I had people over to the house to watch the Rumble on the Rails, the dual meet between the United States and Iran. Each of them are far from being wrestling aficionados, actually two of the three had never watched a match before.
Relative to the wrestling, here’s what I heard:
“I thought the objective was to pin a person’s shoulders to the mat? It doesn’t look like anyone is trying to do that.”
“They all look like they are trying not to lose versus win.”
“That guy lost the ball thing and still won the point. Doesn’t that mean he’s way better than the other guy? So why didn’t he just wrestle harder during the match and win it there?”
These are actual observations from intelligent people who watched the match and why wrestling IS NOT a television product. Again, a USAWrestling failing with some assistance from FILA.
Wrestling isn’t difficult to fix, we just need to treat it as a business and work to elevate the brand by first determining the sports core objectives and market segments. This is exactly what businesses do on a daily and reoccurring basis, and wrestling has never done. That is why so many people have so many opinions regarding the sports direction and how to fix it – because of zero guiding principles.
I think the test whether or not a sport is ready for prime time should be, can you explain the core principles to a five year old? Basketball would be easy, the team who puts the ball in the basket more often than the other team wins. In soccer it’s the team who kicks the ball into the net more than the other team. Swimming and track are also easy, cross the finish line before everyone else.
I wonder what that same five year old would think after 15 minutes of listening to someone trying to explain the core principles of international wrestling?
Sports need to be fan friendly and simple if they want to have a place in today’s media arena. That’s how you begin to build a loyal and responsive fan base.
Wrestling needs to do a consumer group evaluation and compare it against other sports. Wrestling and softball for example. Then wrestling and squash, wrestling and badminton, and so on, to see exactly where our product ranks. Without analytics there is no aim – there is no target – there is no real gasp of what we’re trying to sell. This is so crystal clear to me that it’s painful to even type.
More Oversights and Screw-Ups
It was recently proposed to USA Wrestling that they honor world wrestling month (May) by doing daily press releases on the heroes of our sport. Bruce Baumgartner on Day 1 as an example, Dan Gable on Day 2, Kurt Angle on Day 3 then the Banach’s, the Scheer’s, the Schultz’s and so on. Basically all USAW had to do was copy and paste what is already written about these legends at the National Wrestling Hall of Fame. It was simple, assign an intern to the task and have Gary Abbott supervise the output. From there send one out each day to USAWrestling’s extensive contact list and ask America’s other email list owners like the NWCA, Hall of Fame, Brute, Cliff Keen, the AAU, Kenny Chertow, Jack Roller and Ed Gutierrez do the same. I bet between those groups and others, plus college, high school and club coaches we’d reach over 1 million people a day. Can you imagine the impact? It might even be worth the expense to buy space on Yahoo Sports each day. But sadly, USAWrestling couldn’t find the time or have the interest.
Next was a “Fast Pitch Initiative” for the same time period. It was proposed that they arrange with every Major League Baseball club to have an Olympic medal winner throw out the 1st pitch at one of their games. When one of their very senior members of USAWrestling heard this he said, “wrestling is in competition with baseball, they’ll never do it.” That ended the conversation. As a result of their response four calls were made by a non USAW member to the Phillies, the Orioles, the Cubs and the White Sox. The Phillies immediately wanted to schedule it, the Orioles had 2 open dates, the Cubs and White Sox said we’re on board. So much for being in competition with them! This is typical Colorado Springs, they’re not possibility thinkers.
As most of you know, FILA changed quite a few rules two weeks ago to enhance the sport under pressure from the IOC. They instituted them right after the Rumble on the Rails at Grand Central Station as a way of demonstrating their immediate commitment to forward thinking and willingness to take direction. USAWrestling, in turn, parroted FILA’s wish for a new beginning. Making decisive and immediate changes was critical to wrestling’s future just as it was imperative that the IOC see the sport’s willingness for change. The only problem was USAWrestling failed to impart to their membership how critical these changes were and how immediate they needed to go into effect.
So at their Southeastern Regionals this past weekend USAW used the old rules instead of incorporating the new ones. I wonder how that might play out tomorrow at the IOC meeting should they learn of USAWrestling’s failure to follow FILA’s lead. The light’s on in Colorado Springs but no one’s home.
