Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Let's Fix Greco - Ep13 - Archaic Wrestling
60 Plays4 months ago
Evan and Sasha recap the Olympics, check in with Stanford Wrestling, get some pointers from Amit Elor, and completely solve all the issues with Greco.
Music by Josh Kasen
Twitter: @ArchaicWrestle
ArchaicWrestling.com
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Archaic Wrestling Podcast
00:00:18
Speaker
Welcome, folks, to Archaic Wrestling, a wrestling history podcast. My name is Evan, and I am joined, as always, with Sasha. Say hello, Sasha. What's up?
Hosts' Introduction and Humor
00:00:30
Speaker
Evan, it appears that we are both rocked up at the Rocktagon today. As we should be. Hard not to be rock hard when you're rocked up at the Rocktagon. It is, it's always, I feel like I knew you were going to wear this shirt.
00:00:47
Speaker
And and so and I was like, you know what, I want to put on a shirt. And by the way, these shirts are very comfy. They're very that's why I wore it. is They're incredibly
Little Rock Wrestling Shirts Discussion
00:00:55
Speaker
comfy. So it's like how I'm going to do a look court podcast and get on my rocked up shirt and feel good. You know, nice and soft on my skin. um This is not a commercial for ah little rock wrestling's apparel, but it's it is an endorsement, actually. it is Yeah, so if you For the listener, these are like, uh, Heather cotton type shirts say little rock on the front. On the back is a picture of little rocks or it's like a graphic design of little rocks wrestling mat, which is an octagon shape. And it just, just says rocked up at the rock to go. Yeah, it's
Podcast Structure and Current Wrestling Focus
00:01:38
Speaker
amazing.
00:01:38
Speaker
If the listeners can't already tell, this is going to be a little bit more of a relaxed episode. Um, are gonna, we do have a subject matter that we're going to get into, but we're going to have a lot of, uh, miniature segments. We're going to actually talk a little bit more about, um, current wrestling, uh, than we normally do. Um, but we did think it was a good opportunity just to have a couple fairly, just a couple discussions that we think are interesting.
Olympics Wrestling Events Discussion
00:02:02
Speaker
um And we hope you don't enjoy um I think the first as thing to contextualize this discussion is the Olympics have you know, it's wait, when did they end like ah a Week and a half ago from this recording something like that. I think a little bit long little little i can't at least like three three weeks, but yeah Yeah, um I don't know. How'd you feel about ah wrestling at the Olympics this year Sasha? I thought it was great. I mean, I think I One thing that we've seen happen in like really high level wrestling a lot of times, uh, I can remember a lot of matches that were, you know, like the pinnacle best of the best matches, finals, semis, whatever. Uh, and you watch them and they end with like a one, one criteria. Uh, I mean, of course this happens all the time in Greco, but specifically, you know, in freestyle as well. Um, sometimes when it comes to the Olympics, you.
00:02:55
Speaker
You know, you think like, Oh, this could be incredible. It's gonna be amazing.
Critique of Olympic Wrestling Finals
00:02:58
Speaker
I'm gonna have so much fun. But like, you're watching and you think if I was showing this to a random person, would this be just entirely boring and ridiculous? Um, and I feel like, you know, maybe like 2016, there were multiple finals that I think were, you know, fairly nip and tuck. Uh, not, not the best. Um, 2020 was pretty good. But anyways, I think this Olympics, you know, I don't know why I felt like this was, uh,
00:03:25
Speaker
Pretty much every match like top to bottom was incredible. The, you know, preliminaries, quarters, semis, all the way to the finals. You know, I mean, at least one all time match in the finals. One that I would would recommend to anyone who, you know, any sport ever, not don't are not interested in sports, interested in any sport at all. You know, that that heavyweight match was like, you know, just a journey in itself watching that thing.
00:03:55
Speaker
Um, so I felt like I felt really
Evolution of Wrestling Techniques
00:03:58
Speaker
good. I felt like the rule set of freestyle wrestling, you know, we've made a lot of, we've been pissed about it. You know, there was correct throws before that. There was ball grab. Uh, there was the three periods. Uh, I feel like we're at a point where I'm very proud, like from a meta standpoint about the wrestling, about the rules we have in freestyle wrestling. Uh, a lot of sports.
00:04:24
Speaker
you know, and you juxtapose them with the other sports of the Olympics. You watch like fencing or whatever the hell's on canoe, fencing, shooting. And there's a lot of sports you watch um that you can kind of see are mired in maybe like an older rule set that refuses to advance or a rule set that is trying to advance too much um and creates a lot of problems. um That just makes it not very fun to watch. So I felt like you know, comparing wrestling to every other sport, I felt like I feel like we're in a pretty good spot. I don't know. I really enjoyed it. Yeah, I think I agree for the most part. um it's It's a good product, just ah what what freestyle wrestling is doing. It's incentivizing the right things for the most part. I think you and I would both agree that there's there's some ah part of our hearts that would love to see
00:05:21
Speaker
ah controlling takedowns be a little bit more of a thing umm in order to score um just because we think that would clear up a lot of scoring controversies, right? yeah And it wouldn't take away from the sport.
00:05:35
Speaker
Overall, it's in a good spot. Um, a lot of great performances. People were really just putting it out there. Like you were saying this year, right? Like, uh, it was, it was people were working hard on the map, working to score constantly seeing Japan as it made a, had a good tournament. And they've, you know, they'd had a little bit of a drought there for a few quads, but now they're, you know, coming back and in a way that they used to compete in seeing the women success bleeding over to the men's success in Japan. Um, yeah, a lot of cool stuff. Controversy a little bit with, uh,
00:06:04
Speaker
athletes not making weight. You know, but nothing that was was that made wrestling look
Importance of Diverse Coaching Styles
00:06:10
Speaker
bad, in my opinion, on the freestyle side. ah Yes, we didn't have a ah Mongolian protest. Yes, no Mongolian protest. I which I will say, looking back on that, I mean, they were right. They were right to protest. They were right. Correct. They were correct. Yes, they were correct. This is a pro Mongolian protest podcast, and it will remain so.
00:06:33
Speaker
I think it brought some eyes to the sport. And they were like, wow, these people care about their sport. Look at them. Right. Who else is doing this? Right now. Yeah. I mean, the end there'st there was that time a guy like like refused to like wear his medal in wrestling. Do you remember he like threw it away because he got third place because of a bad call or he got screwed over by a ref. You know, and people are like, oh, this is disgraceful to our sport. And I was like, I don't know. It's kind of like 60 year old dudes who like wrestled in only in like middle in high school and the only move they ever scored with was like something called like uh like a cow grabber not yeah like but like no one hits ever again like something like some nonsense move they call like yeah we call this one the bass realer uh love to get online and just be like
00:07:25
Speaker
Uh, this guy and who got bronze at the Olympics is, uh, this guy, he sucks. Like he's like, all right, dude. Yeah. Yeah. So the Olympics happened, had a good time. Um, I think the big discussion around it is Greco. Um, and we are going to get to that, but before that, uh, speaking of the Olympics, uh, Amit Allure had amazing historic performance. Um, and not long after that.
