What do you guys think about this?

GOOD or BAD? (Or maybe "BOTH" at different levels?)

Here are my thoughts...

I think the popularity of mixed martial arts can help youth wrestling and even HS and NCAA wrestling because it's been made clear that wrestling is the best "base" to have in mixed martial arts (especially when a lot of Greco is added in).

More kids will want to get into wrestling now (hopefully) because of former wrestlers-turned-fighters like Randy Couture, Dan Henderson, Chuck Liddell, Brandon Vera, Josh Koscheck, Phil Davis, etc. ALL fighters MUST learn how to wrestle, period. So that's a good thing.

But at the highest levels (post-college, international scene, world and Olympic levels) it can (and probably already is) hurting wrestling a little bit. For specifics, you can look at the very young Olympic champion Henry Cejudo now training for MMA, Ben Askren who flip flops between wrestling, submission grappling, and MMA, I could keep going.

With regards to wrestling at the highest levels and development of USA's wrestlers, Coach Brands really hit the nail on the head from a mentality standpoint in this video:

http://www.worldwrestlingresource.com/members/wwr/videos/VIEW/00000547/Good-Coaching--Coach-Brands.html

(There's also a video on FloWrestling.com with him talking about this same exact thing.)

Dan Gable has said it's a little tougher to get the athletes motivated to train at the highest levels because of a variety of different things (won't get into it here), one of them being "more opportunities" in America to get into "other" things besides wrestling. So, now, with the lack of financial support our Olympic hopefuls get already, here is MMA that offers, at the professional level (easy to get into when you're a NCAA champ or even All-American wrestler), more of a financial opportunity coming straight out of college.

This means MMA will probably be taking a lot of the top-tier talent coming out of college. Plus, there's going to be a new crop of young athletes wrestling to be "fighters" instead of to be "Olympic or world champions." There's already enough of a problem with many of USA's athletes at the collegiate level talking about how they want to be "All Americans" (not even NCAA champions).

I love MMA, I think it's great, it provides great opportunities for wrestlers to excel (and what's crazy is that after a wrestler "retires" from wrestling he can transition easily, even at an older age, into professional MMA at the highest levels and make a living).

I actually help coach some MMA fighters so clearly I'm not against MMA in any way, just wondering what some of your thoughts are about how to keep our BEST world and Olympic wrestling prospects to stick with wrestling instead of going into other things so soon, and how to keep our current Olympic athletes to continue going for it after their first Olympic cycle.

I agree with Dennis and his thoughts on this - it has helped increase the popularity of amateur wrestling - watching wrestlers have so much success in MMA - leads everyone to realize wrestling is the best way to prepare for combat. I think it is a healthy outlet for fighters to find a discipline in their lives, a goal, and something to work for - however - I believe the promoters are getting a lot like "don king" and in it for the $ - there are a lot of trash fights taking place in street corners across america. I was approached to host one and declined the offer - I would rather promote the values of wrestling - which instill the same type of character and development in the athlete.   We are losing ground on the Olympic front and will continue to find ourselves competing with MMA in terms of media exposure, loss of our top athletes and coaches - unless we start competing with MMA in terms of salary for our top Olympic Athletes. I remember making $750/month for being #2 on the USA National Team and thinking that was a lot of money to live on at that time (that was in 1998) - that may have changed to some extent to todays athlte in 2010 - but it still doesn't compete with MMA.

The lure of MMA is money - if money were the same - a lot of wrestlers can gain the same satisfaction in winning in wrestling as they do in MMA.   I once asked HWT Tom Erickson (multiple US National HWT Team Member) what he thought created more pre-match nerves MMA or Wrestling - and he said Wrestling.   Two cents worth - the ship has already set sale and the only thing Wrestling can do to compete is to improve itself from within - (marketing wise, financing it's top athletes) combining and aligning our sport with grappling and MMA is what USA Wrestling is doing - trying to partner along side these sports instead of compete with them. It's not a bad move altogether - in the end though to improve our wrestling skills in the US - wrestlers need to work on wrestling - you can have a wrestler come in and compete at a high level in MMA - but show a wrestler that trains soley MMA compete at a high level in wrestling - There is your research - as Bruce Burnett used to say at the US Olympic Training Center to the all of us in the center - if you want to be a better wrestler - then work on wrestling skills. What he meant was - you can lift, run, strength train - but the majority of your time to improve on wrestling had better be in the wrestling room.   If you Brandon Slay wasn't working on his double legs every day with Kevin Jackson at the OTC - and instead he was cross training MMA - you can't argue that would have given a chance of beating Satiev. If we want more Americans to beat the Russians - we will need wrestlers to focus on wrestling. MMA is a great marketing tool for the sport - but it won't beat the Russians on a consistent basis. I really believe Terry, Dennis, and I are on the same page as this with world wrestling resource - we want to promote Greco, Freesytle and overall wrestling development - Dennis is training his guys to win Olympic Greco Titles (his focus is on Greco Techniques not MMA) Terry Brands coached Henry Cejudo to an Olympic Freestyle Gold - (he isn't one for off-task work - the focus is on Freestyle Wrestling). No one can argue that MMA is not entertaining to watch - but go to the fights and you can see what it brings out in people in a crowd - compare that to a wrestling event - what does that do to spectators. I for one feel Wrestling is a better sport for society, one I would rather promote, and one in which will help our athletes become better at the Olympic Level. Your asking a wrestler here that supports MMA - but it's like anything - take the good with the bad. On another note - take a look at Kyle Maynard fighting in MMA - if that isn't inspirational - watching someone with Guts of Steel step in the ring with no arms and legs -

