All sorts of thoughts. How much they're worth? Not entirely sure. This whole takeover and gut the staff thing is interesting to me.
Sadly, I don't think grassroots/youth/HS coaches shy away from Greco. They simply don't see the dividends. Everything is an opportunity cost. Kids are in 70 sports and activities. You're lucky to get them in the room outside of the season at all. I don't believe most collegiate coaches truly give a **** or push athletes to train greco much because it doesn't translate to success that is relevant to them. If it doesn't translate to the larger stages of our sport, domestically, (collegiate, collegiate scholarship, RTC/NIL $), why would anyone care or try?
USAW needs to invest more. We need more athletes splitting off to train GR full-time earlier in their careers. We need more athletes getting overseas earlier and often. Hancock, Peak, Nutter, and the like are paving the new yellow brick road, I hope. NMU needs more money to help athletes compete and train while receiving a "traditional" education. Every USAW Coach should get more materials on Greco.
But until there is something to strive for, that people see "attainable and desirable", USA Greco will be sitting right here, praying for people that want to "suffer in silence" like 70's tough guys. I don't know where ya'll are at, but that breed is damn near extinct around me.
Last thought:
I love Greco. I love the red-headed stepchild-ness of it. I love the constant contact and battle of the pummel AND THEN BAM! HIGH AMPLITUDE. DUDE'S ON HIS F***ING DOME. I say all of that to say that I find it hard to implement in my own practice room. The kids don't care for it, usually. The few that do, their partners aren't fully-invested in improving in Greco, so it kinda wastes everybody's time. If you're trying to learn Greco techniques and tactics and your partner is completely bent at the waist because that's all they've ever known, it becomes very frustrating to learn. On top of that, our domestic officials don't officiate things like they do overseas. So, even if you get good in America, it might not even translate. The jackassery that I saw allowed or wrongly penalized was rough in Fargo. Our system and general attitude do not afford high level success in Greco. The dream of getting your books paid for and a workstudy at a D3 institution has proven to be far more alluring than a gold medal and that sucks.
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