00:07:53
Speaker
In fact, just a couple of days ago, uh, you got to go see her. Yes. Uh, she was host or half Gracie in San Francisco hosted a seminar with her. Uh, my girlfriend and I went and we learned. We learned some Russian technique from her, which was really interesting. Uh, we also learned a bunch of miscellaneous stuff from like a really old a Georgian coach. If it had been.
00:08:19
Speaker
Was kind of a funny thing because you know, I think anytime you're gonna do a seminar I think you need to figure out beforehand who is teaching what and for what time periods Because you can end up in a you know, you let an old guy it's kind of a you know Give a mouse a cookie type situation with everyone knows like you get a 70 year old wrestling coach and you give him like five minutes of time and you need to be really careful with what he's gonna do with it because that he could end up being 45 minutes
Amit Allure's Russian Tie Seminar
00:08:50
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I know exactly the type of old coach you're talking about. um But this Russian tie set up and finish that she does. you You said there was a pretty new technique to you. I don't know what I would have called it. I had seen it before. But do you want to kind of describe the lock that she gets into? Yeah. So the thing that I found the most interesting was um one of her like control ties. So
00:09:18
Speaker
We see all the time when people get into a Russian, uh, one of the like most common techniques they have, right? You either pull it to your chest or you push it into the other, push the other guy's hand into his own chest. And a lot of guys, you know, you take that top hand off the shoulder, snake it through the opponent's arm and grab your own wrist, right? Forming that like triangle type of lock. And we see that all the time. I've, you know, learned it from people.
00:09:45
Speaker
I feel like every time I've, you know, I'm not a good Russian Thai guy, I'm really bad at it. I always thought it was so cool and I wished I was, but you know, it's it was not in the cards for me. But um every time I've tried that lock, I just feel like I end up getting really loose. You know, it just feels, it has never felt very tight to me. So something that Amit does, she says basically she does that same lock But when she snakes that top hand through the opponent's arm, instead of grabbing her own wrist, she puts her hand, her top hand underneath her own wrist and basically flexes her wrist up into her hand, which pushes the back of her hand into that forearm, into her own forearm, and pushes her forearm directly into her opponent's forearm. It basically just creates this like,
00:10:43
Speaker
It's, it's weird, right? Because it's such a small, yeah, it's this little lever. And I guess if you have really big hands, the lever could be fairly large, but you think about, you know, the lever is at the most, you know, you're talking a couple inches, right? Of this lever. It's crazy how much of a difference it makes, you know, having doing it, you're like, wow, this is really tight. And having it done to you, you're like, it look almost immediately like, Oh my God, that is incredibly tight.
00:11:09
Speaker
And you said it also felt like ah when it was being done to you, it it felt hard to square up against the other opponent, your opponent. Yeah, this was one thing she really emphasized is ah hitting it hitting this lock. She was like, it makes it almost impossible for them to square up. Whereas, I mean, when you hit that triangle, right or even just a regular Russian, a lot of times right your opponent can square up with you. You'll be you know holding that arm, but they might you might end up like head to head. Your hips are facing each other.
00:11:39
Speaker
that lock makes it almost impossible. And really, as soon as you start doing it, it pushes down on the person who's getting Russian, like their shoulder starts moving downwards. Yeah, when you were describing it to me, when you're describing it to me through text and and like photos,
00:11:56
Speaker
I actually asked my wife to get up off the couch to together and I had her put me in it um because I was like, oh, I want to feel what he was saying about it being hard to square up. And yeah, yeah, it creates some like leverage there to where it is much harder to face your opponent. But while I was in there, I was also just kind of remembering like when I went when I did learn that and I was like trying to do it, I really struggled to actually get into the lock. um And so ah because of that, I was like, oh, that's why I was all like, you know, I wasn't really into that.
00:12:26
Speaker
But then you were describing that there was a different sort of entry that she uses to get into the ah russian the Russia. Yeah. the I mean, the classic entry, I think we've all seen is like collar tie, grab the wrist and you sort of almost do, you know, like that slide by sort of shuck with your arms. All right. We've all seen it a million times.
00:12:47
Speaker
And we've also, I feel like everyone who's done it has like tried it and been like, I immediately lose head position every time I do this, right? You do it, other guy immediately gets, and and you see it, I think at the college in freestyle level, like even, even guys who are incredible with it, like Seth Gross, ah you see it all the time, they hit it and the other guy is pushing on the head, squaring up. I think, I mean, when I was in high school, you know, in the 2010s,
00:13:16
Speaker
Most of the time when I would watch people hitting a Russian in a folk style context, I would say probably about 90% of the time the guy hitting the Russian never scored. I think people are better at it now. I mean, Seth Gross is obviously incredible with it. But, um, yeah, you saw it. You're like, all right, well, clearly this, there's something to this because other people are having the same problem. But, um, yeah, what she does is, you know, she grabs that wrist.
00:13:42
Speaker
with her opposite hand, but she does this like ah answering the phone motion, right? We've seen a million times where she was, and she was ah performing this on her boyfriend, Mika Galvao at the seminar, who, you know, ADCC champ just now recently, obviously a like world-class grappler. Everything she did on him, like he looked like he was in pain the entire time. Like he, looked all his face was just like, it looked like really painful.
00:14:12
Speaker
So she answers the phone ah to this collar tie and just completely like squishes and pushes back, I guess the collar tie hand. So she like answers the phone with it and takes that ah same side hand and just sucks in that elbow. So you have almost pulling in the elbow while driving through with that, the phone, right? With yeah with that, with that pinch she's created. And so that's really putting torque on that on your like your your opponents having to collapse their wrist to their shoulder, essentially, right? Yeah. it told it's having it Again, having it done to you, it totally sucks, right? Girlfriend and I were partnering during the seminar. Every time she did it, I was just like, ow, Jesus Christ. so And then she just really slowly just rakes that ah hand, rick basically rakes the opponent's palm just kind of across her face, just slowly takes it out.
00:15:03
Speaker
and gets into this russian um both of those things were to me like sort of completely new uh and can really change my perspective on the russian tie and i think even if you watch film on other guys who are good at the russian uh sometimes i wonder like you know maybe maybe i'm just bad at this and so i just like don't maybe everybody else knows this i've just you know i've never seen it but um i will say i do think it is fairly rare because watching, you know, tape of other guys hitting Russians. I don't see this entry or this grip very often. but It was very, very illuminating. I think one, yeah, one thing that was really interesting about it was I know like wrestling has been around. I mean, as our podcast is all about wrestling has been around a long time and a lot of techniques, you know, we can even, there's a lot of techniques we use currently. ah You can see them on, you know, like our first episode, you can see them on cave paintings.