Kyle Maynard first MMA FIGHT -

MMA should be thankful to such an AWESOME Sport such as Wrestling. Every top MMA has the background in Wrestling. We have such an opportunity to our sport of wrestling to take momentum and propel us to the next generation of wrestling. In schools, academies, and colleges we need the positive coalition. This our chance to really keep Youth wrestling moving in the right away as well as Our AAU or USA Wrestling really need to get the attention. I am glad to say that Networking with WWR and MMA Gyms, can really be a WIN WIN for both sports.

I'm proud to say that I coach wrestling at a mixed martial arts academy. I coach wrestling (pure wrestling) at the school Monday through Friday and kids on Saturday.

I'm now coaching more than 10 kids who are all going to be wrestling in high school this year. Some of the kids are part of our youth grappling/BJJ team that won the team gold medal in the 2010 Juvenile World Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Championships (first Amercian team to do it).

I know for a fact that some of them wouldn't have given wrestling a try if I wasn't in the room. And I'm not saying that to toot my own horn, just saying that great things can happen when MMA and wrestling can find a way to work together.

Here are just a couple specific examples of how MMA and wrestling can work together:

One kid started wrestling his sophomore year but quit to join the MMA school and train Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. (Great kid, 4.0 GPA, wants to go to Harvard.) After getting him in my room (at the MMA school) he decided to go back to wrestling. He's constantly improving; he's gonna be a senior this year, we'll see how he does. Another kid started training at the school about the same time he wanted to try wrestling. After training 5-6 days a week at the school, he wants to wrestle in college and he has a goal right now of being a state champion; he watches videos constantly of world and Olympic champions. He's been to 3 camps this summer; he's gonna be a junior this year, we'll see how he does. He's training like a champion, that's for sure.

So many kids come through this MMA school and if there wasn't a wrestling program in the school, who knows which ones would give wrestling a fair shot. Now there are kids here at this MMA school - at all ages - who are getting exposed to good coaching (much of it thanks to THIS site) throughout the year and are training like champions every day.

As coaches we must FIGHT for our sport (wrestling) and now more than ever we have to SELL this sport to these kids so they can understand the true value of wrestling.

The real challenge though, is getting our wrestlers to pursue the ULTIMATE in wrestling, which is world and Olympic championships. USA Wrestling needs to step up to the plate on that one and do a better job of keeping our athletes in the sport and not losing them to professional MMA. Money's a big issue since MMA offers a heck of a lot more than wrestling does from a money stanpoint, and heck, even from a fame standpoint. Some of these MMA fighters are mainstream stars now and considered famous. The allure of becoming a famous professional fighter and being able to make good money doing it is going to take away a lot of would-be or could-be world and Olympic medalists from wrestling. Actually, not even the would/could-be people - some of these guys are doing one training cycle for the Olympics and then going right into MMA. USA needs more multiple-time champs and medalists like Russian has, and we need that kind of depth as well.

So what can be done? I'd like to have an open discussion about that. A buddy of mine who was in Nebraska for the NCAAs this past year said Dan Gable gave a talk about the USA's treatment of its wrestlers and how things have to get better if we want to catch up to the Russians. He said Gable was REALLY fired up about it. I wish that of footage of Gable's talk was available online so more people could see it.

What can be done to help the sport at the highest levels???

Here's another thread about this same topic:

http://www.worldwrestlingresource.com/members/wwr/comm/READ/00000290/Do-YOU-think-the-effects-of-MMA-are-GOOD-or-BAD-for-Wrestling-Or-Both.html

In that thread, Dennis Hall said this about MMA:

        "I believe MMA is both good and bad for our sport. It brings more attention to wrestling because of the success wrestlers have had while competing in it. More kids see wrestling as a skill they need to pick up in order to be successful in MMA. The downside to MMA in wrestling is that a lot of our future international competitors may choose MMA over trying to make World or Olympic teams due to the amount of money they can make in MMA. Also once you have won an Olympic or World medal your chances of making big money goes up if you want to do MMA, which makes it harder for the US to keep it athletes training for more than one Olympic cycle."

SO WHAT CAN BE DONE?