A thought came to me that is worth mentioning

[Big]

Many people have said that American wrestling loses many athletes to other sports. That maybe so in high school but not in college and beyond where most people specialize in one sport mainly. Most of the wrestlers up to about 163 pounders cannot really play well in football, basketball, or even baseball. Interestingly our lower weights and middle weights have not done much better than some of the upper weights. Monday, Jackson, Sanderson, Douglass, Gardner and Baumgartner were all very accomplished.


My thoughts as a result is that American wrestling loses many people to profitable professions such as banking, law, medicine and others. Think about it, many very poor but gifted people want to use their talents to become wealthy and successful. How will wrestling in America do that for them? It will not. In Soviet Union and now in Russia wrestlers led some of the best lives as many other athletes as well. Successful wrestlers had some money, housing, cars, prestige, and they traveled all over the world. That is why many of them eventually end up in Russian government. They are generally smart people.

In America, all these poor but gifted people turn to non-athletic professions to utilize their talents. Which really smart guy wants to get pounded in the wrestling room Iowa style and run Cog trails and after get zilch for it? It is clear. Russia simply has smarter athletes and coaches.

[quick_single]

I don't see what the 3rd paragraph has to do with other 2

[ISU2008]

The 3rd paragraph goes along but the last sentence makes no sense. How are they smarter? Because they live in Russia where they get paid to wrestle? Big, you are making less sense every day, if that is possible.

[Big]

It has much to do with the other 2 paragraphs. Russian wrestling system is very intelligent where each move is broken down to nuances and worked on to perfection from many angles. I wrestled in Russia. It was like going to school. Soviet wrestlers did not have highest titles of "Master of Sport" for nothing. To become a great wrestler was like graduating from a business school and landing a top job on Wall street. My coach, who was Soviet National champion in 1952, spent like 40 minutes per practice on a single move constantly correcting the littlest things. It drove me nuts sometimes.


Now, this kind of system is favorable to smart and intelligent people. A dumb jock will actually not like this kind of training. It requires both physical and academic skills. Now tell me a guy like Bill Clinton or Barack Obama could not make great wrestlers in a system like that? Or John Edwards?

[Big]

They are smarter because they probably would be wealthy and successful people had they grown up in America. Ameican coaches are mostly coaches because they can't do other things very well. There are exceptions of course but in general its true.

[Big]

quicksingle,

You know Roman Ruderman, Mocco's high school coach. That guy would never wrestle in America. He would be a lawyer or something.

Momir Petkovic, current Greco coach, would never wrestle in America. He said himsel h came to America to make money rather than to do anything with wrestling. He stayed away from wrestling for 10 years but he was too old and had a family to start doing anything else. So he came back to wrestling and became a coach in Colorado.

[bluestater]

Big, I would prefer to have Barack as a senator (President ) and Clinton in his role. I don't like wrestling so much that the country suffers. Secondly, those wrestling schools you describe sound like torture. Maybe it works for the people of Russia, but if the kids aren't having fun, than they won't do it. Finally, didn't you come to the US like, 15 years ago? You really think you know what is still going on in the mother country?

[Big]

Sure, there are pluses and minuses to every system. I am more interested in pointing out certain facts than argue in favor of one or the other here.

True, I don't know much about the country anymore other than through NY Times colored glasses. But I do know about wrestling in Russia since I read the Russian wrestling website articles. They keep talking about conforming the current system to the Soviet one. Not much really changed with regard to wrestling. The financial supporter is a billionaire who is also in the Russian government.

[bluestater]

Sure, there are pluses and minuses to every system. I am more interested in pointing out certain facts than argue in favor of one or the other here.

All you do is argue one over the other! We are constantly hearing about how much better the Russian system is from you. "Pointing out facts?" Big, my mother taught me that there are two types of people in the world - they shoulds and how can i's. They shoulds spend their lives pointing out the problems of the world - They should change the way they wrestle. They should do everything like I say. How can I's are constantly asking just that - how can I help? How can I make things better? They shoulds are not the ones who make the impact on the world - how can i's do. You keep pointing out facts, Big. Let's see what kind of difference it makes.