00:16:02
Speaker
ah frescoes, whatever, right? From, you know, thousands of years ago, you can see paintings of dudes hitting like inside trips, right? And and we've seen those things, right? Benny Hassan, like inside trips, outside trips, upper body ties, and we still use them. So something that I think is really exciting about wrestling is even in the context where it's like, well, clearly, so many of these moves have been used for so long.
00:16:30
Speaker
You'd think like at some point like we have to have figured it out, right? There can't we how can we continue? To be developing new wrestling technique. You would think we'd have to have figured it out by now But uh, you know, you see things like this you see things like the development of the outside step You know, right right take down you see um, well and like I was seeing outside step like honestly back in like 2008, right? Yeah, so some so like Yeah, yeah, you're this is what you're saying. I'll let you keep talking. Yeah, like and you see, you know, one maybe one guy figured it out. One guy used it or like something when I was in high school that really excited me was watching um because my my high school coach loved like Gene Mills. He loved the genius half. He was just like, ah you know, he's just one of those guys who hit him with the Gene Mills half, you know, like we've all we've had these coaches, you know, they love it. So watching ah old
00:17:26
Speaker
videos of Gene Mills watching black and white video of his like first high school state championship where he's hitting the Gene Mills half. He's hitting it from the base and you hear the announcer or you you know, you hear like the color commentary guy just going, yeah, you know, this is, you know, this is bad technique. You're not really supposed to be hitting the half from up here. You're only supposed to run it once they're, you know, down on their elbows. You're not supposed to run it when they're in their base, but somehow he makes it work.
00:17:53
Speaker
You know, even times like that, people were figuring out new technique. Uh, and yeah, maybe Jean Mills, there could have been a guy before Jean Mills who just maybe wasn't as talented as him or didn't get the spotlight yeah who had also figured that out. Right. So you see, you know, maybe one or two guys use it and you see it and it's interesting. It's, and then a couple really high level guys hit it and all of a sudden everyone's like, Oh my God, this is like a new thing. Um, but I think it's.
00:18:20
Speaker
I think we all need to be humble because most of us are not, you know, like Olympic level coaches and things where, uh, you know, the, the level to which I'm still learning tons of new stuff that is probably elementary to some people or entirely new to others. Uh, I think it's really interesting. Like one thing I saw another one that I saw recently earn your gold medal posted.
00:18:43
Speaker
couple, you know, a little video about Ryan Crookham's like misdirection single step. He does. And to me, I was like, Oh, I remember Yanni hitting this, but I didn't really have any words to describe it. And it wasn't anything I really seen before. So I just didn't really, it just kind of went through me in one ear and out the other. And I never really thought about it again, but you know, Yanni was hitting this Jesse Delevaica, Delevaica was hitting this. Ryan Crookham is now hitting this.
00:19:11
Speaker
Uh, and I just, that you know, that night at BJJ practice, I decided to use it and I was like, yeah, that's fucking rules. Like there's, so there's clearly so much that we're not, uh, accessing, you know, cause how can you? Yeah, exactly. Um, I mean, and it's like the sport never fails to like, have a little evolution, right? Like.
00:19:30
Speaker
yeah How many just just in your experience in wrestling, like how many times has there been like, hey, a trend and a technique that you notice, right? And we have these little pops and trends. And like, I remember when, like, you know, I don't know, maybe like 2010, like people were still were like very into the super duck.
00:19:48
Speaker
You know yeah and and like wanting to attempt the super duck and then the super duck kind of got played out a little bit You know, yeah, you see it every once in a while, right now. There's maybe something else Um, and yeah, so it's like different things kind of drive these trends, you know Sometimes it is just because it's a fun thing or sometimes it's an effective thing right like little things will slip through and come back and and yeah, that's what's fun about watching wrestling is technique is is is such a ah fluid um experience, ah like, you know, not just within one match, but like through a tournament or through a season or through a decade, right? Yeah. And like maybe at the higher levels, some of this stuff is not too surprising to people. But I think maybe the biggest change is that um these things that are surprising, you know, that would be surprising to high school wrestlers. Now they don't have to wait until, you know, 10 years in the future when they've been
00:20:46
Speaker
Training wrestling all the time and slowly figuring things out and you know Maybe they see something in a college match and they rewind it and they go like oh, that's weird that guy That guy shot with his outside leg like that's kind of what's going on with that The technique doesn't have to trickle down and just sort of trickle out now You can go on YouTube or really popular Instagram accounts and be like, oh Yes 100% this is absolutely viable and you see the situations in which it works and you see the counters to it and now you could be a high school wrestler who's only wrestled for one year maybe and now you might actually have you feel empowered to go hit an outside step or like a weird misdirection thing or an entirely new grip to a Russian that your coach would have never taught you previous. yeah So I think that is what I think is the most interesting is that it's ah
00:21:40
Speaker
maybe not so at the higher levels that it's so new to people, but it's, it's very new stuff. It's new stuff to me. And I'm sure it's new stuff to like, you know, any kid I might coach, you know, who's a first, second, third or fourth year wrestler, uh, that they might've never learned. I mean, you know, stuff my coach never taught me, I was taught, you got, you know, you got your inside head inside shots to get your head outside shots. And, you know, maybe you got your snatch and those are like the three shots.
00:22:09
Speaker
And it's very clearly just not true. There's there's there's much more to it. So that you know things like that are, I think, what is most interesting about it to me. And you only had one coach in high school, right? yeah I mean, baitton for the most most of my years, you know one coach and then maybe you know what one or two volunteers that were that were showing up. Yeah, that's so interesting. Just one one old guy you know who wrestled in Oregon and taught us you know some of it was outdated and some of it was not.
00:22:39
Speaker
Uh, but yeah, none of it was groundbreaking. You know, I went like, went to one Penn state camp and I felt like I came back and I was like, learned a million new things. I remember any kids at that camp being and like, what, you've never seen this before? And I was like, no, I've never seen this before. They're like, yeah, we do this all the time. I'm like, well, no one, I didn't know. Yeah. Yeah. That's, that's interesting. Cause it's like exposure to more coaches is just in general, a good thing.
00:23:04
Speaker
yeah I mean, obviously you want to avoid bad coaches, but within that exposure because that can, you know, mess you up a little bit. um But even some of the coaches that I had that because I had like a ah lot of coaches because I changed high schools and, you know, like, ah you know, had a couple different assistants come through, you know, in each high school. Right. And then, you know, went to lots of camps and like I experienced coaching from a lot of different wrestling people. um And yeah, just that exposure alone is so important.
