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Stalling?


wrestlenewbie

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After watching the 145 semi between Lee and Graves I am left to wonder about stalling. After reading the NFHS rule there is nothing that explicitly states that spending the majority of the match on all fours is stalling, but it does talk about continuously avoiding contact with the opponent is stalling. It seems to me that spending extended time on all fours is a specific tactic to avoid contact because most offensive moves start with leg attacks. 

In this match I felt the ref did the cowardly thing by waiting to make the stall call until there was so little time left as to be irrelevant, but to avoid never having made a single stall call in a match that one wrestler seemed to decide to try to get to sudden victory before he got on the mat.

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You have a valid point in that stalling is not always called the same.  Graves definitely wrestled defensively.  Was it worthy of stalling calls?  I can't say. Getting one takedown and trying to slow down Lee was probably good strategy.  You don't see many stalling calls with guys on their feet unless it is late in the match and one has a lead.  But there have been several other matches I've seen and wondered why stalling wasn't being called and others where I was scratching my head as to why it was called so quickly.  

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10 minutes ago, wrestlenewbie said:

Come on. You can do better than that.

In all honesty, I feel they’ve been fairly consistent. While he did wrestle for a period of times “on all fours”, I don’t think that had any affect on the call. He was definitely avoiding any contact with Lee as time was winding down. The ref made the right call to force the action and unfortunately for him, Lee took advantage and got the late takedown. But to get back at what I was saying earlier, I’ve seen the refs call stalls late in a lot of the matches this weekend. Whether it be neutral, riding or on the bottom, the refs are just trying to force the action. My bad for coming off as rude. I’m still fuming over fussing with this family trying to save 3 rows of seats. (They didn’t win)

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2 minutes ago, 1prouddad said:

In all honesty, I feel they’ve been fairly consistent. While he did wrestle for a period of times “on all fours”, I don’t think that had any affect on the call. He was definitely avoiding any contact with Lee as time was winding down. The ref made the right call to force the action and unfortunately for him, Lee took advantage and got the late takedown. But to get back at what I was saying earlier, I’ve seen the refs call stalls late in a lot of the matches this weekend. Whether it be neutral, riding or on the bottom, the refs are just trying to force the action. My bad for coming off as rude. I’m still fuming over fussing with this family trying to save 3 rows of seats. (They didn’t win)

No worries. I appreciate both answers because I genuinely dont know the answer. 

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Stalling is a judgement call, thus it is going to vary from official to official.

Should a wrestler be called for stalling for being on his knees? I think like all stalling calls it depends. Is the wrestler trying to avoid contact with his opponent or is he using it as an effective strategy to make it harder for his opponent to attack his legs while still engaging his opponent from a position in which he can attack. There is a difference between a wrestler who is on his knees & toes and one who is on his knees with his shoe laces flat. A wrestler can attack from his toes, but it is next to impossible to attack from flat shoe laces (which is what we saw from Graves). I'm still not certain it should be classified as avoiding contact though. While, IMO, Graves was in no position to mount an attack, he was presenting himself in the middle of the mat for Lee to attack. I believe (again my opinion) that avoiding contact means constantly backing up, circling &/or any other movement that is an attempt to keep your opponent from being able to engage you.

My biggest issue with stalling calls or lack there of is why is something that isn't called in the 1st period, the second period and even the first half of the 3rd period is suddenly called in the last minute of a match? You see wrestlers who employ the strategy of circling & backing away from a attacking opponent for the first two periods to keep a match close & not get any stalling calls. Then in the last minute when they are trailing by 1 or 2 points & are now pressing the action themselves, and suddenly their opponent who pressed the action for the bulk of the match is now hit with stalling calls. If it is stalling in the last minute then it should be stalling in the first two periods as well.

With all that said, an officials job is extremely difficult. And for the most part I believe the officials this weekend have done an excellent job.

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Stalling really only hurts the heavyweights. Typically if a small guy is hit with stalling, he deserves it. Refs seem to forget that slide byes, duck unders, and other non leg attack moves are still offense! Just because they don't all shoot doesn't mean they are stalling! I wish a certain Ref we had at the NE8 and Goshen Regional would understand that. I have to tell my wrestlers every time we have this certain ref that they will most likely get hit, at least once. I'm just glad our AD listens when we tell him who not to hire for our home meets! 

Sorry for the rant! 

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One of the worse calls that I witnessed was on Friday night between Crider and Harris at 285.  Not taking anything away from Crider at all but Harris was on a good ride with :52 seconds left and a 7-4 lead and the ref calls a stalemate.  20 seconds later Crider gets a reversal and a fall.  Congratulations to Crider on a great weekend and another year to go.  Look forward to seeing you higher up the podium next year.  John Harris you have nothing to hang your head over you have had a great season. Great match.  BTW how tall is he?  The last time I seen a guy with that kind of height wrestling was a kid from Yorktown a few years back.

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