Tirapelle floats no overtime, step out penalty for folkstyle
The three-point takedown data turned into a full rules argument, with Nomad, Spey, Shane Sparks and Kevin Claunch all weighing in.
Adam Tirapelle turned the three-point takedown debate into a three-item folkstyle fix list. In descending order of impact, he wants control liberalized, overtime eliminated with the first point scored serving as the tiebreaker, and an objective out of bounds penalty. The Wrestling Nomad replied simply, "I like point 2".
Tirapelle's argument on control is that the rulebook has not kept up with how wrestlers actually wrestle. He wrote that many positions now ruled as no control, potentially dangerous or a stalemate are in fact control, and that the definitions have not been updated in eons. On the out of bounds piece, he said an objective penalty would create action in the center and counterbalance the get one takedown and shut it down tactic.
His case for killing overtime is about urgency. Tirapelle said wrestlers should be on empty at the end of seven minutes rather than holding reserves for a potential extra period, and that the reward for getting on the board first should be the tiebreaker. He also pointed at freestyle, saying urgency is the one thing that style has wrong, because nobody should be rewarded for being the last guy to score in a tied match. Elsewhere he noted the riding time difference is currently the only thing creating urgency, which is why the most action in some matches comes in the last 30 seconds after nine minutes of wrestling.
The step out splits everybody
Andrew Spey pushed the step out hardest, and pushed back on the idea that it is foreign to American wrestling. He argued it is not a freestyle or Greco-Roman rule at all, since FILA only adopted it in 2005 after a century without one, and that folkstyle would still be folkstyle with it. Nomad added that the 1928 NCAA tournament served as an Olympic tryout, that in 1932 college weights were changed to the Olympic weights, and that the 1936 NCAAs used the actual Olympic rules.
Shane Sparks was not sold. He said he appreciates edge wrestling and understands the step out argument, but would keep the same rules in folkstyle and call stalling more aggressively. Kevin Claunch came at it from the officiating side, saying he remains concerned that scrambles, rolls and ankle passes would be a mess for officials, and that he is not wholly against it but it would be horrible to see play out.
Spey credited @MatSavant for generating the conversation with the takedown value work covered earlier. None of this is in front of the rules committee. It is a public argument among broadcasters, analysts and a former NCAA champ about whether folkstyle's scoring problem is the takedown value at all.
Create urgency - no OT. First point scored is the tiebreaker.
It was adopted by FILA in 2005. That's after 100 years of NOT having a step out penalty.
I’d keep same rules in folkstyle and be more aggressive on calling stalling.