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I have seen a few comments on Facebook where some folks think we should do away with Folkstyle and concentrate on Freestyle.

The USA had more Olympic medals (9) than any other country. All of these Olympic wrestlers began in folkstyle.

I recall one of the Brands brothers saying in an interview that Folkstyle was a big advantage the USA has over other countries. As my memory serves me, this Brands Bro went on to say that the NCAA tournament is the toughest tournament in the world.

Lets hear the pros and cons from all the Joes and Johns.

Bearhugger wrote:I have seen a few comments on Facebook where some folks think we should do away with Folkstyle and concentrate on Freestyle.

The USA had more Olympic medals (9) than any other country. All of these Olympic wrestlers began in folkstyle.

I recall one of the Brands brothers saying in an interview that Folkstyle was a big advantage the USA has over other countries. As my memory serves me, this Brands Bro went on to say that the NCAA tournament is the toughest tournament in the world.

Lets hear the pros and cons from all the Joes and Johns.

I'm neither a Joe or John, not even a Jose, guess I don't get an opinion.

I had seen that too. Not just on Facebook, but across wrestling media. This goes hand in hand with the opinion that the US should basically give up on Greco and funnel all of those resources to Men's/Women's Freestyle. I am thrilled with the Unites States success in international freestyle wrestling, and proud of every single athlete (not just those who medaled). However, I America's Folkstyle gives it a distinct style and in most cases an advantage when they transition to Freestyle.

There are basically two reasons for this: 1) Conditioning ... Americans (at least from what I can see) are consistently the better conditioned wrestler, particularly against the traditional powers (Russia, Iran, etc.). It cant simply be that American's across the board care more and put more effort into their conditioning. Especially when it has occurred for years and is a concern for the other countries. I believe it is Folkstyle. The slightly longer matches, the grind of top bottom wrestling, the requirement of control to score points just takes a bigger toll on your body and give us that conditioning edge. 2) Neutral offense ... since we cant rely on hip tips, head pinches, and other "exposure" based, cheap offense we develop a more robust (in most cases) offense. While this can get us in trouble at times (see kyle Snyder giving up chest wrap and other exposure points off his shots in the Olympic finals), overall I think its of more benefit as it gives us the ability to score when needed (see DT and Gable in the Olympic finals).

While I understand there could be benefits to moving to all Freestyle, I think we would loose more than we gained with it and just end up being a different wrestling style country wise. I also have to say I just enjoy Folkstyle more. I love the control element of Folkstyle. You have to actually dominate your opponent. With Freestyle you can grab a head and gator roll to points w/o ever actually controlling, endangering, or otherwise imposing your will. So I dont want to lose Folktyle for that personal reason as well.

Pottstd wrote:I had seen that too. Not just on Facebook, but across wrestling media. This goes hand in hand with the opinion that the US should basically give up on Greco and funnel all of those resources to Men's/Women's Freestyle. I am thrilled with the Unites States success in international freestyle wrestling, and proud of every single athlete (not just those who medaled). However, I America's Folkstyle gives it a distinct style and in most cases an advantage when they transition to Freestyle.

There are basically two reasons for this: 1) Conditioning ... Americans (at least from what I can see) are consistently the better conditioned wrestler, particularly against the traditional powers (Russia, Iran, etc.). It cant simply be that American's across the board care more and put more effort into their conditioning. Especially when it has occurred for years and is a concern for the other countries. I believe it is Folkstyle. The slightly longer matches, the grind of top bottom wrestling, the requirement of control to score points just takes a bigger toll on your body and give us that conditioning edge. 2) Neutral offense ... since we cant rely on hip tips, head pinches, and other "exposure" based, cheap offense we develop a more robust (in most cases) offense. While this can get us in trouble at times (see kyle Snyder giving up chest wrap and other exposure points off his shots in the Olympic finals), overall I think its of more benefit as it gives us the ability to score when needed (see DT and Gable in the Olympic finals).

While I understand there could be benefits to moving to all Freestyle, I think we would loose more than we gained with it and just end up being a different wrestling style country wise. I also have to say I just enjoy Folkstyle more. I love the control element of Folkstyle. You have to actually dominate your opponent. With Freestyle you can grab a head and gator roll to points w/o ever actually controlling, endangering, or otherwise imposing your will. So I dont want to lose Folktyle for that personal reason as well.

First and foremost, your commentary is excellent!!!

In addition, The USA has kicked everybody's ass in all wars in which the wars were fought with the intent to win! I strongly feel that other countries do NOT do folkstyle because it is simply too hard.

Nothing wrong with the current setup. Wrestle On!

From what I noticed watching all of the Olympic coverage was a lot of the wrestlers representing other countries wrestled for a college team in the US. I believe that gave them an advantage over others the wrestled in their countries qualifying tournaments.