It’s Riding Time
(2/14/03)
I am a huge fan of collegiate wrestling, but if I could change one thing I would eliminate the riding time. For those of you that don’t know, in college wrestling a wrestler may score an extra point at the end of regulation if he has ridden his opponent for a minute longer than his opponent has ridden him. A typical match in college wrestling will feature two wrestlers who are close in talent. There aren’t as many lopsided matches in college as there is in high school. When you get two wrestlers who are close in talent the match could be decided by one point. Sometimes one of the wrestlers will score a riding time point and it ends up being the difference in the match. I think riding an opponent is great if you actually score some near fall points, but I think it’s boring when you don’t.
To me, riding time encourages some wrestlers to stall. Not all wrestlers will do this, as most of the time it’s just the ones that aren’t as good in the neutral position. I love watching wrestlers wrestle from there feet, and especially enjoy wrestlers playing the takedown and release game. Let me remind you that I am talking about college wrestling and the argument that you could embarrass a kid doesn’t work here. I don’t like seeing a wrestler drop down to a single when his opponent is about to get an escape. That is stalling and the referee should call it. I could see if the referee lets it go the first time but if a wrestler continues to do it he should be nailed for stalling every time.
I am not saying that it is the top wrestler’s responsibility to create action. The bottom wrestler is just as responsible as the top guy. If the bottom wrestler is just fighting not to get turned and not to escape, then that’s obviously stalling. All I am saying is that if riding time were eliminated, I think your average wrestling match would involve a lot more action.
You don’t see it as much in division one as you do in division two or three, but sometimes the workers running the riding time clock get a little too much into the match and forget to start it or stop it. Yeah it happens to the regular clock too, but if there were only one clock to worry about then the errors would be limited. This isn’t as big of an issue as stalling but it still determines a few matches here and there. Some of the division two or three schools don’t have the newer clocks that when you stop the regular time it will automatically stop the riding time. Some of the teams still have the separate clocks that you run by a switch and have to reset by hand. I believe most of the in state schools use clocks that are operated separately from the match time. I would say if you don’t believe errors happen, attend a division three match sometime and pay close attention to the riding time clock, but then you would miss the match, and that’s exactly why people don’t notice the errors.
There are some issues in college wrestling that are more important than riding time, but I am always looking for ways to better the sport. Oh and, how about you attend a division three match anyways.
|