wvmat.com

Saw something interesting on Saturday that shouldn't cause controversy. Important point for wrestlers to think about when they attempt to properly adjust their headgear before we get near the end of the season.
The 285 wrestler from Mountain View kept having problems with his headgear continuing to come off. This happened so many times that the Official eventually called an injury time out charged to the wrestler. He was wrestling Donavon McCune from PHS and the bout went all the way to the Ultimate Ride Out. Ten seconds into it Donavon was holding him down pretty good and the Virginia wrestler twisted and hurt his knee. He recovered okay and the match was ready to continue. Now Donavon was looking like he would keep him down the remaining 20 seconds but PHS realized this was his 2nd injury time (although he was only hurt once) and played the odds and switched position for the remaining 20 seconds. Donavon easily escaped for the win. So repeatedly losing his headgear ended any chance Donavon's opponent had to win. Keep your headgear adjusted (plus I get tired of the time it takes to watch you keep putting it back on over and over ).

I agree 100%, it's quite annoying and most often a stall tactic.

With that being said, I found nothing in the rules that says injury time should be awarded. The rule below however is in the section about stalling in the NFHS rule book. Maybe someone can clarify.


Rule 5-25 NFHS Wrestling Rules Page 28
ART. 5 . . . When a defensive wrestler refuses to aggressively attempt escapes or reversals, it is stalling.
ART. 6 . . . It is stalling when either wrestler:
a. repeatedly grasps or interlocks around one leg of the opponent to prevent
scoring; or
b. delays the match. This includes straggling back from out of bounds, unnecessarily changing or adjusting equipment or delay in assuming the starting position on the mat; or

I seen a kid get absolutely blasted this weekend at the national guard tournament while adjusting his headgear. He just kept doing it until the other wrestler noticed an opening and just flattened him, I actually laughed out loud..

That was an interesting match..

I agree 1000000% with you folks regarding headgear. It is supremely irritating to see a wrestler have to adjust their headgear 25 times a match. It clearly does not fit well, yet the wrestler has clearly done nothing to adjust it to fit better..

There are also certain types of headgear that are just simply poorly designed that lead to this problem. Any of the headgear that has cloth or nylon straps and only one strap over the top of the head and one over the back is guaranteed to be a constant issue during a match. Cliff Keen F3 is one of these designs.

With all of that said, part of the problem is wrestlers grabbing at headgear. Over this season I have probably seen headgear grabbed 50-70 times and can only recall one time that an official gave a warning for it and one other time that it was so blatant that the official actually reached out and pulled the wrestlers hand off of the headgear, but gave no official warning for it.

I watch this happening at WSAZs this weekend with a facemask. In a finals match, the wrestler could stop at will and take time to adjust and rest without and injury time out multiple times. He never seemed to get out of adjustment when he was on the offensive.