Jaguar
04-18-2006, 08:52 AM
With Freestyle State and Greco State coming up in May, there are only two more weeks of divisionals for wrestlers to qualify. So, one might ask, why wrestle freestyle and Greco? Well, here are some reasons -
Wrestling Across All Styles
By Michael Clapier, president
Sports Training Media
I was standing in the warm-up area at a recent folk style tournament doing the things that I usually do while waiting for one of my kids to wrestle. I was talking.
We covered the usual things. How many kids did you bring? Who do you think will get to the medal matches?
Eventually the conversation came around to the end of the folk style season and the beginning of Freestyle and Greco.
"We don't wrestle Freestyle."
"Really?"
"Yea, why should I spend time in a style that we don't wrestle in high school?"
He left to coach one of his wrestlers but left me wondering how many of us look past the strength of one style and the positive influence it can have on another. Even if we never compete in other styles there are great benefits from understanding components of each and implementing portions of them all.
For most of us the crowning achievement in wrestling is high school success, being a state champion or placer, earning a varsity letter or participating in a varsity sport. For parents whose children are having their first experiences in the sport, a high school wrestling career establishes the broadest definition of success. I speak daily to parents of young athletes who like wrestling and want a good experience in the sport. They look to high school wrestling in folk style for that. Elite wrestlers, the minority of those who benefit from the sport, will find their way to the top and create college and Olympic opportunities. For the vast majority, the nearest exposure they have to the benefit and value of wrestling will be in high school.
High school wresting is folk style. Olympic wrestling is not. Since most of us are involved in folk style and are working with kids who are looking to have great high school experiences, let's consider the value that the Olympic styles contribute to successful folk style wrestling.
I will mention just three; mat time, the first take down wins, and big man skills.
Mat Time
As I watch wrestlers develop, the one consistent factor that distinguishes the common from the exceptional is mat time. The more time you are on the mat, competing, making mistakes and claiming victories, the more you grow in the sport. Regardless of where you start, you will improve as you work and gain experience in the sport.
Even if high school wrestling is your focus, it is not uncommon to wrestle more matches in the off-season than during the season. Such is the value of freestyle and Greco competition.
One of my high school athletes caught the vision about wrestling between his sophomore and junior year. He finished the high school season, got involved in a good club and wrestled freestyle and Greco for the next three months and traveled to several regional tournaments in folk style. Because of this additional wrestling time he came back his junior year with more mat time than any of his competition. In terms of experience he was a senior with two more years of high school eligibility. Since a great junior season was his goal, he gave himself a remarkable head start by coming into the season with so much more experience and it paid off for him.
I watched a team, Wasatch High School, take third in our high school state tournament and come back the next year with a decisive first place finish. A huge part of that success was the teams commitment to off season mat time. Most of the state placers and all of the state champions on the team set a goal of 100 competitive matches from the end of the state tournament to the beginning of the next season. They did that by going to camps and wrestling in tournaments of all three styles.
The First Take Down Wins
I recorded the success of our varsity team one year and found that 90% of the time the wrestler scoring the first take down won the match. This is very typical. The first take down is an indication of who is in control, more aggressive and better on their feet.
The takedown is more important than any other position because every match starts there.
Success is greater against quality opponents on your feet than anywhere else on the mat.
You can score more points faster from your feet than from anywhere else.
Freestyle wrestling, by its very nature, creates more action on the feet. Learning skills like stance, position, control of the tie up, effective defense against an opponent's attack and finishes to your own attacks as defined by freestyle training will always translate into more success in folk style wrestling.
Every folk style match ending in a tie score after regulation goes directly into a sudden victory situation. And the mantra of that moment is always "first take down wins."
Successful folk style wrestlers are great on their feet and freestyle wrestling focuses on that position.
Big Man Skills
Every high school wrestler is helped by Greco skills but big men benefit most.
I was at tournament in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I watched a coach show his wrestler how to change levels and shoot a double leg. Everything about the skill was correct but there were two problems with the scenario; the kid was 12 years old and weighed more than 130 pounds. This is a heavy weight wrestler! This is a kid who will not have great success changing levels and shooting like lighter weight kids do. It is too difficult to scramble out of a bad position and fight the disadvantage of a lot of weight on top of you. This is a kid that should first learn stance and upper body techniques so that the disadvantage of weight is not a negative factor. By taking poor shots and putting himself on the mat with his opponent on top makes it very easy for this wrestler to become frustrated and soon stop wrestling. By using Greco upper body skills and techniques during the battle on their feet, heavier weight wrestlers learn how to control the stance and reduce the number of bad positions and increase their chances for success.
If you doubt me walk around the mats at your next tournament and listen to how many coaches are screaming.
"Inside control, inside control."
