Anthony Robles, NCAA wrestling champion

But who will get penalized? Say two wrestlers are in the neutral position. Robles drops to the mat (I am assuming this is how his matches go from what I've read, that may be an incorrect reading on my part). The other guy stays standing, preferring to lock up that way. Whose responsibility is it to engage?

 

Anyone know if Robles has competed in Greco-Roman?

 

He definitely is limited in the standing position. But he doesn't spend any more time in the standing position than it takes to get down on his knee after the ref's whistle, before his opponent even gets within reaching distance.

 

Most of the wrestlers who face him get down on their knees to get into a tie-up position. From there you can work your Russian tie or try to hit and arm drag (both arm-based moves) to get a takedown. Let's be honest, he's beatable. He has lost before. You just have to have a strict gameplan to stay away from certain things. When you're on the bottom you have to keep your hands clear to stay away from the 2 on 1 tilt (what he used in the finals match) or any other kind of tilt. With only having the one leg he's not likely going to be able to run an armbar or a half-Nelson to get back points or a fall.

And the tilt that he hit on Saturday night is nothing special, it's about the basis of what everyone is taught in the top position. The move isn't so much about strength as it is controlling one of the bottom man's arms and breaking down his hips, if you can reduce his base to nothing you'll be able to roll him right over. The wrestlers at that level generally aren't going to roll over just because their opponent is that much stronger than him.

 

We just dealt with this situation a few years ago in the local prep state tournament...and yes, as strange as it sounds...it is a clear advantage in some ways. Most notably once you get locked up, the one-legged wrestler just overpowers his opponents...also, I imagine there are moves that are no longer available to an opponent simple because there's nothing to grab onto where they usually would be.

I'm not a wrestling expert by any means, but it does create an interesting dynamic on both ends of the equation. I know from interviews, kids that lost (and they all did, he ended up state champ easily) all mentioned they had never faced someone so strong.

 

The difference in upper body strength is glaringly obvious in that video. Looks like a man overpowering a child once he gets a good hold of him.

Seems odd to call a missing leg an advantage, but it is enabling a kid who appears to have near heavyweight calibur upper body strength to compete against 125 pounders. Just don't know if that extra muscle above makes up for what he loses down low--sure appears to on that video, though.

 

Nothing special?

I am going to guess, without seeing Matt McDonough's matches, that he's been on his back a couple times in his whole college career. He got flipped, what, 30 seconds after Robles first got control. It was freaking spectacular.

 

You obviously know more wrestling than me, RHCP, but that was spectacular.

 

I'm not saying the tilt he used in the match wasn't spectacular, I'm saying the tilt in general isn't something new that's going to revolutionize the wrestling world. Go to any crappy high school tournament and you'll see dozens upon dozens of tilts of different varieties. Obviously he's perfected his craft with them because it's not like he's going to be able to hit a leg cradle or something put of the ordinary.

My biggest question having watched him for a couple years is couldn't Nike or someone have designed him a special singlet so that the one empty leg isn't just dangling there?