As the season is progressing, I’m receiving questions and concerns about the scoring opportunity when the knees or supporting points (with the exception of the toes only) of the offensive wrestler are inbounds. We had this discussion at the state body meeting and the consensus was that we will adhere to the rule as written, but take into account safety.

There are a lot of events where the wrestling surfaces abut to other wrestling surfaces. This is normally on the smaller age groups or in facilities where there are some space limitations. I have been encouraging officials to first and foremost take into account the safety of the participants when determining whether to let wrestling continue. As officials we cannot predict the activities that are occurring on surfaces that are next to the surface where we are working. Each official may feel differently as to what a safe proximity is of the other participants. Things can happen very quickly and I would rather be safe than sorry in these situations.

Additionally, if you are hosting a tournament, you have the option to let the officials know to stop the action immediately if the wrestlers are out of bounds, similar to the old rule. This could prevent a lot of confusion and take the judgment out of the official’s hands and create a consistent environment.

Some people have asked if near fall criteria was imminent, and we stop the action, if points may be awarded. In this situation I do not believe we should be rewarding points since action was not stopped due to an injury, blood, an illegal hold or technical violation.

If the wrestling surface is a full size mat and there is not an abutting wrestling surface the rule may be followed as written. Additionally, anytime any part of either wrestler touches the gym floor or the surface not covered by the mat, wrestling should be stopped and points earned should be awarded.

We can revisit next year to see if we need to address this to make sure we are all consistent. Please contact me to discuss further if you would like.

Keith Ashpole
rkashpole@hotmail.com

Fellow Members,

We are putting ourselves in harms way to allow near fall wrestling in another competitive area! Here is why:

1. The rule was created for standard HS size mats with safety boundaries that are NEVER occupied by other wrestlers or officials.
2. A wrestler bridging to avoid being pinned is very helpless in the event there is a fall onto them.


We will not be allowing ANY near fall situations where the out of bounds line is shared by another competitive wrestling area if I am involved with the tournament and I encourage all of you to follow this example.

It is negligent for us to believe that officials should judge whether or not it is safe or not. The fact is, it is NOT ever safe to share a competitive area.

Lets also explore the fairness...If Johnny or Suzy has Jimmy or Jane on her back for a two count and wrestlers come into the shared area and the official blows the whistle. Two points are awarded. Same situation occurs in the next period and Jimmy or Jane get the full five count and thus 3 near fall points and win the match by one. Do we REALLY want that much gray area in possible scoring situations? I can see the tempers flaring now.

Lets make it easy and very objective. NO NEAR FALL CRITERIA WRESTLING WILL BE ALLOWED ON A SHARED, COMPETITIVE WRESTLING SPACE.

I recall trying to explain this in October in Salina. This rule is an AWESOME rule, but it was implemented for high school kids (not split mats). I FULLY agree with Will and we will NOT use the near fall rule at our tournament this year on any mats that share a boundary.
The lesson here is that we DO NOT have to adopt EVERY rule that high school has.

Randy Streeter
Sunflower Kids WC