These are only three examples of dysfunctional leadership that has more interest in keeping their jobs than doing their jobs. To be clear, I’m not suggesting that USAWrestling’s dedicated staff is in any way ineffective or myopic in their views, it’s the leadership that can’t find a lost golf ball in the middle of a sand trap.
The Time is Now
But I’m not alone in these thoughts that USAWrestling Needs New Leadership. My phone has been blowing up since I began writing these blogs. “How do we get them out?” is the main question everyone asks. From regular fans to coaches at every level of the spectrum, from politically connected leaders to equipment manufacturers; everyone is calling.
The time has come, change is absolutely needed and the Board of USAWrestling should convene for a vote of no confidence, and not wait until the September vote of the IOC to do it. Whatever happens in September isn’t contingent on what we do domestically and none of it changes the fact that adjustments are needed. And please, don’t think for one minute that shuffling posteriors from one chair to another will make a difference. It won’t! But if you think a simple fix like that will do, please stop reading.
USAWrestling and the sport of wrestling desperately need a non-wrestler leading the charge; an Executive Director who’s just that, an executive director. MBA credentials and a law degree would be nice. If it were up to me, I’d hand everything over to Michael Novogratz, shake his hand and say, “thank you for helping!” I’m smart enough to know what I don’t know and wise enough to know who does. Novogratz is the best America has to offer, he loves the sport as much as you and I do and he’s the one person I trust more than anyone else.
Just Plain Rude
During last weekend’s event in New York, the new President of FILA was introduced. He spoke for approximately 6 minutes and I don’t know if the crowd was predominately press corps, coaches, event sponsors, fans or whom, but watch the video, and listen to the crowd. I was appalled. Although the spectators weren’t visible, it was quite obvious that no one put their fork down or stopped talking long enough to honor the man who just became the leader of FILA.
Watch more video of Nenad Lalovic on flowrestling.org
This one isn’t leadership’s fault, it’s just bad manners. When someone has earned the right, as President Lalovic has, to be introduced and stand at a dais, he deserves respect. That means silverware is put down and conversations end. I can’t imagine what he was thinking but my guess is he thought we were rude; as he should have.
But that’s okay, “we’re wrestling,” and still another reason why we fail.
I decided to read some of the other posts on your blog.
Forgive the comments of a non-wrestler, but I believe you have it both right and wrong.
I believe you are right to believe wrestling needs more spectators who haven’t been wrestlers to attract sponsors.
I believe you are wrong to believe it’s a simple matter of fixing the scoring, to have a point scored be a point earned.
Let me ask the following questions if I may t help focus why I believe you are wrong.
Why do boys who have never set foot on a mat or had a lesson in wrestling, wrestle? I can’t imagine anyone suggesting boys don’t want to wrestle, sometime, in their life, with a cousin, or friend, or rival.
Why did I, someone who had no formal lessons in wrestling, want to wrestle my cousin, also a non-wrestler, who was the same size as me, when we were both around seventh grade? We didn’t wrestle in front of spectators. My family would visit his family, and we would disappear and wrestle. It was fun to wrestle. It felt exciting. It felt challenging. It felt like it was in our DNA.
When two boys, in a park or on a playground, decide to wrestle, and it’s clear they’ve never had a lesson, why do people watch them? Why do girls pretend they aren’t watching or it’s dirty or wrong, but they still watch, fascinated. Why do other boys watch? Why will a crowd sometimes gather until some adult comes along and breaks everything up?
Why?
Why did I want to wrestle my cousin? What was in my DNA? I wanted to see if I could take my cousin. I wanted to see who was tougher. I was willing to risk losing, knowing I could trust him not to hurt me if I lost, and knowing I wouldn’t hurt him if I won, to establish pecking order.
Establish pecking order? What a primitive, animal-like, vulgar thing to suggest. Don’t boys bluff and bluster and get physical to establish who is the leader, to establish pecking order?
Don’t girls and other boys watch playground wrestling matches (fights with rules so nobody gets hurt), to witness who has pecking order over who?
What do I believe is wrong with a point scored is a point earned?
Nowhere, above, did I mention anything about points. Nowhere, above, did I mention anything about wrestling skill.
Olympic wrestling and college and high school wrestling are about mastering skills.
