WaltHarris Posted April 7, 2014 Share Posted April 7, 2014 This week, USA Wrestling held its annual “Let’s Shoot Ourselves In The Foot Tournament” also known as Folkstyle Nationals. Call me old and out of touch. Fine. But I can’t help think USAW is just being so reckless. Why would an organization that is supposed to promote Freestyle and Greco schedule a national folkstyle championship right in the middle of FS/GR season? Do they just not want us to be competitive as a nation anymore in FS/GR? Or is it USAW just loves the boo-ya’s money so much they can’t help themselves? Yeah, I get it. FS/GR ain’t ‘merican enough for the boo-ya’s. Hence, we must have two major folkstyle tournaments this weekend, with the other being Flonationals. FS/GR came from the Europeans and Russian, so it must be the tool of Satan for ‘mericans. Look, I don’t hate folkstyle. But I do want us to keep kids developing in FS/GR because it makes them more well-rounded wrestlers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tskin Posted April 7, 2014 Share Posted April 7, 2014 Yea being a high school coach I love folkstyle as much as the next guy but with the tweaks to the FS/GR rules I really have a renewed love for the styles. I will admit when they changed the rules years ago to the tennis match scoring I did start to care less about the sport and focus more on Folkstyle as I think a lot of people did. After seeing the revised rules in action I really feel USA wrestling should look at promoting FS/GR tourney's to our youth again. Most parents I have talked to over the years gave up on freestyle and Greco because they said it seemed like ever few years the whole dynamic of the styles changed via the rules. With FILA reverting back to rules that closely resemble the rules from my youth again I feel the two styles are in for a new popularity if promoted correctly. I have thought out loud to a few people around me that I wonder if we flopped the season around if that would help to promote the styles again. Folkstyle has its ingrained following in the US no problem so switching the season shouldn't hurt anything. What if we had high school season then once high school was done rolled into FS/GR season until April then hit Folkstyle season almost like a warmup back into the high school season. That biggest thing is that the National tourneys would have to agree to this and move their corresponding tourney's to reflect the switched season's. Just a little "OTBT" (outside the box thinking) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJ Posted April 7, 2014 Share Posted April 7, 2014 I don't understand why we end our freestyle season first weekend in May when Nationals are not until late June for kids and late July for Cadets and Juniors... Could we simply move our freestyle season back a few weeks? This would then place folkstyle nationals at the beginning of our freestyle season. Our wrestlers would still have over a month of only freestyle to train for freestyle state and multiple months of only freestyle to train for freestyle nationals. Many kids train for the different styles at the same time so most of this is a non issue for them... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GAT36 Posted April 7, 2014 Share Posted April 7, 2014 AJ's comment makes the most sense to me. Not to mention Indiana kids get next to none Freestyle or Greco experience with the pathetic ISWA tournament schedule. This seems like an ISWA problem, not a USAW problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattM Posted April 7, 2014 Share Posted April 7, 2014 I don't understand why we end our freestyle season first weekend in May when Nationals are not until late June for kids and late July for Cadets and Juniors... I was told at one point several years back that the start of May was the only week that was open for Indiana State Fairgrounds. Then the evnet was moved from that building to our current High School Fieldhouse location. When I inquired after the switch, I was told that we needed to finish things in early May to ensure we had the National teams organized in time. I pointed out that other states around us (unless they have switched lately) end up going several more weeks into May before ending their freestyle season, and still get their national team lined out. I was also told that it was completed in early May due to the fact that late spring/early summer sports like baseball and soccer were starting up which hurt attendance numbers. But, with attendance numbers being low compared to several years ago, I'd say pushing the freestyle season back a few weeks and see what happens. Maybe the numbers will fall as they say, but just as likely the additional weeks to train and prepare may end up causing more kids to attend events. On a side conversation, I was told by someone else not on the board during that time that the ISWA was somewhat worried that due to the folkstyle season (elementary - HS) kids would continue to lose interest if the season went any longer. So they needed to has freestyle/greco state occur quickly after the folkstyle season to ensure at least decent numbers. I'm not sure if that was an actual stance they board took when determining the state finals date, but it does at least sound like a concern that may have been brought up. Lack of interest in hosting a tournament was also brought up in the conversation, but that may relate to the fact that less people on feels like training it due to the short season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TripleB Posted April 7, 2014 Share Posted April 7, 2014 AJ's comment makes the most sense to me. Not to mention Indiana kids get next to none Freestyle or Greco experience with the pathetic ISWA tournament schedule. This seems like an ISWA problem, not a USAW problem. The "pathetic" ISWA tournament schedule is the way it is b/c clubs/coaches/parents/wrestlers quit pushing freestyle. I honestly don't think extending freestyle will do anything. Folkstyle season is a monster that has taken over youth wrestling. Blame other organizations that constantly force feed Folkstyle to the masses. The ISWA would have to make a very unpopular and financially unwise decision to scale back folksytle and invest in freestyle if freestyle were to ever gain popularity again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tskin Posted April 7, 2014 Share Posted April 7, 2014 I was told at one point several years back that the start of May was the only week that was open for Indiana State Fairgrounds. Then the evnet was moved from that building to our current High School Fieldhouse location. When I inquired after the switch, I was told that we needed to finish things in early May to ensure we had the National teams organized in time. I pointed out that other states around us (unless they have switched lately) end up going several more weeks into May before ending their freestyle season, and still get their national team lined out. I was also told that it was completed in early May due to the fact that late spring/early summer sports like baseball and soccer were starting up which hurt attendance numbers. But, with attendance numbers being low compared to several years ago, I'd say pushing the freestyle season back a few weeks and see what happens. Maybe the numbers will fall as they say, but just as likely the additional weeks to train and prepare may end up causing more kids to attend events. On a side conversation, I was told by someone else not on the board during that time that the ISWA was somewhat worried that due to the folkstyle season (elementary - HS) kids would continue to lose interest if the season went any longer. So they needed to has freestyle/greco state occur quickly after the folkstyle season to ensure at least decent numbers. I'm not sure if that was an actual stance they board took when determining the state finals date, but it does at least sound like a concern that may have been brought up. Lack of interest in hosting a tournament was also brought up in the conversation, but that may relate to the fact that less people on feels like training it due to the short season. The reason you gave above for needing time to select national teams is why I thought switching the freestyle and folkstyle season's might work. Not only would it give more time to shore up those tourneys but also not interfere with other spring sports. Also if people want to wrestle folkstyle they will do it no matter where it is on calendar so I think having FS/GR season right after high school is a good idea to get people already in the flow of things and exposing them to new styles if all they did was Folkstyle before then played baseball in spring skipping FS?GR season. Once again anything to increase the attendance to FS/GR is a plus in my book. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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