00:23:34
Speaker
ah To just becoming a good wrestler I remember when I was coaching I would often say like Sometimes you're gonna hear I like I would tell wrestlers this because they'd be going to camps or like, you know We'd be having a joint practice with another school right or like ah things like that where they're gonna be in coming in contact with other coaches I would tell them Sometimes you're gonna hear coaches tell you ah opposing things right and And like, don't like do this, well, my coach said this, my coach said that. Just say, okay, coach, and do it the way they say. And like like, what works for you will come out in the wash because you're getting more exposure to different positions and different ways of doing things, right?
00:24:16
Speaker
um And it also was really good because sometimes you're on the same coaching staff with the coach that says something that opposes what you say, right? And if you just kind of create that culture within the room, right, to where it's like, coach and I, we say different things about, you know, the sit out. And that's okay. Right? Yeah, you'll you guys will do both. And you'll figure out which one works better for you. Right?
00:24:41
Speaker
And sometimes what that looked like was me being correct about a technique. Cause then all the wrestlers figured out that the way like you showed it or someone else showed it was actually better. And like, we honestly kind of started gelling as a coaching staff more because of that, because we started gravitating towards what like was actually, you know, finding success at the wrestlers. You know, as I've gotten older, I think one of the biggest things I've been focusing on and in my grappling, my coaching and you see it in a trend in the sport is like,
00:25:11
Speaker
closed mindset versus growth mindset and the change that, you know, not only do we now like have a word for that, which I don't, you know, I don't think when I was coming up, I'd never heard of that. I don't think I ever even heard about the difference between closed and growth mindset until I was completely out of competing and wrestling. And now it is not only something we can describe, but it's something that like people are learning how to harp on that. Like we need to harp on having a growth mindset. Um, and I think that's one of those things too, like as co as a wrestler, as a coach, like as a wrestler, you know, you might have to sometimes be like, Oh, you know what? Maybe the way I've been doing this for years could be improved upon and that's okay. And not trying to be like, have too much of an ego about it. And the same thing as a coach, like.
00:26:03
Speaker
you might have something that works for you, but it might be low percentage for most of the population. And if you show both of, you know, both of the techniques and the other coaches is much more popular for all the kids, you have to just step back and be like, Hey, that's great. I'm glad they found the thing that works for them. And we're going to all transition and but we'll teach the one that we found works. Like, yeah, having that like growth mindset about everything and not sticking to one thing because of ego. It's nice to see that we're,
00:26:33
Speaker
getting there as a sport maybe. Yeah, yeah. I mean, there's there's not especially with people jumping around schools, there's not gonna be any worry about people getting enough exposure to different coach coaches. so I think we'll be all right. Let's switch gears a little bit here. Do you want to talk a little bit about Stanford University's wrestling team? Yeah, so been saying for a bit we should do I think we should do a little Stanford roster preview coming into the season.
00:27:01
Speaker
Uh, so I think you and I, uh, as stuff as goes on, like I was not, you know, necessarily like a big Stanford wrestling fan. You know, it was more of a joke than anything because it's, you know, they're fine. You know, previously they were fine. They're just the closest one. They're not in San Francisco. They're in Palo Alto. So, and it's not like anyone around me ever you know gave a shit. So, you know, it's one of those things where.
00:27:31
Speaker
you You want a team to be a fan of, but you kind of maybe don't have one. ah But at you know in the past like five years, Stanford is genuinely just really good now. Yeah, they're a fun team to follow. Yeah, really good. ah The coaching staff is great. the And especially this year, I think this would be a like really fun year to do it because their recruiting class is number you know, number three or number two in the nation, depending on, you know, how you think of it pretty objectively solidly in that spot. So I think it'd be worth it for us to go take a look through their roster and just preview what they got coming up because they have a ton of dudes. And I think this, this year is going to be a really exciting turning point for Stanford. And it's either going to be one that i they capitalize and it like catapults them into being
00:28:30
Speaker
you know, a perennial top 10 or top 15 team, or, you know, if they don't keep bringing in recruiting classes to build on this, you know, this will just be maybe a great four years coming up and then, you know, kind of back to where they've been, where now we got, you can count on two to three AAs per year. Um, so yeah, they brought in an insane monster recruiting classes here. So we'll just go over the recruits they brought in.
00:29:00
Speaker
And then let's just go over 125 through to 285. Okay. So like as a team, they brought in from top to bottom, Aiden Valencia, one of the best recruits of the class, Jack Consiglio, uh, who I think is from Malvern prep, Gregor Shilokian, who was a California state champ this year, Ethan Parko.
00:29:24
Speaker
uh, who placed third this year at the California state championships, beating Miguel Estrada and losing in the semi-finals to, uh, Brock Mantonona, who is, you know, like a top five, top 10 recruit type guy. Uh, Jack DeSenna, who I don't know much about also happens to have the same name as the guy who, uh, voiced Soka on Avatar, the last airbender.
00:29:48
Speaker
So that was a funny, uh, Google check-in. Hey nerd. Well, I looked, I Googled him and I was like, this is a, this is like a character actor, uh, Colin Guffey, who was a state champ this year and I think 165. Um, and Cole Han Lindemeyer, uh, who is a Minnesota state champ, super 32 finalists and projects to like somewhere like 184. So yeah, he's looking good.
00:30:18
Speaker
totally monster recruiting class that Rob, this was actually Rob Cole's class. Um, but when he left it, they kept every single guy. So wild, right? Pretty wild. Um, and especially considering like what we get into later, kind of surprising given the weights these guys are at. So we'll start at one 25, uh, coming into season, I think it's going to be Nico Provo. I don't think there's anyone else who is going to start for Stanford here.
00:30:49
Speaker
Uh, I think he pretty solidly has the starting spot locked down at 25. Yeah. And that makes sense. Uh, yeah, I don't see anyone challenging him at the, at this point. No. And especially considering how insane this weight is. Um, I mean, he's somewhat proven. You know, I mean, he, he's proven that he has the ability to get good wins yeah round of 16 last year at NCAA is in a weight as tough as 25, you know,
00:31:18
Speaker
A win over Brendan McCrone a win over a jet stricken burger, you know, sure. Yeah. You're not upset about having, having him in the, in that position. Like he's, he's a, he's a good, a good wrestler. Yeah. And a five four loss to Jorvald. So, uh, you know, pretty good there. Definitely not a hole for them. Uh, probably is not going to place, but I mean, who knows, but definitely would not consider that like a hole in their lineup. All right. Next at one 33.
00:31:49
Speaker
I'm fairly confident this is going to be Tyler Knox. So Tyler Knox had a pretty interesting season last year. Um, I think he was fourth at, uh, Cliff Keene, Las Vegas, you know, and he beat a couple of really good guys. He beat, uh, Nick Buzakis kind of put it on him on top. Uh, you know, really close match with Evan Frost who ended up placing this year at one 33.
