Element of Surprise

[LongShot 13]

It seems with events like BTS and World Cup, wrestling gets put on the main stage for a little while.  However, it also seems we give other countries a chance to further scout our reps while sitting their own from competition.  Mainly Russia.  Is it smart to give the world a heads up on Cox before Olympics?  Or scout Molinaro's go to shot?  These events may hurt our guys chances at the ultimate prize in Rio.  

[wrestlingnerd 3,012]

Goes both ways. These events also provide valuable experience for guys with limited international experience such as Cox and Molinaro without the wear and tear associated with international travel. BTS gave he world a heads up hat Kyle Snyder was legit, but that didn't seem to matter much. I'd even say Snyder gained the necessary confidence to win a world title from BTS when he realized he could hang with a world class Russian.

[de4856 379]

Well, yes and no, pretty much all the top tier wrestlers hit several tournaments around the globe, and most likely as someone is watching our wrestler, we probably have someone watching their wrestler. And thanks to UWW, You tube, and others sites, you can watch a wrestler's matches over and over again. Now is this enough to properly scout someone, I guess you would have to ask someone with a ton of expertise like Coach Burnett.

Edited June 15, 2016 by de4856

[Jaroslav Hasek 2,067]

would defer to what the coaches think of course, but from my perspective, the younger and less experienced guys need all the international matches they can get. our guys grow up wrestling folkstyle and when they do wrestle freestyle, it's usually against other guys that also grew up wrestling folkstyle. they need to learn how to wrestle guys whose 'native' style is freestyle. the more experienced guys like Burroughs may want to limit their exposure but I doubt it matters much at this point. there is plenty of film on Burroughs to scout, getting practice partners to emulate his style is the hard part. 

[newyorkwrestler 258]

I think the only guy in our team who wouldn't benefit from more competion is JB, and that's only because he already has far more experience than anyone else

[pjm46 83]

I think it depends on the wrestler and the looks they're able to get at home. JB may have benefited from Not being scouted in 2011 because he had a good to move nobody could prepare for without encountering it. By 2012 it probably didn't matter because he built a lot of reshots off the double.

 

Cox doesn't really have a go to move like that so he might be better off getting a feel for the international guys so he knows what to expect and how to react.

[wrestlingnerd 3,012]

JB's go-to move is about as hard to stop as John Smith's single, but in both cases, it's not the move itself but rather the wrestler who is hard to stop.

 

You can scout JB's double, study it, defend it against practice partners, visualize stuffing it, and do whatever else, but nothing will prepare you for it in live competition. Actually, in concept, a double, especially one from space, is one of the easiest shots to defend, which is why it's the first shot we learn to defend when we start wrestling. There's nothing that special about JB's double other than the fact that JB is the one executing it. It's his combination of power and speed that's hard to prepare for, not the move itself. Yes, there are a few small technical nuances that JB has mastered, but others could master the same technique and not be nearly as effective.

 

Part of the reason I mentioned JB may benefit less from more matches than his competition is mental. If a young up and comer can keep it close or stop a shot or two despite a losing effort, his confidence will get a huge boost, and that's a very important part of wrestling at the highest levels. Look at what happened to Snyder after he wrestled a Russian legend close at BTS. Yazdani strikes me as being cut from a similar cloth as Snyder: young but technically and physically precocious, improving quickly, and very confident.