You adjust control during the tie by pummeling and that's a Greco skill. If a big kid can add level changes and solid Greco body attacks he becomes very tough to defeat.
I have been officiating high school wrestling for more than 20 years and I can't tell you the number of times I've muttered under my breath for heavy weights to do something more than hang ear to ear and push north and south. A few nice Greco moves would open up a lot of big man matches. The excellent skills of pummeling and battling for position create advantage for wrestlers and more action in the bout. Better action by heavyweights makes the sport more exciting to watch and entertaining for the fans.
When we fail to direct our young folk style wrestlers to the right skills for their age, size and athleticism we limit their chances for success. Only the exceptional kids will stay with a sport through season after season of losses before finding success. Asking them to do the wrong thing for their ability makes it easier for them to quit during their youth or junior high years. When that happens, they lose their chance for a positive high school experience in a varsity sport. Wrestling loses an athlete.
Labels are distancing phenomenon
I caution parents and coaches to not be affected by the labels of freestyle, folk style or Greco. It is all wrestling. I know there are differences between them, especially in scoring, but too often we allow our unknowing to affect our potential, especially on youth and developing levels.
"We never compete in Greco because that's not what we wrestle in high school" is a recipe for mediocrity and lost potential. The label of "Greco" distances you from success in "folk style."
Whenever we label anything we create more detachment than we do proximity. As we allow labels or titles to drive away the things that we are seeking we become diminished by our experience rather than empowered by its encounter. Our opportunities are lessened. Unfortunately, we do this many times in wrestling.
Leo Buscaglia tells one of my favorite labeling stories.
It seems that a certain man was driving up a very narrow mountain road when a car coming the other way nearly collided with him. The driver of the oncoming car was pointing at him and screaming at the top of his lungs.
"Pig. Pig. Pig"
Thinking that this invective was directed at him, the driver of the first car leaned out the window and screamed back.
"You are. Not me! It's you, you, you."
He continued to yell as he rounded a turn in the road and he hit a pig.
A Final Thought
Wrestling is wrestling with components of all styles that are capable of helping us on many different levels. Our lack of application in one style versus another is usually due to our inability to see the greater good that that style can bring to our success. Or because we have not had experience with that style and it remains an unknown to us.
The majority of wrestling in America is Folk style or collegiate. More than five times as many kids wrestle folk style as wrestle Greco or freestyle. Yet there are qualities in each that can benefit all three. As a sport we need to start seeing the skills that apply across all three styles and use them to benefit our children during their athletic career whether its high school, college or beyond.
Wrestling Across All Styles
By Michael Clapier, president
Sports Training Media
I was standing in the warm-up area at a recent folk style tournament doing the things that I usually do while waiting for one of my kids to wrestle. I was talking.
We covered the usual things. How many kids did you bring? Who do you think will get to the medal matches?
Eventually the conversation came around to the end of the folk style season and the beginning of Freestyle and Greco.
"We don't wrestle Freestyle."
"Really?"
"Yea, why should I spend time in a style that we don't wrestle in high school?"
He left to coach one of his wrestlers but left me wondering how many of us look past the strength of one style and the positive influence it can have on another. Even if we never compete in other styles there are great benefits from understanding components of each and implementing portions of them all.
For most of us the crowning achievement in wrestling is high school success, being a state champion or placer, earning a varsity letter or participating in a varsity sport. For parents whose children are having their first experiences in the sport, a high school wrestling career establishes the broadest definition of success. I speak daily to parents of young athletes who like wrestling and want a good experience in the sport. They look to high school wrestling in folk style for that. Elite wrestlers, the minority of those who benefit from the sport, will find their way to the top and create college and Olympic opportunities. For the vast majority, the nearest exposure they have to the benefit and value of wrestling will be in high school.
High school wresting is folk style. Olympic wrestling is not. Since most of us are involved in folk style and are working with kids who are looking to have great high school experiences, let's consider the value that the Olympic styles contribute to successful folk style wrestling.
I will mention just three; mat time, the first take down wins, and big man skills.
Mat Time
As I watch wrestlers develop, the one consistent factor that distinguishes the common from the exceptional is mat time. The more time you are on the mat, competing, making mistakes and claiming victories, the more you grow in the sport. Regardless of where you start, you will improve as you work and gain experience in the sport.
Even if high school wrestling is your focus, it is not uncommon to wrestle more matches in the off-season than during the season. Such is the value of freestyle and Greco competition.
One of my high school athletes caught the vision about wrestling between his sophomore and junior year. He finished the high school season, got involved in a good club and wrestled freestyle and Greco for the next three months and traveled to several regional tournaments in folk style. Because of this additional wrestling time he came back his junior year with more mat time than any of his competition. In terms of experience he was a senior with two more years of high school eligibility. Since a great junior season was his goal, he gave himself a remarkable head start by coming into the season with so much more experience and it paid off for him.
