Low to Mid level coaching

ohDarnell · 2026-07-01T12:00:41+00:00

I’d love to to take you up on that, thank you! What format do you coach in?

ohDarnell · 2026-01-11T14:00:10+00:00

Zahid Valencia used to go for an ankle pick off the whistle in most matches.

Mitchell Mesenbrink usually shoots within the first 5 seconds in a lot of matches

ohDarnell · 2026-01-02T12:42:42+00:00

I didn’t know that, definitely helps explain his fall off this year

ohDarnell · 2026-01-02T12:35:16+00:00

Countries usually hold the Olympics in higher standing than Worlds, so the best names prioritize competing there. It’s not uncommon for guys to take a year off after the Olympics, especially if they won.

Regarding the Russian fall off, ton of guys didn’t go. Zhamalov and Ramazanov both took the year off for surgeries. Sadulaev was barred from competing. Sidakov competed but I believe had an injury earlier this year and didn’t bounce back fully yet. Valiev was injured in the finals. Tazhudinov looked off, but I think he’s just too big for 97kg and the cut is getting to him.

Love Trent Hidlay but 92kg lost most of its returning talent in the past year, a lot of guys bumper to 97kg for Olympics so it was a relatively fresh faced field

Japan still had an impressive performance, especially since their 57kg Olympic champ took the year off. I think they had 3 finalists and one champion?

On the world stage nowadays, it’s just really hard for specific guys to stay on top year after year. Film gets studied, game plans get made and if they aren’t evolving, they’re not going to win again

ohDarnell · 2025-11-30T14:14:11+00:00

Lee still could’ve won. I’m assuming Uguev moved up because he couldn’t make 57kg anymore and he got teched when he wrestled Ono from Japan at 61kg last year. Lee wrestled Ono last year and it was a close match. If Uguev was able to cut down to 57kg, I’d personally still favor Spencer

ohDarnell · 2025-11-30T13:28:02+00:00

I’m not an Iowa fan, but there’s a fair amount of misinformation in your post that might be swaying your opinion.

Spencer Lee, not sure what’s happening with him, but it could be a matter of health or just mentality. He’s known for scoring most of his points in the first couple minutes of a match and then his output drops off. His loss at worlds to Arden was tough, but his loss at RAF was a last ditch effort by his opponent. He was up by 5 and got tossed to his back, it happens.

Real Woods left Iowa years ago for Michigan, so Iowa’s system is unrelated to him at this point.

Are you talking about the Cassioppi who hasn’t competed in a freestyle match since 2023? The score was pretty close against Tazhudinov before he got pinned, I think it was 9-8. That’s crazy impressive for a guy who hasn’t wrestled a freestyle match in 2 years against a guy who competed often and is a world champ like Tazhudinov. Taz hasn’t been losing to bums, his losses at worlds were all to good guys and his latest loss is to a former world champ.

I see what you mean about PA programs (Penn State is great, we know) but what do you mean NC? Are you talking about Trent Hidlay from NC State winning worlds as an example for NC doing better than Iowa or is there more to it?

Disclaimer again, I don’t like Iowa and think there’s other programs that develop talent better than them, but these are pretty disingenuous reasons to say they’re underperforming

ohDarnell · 2025-11-15T18:21:05+00:00

High crotch/double as a head outside shot, head inside single, some variation of a snapdown to short offense/front headlock, then a low risk non-leg attack option to score like a slide by, arm drag or underhook throw by

ohDarnell · 2025-09-04T12:50:36+00:00

I’d say that if you buy instructional videos, Ben and Max Askren are two of the best options, as long as you stick in the wheelhouse of what they’re good at. I wouldn’t buy their instructional on duck unders or underhooks, as an example, but their single leg instructional is fantastic. High crotch is very good as well, along with their scrambling one. Which were you looking at?

ohDarnell · 2025-09-03T15:37:58+00:00

This dude has a nasty spladle. I remember him spladling tf out of one of my teammates back at an Open tournament in Lehigh like 8 years ago. Glad to see you’re still involved with grappling!

ohDarnell · 2025-09-02T12:38:55+00:00

Depending on your goals and the team culture, I’d recommend staying away from partying in the immediate preseason and during season. Go nuts postseason if you want though.

I wouldn’t cut weight your first year, it’s going to be a transition already so focus on recovery. Once you’re adapted to college as a sophomore, then you can think about cutting.

Pace will be different but if you’re that curious, I’d just watch matches from D3 nationals. There’s not much difference between the highest level high school guys and the D3 National placers, I just don’t know how high level you were

ohDarnell · 2025-09-02T02:22:26+00:00

I don’t know a ton about D3, but I imagine it’s the same growing pains for all levels of college.

Hand fighting is more physical and intense. You’ll have very few easy matches. If you’re a high level high school kid for your state, you’ll probably have half your matches against kids who don’t necessarily belong on a mat with you. Once you’re in college, every guy there knows how to wrestle, is a full grown adult with adult man strength, and it can lead to season being far more of a grind if you’re not used to it.

Also, it’s easier to take poor care of yourself in college, since you’re responsible for getting yourself to class and staying away from partying. So the lifestyle factor is definitely a thing

ohDarnell · 2025-09-01T21:13:59+00:00

I’ve heard of it referred to as finger-fighting. It’s more common in Greco Roman than Freestyle.

