Anyone see the 55kg Greco gold medal match? This sport is so screwed up that even Rulon Gardner and the other announcer don't know the rules. When a period ends 2-1 and the other guy is celebrating and the announcers stay silent for a good 30 seconds out of confusion. Rulon eventually figured it out but between the VERY confusing rules, the silliness with the clinch (see Mango's first match) etc this sport is in trouble if they want to ever capture the casual fan or even get an Olympic audience...
I'm going to watch every second of Olympic wrestling that I can, but the matches were downright boring and confusing for anyone who hasn't followed the sport for years...
Reverse clinch is a good idea on paper but terrible judgment call on the mat. I saw all three mats all night and some refs gave attentions to the wrong guy, some didn't give any at all and let them wrestle and a few got it right. They need something to alleviate the false starts.
__________________ John Smith wears women's underpants!
I was in an IT team meeting today at work, and the first 10 minutes was spent with me answering questions about the differences between greco, freestyle and folkstyle wrestling for some of my co-workers who were watching last night and couldn't figure out what was going on. These are folks who are casual followers of college wrestling, at best, and they were completely lost when it came to greco.
I really thought the reverse clinch thing was a great idea when watching it in the USA, but on the international level it's MUCH worse than I realized. First off, nobody ever does anything in the first minute of any Greco match. Then in at least half the clinches the guy gets up immediately. And there are WAY too many occasions where it takes 3-4 tries to lock up. I agree completely with the "arbitrary" nature of giving clinch warnings, I disagreed virtually every time.
I'm still a bit confused how AZE didn't win period 2. Didn't he score a two point move? Why didn't he get a point for not getting score upon from bottom? Maybe it was a one point move, but either way this "last to score" rule for breaking a tie is silly, especially in a 1-1 Greco match where nobody gets an offensive point...
That brings up another point, too many "big" moves end up being 3 & 2 even though to me the wrestler getting scored on does nothing but the guy exposes his back. It's just so darn confusing!
Of all the matches I saw in Olympic greco, to me a good 40% of the points I felt weren't earned. Craziness...
I'm still a bit confused how AZE didn't win period 2. Didn't he score a two point move? Why didn't he get a point for not getting score upon from bottom?
He didn't get exposure, so he only got the one point for the reverse. Then the second point was added for not getting scored on.
Maybe I've just been watching a lot more greco matches than you guys, or the commentators, but aside from arbitrary false start stuff, I thought the matches were pretty cut and dry as far as scoring is concerned. I agree that it sucks that no one really attempts to score in the first minute. It would be better back with 3 minute periods with the first two on the feet followed by the 30sec par terre. It's hard to figure out how a guy is defending your attacks and reacting to your set ups in only one minute.
Rulon needs to push his chair back from the buffet and study up on some matches before going on the air. There's no excuse for having professional announcers who don't know the rules of the sport they're calling. It's been last to score, except when a multi point move is involved for nearly 4 years now. Get with it.
If the commentators knew the rules well enough, they could explain them to fans in a way that would be easily understood. But when they themselves aren't sure what's going on, how to they expect the fan at home to understand?
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