In Olympic wrestling, you gets points for skillfully executing a move. When there’s “no activity”, both wrestlers get stood up so they can skillfully execute another move. Pinning does not seem to be a priority. Scoring more points than your opponent is the priority. Since the Olympics is an individual sport, not a team sport, a point scored is a point earned has no meaning. All you care about is getting one more point than your opponent. Olympic wrestling is dead. Let Olympic wrestling die quietly.
High school and college wresting is going the way of Olympic wrestling. It’s all about measuring wrestling skill. A point scored is a point earned will only make that worse. It won’t matter if you get the pin. You can earn more scoring points. You don’t have to take as many risks being a take down artist, scoring a technical fall.
Whatever happened to establishing pecking order? Whatever happened to pinning an opponent down to show you can take him?
If you can score a technical fall, you should be able to finish off your opponent by pinning him. You should be able to show everyone you can take him, you are tougher, you are the boss, you can establish pecking order over him.
Alas, the rules seem designed to prevent you establishing pecking order over your opponent. A technical fall ends a match prematurely. Scoring more points than your opponent, showing your superior skill, has become the priority. You are called for stalling if you try to ride your opponent. You aren’t allowed to soften your opponent up for the pin. Finishing off your opponent seems to have gotten lost.
Wrestling needs to be scientific, but being scientific is the means to an end, not the end itself. The end goal needs to be finishing off your opponent to establish that primitive, animal-like, vulgar thing called pecking order.
I believe you will disagree. I respect your opinion and your far greater experience.
You asked me what I think. Here it is. You’ve become focused on the scientific skill aspects and lost sight of the reason why boys who are non-wrestlers, wrestle. You’ve lost sight why other kids, on the playground, gather around two boys wrestling, to watch.
I offer the following suggestions because I feel I can approach your sport as an outsider. Currently, if I want a more aggressive combat sport, there are a number of martial arts choices.
If you wish to go to a point scored is a point earned, may I make the following suggestions.
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Don’t have periods. Have the match last 9 continuous wall clock minutes. There should be no second or third period where a wrestler decides if he wants top or bottom or neutral.
The only way the match ends should be when the wall clock time runs out. A technical fall should not exist. A pin should not end the match. You want to give a wrestler as much time as possible to score as many point as possible. More on that later.
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From other posts and comments, it appears fleeing the mat is a large problem. Separate accidental leaving the mat from deliberate fleeing the mat. it will be a judgement call. Do not punish accidental leaving the mat. Harshly punish deliberate leaving the mat as an infraction. Call any type of deliberately fleeing the mat, be it the defensive wrestler forcing the action out of bounds or the offensive wrestler forcing the action out of bounds an infraction. Return the two wrestlers to the center of the mat, in the same position they were in when they left the mat. If one wrestler had the other wrestler in a near fall situation, put them back in that situation.
Call refusing to engage your opponent, running away from your opponent, or deliberately avoiding your opponent while standing an infraction.
Do not call riding your opponent, trying to weaken your opponent so your opponent is easier to pin, an infraction. Let a wrestler use punishing holds designed to soften an opponent up for a pin.
You want to have lots of points scored. How do you score points against a tough opponent without first softening him up? Your wrestlers should be skillful enough to dish out punishment without injuring an opponent and skillful enough to work out of punishing situations, or your wrestlers deserve to be the victims of punishing holds making them easy prey for pins.
For the first infraction, the opposing team gets 5 team points. For the second infraction, the opposing team gets 10 team points. For the third infraction, the opposing team gets 15 team points. For the fourth infraction, the opposing team gets 20 team points. There should be no limit to the number of infractions. A wrestler getting lots of infractions could, all by himself, lose the dual meet for his team. This should put a stop to infractions.
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I suggest the following scoring for take downs, escapes, and reversals.
Do NOT have a take down be worth more OR less than an escape. The value of a take down should be the same as an escape. The value of a reversal should be the same as the sum of a take down and an escape.
Why?
If a take down is worth more than an escape, you encourage take down artists. The current style of wrestling has take down artists.
If an escape is worth more than a take down, you encourage escape artists. Escape artists will let themselves be taken down so they can escape.
You want the reversal to be the same as the sum of a take down and an escape so coaches have reason to teach reversals. You don’t want the reversal worth more because you will encourage reversal artists.
