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Free or Folk?

The whole “holding center” thing is absolute garbage. A wrestler can be completely passive while “holding center”, while the other guys takes multiple shots and gets put on the clock. Absurd.
Folk all the way.
 
The whole “holding center” thing is absolute garbage. A wrestler can be completely passive while “holding center”, while the other guys takes multiple shots and gets put on the clock. Absurd.
Folk all the way.
Holding the edge is sooooooo much better.
 
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Holding the edge is sooooooo much better.
I think of RBY style vs Iowa style. Iowa tries to tie the opponent up and push, push, push. RBY likes to attack from space and use his quickness. I don’t think RBY holds the edge at all. RBY’s style is rewarded in Folk and Iowa’s style is rewarded in Free.

I prefer RBY’s style and Folk.
 
I think of RBY style vs Iowa style. Iowa tries to tie the opponent up and push, push, push. RBY likes to attack from space and use his quickness. I don’t think RBY holds the edge at all. RBY’s style is rewarded in Folk and Iowa’s style is rewarded in Free.

I prefer RBY’s style and Folk.
I think you’re dramatically oversimplifying. Watch Starocci, Brooks, DT, Nick, . All of them are very good stalkers, no matter the style. They take ground, keep you off balance and, in Freestyle, generate a ton of 2 and 4 point offense off of the “peril” they put their opponents in at the edge. Even Gilman has increased the 2’s he gets with the guys he drives to the edge.

Compare all that to the last two Brooks vs Hidlay folkstyle matches. I’d love to see Aaron to wrestle Trent again in Free—it would not be pretty.
 
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I think you’re dramatically oversimplifying. Watch Starocci, Brooks, DT, Nick, . All of them are very good stalkers, no matter the style. They take ground, keep you off balance and, in Freestyle, generate a ton of 2 and 4 point offense off of the “peril” the put their opponents on at the edge. Even Gilman has increased the 2’s he gets with the guys he drives to the edge.

Compare all that to the last two Brooks vs Hidlay folkstyle matches. I’d love to see Aaron to wrestle Trent again in Free—it would not be pretty.
My point is this…the guys you mentioned take ground AND are aggressively taking shots as well. However, in Free, a guy can control center AND be passive in their offense and STILL get rewarded. That is the kind of wrestling I dislike.
 
My point is this…the guys you mentioned take ground AND are aggressively taking shots as well. However, in Free, a guy can control center AND be passive in their offense and STILL get rewarded. That is the kind of wrestling I dislike.
It can happen, sure (Chance might fit the bill a little this last weekend). With the step-out rule, the edge is much more of a thing, and some people will use it for "negative wrestling."

But I still feel like overall, what it does is increase the chances for action on any given exchange. I've seen people say "like the Iranians do" in this thread when talking about this strategy. I haven't watched enough of all of the Iranians to say for the whole country--but I will mention that Yazdani uses the edge to score a bajillion points. He 10-0s just about everyone not named Taylor. When he wrestled David, he definitely tightens up, and takes very few chances that might end in a scramble. That's the only way he'll ever beat David, but it's a major exception to the rule. If, in Freestyle, you're the superior handfighter, and can move people off center, what you have is an advantage to score more points. Most people take advantage of that.
 
I would just like to see Trent wrestle Aaron one time in folk - it would not be pretty!
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