ILLINIWrestlingBlog

The two most important rules in your life: The Golden Rule and the Carnival Rule.

SPECIAL BONUS MEME FOR @Wrestleknownothing AND @ionel:

There is a contest associated with National Singlet Day. Record yourself wearing a singlet in public in some hilarious (but safe) way, and you can win a prize package! The prize package includes a The ILLINI Wrestling Blog & Forum & Beyond t-shirt, 2 Chunky bars and a piece of wire. The contest will be judged by a panel of singlet experts. Day two Meme:

I've changed my mind. I just watched the Intermat interview of Lucas Byrd, and it sounds like he's gonna wrestle this season. A pissed off Lucas Byrd wins it all!

Brooks. And not because of Ford Focus, who had 4-2 and 3-2 matches in the finals in 2021, nearly died in a car wreck and has been away from the sport for two years. Moreover, there's a question whether he wrestles anyways. On top of all that, there'd be the Ford Focus circus every week. 197 is deep. Also, the ankles are going to be a lot farther away. On top of that, you have to control the ties to get to those ankles. Harder to push around these 197-pound beasts. Tough question, though. As of now, he's the only one of the four moving up in weight. That means things will change for him. Change can be good or bad.

I'm not afraid of Big Potato. Potatoes are lucky they have slightly more taste than rice. Singlets deserve their one day in the sun. Bonus Meme:

To launch something as important as National Singlet Day, we need memes. Nothing can be accomplished in today's society unless there are good memes to support it. And so this is the first day of a seven day meme-a-day countdown until National Singlet Day has arrived on November 1, 2023. Will National Singlet Day ever become as popular as Halloween or Independence Day? Probably not. But it sure can rival National Potato Day (August 19th) or National Bubble Bath Day (January 8th). It is time for all good patriotic Americans to embrace the singlet! Today's meme:

Man, it was one of those instances where I was watching on Flo thousands of miles away from the action, and I was also screaming, "Stop the match!"

Stechele is pretty good. Zane Richards only beat him by a couple of points.

I don't know if it was this match or another, but a leg got twisted and you could hear the table screaming "Stop the match!," but the ref shook them off. There's gotta be a restart in those positions. Unless it is Tyler Nixt. Athlete safety has to be number one, and the ref should be reprimanded.

The ILLINI Wrestle-offs had their share of surprises yesterday. We have some of the results--and we think all of the final results--at this link. There's also Super 32 news involving IMAR, Lucas Byrd, Seth Mendoza and a bunch of ILLINOIS lads in the quarterfinals or fighting it out on the backside. Finally, we are spotlighting ILLINI Wrestling Babies. Regular babies are okay, I guess, but ILLINI Wrestling Babies are AWESOME. Okay, we'll divulge a couple of the results: Kannon Webster beat last year's starter at 149, and Braeden Scoles beat the starter at 157 from two years ago. Looks like both the Brawlnagels are taking Olympic redshirt years, and Lucas Byrd is taking a medical shirt. That explains Tony Madrigal's transfer from Oklahoma. According to eyewitnesses, he was fantastic in his wrestle-off. He had to be as Kole Brower is a tough ILLINOIS kid.

The ILLINI will hold a wrestle-off today at 11am (Central) in Huff Hall. It is open to the public and well-timed to end so folks can head over to Memorial Stadium for the football game with Stupid Wisconsin. Football starts at 3:30pm. Forecast is for 0% chance of precipitation from 10am to 8pm. Then, it ticks up to 1%. High of 69° and partly cloudy. I haven't heard of a livestream at this time. There are slots in the starting lineup on the line. Moreover, since the first action of the year is a dual, this looks like the way--or at least one of the ways--the staff will determine a starting lineup. If anybody hears of a livestream, please let me know.

