Had a great weekend in Kayenta at the Peabody / Monument Valley Wrestling tournament.  We had 3 days of wrestling for all ages staring with the little guys that show up as independent to Junior Varsity and High School wrestling in the finals on Saturday night.

This year there were several “themes” that seemed to appear more frequently than last year including:

Stalling

This year, from the NFHS wrestling, one of the Points of Emphasis (POE) is stalling.  Kayenta was no exception and we tried to consistently call stalling right away for all ages and all weight classes.  As most officials and coaches know, stalling can be a very controversial and a subjective call.  As part of AWOC and NAW Officials we try to be as consistent as possible.  Remember that the burden for eliminating stalling belongs to the coaches, not to the officials.

There are many definitions of stalling including: To hold off, to delay by evasion, obstructing the flow of play while in the lead… The definition we have discussed with the NAW is… aggressively bettering your position.  Be sure to read the definitions from the 2015-2016 rule book as well as the handout on our tools and techniques page.

Penalty Chart for stalling and entering in the score book is: Warning (SW), 1 pt. (S1), 1 pt. (S1), 2 pt. (S2) and Disqualified (DQ)

Locking hands

Locking hands seems to happen a lot at the younger ages and for the less experienced wrestlers.  We saw a lot of locking hands this weekend.  Remember, that if you are the offensive wrestler and not on 2 feet or not in a pinning situation, you cannot lock your hands.  See the Reaction Time discussion in another blog.

Penalty Chart for locking hands and entering in the score book is: Technical Violation, Locking hands 1 pt. (TV1), 1 pt. (TV1), 2 pt. (TV2) and Disqualified (DQ)

Full Nelson

The Full Nelson is an illegal hold and should be called right away.  I saw this several times in Kayenta with the younger kids because they are 1) more flexible and 2) are jumping side to side, trying to put in a half nelson.  Wrestlers should remove the hand from behind the neck, on one side, before setting the hand on the opposite side for a half nelson.  If at any time, both hands are near the center of the neck at the same time, or touching the headgear, you will be called for an illegal hold. The hands do not have to touching or overlapping to be called illegal.

Penalty Chart for full nelson and entering in the scorebook is: Illegal hold 1 pt. (TV1), 1 pt. (TV1), 2 pt. (TV2) and Disqualified (DQ)

Headlocks

Illegal vs. Potential Dangerous.  Remember that whenever you are setting a headlock, you must have an arm encircled and you can lock your hands if you are below the elbow.  If you are above the elbow or do not have an arm, the match should be stopped right away for an illegal hold.  If the defensive wrestler, removes their arm from a legal headlock, then the match can be stopped and the call should be potentially dangerous.

Penalty Chart for illegal headlock  and entering in the score book is: Illegal hold 1 pt. (TV1), 1 pt. (TV1), 2 pt. (TV2) and Disqualified (DQ)

I also found this link to a document that wrestlingref.com created that is a nice illustration of some of the moves discussed above.