USA constitutes a better sport than the Olymptic style. The number of kids, five to twenty- three, participating in our sport in the USA is important, because it will save our sport. We want kids to participate in and stick with wrestling. The number of Olymptic medals in wrestling we earn is less important, because it doesn’t reflect our abilities or values as a society. I am proud of our Olympic wrestlers. Their places at the games do not matter, because their sacrifice fills huge gyms with US grade school kids wrestling on Sundays receiving metals for their efforts.

I thought our guys looked tentative and we looked like we lost scrambles due to a lack in freestyle expereince. For example Hrovat at the end of his match. Mocco losing in the clinch at the end of the 2nd & 3d periods against the Russian. We just looked out classed. I bet the american team works just as hard and is in some realm just as good at 'wrestling' but our freestyle savy is lacking.

I don't think we need to train harder...just smarter.
Valenti is right though it is a combination of many factors.

You cannot change it on the college level but not the high school level. You can't change the high school level and not the youth level.

We need to find realistic ways that will improve our system but I can tell you something that is not happening.
Folkstyle is not going to change to freestyle. It is a dumb arguement to even be happening.
There are some rules that we might be able to incorporate into folksytle but you are not going to see it ever be replaced with freestyle.

i also agree. I discussed a lot of similar points in my recent blog, but should also add that our general society, culture, and media focus our kids from the get go towards the wrong goals. Below someone listed approaching the sport more for perfectionist philosophy and having a good, relaxing time out there. This could work, but Our media culture teaching young boys that best = Bigger muscles, more power, more strength. This is reinforced my football stars, a very many coaches, movies, etc. We are no longer in a culture where technical proficiency is valuedand instead look to raw power. Most HS wrestlers are also football players, and this mentality from football is contagious to wrestlers in formative years. Parents, peers, we all look to glorify the physical specimen and tlak about how much of a 'beast' some kid is (Think: The Chute... well Chute couldn't beat the lanky, but techincally proficient and properly motivated Louden Swain, who didnt look like much. Its not just wrestling, it trancends society: the military special forces have up to 80% drop out rates because these physical specimens who are remarkable athletes often center their training, and their mindsets, around Gyms and being and looking big or powerful, when that occupation, as our sport is too, is about techical proficiency and mental toughness that far outweighs any physical toughness. n fact, I would wager that both wresting and spec ops training basically intentially break you down completely physically, and leave only the mentally tough standing at the end. But since our society teaches the opposite message, we have 80% failure rates.

We clearly also place too much emphasis on weight in HS and college, and it burns guys out who would otherwise be competitive. Even if they stick with it, they are often miserable, and not the relaxed, fun version that Satiev mentions. He cut weight for only 10 days. To us, and I did it myself, it seemed a badge of honor among the team and the wrestling culture to cut big weight. Then wither performance or long term motivation drops... neither of which is good.
In this vein, we also create an incentive culture to make money. This sport is not about money. MMA was great when it was pure, as well. Now the luster has resulted in its losing shine to me. There need not be huge financial rewards, but at least enough to supplement a decent standard of living for out top guys.
Plus, I agree with The Brands. We set goals as a society too low. Freestyle should be collegiate, so that people dont have to choose between a free ride of education or a gamble on olympic dreams at USOTC. Certainly previous gernations mentioned below, Gable, Kemp, etc. did wel, but even then Russians reigned supreme. Easy answers dont exists, but we are wrestlers, and we dont want any part of easy. I think we can find a way to make it work.
I tip my hat in every respect to EVERY single guy on the USA team in Beijing. They each deserve it, and as stated below, there is so much parity, it easily comes down to coin flips and ref calls (Swede). Schwab beat a world champ. 5 of 7 world champs didnt medal. Its a tough level for everyone. Perhaps the rule changes facilitate so much parity. Who knows. But we make the sport grueling on kids through weight cutting and the physical pounding of the training focus, when maybe we can increase talent pools sticking around with a focus to the philosophies espoused in the saitev interview. just a few randome thought, who know if they are good..
but see my blog on similar points, http://www.flowrestling.org/blogs/blogger/thefreakcnj157/3688-improving-the-future-of-american-olympicinternational-level-performances

Russian wrestlers certainly approach the sport with more of a perfectionist philosophy of how to perfect their technique instead of making their technique more intense. You see a guy like Satiev technically dominate everyone at his weight and after hearing his interview, it seems him (and other Russian Wrestlers) love the sport and just have a good time out there in a relaxed manner instead of being intense all the time.

Im pretty sure myself being a wrestler the last three comments are entirely wrong. 1. we dont need to adjust the college season at all.. like i said before kids on iowa, iowa state, ok st, and oklahoma have been winning medals for years.. Barry davis and a few others did it while they were still in college
2. guys dont make the team and are happy with that. any wrestler that is successful at any level is never happy with second and if they are then they wouldnt be on the team anyway. I garrentee every guy besides henry was not happy being in bejing and not bringing back a medal!
these guys know that they are good enough to compete with the world. Doug Schwab had to beat a world champion to make the team.. you dont think he was confident going into it.
One thing i believe and very seldom is it different but like professional sports.. the results could change from day to day. If you wrestled the olympics over next week i bet the results would be different..
All i know is that this olympics was a dissapointment, however the mindset of the US has changed and that is a positive thing.

Terry Brands said it best:

In the U.S. our goals our entire life are to be state champions or national champions. In Russia, that doesn't mean anything to them. They ALL grow up with the goal of becoming a world champion and an olympic champion

In the U.S, wrestlers are just happy to make the olympic team, other countries this is expected, they have to have the mindset that of course I made the team, now what am I going to do at the olympics.

i think folkstyle wrestling is good in the high school level, but i would like it to change to freestyle once you compete in college. this will prepare our future olympians that attend college to get some more experience. i understand that folkstyle is more of a safer style of wrestling than freestyle, but like i said only at the high school level. we have to give it a shot and see what happens. unless we just want to be satisfied with one olympic gold medal every four years.

