NCAA dominance (2-4 titles) vs no NCAA championships U23 gold, world gold, Olympic gold.
Let’s say we’re comparing accolades between Zain Rethordford to Henry Cedujo. Most will say Olympic gold is the top of the sport (I don’t disagree) but most wrestlers will say the NCAAs are the hardest tournament to win.
Add examples. Take this where you want
In
Romero vs Nickal
I’d love to see Yoel take that ginger’s head off
It’s super subjective. So many factors, differences and matters of opinions.
It… depends and that’s the best I can do lol.
The ncaa season is a different type of grind that isn’t matched anywhere else in the world. Wrestlers everywhere else train and compete regularly year round like a bjj guy would here.
Olympics is infinitely tougher. Happens every 4 years, the best are gunning for it because it carries more prestige. If Henry had chosen to wrestle in college he likely would have an NCAA title or two. But he saw no point when he could just go for the Olympics right away. Henry is on that very short list of Americans who have an Olympic gold but no ncaa titles.
NCAA is folkstyle, and Oly wrestling is freestyle or greco. There are more similarities than differences, but they are different sports. Obviously there are age differences too, w the NCAA being largely 18-22 and most Olympians older than that.
I’d say the Olympic gold is more difficult for a few reasons. First, there are 10 NCAA championships per year, largely sourced from the US. The Olympics has 6 weight classes every 4 years and is sourced from the planet Earth. The easy math is that there are nearly 7 times as many NCAA champs in a 4 year period resulting in more prestige.
anyone who holds an NCAA championship above World/Olympic Gold should not be paid attention to at all…
Great answer. “They are different sports” and the “age difference” is why I posed the question. I’ve just found it interesting over the years and both questioned guys decisions (Cejudo /Pico) that chose to bypass NCAAs and had world success vs guys who excelled in NCAAs but little to no international success (Bo/Steiber/Askren).
If you do consider them different sports, which would you rather be better at? For self defense or MMA
free and the stall fest are comparable to the skills needed to excel within that sport…
the stall fest is much more control focused and not giving up anything…
free is more about technique and artistry…
greco is closer to what wrestling was originally created for as a way for soldiers to train without killing each other with pointy sticks…
if one practitioner of each style is off to the left and you needed someone to swing an axe and provide food, shelter, and safety to your tribe you will choose the greco wrestler 100 out of 100…
Ur a fag
I’m a folkstyle guy, but certainly the throws are limited compared to greco/freestyle. I’d say on the street you never really want to be on the ground at all, so greco/freestyle is likely better. The real world is not a padded mat, and just about any strong throw onto an unforgiving surface is going to cause damage.
As far as mma goes, one on one on padded mat, folkstyle has better control in general because stalling on the ground isn’t embraced like it is in greco/freestyle, and the emphasis is on the pin vs takedown.
If you’re calling folk the stall fest, you don’t know what you’re talking about. In greco and freestyle, stalling on the ground is not only legal but standard practice. Many down wrestlers on the bottom simply splay out in every direction, and stall for long enough to force the standup. You’d get dinged for stalling in folk wrestling after a few seconds of this behavior.
Folk is more of a grind, and if the offensive wrestler is working it never gets stood up. To the unitiated it looks like stalling, but I assure you it maximum force in both directions for the duration, not stalling. It is less dynamic, which may look like stalling, and from a crowd point of view less interesting and safer because of the throw limitations.
at the time I thought he was crazy But it paid off for him.He had tons of hype in High school.He could have won NCAAs possible 4 times,My state had Troy Nickerson and a lot of people were curious to see them wrestle,back then Id have takin Nickerson but id have been wrong most likely
good post but i would say guy on bottem is defending the turn because there is no escape point But u have a very valid point that I never considered,I enjoy both But admit as i got older in wrestling if i was on bottem in freestyle id be taking a wind break hoping not to be turned,I was pretty good at throws and takedowns and probly a better freestyler than Folk but most guys were good at both
the stall fest incentivizes and rewards not actually wrestling… you are allowed to just back out of bounds for safety… get rewarded for just laying on top of someone for over a minute…
the actual ruleset promotes stalling…
it is awful from an entertainment perspective, but, in regards to stalling out a win in a sport of has beens and never weres like MMA it is extremely useful…
par terre defense is not stalling… you are not allowed to close off… not allowed to fight hands… you have to have actual technique for offense and defense…
and i absolutely hate when forum nerds start talking “street fights”, but, greco is far superior than the other styles in any conversation about actual self defense… part of that is the mentality needed to succeed in men’s wrestling…
the vast majority of free par terre is 100% just taking a breather particularly if you have never wrestled outside of the US… the US is awful at par terre because it suks to practice offense and defense…
across the board internationally, greco par terre is far superior to anyone in the world with the possible exception of sadulaeuv’s gut…
a gut will steal your soul… a cross body ride will give you a point…
greco guys are different and the participants in the women’s style of wrestling all know this… even in this country…
Freestylr does hit u fast with stalll warnings points and par terre position.I think the USA would be better off wrestling freestyle in HS and college to prepare us better for freestyle and greco,Do other countries wrestle folk ?
nobody else on this planet wrestles the stall fest…
the rules of greco and free are written so that the first period can not end in a 0-0 score… passivity is built into the rules to eliminate that as a possibility…
you have to actually wrestle… you can not just run to the edge for safety…
how many matches in the stall fest end the first period 0-0?
i think someone ran the numbers and it was 70% of all the matches at NCAAs last year ended 0-0 in the first 3 minutes…