Why High School Wrestlers Are So Good Now 

It's happening almost exclusively in the lower weights. Physicality shows up more in the heavier weights when it comes to these age groups. Speed, agility, flexibility, and endurance are keys in those light weights.

i think a big reason is just the impact of social media. i graduated high school in 2003. youtube didn't exist. seeing top talent required you to travel to a local college wrestling dual (assuming you lived near a top tier college) or go to a state meet. you couldn't just hop on youtube and see what top talent looked like so you could mimic it. now, everybody posting how they workout, what they workout. you can easily lookup essentially any match and watch it or get advice from the best. it is easy to compare yourself to others now and become motivated to be better. somebody might not have gone to a camp if they didn't see how their competition trained. ya know? times are just different. and it isn't just with wrestling. music talent, other sports, etc. everybody becoming freaks because of the accessibility and how easy it is to compare yourself to other. these things just didn't exist in the past. not to mention the weight. no way a high school is fuckin with a 197 lbs.

The sport has really evolved. I think the popularity of MMA played a vital role in the growth of wrestling.

Being able to learn about every aspect of Wrestling on YT + the rise in MMA fans and inspiring fighters who now know they need Wrestling in their arsenal in order to properly squabble has indeed brought many people to the sport... Wrestling is the best base and should truly be classified as a Martial art

Bo Bassett's endurance was unreal. He grinded the entire time in each of his matches.

having david taylor in this discussion was gold. he understands the sport and its evolution still being in the thick of it

Bo is like 18 though, which is the age most kids are their freshman year of college, so that probably plays a huge factor in it

The ability to study and rewatch matches, ALL matches helps a TON. Coaching is better, health is actually better. interactions and experience with that upper level is what is required, full stop. The US will have a major wrestling program worldwide, the BEST, if we just focused a LITTLE harder on the kids.

If you watched Bo's matches, he seamed to be more physically fit. Some people just have natural stamina - because you know that they're all fit.

DT hit it right on the head. The exposure to high level wrestling is way higher with social media but also Freestyle being at the forefront is a bigger deal than most people realize. I only graduated 10 years ago and when I was in school the best folkstyle wrestlers hardly did freestyle and barely anyone did Greco. And tbh USA wasnt winning internationally like they are now so it actually brings some attention

Ben seems like such a great coach.

Just like everything else in wrestling, it’s 80% mental and 20% physical. The kids are no doubt crazy talented beyond their years and are incredibly smart. But DT hit the nail on the head when he mentioned “Belief”. Everything changes when these kids coming in these D1 tournaments really believing they’re going to win. You just don’t win a tournaments when you think you’re the 3rd or 4th best guy there. That’s not how it works. And big shout out to all the club & HS coaches creating these amazing hammers at such a young age. The sport is in great hands and we’ll continue to dominate on the world level as well. Book it 🙏🏼

The last great high school kid I remember was Aaron Pico, who won a high school state championship as a freshman and then stopped wrestling in high school. He then travel the world including Russia and was beating the best college wrestlers we had in freestyle. He just missed making the olympic team and is now fighting in the UFC and will soon be fighting for a world championship. I personally wish that he had gone to college, because he would probably had been a 4 time national champ. Then gone on to win the Olympics.

What has been the case is that when talent is realized at an early age, some athletes families will move to where high level training is available. This happens in allot of sports. Also some of the wrestling clubs are recruiting very high level coaches. They are not getting this good from a high school program alone.

Braxton Amos from my home area is 1 of them. He got injured and is taking an Olympic redshirt.

It’s easier for them to compete at the lowest 2 weight classes because most college level guys aren’t supposed be 125-133 pounds 😂they are half dead from cutting before the match even starts. Plus they are getting taught the right stuff and not being told you should wait until college. We all know the human body is at it peak in those ages and it’s all downhill after injury.

Jimmy Carr made the USA Olympic team in 1972. He was 16 years old. I don't think he even shaved at the time.

He went out there and put on a performance

Having access to high level wrestling videos via RU-vid and social media have to play a huge role.

These high schoolers are amazing! All the international freestyle competition definitely plays a major role.

These kids are getting high, high level coaching partners and strategy at such and early age. These kids coming up as a result. And Bassett is great, but he aint touching Vito.

I think the sport is getting more popular which I think its a good thing for the sport.

