10 Wisconsin Wrestlers help Team USA Win Largest European Tournament

[knowgangs]

Team USA wins largest tournament in Europe with over 2,000 competitors representing 27 countries.  Wisconsin had 10 wrestlers on the team with Wisconsin natives Jesse Thielke and Nazar Kulchytskyy as team coaches.  The tournament was a 1-day Greco and 1-day Freestyle event and touted as the largest tournament in Europe.  The tournament is also a qualifying tournament for the European and Nordic championships and as a result draws high level wrestlers from many countries including many foreign world team members and national champions.

Team USA took first beating 26 other nations.  Our team consisted of 23 wrestlers including 10 Wisconsin wrestlers.

Two of our wrestlers required trips to the emergency room during the tournament (Cade Spilde & Jalen Spuhler).  In Cade's first match of the tournament he bit through his lip requiring a trip to the emergency room for stitches both inside and outside of his mouth.  No sooner did Cade return, Jalen Spuhler bit a nasty hole in his tongue, also requiring a trip for stitches.  Something interesting about Estonia—over 16 goes to the adult hospital and minors go to the children's hospital.  For both boys the total cost of the ER visit and stitches was only 166 euros.  Cade's injury was too severe to continue wrestling, but Jalen only forfeited one match and was back in time to finish wrestling.

Our trip consisted of one day of training at an Olympic satellite location in Warsaw, Poland.  From there the boys trained in Helsinki, Finland for a couple of days.  They actually trained in an underground bomb shelter—it was an awesome training facility.  They then traveled to Tallinn, Estonia for weigh ins and 1-day tournament in Greco & 1 day in Freestyle (27 countries, 2000 wrestlers).  Following the tournament they had a 4-day wrestling camp (200+ wrestlers, 15 other countries/senior level - youth).

Here is a few observations about the tournament:

WEIGHT CUTTING
One of the boys in my son's Freestyle bracket (50 kilos) was a former cadet world team member from Finland cutting 8 - 9 kilos for the tournament.  For Cadet age and up there was a 1 kilo allowance.  I saw many boys from various countries running, wearing multiple layers of clothing trying to make weight.  The tournament venue also had multiple saunas in operation for wrestlers needing to make weight.  My experience at this tournament is similar to other tournaments/countries I've been to in the past.  Weight cutting is very similar to here in the US with wrestlers of all ages/weights/skill levels cutting weights from minor to excessive.

FREESTYLE / GRECO POPULARITY
Greco is, without a doubt the more popular style in Europe.  Although there are some Freestyle dominate countries and clubs, overall, Greco is the most popular style overseas.  In many countries, Greco & Freestyle are treated as two separate and distinct sports.  Rarely do they train in both styles.  Many Greco wrestlers have gone their entire lives without every being taught a shot.  While at the camp here in Estonia, our boys were given the opportunity to train in either Greco or Freestyle.  One of the coaches from Russia asked our boys why they were training in the Greco area of the camp and not Freestyle when so many of them did well at the freestyle portion of the tournament.  The coach couldn't believe that our boys trained in both styles and had to check with me and one of our coaches to verify that our boys did in fact train in both styles. 

OVERSEAS TRAINING
Americans generally train harder and longer.  Although lifting and gymnastics are largely incorporated into overseas training, American's tend to dominate in conditioning.  I saw this when Nazar was training with senior level athletes at the camp.  I also met two senior level Americans at the camp who also made the same observation—they get tired very quickly.  When Jesse and Nazar ran some of the joint practices, some of the overseas wrestlers commented it was some of the toughest practices they've been to.  Overseas practices are slower paced, little live wrestling with an emphasis on drilling from various positions.  Several times throughout our trip, Nazar and Jesse had our team run sprints either before or after a practice (sometimes as long as 20 - 30 minutes) which the foreign wrestlers thought was extremely odd to do extra work before or after a practice.

AGE
In the styles of Freestyle/Greco I continue to see wrestlers as young as 6 being trained and competing in those styles.  In Finland we saw older Iranian wrestlers training just for fun with no interest in competition. 

COACHING
Greyson Clark beat one wrestler and several of us saw his opponent's coach slap the wrestler in the face after the loss.  In that same bracket, this happened again with a different coach striking his wrestler following a loss.  I've seen this many times overseas with coaches manhandling, pushing, aggressively grabbing or even hitting their wrestler after a loss.  I do know that some clubs are financed in part by government funds.  The amount they receive is based on how their wrestlers preform at various tournaments.  So, for some coaches the success of their youth wrestlers has actual financial repercussions.

PARENTS
Although there is overly aggressive parents everywhere, it has been my experience that the wrestling helicopter parent is mostly an American thing.  I do see it on a limited basis in most countries, but no where near the extent as here.  For big tournaments, most often it is the coach taking a group of wrestlers for competition and parents are not apart of the process.

INJURIES
Two of our wrestlers left the tournament to the hospital for injuries (the first on any of these trips).  Both required stitches.  Injuries are treated very quickly here with little concern of civil liability.  If a wrestler is injured they are removed from the mat extremely quickly.  I saw some matches wrestled with bloody noses.  As long a it wasn't gushing, the match might continue.  Blood on the mat was cleaned by a  cloth broom—not for hygiene, but instead just to make sure the mat wasn't slipperily.  In the grocery store, the clerks wear rubber gloves when checking you out.  The medics at the tournament and those cleaning up blood on the mat did not use gloves.

OFFICIATING
Some in my group may have gone away feeling the officials weren't fair to the US.  The tournament had several young/new officials in training and I witnessed many bad calls.  But...it was up and down the board, both for and against our wrestlers.  I heard similar complaints from other countries.  Particularly in Greco, our American style of Greco is much different than overseas.  On two occasions one of our wrestlers did an awesome duck under—clean and quick.  Two different officials called them as slips.  For most of our boys, they wrestled a hybrid style of Folkstyle/Greco which I think frustrated some of the officials.


WISCONSIN WRESTLER RESULTS
Cade Spilde - INJURED
Cayden Robson - 63 Kilos - 13th Greco / 5th Freestyle
Gavin Model - 58 Kilos - 8th Greco / 16th Freestyle
Greyson Clark - 35 Kilos - 1st Greco / 1st Freestyle
Hunter Lewis - 50 Kilos - 2nd Greco / 1st Freestyle
Jalen Spuhler - 54 Kilos - 8th Greco / 5th Freestyle
Lowell Arnold - 47 Kilos - 5th Greco / 3rd Freestyle
Luke Mechler - 53 Kilos - 2nd Greco / 1st Freestyle
Noah Tonsor - 38 Kilos - 10th Greco / 9th Freestyle
Trent Carpenter - 47 Kilos - 17th Greco / 19th Freestyle

Trip photos/videos:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/WisconsintoWorldGrecoTournament/

[wrestlinglife1]

Awesome! Thank you for sharing this.  What an experience for our kids.

[GradeTough]

Great write-up. Excellent experience for our youth. Way to go Team USA!