It starts with the wrestlers

[Ray Brinzer]

I think the article is actually reasonably close to the mark in this.  I am a former wrestler.  I like wrestling.  If I go to a local college team's dual meet, and I see boring, risk-averse, semi-skilled wrestling, am I supposed to keep going back out of a sense of obligation?

[buck]

One of the all time greats, Mike Caruso never misses a match.  He's clearly the exception.  One of the things I admire about Dan Gable is he truly seems to be a fan of the sport who follows things closely.  He'd be one of those neighbors that would go to a high school match with you just because he loves the sport.

[buck]

Boring football or basketball games with semi-skilled athletes doesn't seem to stop too many people from attending.

[TobusRex]

I think the article is actually reasonably close to the mark in this.  I am a former wrestler.  I like wrestling.  If I go to a local college team's dual meet, and I see boring, risk-averse, semi-skilled wrestling, am I supposed to keep going back out of a sense of obligation?

Depends on whether you feel you owe the sport. Also it has to do with sociability. Some people attend sports events just to chill out and bullshit with their friends.

[regulator130]

If we were some how able to get rid of weight cutting.( mat side weigh ins without the the logistic nightmare it brings)Do you think d1 wrestling would be more exciting? I think it would. I think guys would move with much more energy and be willing to attack more.  Also guys wouldn't be as burned out when through with the sport. 

I say this bc I wrestled in a tournament this summer, I was in good shape.  I wanted to wrestle a specific college guy so I cut just 10 pounds leading up.  I was already pretty lean. The days leading up to it I could tell a noticeable difference in how I felt and my conditioning.  I assumed at the tournament I would be ok after rehydrating. I wasn't, I still felt like crap and gassed badly.  I had to manage my action through out all my matches.  If I wrestled 10 lbs heavier I wouldn't have had any issues and could have moved and attacked much more. 

[buck]

Depends on whether you feel you owe the sport. Also it has to do with sociability. Some people attend sports events just to chill out and bullshit with their friends.

 - Exactly!  Nothing better than hanging with your friends at an event, be it wrestling, baseball, football.  Not every game has to be contested at the highest level.

[TobusRex]

Depends on whether you feel you owe the sport. Also it has to do with sociability. Some people attend sports events just to chill out and bullshit with their friends.

 - Exactly!  Nothing better than hanging with your friends at an event, be it wrestling, baseball, football.  Not every game has to be contested at the highest level.

But Lehigh people don't have friends.

You mean acquaintances, right?

[buck]

No it's just me that has no friends.  Most Lehigh people are well adjusted.

[Ray Brinzer]

- Exactly!  Nothing better than hanging with your friends at an event, be it wrestling, baseball, football.  Not every game has to be contested at the highest level.

I'd wanted to comment on this when this thread was current, but I couldn't get any keyboard time.

I like watching little kids wrestle.  They're not very skilled, but they're usually engaged in what they're doing, and willing to try things. That's good enough.

On the other hand, I've taken my kids to meets with certain Big 10 teams I won't mention, and watched what looked like muscular slugs oozing across the mat. It's not just that I don't want to watch that. The important thing is that I couldn't possibly get my kids interested.  Marketing the sport to people who have spent their lives in it is a dead end street; we need to pull in new people.

On the other hand, here's my daughter watching USA wrestle the Russians in Times Square:



Marketing that action is a no-brainer.  My kids were fighting for the best place to see the matches, and went away talking about the athletes by name.

So, those are our best people, under really interesting circumstances.  Matches can't all be like that.  But last night I watched Columbia vs. Harvard... and you know what?  It was great.  Those guys went at it.  They looked like they wanted to be there, and wanted to win.

I think the kind of wrestling I'm complaining about is part of the problem.  As a sport we have cultural problems right now, in my opinion, which make what we're doing hard to market (and less fun to do, and less likely to succeed internationally). That doesn't mean if we were doing it right, the sport would market itself.  We need to do a good job of selling, and have something worth buying.

[buck]

I agree with everything you've said and your daughter is a cutie!

[Mrfess]

- Exactly!  Nothing better than hanging with your friends at an event, be it wrestling, baseball, football.  Not every game has to be contested at the highest level.

I'd wanted to comment on this when this thread was current, but I couldn't get any keyboard time.

I like watching little kids wrestle.  They're not very skilled, but they're usually engaged in what they're doing, and willing to try things. That's good enough.

On the other hand, I've taken my kids to meets with certain Big 10 teams I won't mention, and watched what looked like muscular slugs oozing across the mat. It's not just that I don't want to watch that. The important thing is that I couldn't possibly get my kids interested.  Marketing the sport to people who have spent their lives in it is a dead end street; we need to pull in new people.

On the other hand, here's my daughter watching USA wrestle the Russians in Times Square:



Marketing that action is a no-brainer.  My kids were fighting for the best place to see the matches, and went away talking about the athletes by name.

So, those are our best people, under really interesting circumstances.  Matches can't all be like that.  But last night I watched Columbia vs. Harvard... and you know what?  It was great.  Those guys went at it.  They looked like they wanted to be there, and wanted to win.

I think the kind of wrestling I'm complaining about is part of the problem.  As a sport we have cultural problems right now, in my opinion, which make what we're doing hard to market (and less fun to do, and less likely to succeed internationally). That doesn't mean if we were doing it right, the sport would market itself.  We need to do a good job of selling, and have something worth buying.

Ray, it sounds like you and I are on the same page with what I have written in the article. There obviously needs to be a focus on promoting and marketing the sport of wrestling. But if we don't have an interesting product, then the promotion and marketing is all for naught. That's why I suggest "it starts with the wrestlers". If wrestlers are competing in a way that brings worthwhile interest, we will have an easier time promoting and marketing the sport. The sport is designed to elicit action and scoring points. So if wrestlers stay true to the nature of the sport, give everything they've got, and try and even blaze new trails in terms of scoring technique, then, by default, the sport will deliver positive results as it pertains to attracting spectators and fans.