wrestle87

He is, but before those two, how many world-level studs appeared out of maryland? I mentally take the average across time since ~1970 and today, and if it gets more crowded than one for every 20 years, not a generational talent. I don’t know any Maryland wrestling history prior to snyder.

Uh…brooks was a 4x champ up with the big boys and just dethroned the olympic champion at his weight. Last time that happened was…Cael? That was a generation ago, sounds generational to me. It really depends on scope though. If you say talent out of maryland, yes generational talent. Takent out of the PSU room? Well, he kinda just did what was expected. To be honest to the word, generational talents in coaching would be gable and cael, and on the mat would be baumgartner, smith, jb, snyder, saitiev, and sadulaev.

I’m just talking about his level of polish. There is a 1/2 hour interview with him that intermat put out, and the dude truly sounded like someone who knows how to navigate the institution, he sounds like an administrator as much as a coach, which is the primary point of difficulty for most wrestling programs, they are unable to build and maintain a positive relationship with their own schools in a meaningfully positive way. Agreed on the results part, but if more coaches sounded like Valenti(which only comes with gaining real institutional knowledge), shutdowns of programs wouldn’t be such a concern.

Listening to his intermat interview gave some very interesting insight into the depth of the "CEO" side of things that head coaches have to handle outside of the room. If that's what it's like for all head coaches it's remarkable they have more than a few minutes to be in the room coaching at all.

To be clear, they are holding the justice system and government accountable to their own rules. Those rules, limitations, and mechanisms for accountability are what keeps our country from really sucking fat donkey weiner.

Mmm…well, Columbia has quietly been leaning into the China market, along with data manipulation, for a long time. There are two things that drive away chinese applicants, race issues and riots. So…yeah that’s not going to go well. Columbia has good professional schools, but a major part of that is tied to the ability for the school to maintain good relationships with the firms in Manhattan. Having this sort if crap happen absolutely raises eyebrows at those companies, and not in a good way. Add that on top of the fact that…that sort of divisionist activism is completely antithetical to prospective college wrestlers…yeah not good for the wrestling, but it is similarly antithetical to alumni and recruiters. This sort of thing is much closer to being quite bad for these schools than the schools themselves believe. NYU shot its own foot off last year…that’s not going away for a long time. Columbia HAS been very good for a very long time, but their are a lot of schools that want that prestige instead, and will manage their institutions accordingly to take that place.

Valenti is a very polished coach and a very polished administrator. He might be the best spoken (future) coach in the league right now. Coaches at similar institutions should really take a listen and consider sending some of their guys into the AD administration trees, it clearly has prepared Valenti VERY well to become the future helmsman of the Penn program. He’s very smart in the way he is constantly giving credit to other people with just about every sentence that comes out of his mouth.

The shine is pretty aggressively coming off of “elite” institutions because it is becoming so apparent what the student experience on these campuses will be. Ultimately the relationships you build at a school like that are the most valuable thing they offer, and there is a rapidly growing distance between alums, students, “administration”, it’s all getting pulled in rapid directions, but one of the key hallmarks is that students emerge from a school like that with a highly capable and (relatively) WELL BALANCED approach to the world, at least to the degree of being functional within institutions. It is a story old as time that complacency leads to “creep” of undesirable and unexpected ills. We are finding out now that this has already been happening for a LONG time. As with many ailments, once something starts hurting or visibly looking bad, it has been building for a long time.

Not to give an obnoxious answer, but very likely structured like the old soviet/current chinese state sponsored system, with japan and s. korea providing the strongest technique influences. South Korea is filthy at Judo, and obviously Japan is a grappling mecca, nasty both in wrestling and obviously judo, so wrestling success is not that crazy a notion. System-wise, in a structure like that, coaches and programs go around to all elementary schools checking kids for size, joint structure, mobility, mindset, etc, and funnel kids into whichever sport they are the best fit for. Ever notice how chinese weightlifters all have identical proportions? That’s not by accident.

