National Sponsors

Below I have listed quite a few sporting organizations and listed their sponsors. I thought you might find this interesting when you try and compare what others are doing to what we aren’t doing. PGA . . . Fed-Ex, Anheuser-Busch, Mastercard, Charles Schwab, John Deere, Rolex, Avis, United Airlines, plus 44 other nationally recognized brands.… Read More »

Why A Point Earned Won’t Work

I feel I have to apologize. Up until now, I was absolutely convinced that coaches would see the benefits of A Point Earned, is a Point Scored and adopt the change, maybe not whole-heartedly, but at least begrudgingly. I just thought the Rules Committee, and then the coaches would realize it would be the most… Read More »

What’s on my mind today?

The Penn State-Iowa dual meet. If that match up would have used A point Earned is a Point Scored system; found at wadechalles.com, PSU would have won 87-30. That’s somewhat similar to what actually happened, mine being roughly three to four times that of the actual score. Although people might say; why change to A… Read More »

NCAA, Direct Athletic Compensation?

Just when I thought wrestling’s challenges couldn’t get any worse . . . The NCAA has been trying for years to deal with many of the nation’s very vocal State Legislators on how to handle the distribution process of collegiate athletic-department funds from an employee standpoint. Not only is it complex, but at the same… Read More »

Bring Back Pinning

Does anyone remember what team scoring was like in wrestling during the 1970’s? If you pinned your opponent, it was worth 6-team points. A decision of any point differential was worth 3-team points. And a tie was worth 2-team points. And everyone was happy with the way it was. Everyone. But please notice, the pin… Read More »

Super 6, Plus a 7th One

Let’s add a 7th rule alteration to my well received Super 6, which have been designed to lessen the thickness of the Rules Book, while reengaging the fans. If you didn’t get a chance to read about the first six, they can be found at this site. If you look them up, and don’t know… Read More »

What Are We Missing?

I was floored when I saw WIN’s pre-season collegiate rankings. You could double the number of points the pollsters gave the second-best team in America and they’d still be in second place. I never imagined that would ever be possible. Penn State is now so dominant that conceivably, the Nittany Lion’s second string could finish… Read More »

What’s Going on at USAWrestling?

What’s going on at USAWrestling with Greco? America won zero medals at this year’s World Championships with eight of their ten entries only winning one match each. And, their grand total of 14 team points represents a new performance low for our Colorado based leadership corp., especially when you consider the men’s freestyle team won… Read More »

Why Do We Seed, Or Should We?

The answer is no, we shouldn’t. At least in the way it’s currently being handled. I understand the importance of seeding, and the need to separate the best athletes in each weight class, but using the NCAA Championships as an example, seeding down to 33 in a field of 33 is absolutely absurd. I can… Read More »

Flo’s Top 100: Being Fair to Our Greatest: Part 4

Not all yard sticks measure the same. The one Flo used to create their Top 100 Greatest seems to put a great deal of emphasis on international successes, while at times, overlooking greatness. And to be clear, and eliminate any confusion, here’s how I define greatness. It’s a career of achievement; scholastically, collegiately, and internationally.… Read More »

An Article Out of the Archives

I wrote this article for a local newspaper back in the early 1980’s, and a friend of mine just sent it to me out of the blue. I had forgotten all about it. But after re-reading, I thought it was interesting enough to republish. Hope you enjoy. Reverse Instruction I’m sure you realize how difficult… Read More »

America’s Greatest Clinicians Ever

I’ve always wondered, who in the sport of amateur wrestling are, or were, the country’s most popular, and effective clinicians? To find out, I asked almost five thousand fans to weigh in on the subject. To make it into the Top 20, these no-nonsense nurturers had to have scored superior marks in each of three… Read More »

America’s Greatest Pinners

Recently, I read a series of posts on Facebook addressing the question of who was America’s greatest pinner? Given that I have some background on the subject, I decided to weigh-in. My first thought is, there’s never a clear cut answer to any question in wrestling. Our sport never seems to be able to get… Read More »

Flo’s Top 100: Being Fair to Our Greatest: Part 3

As I’ve mentioned throughout the first two installments of challenging Flo’s Top 100 is the importance of weighing the many variables, that it appears weren’t taken into account when the list was made. In case you’re wondering what, those variables might be . . . here’s a list of the ones that I feel are… Read More »

Flo’s Top 100: Being Fair to Our Greatest? Part 1

Last year Flo Wrestling ran a story regarding who they believed were the sport’s Top 100 Greatest Wrestlers of All-Time. Granted, what they created was very informative for the curious, and a great starting point for what will become the basis of some memorable discussions. And, I’m sure a lot of work went into the… Read More »

Be careful of what you see and hear . . .