00:32:17
Speaker
Which is, you know, tough weight. So like good performance. Uh, but he also had, he also had a lot of stinkers. He had, he put up a couple serious stinkers. So he's a type of guy, um, who is really lanky and really exceptional on top. Uh, great leg rider kind of reminds me of like, Eric Nagao, where earlier in the season was putting together some good performances there. Also getting like reversed a lot. But, um,
00:32:47
Speaker
has Is really really deficient in his neutral defense and his bottom defense. He gets like sloppy is is it ah or Is it a gas tank thing? I Think I think it's a I think it's a slop. I think it's the slot factor for Tyler Knox I think he's kind of reminds me of like an Oklahoma State or not Oklahoma OSU Ohio State wrestler where he is a You see a lot of these guys are like hammers on top hammers when they're on the attack. Um, but when they get, yeah, a little bit of gas tank neutral later in the match, but also when they're on bottom, they're just, they don't know how to be the nail. So that is a guy who I think is going to be, you know, if he can figure out those deficiencies, I think is going to be, uh, absolutely an all American contender, but his relies a little bit too much.
00:33:41
Speaker
on his scramble ability to so he lets people in on his, he just lets them in on his legs, like, like, you know, nobody's business. um And I think probably in high school, he had a really great scramble ability, he beat California State champ Daniel Zepeda at Doc B once so great scramble guy, but a college, it's not going to work, you have to have a little bit better baseline. So that's one I can see him going on to.
00:34:08
Speaker
at NCAA's or I could see him making a run and placing topic. So we'll see. I'm really hoping for it. All right. Yeah. He'll be interesting. A big, a big question mark. I think, I think we have on him. Yeah. And he's got a fun style. So now we get into really like four insane weights for Stanford in this recruiting class. So at 141, I think you're either going to see Aiden Valencia, Jack Clinciglio,
00:34:37
Speaker
Uh, I don't know. Gregor Chilokine is pretty solidly a 57 or a 65. So you have like two guys here, uh, that I think are gonna probably be. Contending for this spot and of course, like returning starter Jason Miranda. Um, so I think what we're looking at here, I think Jason Miranda, you know, not a super solid starter.
00:35:05
Speaker
I think Aidan Valencia with the trajectory he's been on, I would not be surprised if he started this year at 41 or 49. So he's been wrestling 65 internationally. That's 143 pounds. He strikes me as a guy that does not want to redshirt. That's just my take. I wouldn't redshirt either of those freshmen, honestly, with, with us. Cause like, I mean, Jason Miranda, you know, he's a better wrestler than I would have ever been. Um, but you know, uh,
00:35:35
Speaker
I mean, if I have a good freshman that's good enough to win the wrestle off against him right now, I'm going to use that freshman before they transfer, honestly. In a past age, there might be a part of me that says like, oh, just give Jason Miranda a senior year, redshirt both of those guys so they can figure out what weights they're going to be you know after a freshman you know you know when you want to gain 10 pounds because you're a growing growing boy.
00:36:02
Speaker
Yeah, you know, and like let their let their weights figure out a little bit, right? See if we can get these guys at different weights that are not competing against each other for a spot. um But nowadays, it's like, yeah, they could leave next year. So, you know, hopefully like you can use one of them right now. Yeah. And I mean, I think also coming up with the guys they've brought in, you need to be using one of these guys, because You know, you got, you're going to have four years of Aiden Valencia, four years of Jaclyn Siglio. And then going up, you got tons of guys around the 49 to 65 weight class that you're, you're just not going to get them in the lineup. I think this is fairly strongly. I think Aiden Valencia, I would, if I had to guess, I would put money on Aiden Valencia starting at this weight. I could see them also like getting pretty big going up to 49 and starting there too.
00:36:57
Speaker
Um, but I think for their lineup, it's going to be much better to get him there at 41. Okay. And I think, you know, Jacqueline Cilio is a great, uh, he's a great get, but starting somewhere else or, you know, maybe just not making the lineup for a bit. So 49, here's where it really gets interesting. So you have Jaden Abbess, you have Ethan Parco, you have Jack DeSenna, um, and, you know, possibly it could be, you know,
00:37:26
Speaker
Jack Consiglio could be competing for this spot. We didn't really, the Stanford ro roster is not out yet. So we're just kind of going off his high school weight. Uh, he could very well like project as a 49. Um, this could also be between Grigard Shilokian. He wrestled 157 his senior year of high school. Every once in a while you do see those guys go down and wait, um, you know, for their first year and then maybe they bump up. Yeah. So you know this really could be like a three or four way.
00:37:56
Speaker
race here. So Jay Navas last year, uh, you know, did really well at nationals. He's had his best performance and since his freshman season, uh, made the round of 12 had losses to tie waters where he got stomped pretty bad. Um, and losses to chance labor. So he's a guy where, you know, he's a senior, uh, he's a great D one starter top 15 guy.
00:38:24
Speaker
Um, but I, they absolutely, um, if one of these freshmen is better, I do see this as like a a weight where you could improve. I think a guy like Ethan Parco could definitely, uh, contend for this. That, uh, weight, like the 49, the 150 weight class this year, California state was like basically top 10 guy for top 10 guys that way. Yeah. Yeah. It was a killer zero. Yeah. So Ethan Parco, he lost to Brock Mantonona.
00:38:54
Speaker
I believe, um, in the semi-finals, uh, you know, pretty like his scramble ability was really incredible. So him and Brock really got into it in their scrambles. Um, and in that semi-final, he had a really good chance to win that based on his scramble ability. So really great scramble ability. Um, and also he has a really great like leg defense, uh, and his in his match with Miguel Estrada, it was another like top recruit going to Iowa.
00:39:21
Speaker
Uh, he basically won that match off of like, uh, two, one tie breakers. Refusing to shoot type match. Um, so he's not the type of guy who's like stomping people that you can really project like, Oh, this guy's going to be incredible. Um, so I could, I could totally see him being great recruit improving on his offense. Um, and using his scramble ability and defense really well, or I could just see him being one of those guys. We see him all the time who. You know, kind of squeaks by every match and doesn't end up improving that much in college. With how crowded this weight is, um like, do you see Stanford, you know, trying to bump guys from here? Well, I think the problem we get into is at 57 and 65, right? We have two returning top five guys, right? So 57, you know, that's Daniel Cardenas' weight. um And no one's going to contend with him for that. That's his weight. It's his weight until he leaves. ah Right? Placed fourth last year.
00:40:22
Speaker
Um, and and you know, that's it. If he wants that weight, it's his, I could see some of the lineup bumping up, I guess, like, you know, Daniel Cardenas, uh, was a true sophomore last year as a junior. Like maybe if he bumps to 65, if Garvin bumps to 74 and, you know, maybe Lorenzo Norman did Cole Han Lindemeyer content for that 84 spot. Yeah. I could see them getting in one of these guys at 49 and maybe, you know, the rest.
