There is an excellent tape by Dave Frisch, an NCAA official, on stalling. It covers the topic well and gives lots or tips and suggestions on how to recognize, prevent, and call stalling. Every official should get a copy. I think its available through the Colorado Officials Association. But his suggestions are mostly universally recognized and quite well-known. If you follow his guidelines, the coaches around here go nuts. I know, I tried it for a year. I had clear criteria, consistently applied it, and it cost a lot of kids points, in their coaches' eyes. My calls made them shoot, stay in bounds, attempt escapes, and risk losing control because I required them to work for a fall. I thought the matchs were much more exciting but I think most coaches thought I was controlling, and perhaps deciding, the matches. It was not uncommon for me to have 2 or 3 stalling points in every match. And I am 100% certain that I was still not calling it enough but got tired of the bawling. So I gave up on calling stalling "whenever it occurs" and now, honestly, probably call it mostly "whenever it doesn't matter" which I think is the prevailing approach by most officials--they'll call it, but only if it isn't going to really affect the outcome of the match...pessismistic...for sure. Honest? I think so.

I know most kids are trying to win and score points. But I don't think that means they don't understand the value of stalling. Once a lead is secured, it really doesn't make much sense to keep putting yourself at risk, regardless of position. A three point lead can evaporate pretty quickly for an offensive wrestler if he allows an escape trying to pin his opponent. But its going to take a while to lose three points through stalling calls, particularly if he can make it look like he's trying something. "Good" wrestlers might not stall. But there are a handful of "good" wrestlers in any league that will put the coals to it and try to score falls for the sake of doing so, but there are a whole lot of average wrestlers that want to win and don't mind coasting to victory...and that's not a criticism. Most other sports reward stalling...you see it in football, soccer, basketball, and almost all other sports. Once in the lead, protecting the lead is a viable option. In wrestling, in theory, you are expected to continue to put yourself at risk despite building a lead. There was an article a few year's ago in the Quarterly discussing this very topic for wrestling.

But here's a tip...there is rarely a situation where if the wrestlers go out of bounds that stalling should not be called, given the emphasis in the rules to stay within the 10 foot circle and "make every effort to stay in bounds." If the action is going to the edge and then out of bounds, it is by definition stalling, almost in every situation. For me, it is an easy stalling call if the action stops because of an out of bounds. And its not an excuse that the action took them out, unless that action was pretty spectacular which is rare. They get to the edge by 1)leaving the 10 foot circle and 2)not returning to it. That is stalling, almost by definition. I have no problem with calling stalling in this situation and it usually puts an end to going out. It also keeps me from having to call fleeing...which really gets the coaches sqeaking....