Bader gave a great interview with him on the most recent version of the Bader show. Dude is beyond a gentleman, just a wonderful soul and a tremendous role model. I legitimately cannot think of anyone I would choose as a better role model to show a young person, let alone a wrestler. There are few wrestlers who transcend the sport itself in the example they set and being a legit role model for any athlete or any person anywhere. J'den is one of those few. If you haven't watched it, definitely check out the episode. We are lucky to have J'den as a part of the sport. https://www.flowrestling.org/events/6197840-the-bader-show/videos?playing=12478080&limit=60

I think the writing is basically on the wall for JB and Taylor, we're just waiting to see if they go for the consolation special in september at an off weight. 74/79kg - 'Cenzo, Berger and Monday.

Dude is hilarious... "when are you gonna pick up your end of the coach?"

If they were to paint with a broad brush, I'd say the average evaluation is "wealthy bulldozers with good gas tanks and sub-par match tactics" would be my guess. My guess though is they don't actually say anything about any one wrestler more than our guys do about any one of their wrestlers.

To answer the actual question...he definitely has people who beat him in that room, that's why he moved there. Dake can try to do what he wants to someone like brooks, that dude's neck is almost as big as his waist, no matter what happens, he's coming forward at you. Also, considering he's the #2 wrestling mind in the country, being around the #1 wrestling mind in the country very likely had something to do with it. People who beat dake right now I'd say include Cael Varner Snyder Brooks Nickal But realistically, I don't think anybody below 197 is giving him a go. He's just too smart, too good at putting together game plans.

I think it would be way more entertaining if everyone bad to be good in both styles, and if they coin flipped the day of to decide if they would be wrestling freestyle or greco. One of the big problems with greco is the most entertaining and/or most successful young greco guys wind up going freestyle bc folkstyle requires and rewards it more. It is a must acknowledge, that folkstyle really limits greco’s development.

I really hope he goes to minnesota or michigan...they both have a track record of doing right by their big guys. He would have access to multiple olympians at heavy in whichever room he goes to

Wrestling should really start working towards something like the X games or the UFC. I am a not a fan of Flo overall, but what they did with Final X was really really good. That level of production for the most significant matches in the sport is important. NBC is absolutely an artificial lid/limiter on the sport. Long term, sports that stick around cannot be in a place where they just let some random dudes show up and grenade all semblance of logic for weight class order in pursuit of…I guess ratings and gender equality? That was horsecrap.

The followinb are questions simply so we (I) can understand what is taking place with the olympics, and whether wrestling will eventually need to evolve to celebrate its best competition outside an event like the olympics. Wrestling’s biggest handicap is that it’s most meaningful event piggybacks off of a larger gathering to garner significance. Nobody really cares about American football not being in the olympics, and nobody really cares too much about the basketball or baseball medals. Similarly, MMA sure as heck doesn’t lack for gravity or atmosphere at its events. So is the pushback on athlete headcount entirely from the perspective of managing overhead costs and driving towards an overhead dollars per event or dollars per medal awarded scenario? Makes me wonder what they’re doing for events like the marathon and triathlon, are they shrinking the fields for those events too? Lastly, are host countries entirely responsible for all costs associated with hosting those olympics? If economic and traffic practicalities for the home country are the driving force, it is lame, but makes sense why rosters and total team headcounts would get capped.

Just so we're clear, Greco doesn't HAVE to be boring...it is a stylistic choice that wrestlers make. I know it doesn't HAVE to be boring because I do everything that I can to make sure I watch every match that Jesse Porter and Kamal Bey wrestle. Those dudes are must watch entertainment whether they win or lose EVERY time. So...again...doesn't have to be boring, because those two are the most exciting wrestlers in ALL of USA wrestling, more than anybody in freestyle.