00:40:52
Speaker
um But it probably depends on you know, you'd have to bump like three guys. Yeah. Yeah, it would so yeah It would be like a big it would be a big shift Yeah, 57 Daniel Cardenas. That's one of your wanted the neck. I mean the next two are your your guys. So my guys I Don't think we're gonna see anybody contending with Daniel Cardenas for that weight class and then 65 this one's more interesting So you got Hunter Garvin Colin guffie and Gregor Shilokian and Zach Hanson are all four guys who could be contending for that weight class. So Gregor Shilokian and Colin Guffey, two dudes that are projected to be 57 or 65, both state champions last year. um And they both had they had good runs to their wins, um but nothing incredibly dominant. you know Not incredibly dominant wins. Gregor Shilokian, he squeaked out a lot of matches. you know and And it's a tough tournament, right? You can't get on him for that.
00:41:51
Speaker
Uh, but he, you know, he's not on the level of a guy like Aiden Valencia, where you project him as a sure fire guy. Right. Uh, he also, Krieger Schlockian also got, uh, decked a couple of times in freestyle this summer. Uh, Cam Steed from, uh, Missouri was just decking dudes with his, uh, cow catcher this year. So, you know, I think that's probably a guy I see Greg Schlockian red shirting. I don't think he's going to be contending with Hunter.
00:42:20
Speaker
ah Colin guffie, I think will be really interesting to see if I had to guess I think I mean hunter Garvin He's a sophomore. He just placed fifth. I have a hard time seeing anyone bumping him out but You know, he had a really weird season last year kind of kind of terrible kind of a terrible season and if we're being on Yeah, exactly so like i I mean yeah, that's a guy that's like I don't know Maybe you tell him to get really big over the summer, right? Yeah I could definitely see that. Um, but also I could, it wouldn't necessarily surprise me. Uh, I mean, Zach Hanson had a couple of good freestyle results this summer too. Um, but nothing that really stands out. He's a guy from, uh, Minnesota. So, you know, they got a lot of good options here. So if Garvin you know continues, like his excellent run from NCAA is it's his way, obviously it's a top five guy, right? He's ranked third right now, but he also had a lot of, he put a lot of stinkers out there, you know,
00:43:18
Speaker
Lot of really tough matches on bottom ah got turned a lot by guys who are good there during his season, lost to a lot of unranked and, you know, guys who are outside of the top 20. And he's got a weird style. He's got that, like, he really likes to work out of, like, basic basically an Uchimada position. He really likes that overhook. So he really dominated with that at nationals. But also, you know, maybe it's a case where guys kind of figure out how to neutralize it and Maybe he's another guy for Stanford who places as a freshman, doesn't do it ever again. So right that's definitely a really interesting question mark. All right, and then 174 through 285 gets a lot more simple. So Sands, one of these guys like Guffey, Garvin, you know moving up, it's probably Lorenzo Norman's weight up here. Had a win over, it's from Blair, had a win over Shane Griffith this year um and some decent results.
00:44:19
Speaker
Time Ontario was okay, but I think pretty clearly like, you know, this will be Lorenzo Norman's weight. So, uh, this, you know, one 74 is a good weight, but it's not insanely stacked. I think this is one where he could absolutely. He could absolutely place this year if he puts together a good performance, it'll, it'll be fun to see. Uh, and then 84, it's going to be between Jack Dyer, Jack Dara and Cole Han Lin Meyer. So Jack Dyer is a guy who's had like really good freestyle results, like was even on a, uh, junior world team.
00:44:49
Speaker
um But it hasn't really you know, hasn't really been impressive folk style wise and then Cole Hanlin Meyer You know definitely a better recruit than Jack Darr coming out of high school top 50 big board guy I Think even I think top 30 pretty high up there He's got you know, really great defense And that's mostly about it Guys from Minnesota, you know super 32 finalists He's one of those guys who in a lot of his biggest matches has like got pinned or lost, like makes it to the finals of something like, you know, Pittsburgh wrestling classics this year. He got decked by in a weird scramble. Um, so I could see them redshirting him this year if he's just not seasoned enough. Um, but I, I really predict he'll be the starter at 84 and 97 either this year or like going into the next year.
00:45:44
Speaker
97 nothing too crazy. This is definitely Nick Stemmott's weight um Probably, you know, his ceiling is around a 12 Beach wrestling world champion. He's right. Yeah, he's gonna be the world champion beach wrestling It's gonna happen And then you know 285 they got Peter Ming Peter Ming's still there. He's so fair Yeah, Peter Bing will be there not not much to say about him. So, you know, they'll probably probably make it to NCAA's and One and two tops. Um, but I think it's going to be really exciting, exciting season for Stanford. This is going to be their first season in the ACC. Oh yeah. Uh, and hopefully you and I have some time to go to some duels this year. I think we'll figure it out. You know, last year I was coaching a lot. Probably going to take it easier this year. So hopefully you and me can, can get to a couple of these, you know, and especially if some ACC teams like Virginia tech or NC state come to town. I mean, we got to see them. So.
00:46:44
Speaker
Yeah, definitely. We'll take a look at the schedule. But yeah, Stanford, update your website. We need that. We want to know what you're doing. What's going on? All right. Well, we alluded to it earlier. I think it's time to talk about it. A lot of discussion going on about the Greco-Roman wrestling, the issue around its product, its fan friendliness. It feels like the sport has stalled, right? Yes.
00:47:12
Speaker
like we're we're this thing where it's like Greco has so much potential like when it's when you see great Greco, it's like some of the best wrestling you've ever seen. Right. But so much of it is just getting boiled and ground down into these matches that are just Like there's so little few ways to attack and Greco that you only have to defend and you know so You know you only need to learn so much defense and get good at so much defense That it's just very difficult to score and without scoring. It's hard to watch things um You can appreciate things, but it doesn't necessarily mean that you're being entertained Yeah, I mean Greco. I think it has gotten to the point where I
00:47:55
Speaker
I mean, do we even need to do the standing portion of Greco anymore? Because basically every, every match boils down to, to, you know, nobody scores from standing, you know, very rarely. Uh, and then it's, you know, it's really a par par tear contest at this point. Greco guys are really good at par tear and clearly it is easier to score par tear than it is to score standing in the Greco rule set. So.
00:48:23
Speaker
You know, it's more of a parterre contest at this point. And I think people are just getting kind of tired of it. And you just kind of have to hope every time someone gets put down, you just got to hope there's going to be points there. Because if there's not, then you're going to end it on a one-one criteria, you know? Well, I mean, I think some of our listeners listeners might be wondering, um how did we get here? Why is Greco this way? um And we're, you know, like I said, we're going to be a little bit more casual today. um but, and we're not gonna do too deep of a dive, but yeah, Greco is, contrary to popular belief, it is not the style of the ancient Olympics. Greco- Not even closed. Not even closed. Greco-Roman wrestling, as we know it today, was originally created about 1848 by Jean Aix, I don't know how to pronounce this name, it's French.