I watched a team, Wasatch High School, take third in our high school state tournament and come back the next year with a decisive first place finish. A huge part of that success was the teams commitment to off season mat time. Most of the state placers and all of the state champions on the team set a goal of 100 competitive matches from the end of the state tournament to the beginning of the next season. They did that by going to camps and wrestling in tournaments of all three styles.
The First Take Down Wins
I recorded the success of our varsity team one year and found that 90% of the time the wrestler scoring the first take down won the match. This is very typical. The first take down is an indication of who is in control, more aggressive and better on their feet.
The takedown is more important than any other position because every match starts there.
Success is greater against quality opponents on your feet than anywhere else on the mat.
You can score more points faster from your feet than from anywhere else.
Freestyle wrestling, by its very nature, creates more action on the feet. Learning skills like stance, position, control of the tie up, effective defense against an opponent's attack and finishes to your own attacks as defined by freestyle training will always translate into more success in folk style wrestling.
Every folk style match ending in a tie score after regulation goes directly into a sudden victory situation. And the mantra of that moment is always "first take down wins."
Successful folk style wrestlers are great on their feet and freestyle wrestling focuses on that position.
Big Man Skills
Every high school wrestler is helped by Greco skills but big men benefit most.
I was at tournament in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I watched a coach show his wrestler how to change levels and shoot a double leg. Everything about the skill was correct but there were two problems with the scenario; the kid was 12 years old and weighed more than 130 pounds. This is a heavy weight wrestler! This is a kid who will not have great success changing levels and shooting like lighter weight kids do. It is too difficult to scramble out of a bad position and fight the disadvantage of a lot of weight on top of you. This is a kid that should first learn stance and upper body techniques so that the disadvantage of weight is not a negative factor. By taking poor shots and putting himself on the mat with his opponent on top makes it very easy for this wrestler to become frustrated and soon stop wrestling. By using Greco upper body skills and techniques during the battle on their feet, heavier weight wrestlers learn how to control the stance and reduce the number of bad positions and increase their chances for success.
If you doubt me walk around the mats at your next tournament and listen to how many coaches are screaming.
"Inside control, inside control."
You adjust control during the tie by pummeling and that's a Greco skill. If a big kid can add level changes and solid Greco body attacks he becomes very tough to defeat.
I have been officiating high school wrestling for more than 20 years and I can't tell you the number of times I've muttered under my breath for heavy weights to do something more than hang ear to ear and push north and south. A few nice Greco moves would open up a lot of big man matches. The excellent skills of pummeling and battling for position create advantage for wrestlers and more action in the bout. Better action by heavyweights makes the sport more exciting to watch and entertaining for the fans.
When we fail to direct our young folk style wrestlers to the right skills for their age, size and athleticism we limit their chances for success. Only the exceptional kids will stay with a sport through season after season of losses before finding success. Asking them to do the wrong thing for their ability makes it easier for them to quit during their youth or junior high years. When that happens, they lose their chance for a positive high school experience in a varsity sport. Wrestling loses an athlete.
Labels are distancing phenomenon
I caution parents and coaches to not be affected by the labels of freestyle, folk style or Greco. It is all wrestling. I know there are differences between them, especially in scoring, but too often we allow our unknowing to affect our potential, especially on youth and developing levels.
"We never compete in Greco because that's not what we wrestle in high school" is a recipe for mediocrity and lost potential. The label of "Greco" distances you from success in "folk style."
Whenever we label anything we create more detachment than we do proximity. As we allow labels or titles to drive away the things that we are seeking we become diminished by our experience rather than empowered by its encounter. Our opportunities are lessened. Unfortunately, we do this many times in wrestling.
Leo Buscaglia tells one of my favorite labeling stories.
It seems that a certain man was driving up a very narrow mountain road when a car coming the other way nearly collided with him. The driver of the oncoming car was pointing at him and screaming at the top of his lungs.
"Pig. Pig. Pig"
Thinking that this invective was directed at him, the driver of the first car leaned out the window and screamed back.
"You are. Not me! It's you, you, you."
He continued to yell as he rounded a turn in the road and he hit a pig.
A Final Thought
Wrestling is wrestling with components of all styles that are capable of helping us on many different levels. Our lack of application in one style versus another is usually due to our inability to see the greater good that that style can bring to our success. Or because we have not had experience with that style and it remains an unknown to us.
The majority of wrestling in America is Folk style or collegiate. More than five times as many kids wrestle folk style as wrestle Greco or freestyle. Yet there are qualities in each that can benefit all three. As a sport we need to start seeing the skills that apply across all three styles and use them to benefit our children during their athletic career whether its high school, college or beyond.