Be careful of what you see and hear . . . I’ve been on YouTube, Instagram and Facebook recently studying the various techniques wrestling professionals are demonstrating. Some have great insight, creativity, and technical skills; others, need some help. When I replay a technique for a second and third time, I often notice a very… Read More »

To Dual or Not to Dual . . .

There is little question that dual meets are the most important form of competition in wrestling. It’s not the State High School Championships or the NCAA tournament; even though they are fun to watch. For those who might not have thought about it; dual meets are the life blood of wrestling. They’re where fans can… Read More »

Semi-Final Preview Show

Don’t be surprised, for those of you who traditionally attend the NCAA’s Semi-Final Preview Show, when you notice a change. Gone is the individual whose vision it was to have the show; and sold the idea to the NCAA, along with the rest of the panel. I was told by someone who purported herself to… Read More »

Why I’m a Pain

As far back as I can remember, my favorite word was why. I’m not sure what caused it, but I’ve never stopped asking why things work the way they do; or don’t work; and then create work arounds to improve outcomes. Zeroing in on the sport of wrestling, what I found given my forward thinking,… Read More »

Things that make you go hmmm

Were you aware; there are 1023 community colleges in America.  62, or 6% of them have a wrestling program. There are 437 Division III colleges in America, 109 have wrestling or 25% of the schools. At the D-II level, there are 303 colleges of which 64 have the sport, or 21%. At the D-I level,… Read More »

What Are We Doing To Our Sport?

In order to know where wrestling ranks relative to all the other sports, and with the folks in the entertainment industry, all we need to do is look at some statistics. There are 363 Division I universities in America. And out of that number, 34 of them have a wrestling program. That means that 91%… Read More »

Are We There Yet

I think I’d like to change course from worrying about the NCAA Rules Committee and USA Wrestling’s lack of interest in the sports spectator appeal, and shift to the creation of a promotional video. Especially when wrestling’s two most influential governing bodies, mentioned above, have been asleep at the wheel seemingly forever. In support of… Read More »

To Lace, or not to Lace . . .

When I awoke this morning I was thinking; what could possibly have been going through the rules committee’s heads when they created all the various scenarios regarding the pre-kindergarten skill of tying one’s shoes? As it is now, or was recently, if a competitor’s laces become untied, heaven forbid, the match is stopped, the offending… Read More »

Television: The Devil You Don’t Know

Regarding broadcasts, the general consensus within the wrestling community, and among its leadership is; isn’t it great that ESPN, the worldwide leader in sports programming, thinks enough of us to televise our NCAA Championships? But is that really a good thing? Not if you’re capable of thinking outside the box, or seeing outside the box… Read More »

Wrestling Needs Another Division

The most important aspect of school is to learn how to problem solve. Those who do it best, succeed the most. If I developed one skill that helped me achieve what I did in wrestling, it’s being able to solve problems. So let’s work on problem solving this. As we know, the NCAA is divided… Read More »

Competitive Thoughts

Winning isn’t always about executing your most effective technique, it often comes down to stopping your opponent’s most effective technique. Kyle Dake didn’t beat Jordan Burroughs to make the Olympic team as a result of his offensive prowess. He was in Beijing because he was successful at stopping Jordan’s legendary, and lethal, double leg. The… Read More »

How Wrestling Wins

For those who know me, I’ve never shied away from sharing my perspective on subjects. Some of you seem to love my unfiltered openness, others not so much. But it seems I’m the only man in the arena right now to quote a partial line from Teddy Roosevelt. For this blog, as you read How… Read More »

#1 A Point Earned, is a Point Scored

A Point Earned, is a Point Scored Let me apologize in advance. This will be the longest read of the Super 6 solutions. Probably, because it’s the most important one of the group. For my detractors, note I didn’t say any of these suggestions were perfect, but they are a hell of a lot better… Read More »