Reflecting on the U.S. performance in Moscow

At the 2010 World Championships in Moscow, Russia, September 10-12, the seven members comprising the U.S. Freestyle Team went a combined 4-7. The U.S. tied for 22nd place with five team points. It was the first time the U.S. did not medal in men's freestyle since 1975 ... and must be considered the worst performance at this event in modern history.

In the days since the competition, the results have yielded much head-scratching, finger-pointing, theorizing, and Monday morning quarterbacking. In the words of Zeke Jones, who serves as the national men's freestyle coach, "It's terrible."

Jake Herbert (Photo/Tony Rotundo, Tech-Fall.com)

The No. 1 explanation for the bad performance has to be that the team didn't peak when they needed to. In mid-July a U.S. team traveled to the very tough Heydar Aliyev Golden Grand Prix in Azerbaijan, put four wrestlers in the finals, and won two bronze medals. Americans defeated many decorated wrestlers at the event and the results put wind in the sails of U.S. wrestling fans. That wind left seven weeks later.

At the World Championships, the American wrestlers simply did not show up with their best game. Travis Paulson (74 kg) and Les Sigman (120 kg) both lost to opponents they had beaten earlier in the year. Obe Blanc (55 kg) got pinned in a match he was winning and two returning World silver medalists, Mike Zadick (60 kg) and Jake Herbert (84 kg), failed to win a match.

One reason given for the lack of U.S. success has been the current rules of freestyle wrestling, instituted by FILA. The rules are so unforgiving that matches are decided by the smallest of factors. So small that it is often difficult to replicate success. Of the seven weight classes, three 2009 World champions -- Mehdi Taghavi of Iran (66 kg,) Zaurbek Sokhiev of Uzebekistan (84 kg) and Khadjimourat Gatsalov of Russia (96 kg) -- failed to repeat. 55 kg and 66 kg saw first-time champions crowned.

To win a match a wrestler must win two out of three two-minute periods. FILA has said they adopted this system to allow for weight classes to be competed in one day (a bracket with a bunch of matches that only last four minutes will go faster than one where each match is six) but there is also criticism that the two-out-of-three-period system hurts American wrestlers. U.S. wrestlers have been known to execute late-match comebacks via strong conditioning, but a wrestler can't come back in minutes five and six if a bout only lasts four.

If a period ends 0-0 one wrestler will reach into a back and grab one of two colored balls. If the ball is his color he is allowed to grab one of his opponent's legs. He has thirty seconds to score. If he does, he wins the period. If he can't score, his opponent wins the period.

Periods won in this fashion can feel monumentally unsatisfying for a fan and oftentimes seem very arbitrary. Over time, they yield results that show great inconsistencies in success. The ball grabs may go a wrestler's way one year and not his way the next.

Mike Zadick (Photo/John Sachs, Tech-Fall.com)

FILA has good reason to ignore criticism of the current rules since they have resulted in far fewer cries of corruption. International wrestling is filled with passion and -- even under the best rule systems of the past -- can feature action that is very difficult to score. An official could call something exactly as he saw it and fans from one country would agree with him while fans from another would not. This isn't to say that all claims of cheating and payoffs were without merit. But the new rules also allow for less actual corruption since the refs are a much smaller part of deciding matches than they used to be.

But while the lack of outrage and decline in accusations of conspiracy may be good for FILA, it certainly doesn't seem to help bring in fans.

A person introduced to freestyle wrestling tends to be surprised to learn how significant a factor the colored ball grab is. Take the same fan and explain to them how a folkstyle match was won on riding time and they are far less incredulous.

Because luck is an undeniable part of the modern freestyle landscape, things usually either fall your way with wrestler A or B. This year, everything went against the U.S. And when that happens it's time to acknowledge that something is going on beyond luck.

Ben Askren (Photo/Tech-Fall.com)

Unfortunately for fans of American wrestling, the U.S. is the land of opportunity. Many of our most successful wrestlers move on after winning World or Olympic medals. Kurt Angle went on to professional wrestling. Stephen Neal went on to play football for the Patriots. Cael Sanderson went on to coach at the college level. Ben Askren, Mo Lawal, and many others have joined the ranks of MMA. Even Henry Cejudo has taken two years off since winning gold in 2008.

Many wrestlers from Russia and former Soviet Republics will openly admit that they come from troubled areas. Wrestling is really all they have and they tend to stick around until someone better beats them. This result is medals ... lots of them.

It's also difficult to begrudge U.S. athletes for making money outside of international wrestling after working so hard, but it also should make our decreasing medal count less surprising. USA Wrestling's Living the Dream Medal Fund does help keep wrestlers around, but when Ben Askren cannot make the U.S. World Team and then go on to make a hundred grand in MMA, it can be hard for U.S. wrestlers not to simply follow the money.

And make no mistake about it, a big part of the success of wrestlers in MMA is due to the mat wrestling they get from folkstyle, not freestyle.

If freestyle's evolution away from folkstyle wrestling has resulted in decreased success, then it must be noted it is also possible that folkstyle's evolution has not helped things either. One of the greatest strides folkstyle has made in the past two decades is in the realm of funk. Collegiate wrestling has become more and more adept in developing last-second methods in fighting off all-but-scored takedowns. There is far more diving through opponents legs, far more acrobatic flips to free a leg and far more putting one's head underneath an ankle from crazy positions. While these exciting, action-packed scrambles are filled with purpose, there is an argument to be made that becoming skilled in these dogfights is antithetical to scoring situations in freestyle wrestling.

At this year's Worlds, the main problem was neither the setups nor the penetration of the team's leg attacks. It was finishing them. At 66 kg, 84 kg and 120 kg all three opponents scored off of U.S. offensive shots. Most of these points were match-deciders.

Perhaps more surprising than the poor performance by the U.S. this year is Russia's continued dominance. Each of the former Soviet Republics has become its own powerhouse. Georgia won the Worlds in 2003, but Russia has been unstoppable since. Russia's dominance shows that success is worth striving for and we shouldn't just shrug our shoulders at the current rules.

I do believe that USA Wrestling understands what is needed to get there. It is not a chess position that can't be won. We just need to get much better and much smarter.

With that in mind, much has been made of U.S. wrestler Andy Hrovat, who has made the decision to leave the U.S. and train in Russia for seven months. How successful he is at the U.S. World Team Trials next summer will certainly indicate if this is a direction more of our athletes should go.

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