Wrestling Blogs - Rick Addante

I agree with the statement (in Martin's blog) that "it all comes down to how our system is setup in the USA" ("Twilly's" comment), but I think financial situations of athletes is a more peripheral issue in the bigger picture, though still important. Training Center approach seems to be working quite well- but is asking a lot to have a kid full of promise forgo a free college education in the NCAA (which might be a better service to the guy for the rest of his life than a gold medal around hi neck, but I am open to debate on this one...). If people wait until post college career to go OTC, they may bring 'baggage' of injury, wife/kids/life goals, or maybe even some burnout after all the years, plus competing desires for careers. What’s more, they risk getting injured in college and never making it back to the OTC. That is a collective risk between all these factors.

I really thought we could win 5-6 gold’s between the freestyle, Greco, and Women’s teams, let alone some silver and bronze too, at least. I don’t believe it is for lack of talent, ability, training, hard work, or coaching. I think we may lead the world in these categories. Yet we don’t in medal counts. Why? I admittedly know less about freestyle and Greco than I do folkstyle, but my lack of knowledge seems to also reflect a broader national problem for our athletes/fans.

As an aside, maybe someone who was in Beijing could inform me, but it seems like cutting weight has been a serious issue for our guys, yet no reports similarly from other countries. This is our best of the best? In the Olympics and can't control their weights? As good as the USOTC system seems to be with Henry and Mocco success, I would think it also suggests less that ideal coaching supervision of an important component of wrestling. I admittedly don't know the full story here, but judging by the collective performance for both FS and GR, it seems to be an issue to address.

Moreover, it has got to be tough to take an elite college wrestler, who trained for 10-15 years in one version of a sport that often takes a Very serious toll on the body through major injuries and wear and tear (physically and mentally) through the college seasons, and then ask them to learn a whole new style and expect world caliber results (Askren a key example, who still did excellent). This is a hamstringing challenge to both the Olympic athletes and coaches, I imagine. The injuries sustained in so many of our best NCAA wrestlers through their college careers also significantly impairs our pool of top wrestlers post-college, since many guys must face simply ending their careers due to the grind and injury load through the years.

Too few American youths and HS/NCAA wrestlers are taught/trained in FS and GR. We have so much talent in the USA for wrestling, and forgive me if it comes out wrong, but it seems that all our talent is effectively "wasted" pursuing scholastic folkstyle, and then playing catch up to the world in FS and GR. Its not fair to the athletes who have to do this, the coaches who are limited in resources due to this, and to the nation, whose reflected strength is weakened by this.

Personally, I think folkstyle is more entertaining (and easier for naive fans to follow), and if that would be adopted internationally, I think the sport would generate a bigger US TV and general following because fans are used to watching and understanding it locally in HS and NCAA. They get confused and bored when they tune in and see it to be a foreign format they don't understand and is confusing. I believe a lot of the Americans who PACK gyms all over the nation for High School districts, conference, regionals, sectionals, and States would continue to likewise follow the sport internationally if they simply understood its basic rules and scoring, and were not alienated by it being so different from the already initially confusing folkstyle they learned watching their HS classmates, neighbors, kids, and friends compete. The fans are there, we as a national sport completely alienate them. They could care less. I have been wrestling for 15 years, and even I didn’t know who some of the guys on the teams were for the Olympics until the genius of Flo emerged. Point is: people wont be interested, let alone excited, to follow the athletes and sports of we don’t even know who they are or their stories.?

People Knew Cael Sanderson, Dan Gable and John Smith because of their FOLKSTYLE success- because they understood that style and could enjoy watching it. We have analogous international stars such as Baumgartner, who people know less mainstream-ly, because they simply do not care about the international formats, and Bruce gets drowned out while casual sports fans still know Gable. As an example, in New Jersey, Damion Hahn has a Huge following of fans in folkstyle. Everyone knew of his folkstyle accomplishments in high school, and mostly in college too. But I'll be dollars to donuts that most of those fans dropped off on following his international wrestling success. Why? Why would they be so incensed, passionate, and loyal followers in one style, and then just totally indifferent and drop off on another yet different style? I think a good part of that answer includes the points in this blog, but that’s just me- what do you think?

This leaves 2 options, I think.

1). Convince the international governing body to include folkstyle instead of freestyle. This is probably very unlikely. But then again, who knows...

and alternatively

2). unfortunately scrap folkstyle and start training everyone in at least freestyle for HS and college, if not also Greco. It would be a rough transition I'm sure, but once coaches, athletes, and fans get accustomed to the rules, they will get on board, understand it, and continue a great domestic local fan base. This educated fan base can then tune in much easier to the international level competition. Athletes will be far better trained, and we will have a much deeper pool to draw from (as does Russia). It would surely meet with some resistance from uneducated fans, coaches, and athletes at first, but the rough patch would be a bump in the road towards a bigger national wrestling goal. Wrestling would also probably take a tough initial hit from it. But we would have to suck that up and build it up from there.

Or we could always just continue to watch Russia kick our arses every 4 years instead, but that never really sits well with me.

I like the bottom picture here much better than the top picture, and I think the choice is clear as to which outcome America should pursue with full vigor.

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