Wrestling has been plagued for its entire existence by the influence of officiating. International wrestling, just like other international/olympic competitions, suffers from influence and sheisty officiating in one direction or another. The situation where you have to beat the official and your opponent is all too common. Just ask Vito (domestically) or Chamizo (internationally) what that's like. Officiating inconsistency and/or poor preparation is terrible. Obviously, this is aimed to talk about the Zahid/Brooks match, which was just a salad of terrible inconsistency. I have never actually seen a ref be so unprepared or out of place that he got run over by the wrestlers. A sidestep is a miraculous thing. One of the best things about folkstyle is that the officiating is so precise compared to freestyle/greco. The international styles are just a messy shitshow of bribery, incompetence, and inconsistency in enforcing already stupid rules.

It's tough for coaches in some sense, but my goodness is it liberating for athletes. It's so incredible that wrestling can be a legit career, dudes can do well, save money, and legit be well on their way towards a down payment or an investment portfolio before they're done with college. That is unprecedented progress by leaps and bounds for wrestling. No longer being a poor man's sport only loved by the spartan monks of the hinterlands is real progress. It does make it tough for coaches...but it also forces coaches and schools to be competitive, and will incentivize longer term relationship building from an earlier age, similar to the Asken Mizzou pipeline (and now...PSU potential pipeline). Mainly, I relish how much this defangs the NCAA. Because, pardon my language, f*@k those people.

I don't believe I'm being biased, I do think it's awfully convenient that Zahid just happens, once again...to be in the middle of another one of these situations. Fool me five times, shame on you...but eventually, we are responsible for pattern recognition. I just don't find it hard to believe that it's something zahid would resort to based on past track record as 1) having done it before and 2) wrestling (and living life) in a way that tends towards finding the limits of which rules will actually be enforced, vs which rules are just given lip service. Again, so many thousands of hours of wrestling happen regularly, so many wrestlers have zero problem NOT grabbing a singlet, headgear, etc...throughout their entire careers(!) Buuuut...somehow this dude regularly winds up in spats, penalties, rules infractions... It's like asking if Penn State has wrestling or if Jordan Burroughs hits double legs.

Dude would get absolutely buzz-sawed by keckeisen. I can’t imagine it would go better with cstar

That very much depends on the situation and the intention. If a ref can reach in and change the situation without affecting action, they can, they can also just call a point. So, a little thought experiment, I wrestled all the way through college, including tons of freestyle and greco, I never once pulled on a singlet, intentionally or otherwise, and I never once had it happen against me either. Come to think of it…I also didn’t see any other singlet penalties throughout the entire tournament. Now, I may have missed one…but I’d also find it very easy to believe that there weren’t any. Also…just watched NCAA’s last month, singlet grabs again…not a major issue. It’s almost like singlets are pretty good at their job and you have to go in search of the singlet to be able to grab it… I also notice that none of brooks’ other opponents found grabbing the singlet difficult to avoid. Come to think of it, off the top of my head, I can think of three wrestlers who so notably grabbed a singlet. 1) tsargush against burroughs 2) Yazdani against Taylor…and 3) valencia once again un-clutching himself in big moments. The dude just always finds a way to lose by a takedown in the big matches. …did anybody on here who wrestled have repeated chronic issues with grabbing headgear or singlets? I swear these gear designers might actually design them to be minimally invasive and hard to grab, almost like that was the point from the beginning… I have zero tears to spill for the captain of team nose-beers. Zahid ended his college career bc he overindulged in the good ol’ colombian pre-workout. Oh, he also very intentionally grabbed that singlet…he was the one who waived off the challenge.

I'm not worried about spencer so long as he doesn't put his knees in dumb positions. He looked so motivated but unconcerned at OTT's, I think he rides that to an olympic medal pretty nicely. He looks like he's mostly through his transformation from the "college dan gable" stage to the "olympic ass-beating dan gable" stage of his career. I'm hopeful for Zain, but I unfortunately would also not be surprised if somehow the weight caught up with him. He has a rough track record at 65kg, and my heart hopes but my head is hesitant to trust just yet.