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Olympic Freestyle Wrestling

mike412

Head Coach
Gold Member
Jul 1, 2001
10,964
11,513
113
Santa Monica, CA
Well, the rules are better than they were, but they are still terrible. Almost no chance to score back points unless you do it right on the takedown. College wrestling rules make for much better bouts.
 
I've always been a basketball guy and I never really got into college wrestling until about two years ago. My college roommates brother was a D1 wrestler who got at-large bids for the national tournament the past two years, I fell in love with it. I understand most of the college wrestling scoring and the style. Watching the Olympic freestyle just blew my mind that it was that much different. As you said, it's much less enjoyable to the college product.
 
The great thing about college wrestling is that it rewards aggressiveness. And if you get a takedown, you retain control until there is an escape. In the Olympics, if you get a takedown, you better score any back points right away because if you don't you are going back to neutral in a few seconds. To me, that totally sucks. A wrestler who wears his or her opponent down doesn't get any chance to do so because you aren't in control long enough to do that.

As mediocre as the current rules are, they are much better than the prior rules. They were so bad, I said on this forum after the last Olympics that I wouldn't watch wrestling anymore if it kept those rules.

Welcome aboard to college wrestling. I've only been a fan for 50-plus years.
 
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