Sorry but no, just no.
Ask any coach in the U.S and he will tell you technique in important, saying Russians concentrate more on technique is just dumb. Don't know how you can justify this.
The in your face aggressive style that is associated with many U.S wrestlers is because we wrestle folkstyle, a style that emphasizes action unlike freestyle which promotes stalling for the most part.
Mat wrestling is more important in folk than free as opposed to most freestyle guys who are content with stalling to just get back up. This aggressive style doesn't work in free b/c the good wrestlers will counter you and you don't have to control your opponent to get points.
I don't understand how America can possibly put more emphasis on conditioning than other freestyle countries do. One fo my team mates who was a state champ passed out in our practices on more than 1 occasion. He never gassed and was undefeated his senior year. He had an average record in a d-2 college- HE's REALLY telling me that OLYMPIANS who have GREAT cardio don't train harder than that?
Sorry, they put in more work than my team mate has in his life, if that's emphasis to you than so do freestyle countries. Olympians have GREAT cardio end of discussion.
Also it seems most of his conclusions come from youtube videos (lol?)
No way you can tell me that the best wrestlers in the world don't practice balls to the wall.
And he keeps repeating (or implies) how the freestyle countries don't focus on strength/physicality as much.
GTFO!!!!!!!!!1
Are you telling me Russian and other freestyle countries Olympians are WEAK?!? LOL.
Wrestling is a STRENGTH sport, and like other sports
where strength is important, the top guys are the strongest or among the strongest in their weight classes.
Bringing up guys like Saitiev is DEAD wrong, Saitiev is a ridiculous outlier and one of the reasons he is the GOAT is because he wasn't one of the strongest or even close. And he's VERY strong FOR HIS SIZE. Definitely not lacking in that department. He also has other physical attributes that make up for his strength deficiencies.
HOW MANY WORD CLASS OR EVEN BEST IN THEIR NATIONS LANKY LIKE SAITIEV?
Ben Askren is an outlier also, but when he lost to Pendleton and got dominated by Fundora he lost to a wrestler who was much shorter and much STRONGER than he was.
THERE IS A REASON WRESTLERS ARE STEREOTYPICALLY SHORT AND STRONG
The people built with that body type are the generally the most successful in wrestling.
To summarize: but the dude is just wrong
The reason for the U.S lagging behind is
1) We don't focus on freestyle, rule differences are huge, our Olympians now a days besides a few talented at both were not D-1 champs, look at Jamill Kelly for an extreme example, I could list more. Techniques and style are much different between the sports.
2) Young wrestlers there have access to world champs and great training facilities. Just like how Europe has better soccer players because they have youth academies. Same with wrestling and soccer in the U.S, no academies and it's not as popular as American Football or Baseball so it has no chance of being great.
3) Other countries actually pay their wrestlers especially in Iran and former Soviet Union countries. Saitiev is friends with the president of RUSSIA FFS! And some billionaires and Chechen president.
Wrestlers there are HEROES and you can become famous for being a great.
Tradition plays a big role in shaping sports in ways money can't.
Same way South Africa, Australia, and New Zeanland dominate Rugby as well as England and Argentina is an outlier.
This whole technique thing is dumb, you want to tell the U.S Olympians they have bad technique? No. you don't.
/rant.
:redface::icon_chee
