So sad....

pumpdog20 said:
I was hoping to get some back up from fellow wrestling fans, but the couple that have responded seem to be content with the status quo. With that said, I respect everyone's opinion. Some just don't care for wrestling, and it's hard to compare the athletic abilities of a basketball player and a wrestler. Basketball players are the most athletic out there. The things they can do are amazing.

I'm not wanting people to think that wrestling is better than basketball, just saying that you can support both as wrestling produces a good product.

I'll keep up the fight. My hope is to have those that are on the fence realize that watching wrestling can be just as exciting as the other sports. Especially if you're a hawkeye fan.
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I didn't take it that way, but the popularity of wrestling just isn't equal to that of bball. I'm just putting that out there. It doesn't help the seasons are simultaneous. Also, there is no pro-wrestling. and if you say WWE or whatever then I will change my opinion of you. I'm just saying the following for bball is bigger, even in Iowa.

I did not grow up wrestling as neither did any of my friends, hence we don't follow it. If you grew up a wrestler you follow it and love it. That's great, but I think it biases your opinion as I don't think there are as many people that grow up involved as you think. Wrestling is big in Iowa, but not as big as bball, and as wide spread as you may think. Even in highschools bball is much bigger than wrestling.
 
hawkfarmer said:
I didn't take it that way, but the popularity of wrestling just isn't equal to that of bball. I'm just putting that out there. It doesn't help the seasons are simultaneous. Also, there is no pro-wrestling. and if you say WWE or whatever then I will change my opinion of you. I'm just saying the following for bball is bigger, even in Iowa.

I did not grow up wrestling as neither did any of my friends, hence we don't follow it. If you grew up a wrestler you follow it and love it. That's great, but I think it biases your opinion as I don't think there are as many people that grow up involved as you think. Wrestling is big in Iowa, but not as big as bball, and as wide spread as you may think. Even in highschools bball is much bigger than wrestling.
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You may be right about my biases. As far as a professional sport, it would be MMA.
 
I love watching Iowa wrestling, but basketball is just a lot more exciting sport. I just went to the Iowa High School state wrestling tournament expecting it to be like an Iowa meet and it was the most boring sporting event I've ever attended, and the thing was sold out. It was pretty disappointing. I agree that it would be great to get people to support both, but they are during the same season and if someone has to choose between basketball and wrestling (as a fan of both), I think most people chose basketball every time.
 
I agree with wouldn't it be nice to have 15,000 people at every hawkeye dual meet. It will never happen. I'll take 8,000 to 9,000 people at every home dual compared to 563 people purdue had the other night. For wrestling, that many people is outstanding. I'd like to finish, but, gotta go to church. Later.:eek:
 
pumpdog20 said:
You may be right about my biases. As far as a professional sport, it would be MMA.
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This is an interesting thought, now that MMA is getting bigger, unfortunately a lot bigger than boxing, will high school students who like MMA choose to wrestle in high school. That will be something interesting to watch for.
 
Hawkstrat said:
This is an interesting thought, now that MMA is getting bigger, unfortunately a lot bigger than boxing, will high school students who like MMA choose to wrestle in high school. That will be something interesting to watch for.
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Actually a lot of fellow students of mine who wrestle, or used to wrestle, are training for MMA on non-professional levels in the offseason, or during their down time for those who quit wrestling. So I agree with Pump here that MMA would be the professional wrestling sport. It will create a large impact on the sport.
 
fufred said:
FYI basically no one cares about wrestling. I understand Iowa is really good at it but nationally it gets no play. Comparing it to basketball as a spectator sport is making me lol....
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+1

And I'm a huge wrestling fan, and I hate fufred.

But I do agree with him here, wrestling isn't a major sport, not even close.

Enjoy it for what it is, thats what I do.
 
wrestling-ballsack.jpg

Unfortunately this picture sums up many fans thoughts about wrestling.

I think if people actually took the time to learn about wrestling and actually watch it, they would learn to like it. Unless you grow up around it, you aren't going to pick it up like basketball or football.
 
I'm a big wrestling fan. Took a course called "Games and minor sports" at Iowa in 1953 (yeah I'm old). The instructor then was the Iowa wrestling coach, Mike Howard. We learned the rules, and we wrestled! Jeez!! You wouldn't believe how tired you can get in 2 minutes. Howard taught us all the basics--Different takedowns, different escapes, & of course the scoring. I also had a guy on the Iowa wrestling team who lived just a couple doors down in the South Tower of the Quad, so we naturally went to the Iowa wrestling matches to watch and support him. So many of us played football, basketball, and baseball in high school and understand those sports. Not many wrestled, and never LEARNED the sport. And if you don't understand what you are seeing, you can't enjoy it. So there it is--the answer to the question about lack of attendance at Iowa's wrestling matches. Not enough people understand the sport. How do people enjoy a takedown, near fall, reversal, when they can't see it coming. I get so Damn excited watching Iowa's wrestling on TV that it affects my blood pressure. Apologize for the long post. Sometimes I get carried away on subjects I'm excited about. I love football, basketball, baseball, track, swimming, too.
 
For those that are interested, the Iowa vs Minn wrestling meet will be on BTN at 8:30 central tonight. Watch the meet and if you have questions about certain situations, there will be plenty of fans that can explain it.
 