That's what I'm wondering, CHROMEBIRD. I have done Moneyball looks at Zane Richards' opponents before, as well as Zac Braunagel's. That was a very manual and arduous process going through videos. Stopping and starting a hundred times for each video. As you note, there is a service that is available that looks very labor intensive, using humans to catalog what the wrestlers are doing, but it also looks like it provides valuable data for coaches. According to one company, AI is capable at this time to do some work "watching" video: "AI can not only observe data but can also be trained with large volumes of video footage to detect, identify, categorize and automatically tag specific objects. Overall, it is a tool used to assist humans in understanding video content, and make automated decisions based on observations made from the data collected." What is left unclear in my mind is what "objects" are being detected. Facial recognition software can map faces, but can it learn to follow movements? How would it handle a Nashon Garrett/Jesse Delgado scramble? Someday, I think. Again, I turn to AI art renderings. What the program I used on IMAR's photo did was in a number of cases, inexplicable. Below is the AI render next to Tony Rotundo's original photo. IMAR's right foot is wearing Sideshow Bob-size shoes. His right hand has a finger bending at an impossible angle. Then, there's the scarf worn by the ILLINOIS coach. A nice touch, but it makes zero sense. We can see now why the AI put a Coke and a hot dog on the mat: The red ankle band left on the mat magically became a refreshing snack! Strangest of all, the ref has the green Infinity Time Stone on his forehead. There is NOTHING in the original photo to suggest that the ref should be wearing the Eye of Agamotto! If AI can't get still photographs right, I don't think it's ready for videos.

This is a valid point. Would it work? I think in the example that I gave, using the half and arm bar, once the initial holds are obtained, and you use the AI suggested torque with your legs and torso, it wouldn't matter what the other person did. Moreover, even if you failed, at least you gave yourself the best chance to succeed. That's the bottom line for me. It may not work. But doesn't every wrestler want to know the absolute best way to get the takedown? To get the pin? To escape? Especially if that absolute best way was computationally tailored to your and your opponent's physical attributes and abilities. Also, I would think AI in the future would suggest only holds that it can logically foresee you being able to accomplish. That will likely be way in the future, though. Here's an AI render of a photograph of Coach Poeta on a recruiting visit with Seth Mendoza. I thought this one looked fantastic:

Serious questions: Are folks against Wrestling in the Winter Olympics or just being realistic in the belief that the IOC will always require that sports in the Winter Olympics have some direct link to frozen water? Is there another reason? I can see folks being originalists. That's how I feel about the Summer Olympics. That seems to be how a lot of people feel about the Summer Games when sports like flag football and break dancing are mentioned. (Haha! I just realized that I called break dancing a "sport"). I can see other folks wanting to have Wrestling in the Summer Olympics because that's where the other glamour sports like basketball, track and gymnastics are. On a final note, don't forget National Singlet Day on November 1, 2023.

Adam Tirapelle, ILLINI legend and member of multiple Wrestling Halls of Fame, is either joining the Wrestling-in-the-Winter-Olympics revolution or appears to be persuadable. On a separate note, in researching the Pan Am Games for an article, I discovered that they will host Break Dancing as a sport. Additionally, two video games will be "demonstration sports" in Santiago: e-Football and DOTA 2. We best grab that Winter Olympics pie and start eating before nothing's left!

"It was the best of times, it was the blurst of times. You stupid monkey!"

Here's the article, which was free for me to read. Thanks! That is a very niche application: Predicting blitzes. But based on it, you can envision a Wrestling AI being able to predict a wrestler's takedown attempt after viewing and analyzing that wrestler's movements in dozens or hundreds of videos. In college, a Freshman wrestler with immediate success gets to hear, "Wait until he gets scouted." With the stockpile of video from high school at Flo and youtube and other services, nobody will have to wait once AI gets involved.

Oh, I forgot to mention headbands and wristbands. According to all of the free AI programs that I've used, every athlete in the world wears either wristbands or headbands or both. See the image of Coach Medlin above. It's like they're all Rafael Nadals or Bjorn Borgs. Also, each program will do its damndest to make people look like Taylor Swift or Anime or battle droids. Have they been programmed to provide honest output or what they "think" people want?