We are just seeing better coaching, better conditioning... With the Internet and social media... We see talented kids find each other and train at the Big Clubs out there.. Blair, Young Guns, Ohio is jucied with them, Iowa has a couple Selbot and Big Game. Aaron Pico, Kyle Snyder, even before then, Kerry Kolat, Jeff McGinness, the list goes on. We get to see these kids benefit from better training and coaching

If I had youtube to learn techniques from I would have been better too.

Even the heavier weights are amazing Gable s Stevenson and Kyle Snyder were dominating in their early 20s.

The only problem is there are not many colleges to wrestle for when I graduated 21 years ago… my son wrestles for 9 years on a ranked team… such a shame bring back more programs for our young… Wrestling builds future leaders

Today many parents have money to send there kids to clubs / camps. Some of these kids are just built different. And last have they ever been drug tested. Even when they was younger. Remember parents have money and they want there kids to be the best. We All know there are drugs to improve strength and endurance. Start a kid out young give him a advantage and it will carry through out his career. I Just been around the sport many years seen all kind of crazy stuff.

The difference in physicality isn’t there bc most of these super high level high school kids are getting held back and are 17-18 years old as sophomores

Flo, BTN, even UFC has college wrestling duals now. If you're a parent all this is neglible cost if your child is wrestling their butt off. RU-vid is free. In the 90's to watch ANY wrestling, you had to spend the amount of a Flo membership or be really disciplined that three times a year it was on CBS or cable. One thing not brought up: Collegiate wrestling programs and highschool teams had the most participation in the 80's. Highschool has recovered more than college. College guys wrestle the bare minimum number of matches in a season to qualify for championships lately too.

This is interesting because I think david as a high schooler would have beaten a lot of the college guys.

Flo was fishing for compliments for putting out lots of videos of high level wrestling for the kids to learn from. I'm kidding/not kidding. My high school coach was a great guy, but not all american level wrestler. I went to Von Hitchcock wrestling camp, and bought their book with each move broken down into twenty pics. That was literally my whole knowledge of wrestling besides studying the best wrestlers at tournaments, but there was no rewind, slo mo, or DPS breakdowns, or Earn Your Gold Medal. For the physical thing, I would just say that some kids are gonna be ahead of others, and when they are technically sharp, that can overcome some of the strength differences.

These are outliers in physical development. It really isn’t a mystery. Kids grow into weight and strength across a wide spectrum of time. Look at basketball.

Those are little guys. Not middle or hvy guys

I’ll tell you why not even joking and the reason the high schoolers are so good is you-tube. You can go over / learn moves that before only a few people knew / you had to go to camps to learn. Same for lifting and cardio. Knowledge is power and its now readily available for free.

A college wrestler losing to a high school boy is NOT near as embarrassing as losing to a girl. There are male wrestlers in junior high and high school that wrestle girls and these girls have actually beaten boys before in front of an entire crowd fair and square. Some/few of these girls have won division I states. There was one girl that was a national champion in high school wrestling against all the boys. This is rear and only happened once.

BO BASSETT

Every generation of sport will be greater than the previous. They’ll always be compared to the previous but never recognized as just as good or better in anyway. Babe Ruth effect in baseball. The Michael Jordan effect in basketball etc etc. They pedestal “One” compromise the entire game. There was also a man once…… longggg ago who.. yea. I like wrestling. Why not a professional venue like ufc for real wrestling styles instead of forcing them to join the wwe circus.

You have parents hoping their kid will get a scholarship to get a degree in psychology or something else useless or maybe they will get the next UFC contract and get shafted by Dana like every other UFC fighter. The emphasis on athletics in this country is silly. Sad, wrestling used to be a sport where wins and losses were the lesson to be learned and being part of a team and unit. Now it's about NCAA tournament finals. Sad to see it come to this

He’s a 17 yr old sophomore guys. He’s already the age of freshmen d1 lol. How is this impressive?

Wussification of America taking wrestling out of gym class. I went to Brentwood HS NY71 to 74 whom were undefeated 10 years,and produced high level wrestlers (Carl Adams Iowa). I would grapple with these beasts,and still teach wrestling,bjj,judo since then . American wrestling will catch up to the rest of the world .Also I'm a hooper never competed in wrestling,just gym class with Coach Campo! Now some of my students wrestle or hoop!

also more PEDs

Wow..wrong perspective..they should respect their elders .. wow this generation..😁😁😁😁😁

Steroids 😐

Listening to Ben and David talk is so awesome.