Russians select kids for wrestling, perhaps the biggest American illusion

Big · 03-27-2008, 11:59 PM

Saw the other board and some seem to state Russians select kids they deem talented for wrestling and train them into champions. This is an illusion. True, Russians select kids for certain sports. For example, they are probably not going to pick a kid for serious gymnastics training if his parents are both over 6 feet tall. Conversely, they will not pick a kid for serious swimming training whose parents are barely over 5 feet tall.

But wrestling? The only selection process kids go through is by winning at tournaments. The more they win the more offers they get to train with better coaches at better clubs. That is it. That is how Saitievs came to Krasnoyarsk from Chechneya. Please stop the nonsense already. Any Russian kid can become Olympic champ if he wants it bad enough.

PS I was not selected for wrestling. I joined a wrestling club and began training. Here in America when I was in high school I wrestled two Russians that came here for tourneys. I beat the one that was 3rd in Russia on a Junior level and lost by points to the Junior Russian champion. If they were selected how could I beat one and keep a close match with another one? I couldn't win a match my first two years of wrestling.

henry · 03-28-2008, 06:23 AM

what the hell are you talking about?

Big · 03-28-2008, 08:18 AM

Originally Posted by henry

what the hell are you talking about?

I am talking about "Russian coaching" thread on that other side. Here are a couple of quotes:

The Russians (and Soviets before them) place wrestling among the very top of their sports program agenda. Add to that they place wrestlers in their freestyle or Greco catagorys between the ages of 12-15. They work details to the degree of within a quarter of an inch as to where your knee is placed, where your head is placed, where your hands are locked (and how your hands are locked...so much so as to whether your palm is facing you or is away from you.) They don't start their kids out to wrestle until they are 9 or 10 years old but identify kids who have an aptitude to wrestle at a very early age and have them do gymnastics to build their balance and strength before they get them on the wrestling mat.

The Russian style is taught to the elite of the elite that result from a highly selective and rigorous recruiting process employed by the Russian system. By the time the Russian system selects kids with potential and screens them over the years, the type of athlete that comes out the other end of the system is immensely gifted. In contrast, the American college recruiting process is much more hit-or-miss. There are so many factors that impact HS success that it's tough to decide which of the thousands of graduating state champs produced every year truly has elite potential. By the time Russians are 18 years old and still in "the program," zero of them lack elite potential.

All nonsense. There is no so called "selection" process in Russian wrestling other than performance in competition! These quotes make it sound like Russians are training robots, not people. Ridiculous.

Also, these quotes make it sound like Russians just grab kids regardless of their will and train them if they have potential. That is nonsense as well. Kids must decide they want to do it first!

henry · 03-28-2008, 09:58 AM

yeah, people talk alot of shit. Not knowing that most russian wrestlers start of in very very poor gyms and suddenly get discovered. There is no elite etc.
Ofcourse you have wrestlingschools that are meant for wrestlers who have parents who can pay the bill, but the majority is pretty poor.

You re right about the bs messages, excuse me.

pinartist · 03-28-2008, 10:20 AM

in addition to that, i hear the younger kids just start off with wrestling games and similar stuff and move onto acctual wrestling after age of 10

Big · 03-28-2008, 10:36 AM

Yes when I started wrestling there I was 9, the earliest age allowed. For the first 6 months we were doing mostly gymnastic exercises like different rolls, push ups, situps, squats with your partner on your shoulders while you hold on to the sweedish wall set and so on. We also played lots of rugby which helped us learn to push and shove people.

The next 6 months we started learning technique and drilling in addition to above. Only at the end of the year did we start doing live wrestling.

One thing we did a lot of which American kids almost never do was a lot of neck bridging and different moves from there like going back and forth from front bridge to back bridge and so on.

When I was at Penn State some of the best wrestlers there could not even do those exercises.

bluestater · 03-28-2008, 10:44 AM

That's why this is the better board-why berate us for beliefs over there? Why do you keep reading that crap?

Big · 03-28-2008, 10:51 AM

Originally Posted by bluestater

That's why this is the better board-why berate us for beliefs over there? Why do you keep reading that crap?

You are right. I usually ignore that site but the thread "Russian coaching" caught my eye.

henry · 03-28-2008, 02:01 PM

another bs which i red recently was that cubanwrestlers get a cup of ice after their practice to use for their injury's

What nonsense!!!!

What would be the motivation for a cuban wrestler to wrestle and get shitty conditions, he d be better of on the streets selling american products illegaly or something like that.

dont demonize folks.

Yeah its true that they re harder but its not like they re uneducated and stupid and forced to wrestle./

Big · 03-28-2008, 02:05 PM

Perhaps we should put American wrestlers on rice and nothing else. Maybe then they will beat the Cubans.

Russians select kids for wrestling, perhaps the biggest American illusion

Freestyle & Greco-Roman Wrestling