I think that the best thing to do is to do what Henry Cejudo did which is go from High School to freestyle wrestling as quick as possible cause he got 2 years of experience compared to what most wrestlers get after they graduate from college and here is another Idea go and shorten the wrestling season in college cause its four months with it having to go through Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Spring Break at least take out one month and give it to freestyle anyway college wrestling is competing with march madness so something should change that helps put freestyle wrestling in and more gold could come home in 2012

Question for Dan O'Cone, what has happened in NJ in the last week? Anything we need to be aware of?

I don't really want the government taking my money from me and giving it to people just because they are still wrestling. Terrible idea

I never thought about it that way. (Just a Suggestion) Russia does have there top wrestlers competing in the Olympics for a good amount of time. (2-3 olympics) We need our top wrestlers to have that durability and desire to compete that long.

In the end i think we are very capable with our talent but we need experience. It takes some athletes 4 yrs in college before being ready to win a ncaa title, well the olympics come only once every 4 yrs so we need to make the most out of the 4 yrs between. Can you imagine if every guy that was at the us nationals went to tournaments in Europe? Thats what we need, our athletes to make that jump and say we are the best and compete with the best yr round. Thats how russia does it

I dont think its a lack of talent but maybe. When we watch tournaments like the ncaas and the us nationals each yr, we are blown away with the talent level. However it is almost like we are too focused on competing against each other within the country rather than getting international experience. Growing up going to the camp of champs the peterson brothers have introduced young athletes to world competition at a early age. With this growing in the midwest i know (overtime does this as well) and hopefully in more parts of the country we will get better and soon kids will make the choice to wrestle freestyle, greco, or folk after high school. the US is making the right steps to fixing our international problems it will take time and a large effort from the wrestling community to push our best athletes to aspire to win gold.

it may sound cold but we need to make more money available for our wrestlers the goverment needs to chip in and give more incentives to our wrestlers.We have this amatauer mind set that needs to grow ask Russia.

If, as you say, we have some of the best coaches in the world, it would follow that our wrestling talent is weaker than the countries that outperformed us.

We have some of the best coaches in the world in our corners.. (kevin jackson, terry brands, mike duroe, lee kemp, kerry mccoy,) That is the last thing we need we have olympic champs that are great coaches. Gable had a way to make his wrestlers the best in college and the world. We need more influence from college coaches and the olympics. I can bet tom brands is trying to get his guys to win golds as well as ncaa titles. We have a very bright future in world level wrestling. 4 yrs away from sweeping 14 of 14 weights. "One country, one goal"

Why not lure a top level Russian coach over here? The women's gymnastics team did it with Bella Karoli and they consistently contend for the team gold.

Good luck Matt! We all know that you can do it.

any wrestler no matter the level has never wrestled to make money. It is a goal to be an olympic champion and name one olympic champion that hasnt earned a decent living after competition... if it is coaching, mma, or some type of career dealing with wrestling. We need more people to be inspired by individuals like henry cejudo that skipped college wrestling for this dream. I think one great thing that came from these olympics is that it has inspired others to make their dreams a reality. From the looks of it Mr. Valenti wants to be an olympic champ. With his success in college i dont put that past him. We NEED more ncaa champs as well as others to look for more than just ncaa titles. Honestly who outside the wrestling community remembers the ncaa champ? but who remembers the one that upset the russian and made history in the world level. Even tho i love watching great wrestlers such as bill and mike za, doug schwab or jared frayer wrestle i think it is time for our collegiate wrestlers to step up and look for gold!!

Money, length of years of competing, etc. can all be factors, but I don't believe that it can directly affect our results as blatantly as it has in Beijing. We compete because we love the sport, not because of money. Yes we need to survive, yes $$ means change, but in the end I don't wrestle to become a millionaire. Joe Williams (Iowa) competed for how many years? And placed how many times? I'm sure he was financially strapped but still was committed to wrestling for a long time...something else is missing...

That might be feasible if it weren't for the fact that, wrestles make no money, so one is forced to choose. Live in poverty and debt (working harder and longer then most believe to be possible) or, find a job that actually pays what your worth, Russians don't have to worry about that.

Matt, change in the USA/NCAA wrestling is directly influenced by money. Step One: find money. Contact me for further details and I can give you some examples which have occurred in your home state over the last week.

I agree with Matt, alot of emphasis has been put on so many arguments like collegiate wrestling hurting our international wrestlers...how tough it is financially on our Olympians....etc.. I tend to disagree with those assumptions and I lean towards another. Let me know your thoughts.

Our best wrestlers need to keep wrestling. Look at Cael Sanderson...one and done. First Olympics in Athens and hes a gold medalist..retires and coaches Iowa State. Russians tend to stay in the cycle longer. There best wrestlers are good for three Olympics....possibly four. They stay in the game longer. Brandon Slay, Jamil Kelly are other examples. Our most decorated wrestlers in history stayed in the game long..John Smith, Bruce B. are great examples. Now lets hope Henry C is good for a couple more cycles!!!!!! GO USA!!!!!!

thats sounds great matt, i think that we all know, that we as a country can improve its just a question of how. i also hope u make the olympics in 2012 REP NJ

someone who approaches the sports from an intellectual(sp?) side, i think thaats the first step and it seems thats how the russians approach the sport. i dont know, thats just ,y opinion from what i have watched