Let’s assume a take down is worth one point and an escape is worth one point and a reversal is worth two points.
If you want a standing style of wrestling, where you encourage take down, stand up, reward the skill you want by having that skill earn more points. You want take down artists, have take downs be worth more than escapes. You want escape artists, have escapes be worth more than take downs.
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I assume you want a ground style of wrestling. Now let’s focus on ground wrestling scoring.
You want near falls and pins.
Have two types of pins, a half pin and a full pin, neither of which ends the match.
A wrestler should be able to score only one type of team point during a danger situation. A wrestler might score either near fall team points or half pin team points or full pin team points, but not more than one type.
Why?
Currently, you have wrestlers who will hold their opponent in a near fall for 5 seconds to be sure they get those match points before attempting a pin. With a point scored, a point earned, you will have wrestlers holding their opponent in a near fall for 5 seconds to get those team points before trying for a pin.
You want to encourage a wrestler to immediately start working for a pin. Earning near fall team points should be viewed as as the booby prize you got when you couldn’t get the real prize, the full pin.
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Regarding the team scoring for each type, I suggest the following.
a) Have a full pin where the pinning criteria is met for 5 seconds, and give 15 team points. After a full pin, stand both wrestlers up, in neutral, and have them continue wrestling the rest of the 9 minutes. We assume once a wrestler is held for a full pin, the wrestler is beat and can’t escape the pin.
b) Have a half pin where the pinning criteria is met for 2 to 4 seconds, but triple the amount of points scored. If a pin is held 2 seconds before the opponent works out of danger, give 6 points, if held 3 seconds, give 9 team points. if held 4 seconds, give 12 team points. The opponent in danger must work out of danger to escape the half pin.
it is important the number of points for pinning an opponent for 2 seconds be greater than the maximum number of points that can be scored for a near fall. If one can earn a maximum of 5 points for a near fall, holding an opponent pinned for 2 seconds needs to be at least 6.
c) Have the number of seconds a person is in a near fall reflect the number of team points scored.
If an opponent is held in a near fall 3 seconds before working out of danger, give the wrestler 3 team points If held 4 seconds before working out of danger, give 4 points. If held 5 seconds before working out of danger, give 5 points. You probably need to cap the number of points for a near fall at 5 seconds. The opponent in danger must work out of the near fall to escape the near fall.
Again, only one type of team score should be earned. The wrestler wants to earn the full pin. If he can’t, he needs to settle for the half pin team score points. If he can’t get that, he needs to settle for the near fall team points.
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Why must a pin not end the match? If a pin ended the match, you would have near fall artists getting near fall after near fall to score as many points as possible. You would have opponents in near fall situations give up and go flat letting themselves be pinned to avoid giving the opposing team more points than necessary.
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Why have 9 continuous minutes of wall clock wrestling with no periods and no match clock for varsity and collegiate?
You avoid the problem of time running out at the end of a period ending a pinning situation.
You force wrestlers to have the stamina to wrestle 9 minutes. Wrestling 9 minutes should be hard. Wrestling shouldn’t be an easy sport.
Pinning becomes the most important part of your style of wrestling. Pinning doesn’t end the match. You can get multiple pins per match.
It’s easier to schedule your matches. The first match on a mat can start on the hour. The second match can start ten minutes later at ten after the hour. The third match can start ten minutes later at twenty after the hour. You can have 6 matches per hour, 12 matches in two hours.
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What might be some of the objections?
One objection might be we are encouraging one wrestler to “beat” on his opponent, letting him ride his opponent and use punishing holds to exhaust his opponent, and letting him pin his opponent multiple times.
Yes. What’s wrong with that? Aren’t wrestlers supposed to be tough?
If you’re concerned beginners might find it too hard and quit, reduce the wall clock time and let beginners only wrestle beginners. For the first few months, have a beginner wrestle a 1 minute match. This beginner has a “white” belt indicating he wrestles in 1 minute group. After the beginner is more comfortable and has “won” a few matches, give him the next color, say yellow belt, increase the wall clock time to a 90 second match and let this more experienced beginner wrestle other more experienced beginners who have yellow belts..
