I guess I would be considered a novice wrestling fan and never wrestled or was around wrestling until a few years ago. Many pins - the pinning wrestler has the other wrestler locked up or will before the fall. Didn't appear that Nolf had a tight hold on IMAR. Any subtle technique differences being used or simple a bad camera angle? Thanks for your input.
Nolf pinning of IMAR (technique ?)
- Thread starter Cyclingmik
- Start date
Definitely was an odd pin, but the Flo footage (shot from the opposite side of the broadcast BTN footage) showed Nolf using his right knee to press into IMar's left shoulder, preventing him from turning to his right. Not an impossible position to break from, but a few factors contributed to the fall--IMar was either out of gas, energy, options, game plan, etc., depending on your view, and/or Nolf just has a freaky sense of leverage, both his own and his opponents'. I forget the match (someone here would recall), but he'd pinned someone earlier in the season by applying a knee or foot to the upper body, right around the time (either same day or a few days later) that Zain had pinned someone similarly.
As a redshirt (2014-15), Jason pinned 2 guys at the NLO with a "knee-to-the-chest" move. Seems to be part of his repertoire.
Check the video at THIS LINK. It's from an Illinois TV station. Disregard the TV announcer calling Nolf "Jared Nolf." Pay attention to how Nolf traps the left arm with his leg (you rarely see a move like that) as well as the pressure Nolf applies across the torso with his thigh/knee (another move that's not too common, in part because it's usually pretty easy to escape from).
Start a few seconds earlier: Nolf slipped his ankle free with Martinez on his side. Instead of merely securing a takedown, Nolf aggressively went after a near-side cradle. He never did lock up the cradle, but that drove Martinez to his back with Nolf landing on top of his chest. Scissoring one arm and trapping the other was the clampdown once Martinez was in peril.
He seems to be opportunistic. Scissoring that left arm reminded me of Q's fig4 of Wilps' head a few years ago - it was there, why not?
Isaiah "No Mas" Martinez?
I guess we shouldn't celebrate too much here, as there are likely important matchups between these two to come.
As an aside: two years ago in the state finals, Nolf beat Billy Barnes with a first period neutral fall during a scramble. Twice Nolf hit shots only to have Barnes scramble into a stalemate. The third time, Nolf took a shot that baited Barnes into trying again, intending to pin him in the scramble. Strike Three.
Good point. How do we best describe Nolf's talents?
great stamina -- certainly
high wrestling IQ -- certainly
strength -- strong overall, particularly in his legs, but exceptional strength?
quickness -- very quick; exceptional?
balance -- outstanding, probably exceptional
mental approach -- outstanding
Feel free to add or edit.
I went looking for that match but could only find this post-match interview, which I recall seeing back then but is interesting now in light of the questions about his plans for his Penn State career, and question about Zain. Also funny is Nolf's deadpan disappointment at not having achieved his goal of pinning everybody at states.
A lot of athletes try to cast a blase 'business as usual' appearance, but Nolf's seems genuinely sincere. The tone of the interview is the same as the post-IMar match, like a kid casually answering his parents about how school was today. He's very Cael-like in that sense, highs never too high, lows never too low; totally focused but not so intense as to betray some underlying fragility. I imagine he's gotta be one of the easiest wrestlers Cael's had to coach.
the one item that is often not recognized is coordination or at least the ability to have all his 'limbs' providing separate functions at once. I m sure he can sit on a stool and have his arms rotate in separate directions and his legs as well. Probably add his feet going in different rotations as well! I think good wrestlers pick this up early... one hand doing one thing, other hand doing something else at the same time.... etc....
With that said it was fun to see him and Zain mocking Nico's warmup routine at Northwestern. These kids aren't pure robots, personality wise. Glad they wear my school's colors.
Yeah, that was hilarious. I wasn't trying to convey that Nolf is robotic, btw, but he's light years ahead of most kids that age in knowing how to handle leading questions in interviews without relying on cliches. Bo is also really good in interviews, both have a good sense of who they are, impressive at that age.
