Douglas pushing to make wrestling changes

By: Dick Kelly, Staff Writer
February 08, 2005

Cyclone coach says wrestling needs to appeal to more fans
The 2004-05 wrestling season is on the verge of being one of Iowa State’s best. If the Cyclones can get past Missouri Saturday afternoon and Nebraska on Feb. 19, they’ll end the dual meet season with a 17-1 record, ISU’s best season since Jim Gibbons led the Cyclones to a 19-1 mark in 1985-86, his first season as head coach.

While he’s extremely pleased with what his team has accomplished during the year, ISU head coach Bobby Douglas is not particularly happy with the state of wrestling at the national and international levels. Changes are needed, he said, to make collegiate wrestling more appealing to fans and to make the United States more competitive on the international stage.

Douglas is asking for input from wrestlers, officials and others interested in seeing the sport grow instead of slowly being destroyed.

“There are a couple things I think really need to be addressed, “Douglas said. “There are several techniques that can be incorporated into folkstyle style of wrestling that would improve our wrestlers in those positions.”

Other issues that concern the ISU coach include riding time and the overtime criteria. Currently, a wrestler earns one point if he accumulates a minute or more of riding time during a match. Douglas said that he feels the days of riding time are numbered but said that while the rule exists, a point should be awarded only if the wrestler with the riding time advantage has earned back points sometime during the match.

The overtime criteria, once a single paragraph in the rulebook, now consumes three pages. If the score is tied after a 7-minute regulation match, the wrestlers go from the neutral position for another minute or until someone scores. If nothing happens during that 1-minute period, a flip of a disc gives a wrestler the choice of the up or down position for a 30-second overtime period. Regardless of what happens during the period, the two wrestlers switch positions for second 30-second overtime period and whomever scores the most points is the winner.

“There are other ways to tweak the rules that would make us more competitive in the international arena, “Douglas said. “Why is that important? There was a question as to whether or not they would keep freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling. I think it would be disastrous for our country if they went to Greco-Roman. I think we need to do something to influence our public opinion, make it more attractive to our fans and also there needs to be some educational components that go along with that.”

Douglas said wrestlers and the sport of wrestling can educate the public about nutrition, physical fitness, discipline and self-defense. He said wrestlers, for the most part, are little guys and are sometimes victimized by bullies.

“There are a lot of things that we are not doing that we need to do, “he said. “We need to educate America about the value of wrestling, the role that it plays in the development of kids, that it’s a sport that’s unlike other sports in that it does give kids an opportunity to get an education regardless of their size and their gender. Wrestling is free of discrimination.”

Douglas knows any changes that lie in the sport’s future won’t be made overnight.

“We need to educate people about the value of wrestling so we can grow this sport for the kids, “he said. “This is for the development of our kids and our country.”

Douglas said collegiate wrestlers are probably 50 percent behind the competition at the international level. And, he said, the rules are such that conditioning is no longer a factor.

“We have to get more technical now, “Douglas said. “The rules have changed and it’s now more of a technical and tactical battle instead of a physical battle, which puts (the United States) at a huge disadvantage because we’re only practicing the techniques half the time. That’s one of the things I’m trying to sell the rules committee on.”

Douglas is also upset that fans don’t see wrestling scores running across the tracker at the bottom of the television screens when watching ESPN and other sports shows.

“How difficult would that be? “Douglas said. “Those are questions I want to raise at the NCAA level and maybe we can put some pressure on those networks to do that. We’re a very popular sport and we have excellent ratings. And we have had excellent ratings from television.”

Douglas is the first to admit that wrestling people haven’t done a good job of educating and promoting their sport. He feels the product Iowa State puts on the mat is a good one, but that marketing that product to the community has to improve.

Douglas said the promoting of wrestling in the State of Iowa is better than at any other state in the country, but that more money needs to be spent promoting the sport in Iowa as well as other wrestling hotbeds around the country.

“Our athletes have done a terrific job of representing the university and bringing positive publicity to the university, “Douglas said. “What happened with (Olympic gold medalist and four-time national champion) Cael Sanderson is not just something that happened positive for Iowa State, it’s something that happened positive for wrestling in America. We have to utilize that to keep the momentum.”

Douglas said he’s going to do his part to help the sport by producing literature and a DVD on ISU wrestling and on his life as a coach. He once felt

“Wrestling people are very slow to change, “Douglas said, adding that he feels the sport is stagnant. “In order to keep your sport alive you have to tweak the rules, you have to make changes. You have to experiment.

“Society wants something that’s more exciting and shorter. Do we need to shorten the matches? Yes, because parents aren’t going to sit in the stands for four or five hours. And you can’t expect them to do that. They’ll become soccer moms instead of wrestling moms.”

Douglas said he feels the rules will slowly, but surely, change. He said it make take a whole new generation of coaches to get the changes implemented, but that changes will be made someday.

“Every sport is tweaking their rules to make it more exciting or interesting and wrestling is just creeping along, “Douglas said.

Douglas is the first to admit that because he is focused on making ISU the best wrestling program in the country he has passed up opportunities to promote the sport as a whole. But he promises to do to a better job.

“If wrestling is going to get better, it has to get better here in Iowa, “Douglas said. “You can’t expect to go outside of the state of Iowa and help wrestling grow. That’s one of the things I wanted to do, but we’ve got to grow it here as best we can. “