I believe the trick to not losing beginners is to have them regularly taste victory. They can live with defeats as long as that’s not all they experience. You don’t want a wrestler going 5 matches without a victory. The wrestler will give up.
A wrestler needs a certain number of victories in the 1 minute wall clock group to earn wrestling in the 90 second wall clock group. Once he earns a certain number of victories in the 90 second wall clock group, he is ready for the 2 minute wall clock group.
You might cap the wall clock time for experienced middle school wrestlers at 4 minutes. Experienced JV wrestling matches might be capped at 6 minutes.
Experienced varsity wrestlers and collegiate wrestlers should be able and willing to go 9 minutes.
Another objection might be we are putting too much priority on a ground-style of wrestling.
I thought that’s what we wanted. I thought we wanted a ground-style of wrestling. If you want a stand-up style of wrestling that favors take down artists make a take down be worth more team points than an escape.
1. Was honored to have Coach Schalles in our gym, coaching some lucky kids. Goes without saying that he did a great job. Few, if any, can Jeep a group of wrestlers paying attention, having fun, working hard and learning at the same time. But what they learned was impressive, the lack of coaching pins go unnoticed til you are around Coach Schalles. You then see what coaching pins means.
2. Here we go again with another awesome weekend in the United States. And again finding this on NBC, ESPN or any other channel wobt happen. You must once again rely on Flowrestling, Facebook or twitter. If wrestling wants to be considered with Squash then so be it. If you want to be a giant in the IOC’s mind perhaps you need to act like it. I can DVR the 500th time an episode of Friends or Seinfeld is aired but I cant watch Burroughs vs Dake or Oliver vs Chamberlain? Its a shame and should be fixed now.
What a novel idea, each match ends when one wrestler is pinned for two seconds.
Wade Schalles as president of USAWrestling? So far almost everyone I have heard talk about wrestling being reinstated into Olympics says because its oldest sport in olympics and gives other nastalgic reasons. What you dont normally hear is what wrestling can do to make IOC want it back. How can wrestling make itself an attractive addition to the olympic field. I havent heard any plans or ideas that will change things. A few simple rule changes have made the sport more enjoyable for avid fans but still need more action, more intent to finish a match and inflict their will instead of tactically winning 1-0 matches.
So far Wade is the only one I have been hearing with ideas, theories, solutions. So Wade Schalles for president of USAWrestling? Where do I vote? Just as long as he has times to keep teaching youngsters about Legal Pain.
Teague Moore’s first to 10 seems to be an interesting idea. Since Wade is from PA, I’ll go with Wade for president of USAWrestling, so long as he gets rid of the leadership of USAWrestling NJ.
Wrestling makes the short list
If this is an accurate representation of the background noise, talking, etc…, Then the lack of manners & respect shown Lalovic is reprehensible. Ashamed to be part of this. . It’s obvious Lalovic is annoyed and distracted by it.
John . . . thanks for replying. Relative to the cost for the Rumble, they had very limited seats available to them and it was sold out. Beat the Streets had to pay for network television to cover it and lost money as it was. It’s exactly what the Super Bowl does, the World Series, the Stanley Club finals etc. Pay big time if you want to be there in person or watch it for free. The fee they charged made it possible for people in every corner of the country to watch it live on major network television. When was the last time to saw that happen? I know it’s different from what we’re used to in wrestling but isn’t that the exact thinking that has gotten us where we are with programs dropping and the Olympics in question?
Have the viewership stats been sliced and diced to determine if the cost was worthwhile? Not sure if a 3pm wrestling event would have been effective. I believe what the sport needs are grass roots clubs such as the South Plainfield Wrestling Club. An example of its effectiveness is last summer they had pick up dual meets; enough kids showed up for 4 teams! We must make these events affordable for everybody. Wrestling is predominantly a blue collar sport.
I never knew that wrestling was in direct competition with baseball. Who knew? I think that they should make Wade president of the USA wrestling and get these kids represented by someone who has the compassion for the sport which is necesary. There really seems to be a lapse of care by the people in charge. It is is important to the sport that everyones sees the best effort to make sure the the IOC realizes how important the sport is the America and the world.
Frank
Agree with you that USAWrestling needs new leadership. Disagree that Novogratz is the right choice. I thought charging a $1000 for Rumble at the Rails was wrong. The price excluded a lot of fans!