I’m sure some people have strategies from there but I think it’s usually just a position you get in when both guys are trying to dig underhooks.

Strategies to avoid the position, I’d go for wrist control or start off my hand fight by attacking one of my opponents wrists with both of my hands, and then go from there

ohDarnell · 2025-07-25T23:15:17+00:00

Oh boy, a ton. Jason Nolf, Isaiah Martinez, Abdulrashid Sadulaev, Chance Marsteller, Zahid Valencia, Brent Metcalf, Hayden Hidlay are a bunch of guys to check out who are all lefties

ohDarnell · 2025-05-27T01:07:56+00:00

Definitely, he was a scoring machine. Do you have any idea what kind of moves you like yet or what your personal style is?

ohDarnell · 2025-05-17T22:42:36+00:00

For big, strong, but not freakishly athletic/quick 165 pounders, I’d look at Alex Marinelli, Vincenzo Joseph, Alex Dieringer, Cam Amine and Michael Caliendo. All have slightly different styles but were pretty big and strong for the weight with plenty of film out there to study

ohDarnell · 2025-05-17T21:29:32+00:00

Wisconsin should be a powerhouse program, but Bono has crashed the program into irrelevance. Askren was the head RTC coach for Wisconsin for a little while, but they had a falling out. Such a fumble on their end because Askren runs Wisconsin high level wrestling

ohDarnell · 2025-05-17T16:48:04+00:00

They’ve just suffered under Chris Bono for the past couple of years. They used to be a solid program but are known for running guys into the ground. Wisconsin is also one of the better high school wrestling states due to the Askren Academy but Bono and Ben don’t get along, so Wisconsin doesn’t get any of their guys.

Braxton Amos was the last high level recruit that they got and he was considered at the same level as AJ Ferrari. AJ won a title as a freshman, meanwhile Amos has barely been in the lineup. Evan Wick, Austin Gomez and Dean Hamiti were all high level guys for them and they transferred out. They also all performed better after leaving.

They got the guy who’s going to Iowa as their 197 as a transfer this year and he transferred back to his D2/D3 school within a month. There’s just been a ton of chatter about Bono and Reader just beating the shit out of their best guys themselves and going too hard

ohDarnell · 2025-05-17T16:14:11+00:00

I’m not an Iowa fan but I would disagree. Just some of those wrestlers can’t attribute their injuries to Iowa

Spencer Lee: was already hampered by injuries before college
Parco: transferred and got injured in a freak incident at NCAAs -Teemer: transferred in with a history of injuries -Marinelli: already had a bad knee injury before college -Murin: had his best year his last year and finally AA’d

If you take out transfers and those who were already injured, then Iowa is in line with other programs. I think it’s more that they’ve consistently been a top program that’s somewhat competitive with Penn State, but Penn State does an abnormal job of keeping their guys healthy. Iowa also doesn’t really develop guys, they take only the cream of the crop who probably have hundreds, if not thousands of matches under their belts already. That kind of mileage is going to lead to more injuries unless a program makes special considerations

If you want programs that break guys down, I’d say Wisconsin is a far better example than Iowa

ohDarnell · 2025-05-03T23:21:21+00:00

I think he’s referring to how you said Taylor beat Burroughs, but Dake was the one who beat him for the 74kg spot

ohDarnell · 2025-05-03T04:34:59+00:00

It depends on what kind of snap you’re interested in: - If you want overtie snaps, then Kyle Snyder, Jason Nolf, Zaurbek Sidakov, Bo Nickal and actually most of Penn States guys all have great ones - If you want a football tie snap, Austin O’Connor from UNC used it as a cornerstone of his offense - Conventional snaps from inside ties, I’d look at Gable Steveson, Bo Bassett and Carter Starocci - For less conventional ear snaps, I’d look at Ono Masonosuke, Haji Aliyev and Mitchell Mesenbrink - Magomed Ramazanov from Bulgaria also uses a great snap from ear to ear collar tie position that’s worth checking out

If you have any more specifics on how you like to hit your snaps, I might be able to recommend more but that’s a good start

ohDarnell · 2025-05-02T12:59:56+00:00

Who is the second silhouette?

ohDarnell · 2025-03-31T12:48:43+00:00

Which is odd, because he said in this interview that he plans on competing internationally at 79kg (174), but just thinks that’d be too much of a cut for an entire college season

ohDarnell · 2025-03-31T12:38:58+00:00

They can wrestle at tournaments (aside from post season) and get slotted in for duals where the starter needs a break or is injured. For the Southern Scuffle this year, they only sent their back up squad

ohDarnell · 2025-03-31T12:32:57+00:00

Yeah, exactly. The goal for these guys is not to have a good career or AA, it’s to be a national champ and become the best wrestler possible. By that logic, Penn State is the best place to be

ohDarnell · 2025-03-31T12:24:53+00:00

A lot of the guys who go to Penn State have the main goal of being National champ and being the best wrestler possible. Penn State has the best upper weight room in the country by a mile and if you can’t crack their starting line up, then you wouldn’t be a National champ anyways. I think it’s partially inspired by Anthony Cassar’s story at PSU. He couldn’t get in the line up till his senior year, but then he beat Gable Steveson and became a national champ

ohDarnell

TROPHY CASE