00:49:21
Speaker
ah But he was a French soldier named Jean Exbratite. I don't know. I'm not looking it up. But Jean Valjean was a French soldier who basically came up with this idea of flat hand wrestling. um where And he created these rules around his style of wrestling that said you can't grab the legs and that's kind of where you got this idea of um you know, no touching the legs, no leg attacks, and no leg grabbing um in modern Greco-Roman wrestling. um And his style became like really popular throughout Europe. And it was the first modern style of the Olympic Games. So like the modern Olympics, it was the first style to be included. And people ah believe wrongly
00:50:16
Speaker
that this was ah based on the original Olympic style of wrestling. um That is not the case. um It was just this guy, Jean, Jean Valjean. And it was kind of like a marketing thing more so where they started saying that this was the original style. And the claim being that um there, ah Plato in some of his writings makes reference to the orthopoly, which was like a style of wrestling And in describing the style, only descriptions of upper body techniques were described. And it omitted any descriptions of lower body techniques. um But that doesn't necessarily mean that there were no lower body techniques, just in Plato's description of it, he only listed upper body techniques. um And we don't know if this Orthopoly was actually a style of wrestling.
00:51:06
Speaker
It may have in fact had just been a way of training, right? In that we would say, Hey, we're going to do situational wrestling today, right? Yeah. And get you set up in these positions and wrestle from here. Right. So orthopoly could have meant situational wrestling kind of, it could have referred to ah something like that rather than a separate style of wrestling. Yeah, that makes sense. And then, you know, we did an episode on Greek wrestling. We went through the sources we could find.
00:51:35
Speaker
that describe these rules, uh, and they pretty much all described leg attacks and top bottom wrestling, not, you know, part, obviously nothing similar to the par tear of d Drucker Roman, right. And including, uh, choke submissions. Yeah. So, and by the way, even the Olympics, like website gets this wrong. Um, like they, they describe it as, uh,
00:52:00
Speaker
ah They described like freestyle and Greco as like describing to the two different styles of wrestling from the ancient ah Greek Olympics Which is like we don't really have evidence like that's not yeah ridiculous That's like a weird claim to be making so it's like even there's even like, you know pseudo history going on on the Olympics website um Oh, yeah. So it's yeah. yeah it's It's just this this ah this thing we kind of came up with. We called it Greco Roman Wrestling because that sounded cool. It was like in vogue to like, you know, ah connect your modern practice with your your past. ah Return guy on Twitter, um basic thing. That's kind of like what the vibe was when they were like, we were going to reclaim this Greco Roman style. Right. It was kind of like this weird, like ah Western machismo.
00:52:49
Speaker
Yeah, so that's how we got here. That's what that's what Greco Roman is. I really feel like and's it's important to dispel the idea that we are upholding some sort of like very special history of wrestling by including Greco Roman in the Olympics. um I think that's important to point out. That doesn't mean that Greco doesn't deserve to be in the Olympics because freestyle is the exact same way. You're coming out right now. We are saying get rid of Greco. We hate it.
00:53:20
Speaker
Well, I don't know. Are you saying that really Sasha? I just, I find it boring, you know, I don't, I don't love it, but yeah. And I, for me, like I, I enjoyed, uh, uh, Greco matches when I was younger. I enjoyed competing in Greco tournaments. Um, it was, it was a good time. Uh, I think more wrestling, the better, right? Um, I don't know if Greco adds much to the conversation of wrestling. I would say that. Um,
00:53:50
Speaker
I don't know that it's distinct enough outside of its lack of action. ah yeah But, you know, I'm also very open to being convinced that, hey, Greco should definitely stick around. um But as long as the there's an agreement that Greco needs to change. Yes. I would say if I was to make one suggestion, I think Greco needs to start allowing leg trips.
00:54:20
Speaker
like sweeps. Yeah. Yes. Because, you know, at the end of the day, Greco is right. We're about this upper body thing. We're about keeping the hands off the legs, you know, not going for the traditional types of takedown. And I mean, if you look at, if you show a layman, right, a Greco throw versus like a double leg takedown, they're going to say, yeah, clearly these are different. I can see how the style is very separate here. But if you show a layman a Greco throw, and you show them like an obviv, or an inside trip, or, you know, anything of that nature, they're gonna look at me like, I don't see what the difference is. I don't see the difference, right? These are both upper body based attacks, where we're going feet to back or high amplitude. What is the difference, right? um So I don't I think,
00:55:15
Speaker
Allowing leg trips in Greco would not at all water it down. I think you just have to say you have to keep your hands off the legs. Right. So you still have hand fowls, but I don't see any reason not to allow, you know, leg on leg action in Greco Roman. Um, because I think throat throws are just without the legs, not twining a leg throws are just entire they're hard. It is really hard to throw someone.
00:55:42
Speaker
while allowing them both points of both you know posts on the ground to balance with. It's it's too hard. I think I completely agree. um it It would just make the sport better in general. like Adding more ways to attack would make it better. And I think also, if we were to do that, I would also be willing to say,
00:56:05
Speaker
you know the par-terre aspect of it just makes it a lot like freestyle. What if Greco was only on your feet? And like we got we just incentivized scoring on your feet, because that's when Greco is at its greatest for me, ah is is that sort of scoring. um And like when they catch someone before the takedowns full, fully ah in effect, and then they throw from there, right? um Like that sort of stuff.
00:56:32
Speaker
The like I want Greco to be different from freestyle, right? I don't want there to be this It feels like we're comparing it a lot and I want to see Greco specialized more to make Greco athletes actually specialized Yeah, because right now it's like I just feel like Greco is our B team and like not even our B team It's like our like our D team right ah in terms of not in terms of skill at Greco But in terms of like the top-end athletes And I could also see a situation where, because it is so specialized, right? When you have, when you can't allow, a you know, leg to whining. I could also see a situation where if you allow leg trips in Greco, you get way more, like something I always found really funny. I get that people like Greco, I feel the same way about folk style. I love folk style. It is a beautiful style on its own. And it would really suck to lose that, you know, culture.
00:57:29
Speaker
ah If everything became freestyle, right? Yeah, because it's it's just interesting as a culture It is interesting the same way Mongolian wrestling is interesting, you know Just the same way that Senegalese wrestling is in her it's interesting. So um Something that I think would be real shame is to say oh, let's just get rid of more styles yeah, but some something I think is kind of funny, you know the people who love Greco they always say like I Oh, it's so good to train Greco. It's so important that we have to be all three styles. And it's it's just not, it's not important to train all three styles. You can train just freestyle. You can train just folk style. And you can, you know, transition. You can if you train just freestyle and folk style, you will probably be really good at freestyling folk style if you are good at one of those. Yeah, there's you don't need to train Greco to be good at free or folk.