Let's say you have a quantum computer that approaches AI, and it has "watched" every wrestling video on the internet, has self-taught comprehensive knowledge and understanding of human anatomy, body mechanics, kinesiology and physics. Couldn't that algorithm develop new wrestling moves? Or, have we, like an infinite number of monkeys at an infinite number of typewriters discovered every tie and hold that there is to discover? On another subject, I understand that there are services available that will provide wrestlers with scouting reports on future opponents. These will tell you what kind of shots your foe likes to take, his or her favorite ties, etc. How granular does it go? How granular will it go? My guess is that someday it will be shockingly granular. Take, for example, a bar arm and half-nelson combo. With knowledge of the opponent's physical frame and apparent strength, and an understanding of universal human biometrics, as well as the special abilities of your adversary, the machine will be able to provide graphic illustrations on where to apply the pressure, how to apply it, and even when to apply it given your opponent's average stamina rating. The graphic would show with exact precision the angles of your elbow in the half, where exactly to sink the bar arm, and the perfect angle for you to get maximum rotational force with your legs, arms and torso given your size and body shape and the size and body shape of your opponent. I wondered how soon we might see this, so I conducted an experiment. As the biggest fanboy on this site (although still an impartial journalist), I asked various AI programs to provide renderings of the ILLINI coaching staff. As you can see from the images below and from what I'm about to tell you, the output was variously interesting, strange, awful, pretty cool and at other times silly. In the rendering of Coach Poeta below, the AI decided that he should be amputated below the right knee. In IMAR's rendition, the AI program decided that he should be depicted in a Cubist way, the ref in Modern Realism (though having an Infinity Stone on his forehead kind of ruins that effect), while the coaches in the background look to be done in Water Color. The ILLINI coach is wearing a scarf, which looks very gallant! Additionally, for some reason the program decided to put a Coke and a hot dog on the mat. As for the other ILLINI coaches, Jeremy Hunter and Austin O'Connor, every single render that I attempted turned one of them into a battle droid and the other into Taylor Swift. I gave up. In conclusion, I don't think wrestling coaches and assistants have anything to worry about in the foreseeable future. Their art and science will be needed. Additionally, my guess is that wrestling scouting reports will continue to be a thing and get incrementally better. All we have to worry about at the present is bad AI wrestling art.

The Select Committee has investigated the proposition, heard evidence, and is now in agreement: Wrestling shall be part of the Winter Olympics.

Excellent! I love these and do one for every ILLINI dual. Wrestlestat.com is extremely handy for this kind of write-up. As you suggest, it should be close. I like both teams a lot. Army has three ILLINOIS kids on the roster, but none of them are starters. Campbell has two kids from the Land of Lincoln on their roster, and both of them start (Molton and Zaccone). Furthermore, Zaccone was an ILLINI for one year but had the unfortunate luck to be a redshirt the same season as one Lucas Byrd. He's tough, and I agree that he should be favored. Can't wait for the fun to begin! Cheers!

Nobody is required to upload a selfie or video of them wearing a singlet on November 1, 2023 (aka National Singlet Day). However, if you want to win a prize package, then you'd better. The prize package includes an ILLINI Wrestling Blog and Forum and Beyond t-shirt, 2 Chunky bars and a piece of wire. On the other hand, what happens when you go out to the drug store or to your doctor's appointment or show up at your probation office for the monthly drug screen and everybody else is wearing their singlets?

Speaking of expendable sports, the Winter Olympics is comprised--almost entirely--of expendable sports. Besides figure skating, skiing (I guess) and hockey, everything else is trash. Curling? Biathlon? Nordic Combined? Sledding? Freestyle Skiing? Snowboarding? Snow Angels? (not a real Olympic sport). All trash. Did you know that there are only 31 sites in the entire United States where you can practice ski jumping? How many times have you gotten into an argument with somebody and decided to settle it by Ski Jumping? On the other hand, there are over 10,000 high schools in America with a wrestling team. There are another 400 college teams. The IOC needs to add a real Winter sport to their program: Wrestling. And so the revolution begins: