In the next coming weeks it will be interesting to see how many wrestlers actually dodge competition. Over the many years of competing, coaching and watching wrestling... i remain amazed to see how wrestlers that say they are good, wrestle good and compete well... dodge competition for victory; probably a product of our societies need to win and make ourselves feel better. Based on what I am reading and seeing, there are already some great examples: Example 1: Cooper vs Meyers- clear that Stephen is and would win this matchup (again) if the random draw allows them to meet in the finals...as a matter of fact, I'm still not sure how Lampe lost either of his matches against Cooper (especially how often he was able to ankle pick this wrestling "phenom" at will... likely, Cooper will bump "up" to win a championship and move on to college wrestling; weird to me... let the best wrestle the best...!! Example 2: Lawson (Woodford) is now at 132 (based on most recent upload of Regional brackets)... interesting... oh, thats right... he got pushed around by Parrott (SK) at the Dragon... oh, that's right... he would also be in a bracket that included maybe one of Kentucky' potential greats (BErvin)... so interesting... but an 8th grader he is and his coaches will "fight" for a state champion or placer in this young very good wrestler... Let the best wrestle the best!!! I wonder if Parrot will bump? Oh, while in this same bracket I hear there is another "bump" brewing... yes, SFausz... what a shame! what a great wrestler! If I am him, would i seek a championship via dodging competition or choose to seek a way to compete with this animal from Western Kentucky??? in college, I wonder if we will see DTaylor "dodge" KidDynamite... NOT! Why, because DTaylor knows that his stardom and self satisfaction won't be quenched until he beats this kid (and vice versa). I wonder how these kids would have done in the 1 and done concept that many of us dealt with back in the day...
This brings up a couple of recent posts that i'd like to comment on:
1) "is wrestling a team or individual sport"? Really... has anyone heard of the term "mano a mano"... for those that haven't it means 1 on 1. Clearly our society has created this need for every possible way to get accilaides flowing.... saying that wrestling is a team sport is actually funny. I actually had a conversation years ago with a coach that was seeking a state championship and chose to literally disperse his kids in a fashion that they weren't used to to win a championship... I shared then as I will now.... wrestling is a composition of individuals that seek individual satisfaction that by their actions creates a team score... yes, the team score is an after the fact product of individual actions. Not sure about this group, but i'd much rather see a team place all 14 kids then a team that had only 4 studs place and pin their way through and become champions...
2) "random drawing"- really.... its the state championships for crying out loud... how dumb is this concept... do we not actually agree with our statistics enough to allow the best meet the furthest in the tournament? There are way too many examples of good wrestlers wrestling each other in the quarters because of the random draw... maybe this is the reason why kids bump... for fear that they will finish 3rd vs 2nd... again, not sure about the group, but I think that 3rd placers typically have it rougher and show more guts then some that finish 2nd... enough said... i'll write this concept off as "dumb"!!
Njoy the post! I look forward to your thoughts and examples...