Ok I caught the last 2 matches due to working till 10, and just to make sure, since Ive never watched a match before, what exactly is a shoot? and how do teams score points? Also is there no penalty for going out of bounds? Again sorry Im fairly clueless when it comes to wrestling. Thanks
 
uofihawkInation said:
Ok I caught the last 2 matches due to working till 10, and just to make sure, since Ive never watched a match before, what exactly is a shoot? and how do teams score points? Also is there no penalty for going out of bounds? Again sorry Im fairly clueless when it comes to wrestling. Thanks
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1. a shot is when someone attempts a double or single leg takedown.
2. In a dual meet teams score points 3 points for a decision( when a wrestler wins by 1 point to 7 points), a Major Decision 4 points ( when a wreslter wins by 7-14 points) 5 points for tech fall, ( when a wrestler wins by 15+ points and also the match will be stopped once one wrestler begins beating another wrestler by 15) and 6 points for a pin( ill assume you know what that is)
3. If the ref feels that a wrestler is stalling or fleeing the mat then points can be awarded to the opposing wrestler.

4. You're probably want to know how a wrestler scores points. If they are in the neutral position( both wrestlers on their feet) you get two points for a take down. When one wrestler is on the bottom and he escapes to his feet, then that one point for an escape. The bottom wrestler can also get a two point reversal if he reverses while on bottom.
If the wrestler on top rides the bottom wrestler for at least one minute then he will be awarded a riding time point. The point can be erased if the opposing wrestler erases the time while he is riding.
The top wrestler can also accrue points by back points for a near fall. Which is when the bottom wrestler is on his back without being pinned. Those points vary from 2-3 depending on the time on their back.
I think thats most of it. If i left anything out someone please feel free to fill in or if you need any more explanations. I will not explain freestyle scoring, as I hate freestyle wrestling.
 
The above post pretty much covered it all. Just a side note, in order to get the 5 team points, the winner must win by 15 or more but must obtain "back" points. If the wrestler wins by 15 or more but doesn't get any near fall points, then it is a major decision, 4 team points.

To the question about going out of bounds. The previous post is right about sometimes the ref will call fleeing the mat and award a point. It's rarely called. However, points are awarded in olympic style wrestling just by pushing your opponent out of bounds.
 
I don't think what the OP was asking is why more casual fans do not like wrestling, but why more wrestling fans do not support the college teams. Someone posted that wrestling is on a decline. Even linked a story aabout teams forfeiting weight classes. Well from what I see that is not the case.

I take my son to youth tournaments when he has the desire. They are always full with hundreds of kids. I was not exposed to wrestling until the seventh grade. My high school was OK at wrestling and no better at basketball. We often had open weight classes like today.

I agree that in a state like Iowa, we should fill Carver. Worse yet, Hilton should have much more fans than they typically have. For me its all about time. I live in Ft. Dodge. Takes roughly three hours to get to IC. That is six hours round trip. I work late Fridays so they are out. I am in the National Guard, so that eliminated one weekend a month. Sunday matches make for a long day, then right back to work Monday morning.

The result is the only match I made it to this year was the OSU dual on a Saturday afternoon. Of course Basketball plays a lot of Saturday games which I am sure pushes wrestling to Sundays. I do what I can to get to al least one match a year. I often only make that one.

In the long run, Iowa does pretty good with attendance. I too wish we would have 15000 at each home meet, makes for some exciting viewing. I also wish I did not have to wait until 830PM to watch a replay. I usually listen on the radio or follow along with posters here as the match progresses.

Go Hawks!
 
Hey pump, when was the last time you went to a field hockey game? They're pretty good too and nobody goes. How bout baseball? Or Golf?

Wrestling just doesn't have as big of following as BB. And never will. MMA is a whole different deal. Most are on later at night, PPV, bars, etc. Saturdays and Sundays are around the clock BB games because? ...They are more popular. I like wrestling just fine but trying to compare to basketball for attendance is silly.
 
Iowa has established a school record (which may be a national record) for home attendance average in each of the past three years:

8208 in 2011

8121 in 2010

8008 in 2009
 
That says a lot about the support for the wrestling program. It would have been easy for attendance to a dip after having 8 new guys in the line up after 3 straight national titles in a rebuilding year. That's great.
 
CRlightweight said:
That says a lot about the support for the wrestling program. It would have been easy for attendance to a dip after having 8 new guys in the line up after 3 straight national titles in a rebuilding year. That's great.
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I think this is an overlooked point. No doubt about it.

My guess is that the football team will not average a sellout for every home game next year, due to lower expectations. The wrestling team had lower expectations from the outside this year...and attendance average went up.
 
I have some family in Minnesota. Half of them are wrestlers and the other half play hockey. All are gopher fans. The year J Robinson came back to Carver and won the national title I thought I would hear about it big the next time I went up to see my family... NONE OF THEM EVEN KNEW. Even the wrestling families. They said it never even got a mention on the evening news. They all knew every detail about the Minnesota hockey team though. I've basically taken that to heart and understand that most do not have the love for wrestling many in our state have.

When we wrestled PSU they were really excited and a huge build up to get five or six thousand people.
 
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