00:58:24
Speaker
It's just not necessary. you you know It's good to have ah upper body defense in your arsenal. It's just not at all necessary to have upper body offense. And if you want to, you can. That's cool. Yeah. yeah So I think the the thing that you know a lot of the coaches who are really into it give like, oh, you've got to be doing all three. You've got to be complete. and ah you gotta to be not It's just not necessary. um so But I think if you were to you know allow leg twining,
00:58:54
Speaker
in Greco, it would allow actually much more of an overlap between freestyle and Greco. And you might actually start seeing freestyle guys like Austin Gomez, for example, compete in Greco. Yeah. Because they would actually be able to use the same throws instead of having to do, you know, a similar throw, but it really changes everything. So I think that would be a huge change. um i think it would I think it would really help if we did that. I will say, some of the parts here in Greco is pretty cool. I like the thing they do where they like pick the guy up by the waist and flip him over. That is definitely one of the fun things that is specific to Greco because you don't allow
00:59:41
Speaker
Hands touching the legs. I feel like I agree um I feel like you you still give them an opportunity to do it like right off of a takedown But just like that's all they can do, right? You're allowed to do lift from the ground to turn but you can't just like do a typical gut wrench, right? So you keep the stuff you like um But I'm not you know, you you can keep the parterre who cares it's fine Um, yeah. Well, and like, I thought there's other ways like to say, okay, how else would I, um, encourage more action in Greco, right? Not just like changing the rules, right? Uh, how about the fact that Greco has different weight classes for some reason? Yeah. What the fuck are we doing guys? What the, what is this fucking, this is bullshit. This is stupid as fuck. It's ah but I, but hold on, but drive what it's insane.
01:00:34
Speaker
If I wanted, if I wanted to incentivize action in Greco, what would I set the weight classes at? All low, all lowered, no, nothing above 80 kilograms. Right? Like I would not be picking dudes that can't lift each other up as like, I would not be pushing it above 120 kilos.
01:00:53
Speaker
right yes yeah Right. So maybe if anything, maybe Greco should squish the weights a little. Only for a small. Right. Like even like the lowest, maybe you should come up. Yeah. Yeah. I mean. Between five weight classes between 59 and 80. I'm saying, man, like that might actually do it, but you know, I don't want to leave people out either. So what about bringing back the clench? Ooh. So what in Greco?
01:01:23
Speaker
I mean, you can I don't want your shit. What was what was the clinch in Greco, right? I know the clinch in freestyle. I mean, theres there's been multiple styles of clinch but I mean the most classic clench or like the idea of a Greco style clench is like you both get it over under you lock around the back of the around the back and they blow the whistle and you start wrestling from there right. um Something like that especially if it's like we need a tiebreaker we're gonna force you guys into a clench. I don't like the idea of of because the the way they would solve this often would be if you broke the lock it was a point.
01:01:57
Speaker
Right. And it's like, I don't want like someone's grip strength to be like, you know, this weird idea. All right. Now. All right. You just gave me an idea. All right. I'm listening. I. So here's the thing. If you break your lock. Right. That, you know, you're ah fleeing the position. So there has to be a way to keep guys from breaking the lock. Let's go to arm arm wrestling in arm wrestling. You clench up.
01:02:27
Speaker
hand on hand, what happens when the lock breaks the first point, right? What happens? They tie your wrist together. So you simply can't break the lock. I'm sensing a safety issue. so Let's say Greco Roman, right tiebreaker, we clinch him up. After the first lock is broken, right after the first lock is broken,
01:02:51
Speaker
We take the guys, we put them back there and we tie their wrists together. Your hands are stuck. You cannot separate them. How about instead we start them off like, how about we start them off in a real hug, right? Like they're hugging each other. And then we take a big old rubber band and slide it over both sides.
01:03:12
Speaker
And you kind of just put it right around their torso so their arms are still free. OK, but they're but they're stuck together. See, this is the type of this is the type of not sometimes we get too afraid to sometimes a sport can be destroyed by injecting too much nonsense. But sometimes a sport needs just the right amount of nonsense to be added for it to be for the the rules to work. Right. I mean, you know, as a sport,
01:03:42
Speaker
wrestling has, you know, let's go to folk style wrestling, right? It's so sometimes it's a little seems like nonsense that we can scramble on our backs so much, right? But at the same time, people what is it done? It's created this incredible style of wrestling doesn't exist anywhere else where you have all of these interesting scrambles.
01:04:01
Speaker
And so much of our positions now revolve around going to your own back, rolling through leg passes. And it's created something that people love yeah because it's an outgrowth of the rule set. But when we what happened when we had too much nonsense, we had to create the Dean Heil rule because he was basically one inch away from getting pinned and nothing happened, you know but he was still winning.
01:04:25
Speaker
so there's there's Sometimes people say you can't add nonsense because it's not pure anymore. ah But you know name one sport that's completely pure that doesn't suck. Any sport that is 100% purity, it's bad. None of them are good. you know Basketball is a nonsense sport. American football, that is a nonsense sport. none of that It's pure to nothing.
01:04:50
Speaker
So if there is a lot of there is a lot of weird stuff in a lot of modern sports that we don't always like. So if we could just get a big old rubber band or some some some crazy like that, add it into the clinch. Yeah, I think that'd be great. That's a great idea. Maybe they just hold ropes back there like short ropes so they so they have a it's harder to let go.
01:05:14
Speaker
I think, I think there's a lot of options here and, uh, UWW needs to be considering some of these because, you know, if they don't, I think Greco is going to, I don't know. It's, uh, I know coach Stacey Bear likes to claim that, uh, like Nogi Tudo was going to take out Greco Roman wrestling, which is, I don't, it's interesting to me. I don't, I don't see you why, that would you know, the the two different governing bodies of sport. But yeah, I wouldn't surprise me if the Olympic committee looks at Greco and they say,
01:05:45
Speaker
Uh, we got to get rid of this. This sucks. The other thing I was thinking about was just the size of the mat, right? Um, shrink them out a little bit. Push outs become a bigger drink wrestling. shrink wresling We need to shrink wrestling. We need to shrink wrestling. Or not even the size of the mat. Like, um, no, not the shape of the mat either. Um, you know what, what have we just put them inside of a net and we lift it up in a crane so they couldn't get away from each other?
01:06:16
Speaker
Okay, we're going too silly. Too silly, obviously. Too silly. What if we tied their feet together? Trampoline.
01:06:25
Speaker
Trampoline Greco. You're welcome, world.