The type of traditional moves you are referring to are called "pinning combinations" - they are moves whereby you can take a wrestler from a neutral position, to his back and they are near impossible to get out of..... Various forms of a "pancake" move with overhook-underhook, double underhook, various forms of "head-locks", chicken-wing/half-nelson, forget what its called but a front lock achieved by reaching across when somebody has a wizzer on you and you lock your wizzered arm under the armpit, elevator drop, etc.... These "pinning combination" moves are very difficult to escape from because the top wrestler throws the opponent directly to his back, has the opponents arms and upper body completely tied up around the armpits and neck AND has the bulk of their weight squarely over the chest and shoulders of opponent.
Jason ended up in a reverse cross-body position, but he had the awareness to realize that he could use his right knee and shin to generate significant downward force on chest and to keep I-Mar relatively stationary, he tied up his left arm by hooking it with his left leg and elevated his right leg with his arms around his thigh just above the knee. This left I-Mar with only his right arm and left leg free, but he could not generate any kind of bridging motion because they were opposite one another.
Considering that so many wrestlers use the Abas roll to defend a leg attack, it's remarkable that Nolf's anti-Abas-roll technique did not get invented even earlier and did not get popular earlier. The move certainly seemed to be news to I-Mar because I-Mar was still trying to power through with the roll even when it wasn't working.
I suppose wrestlers all over the country must be trying I-Mar's position and seeing what they might try instead of powering through with the roll.
Since I-Mar's left arm was trapped pretty well by Nolf's scissoring legs, it'd be hopeless to try to free it completely. But could I-Mar have limped his left arm and just tried to turn to his right with a limp left arm? (Not to mention a limp right arm?) I-Mar's two stiffened arms were great handles with which Nolf pushed I-Mar's back to the mat.
If it turns out that turning to I-Mar's right with limped arms still was not going to work, then could I-Mar have turned to his left? Turning into the top man usually is more difficult, especially when he has your hips so controlled, but here the top man has only his legs on the bottom man's shoulder, and maybe a top man's legs are not as good at reacting/controlling as arms would be and therefore would be easier to defeat?
Could I-Mar have bridged? It seemed like I-Mar was starting to bridge, and could have bridged, but he committed to the Abas roll instead.
Anyhow, I could probably find answers to these questions just by going into a wrestling room and rolling around with a fake Nolf. Except that I don't have a wrestling room to go to, these days.
I was going to ask the rest of us to go into our wrestling rooms and research the answer and report back, but maybe we should let Nolf keep his secrets and let other people, non PSU-fans, spill the beans on a good counter.
By the way, I wonder if Mega could've used Nolf's move against Delgado ...
I suppose wrestlers all over the country must be trying I-Mar's position and seeing what they might try instead of powering through with the roll.
Since I-Mar's left arm was trapped pretty well by Nolf's scissoring legs, it'd be hopeless to try to free it completely. But could I-Mar have limped his left arm and just tried to turn to his right with a limp left arm? (Not to mention a limp right arm?) I-Mar's two stiffened arms were great handles with which Nolf pushed I-Mar's back to the mat.
If it turns out that turning to I-Mar's right with limped arms still was not going to work, then could I-Mar have turned to his left? Turning into the top man usually is more difficult, especially when he has your hips so controlled, but here the top man has only his legs on the bottom man's shoulder, and maybe a top man's legs are not as good at reacting/controlling as arms would be and therefore would be easier to defeat?
Could I-Mar have bridged? It seemed like I-Mar was starting to bridge, and could have bridged, but he committed to the Abas roll instead.
Anyhow, I could probably find answers to these questions just by going into a wrestling room and rolling around with a fake Nolf. Except that I don't have a wrestling room to go to, these days.
I was going to ask the rest of us to go into our wrestling rooms and research the answer and report back, but maybe we should let Nolf keep his secrets and let other people, non PSU-fans, spill the beans on a good counter.
By the way, I wonder if Mega could've used Nolf's move against Delgado ...
Hi Cyclingmik,
> Didn't appear that Nolf had a tight hold on IMAR.
> Any subtle technique differences being used ...?
I should answer your question more directly.
I see it the same way you did.
It *seems* that IMAR did not have to let himself get pinned.
I think IMAR's reaction to the hold--namely, continue to stiffen his arm, and then both his arms, in trying to roll through--contributed to the pin. In that sense, it was an inadvertently cooperative pin. In other words, I think IMAR did the exact thing Nolf hoped he would do.
The stiff arms meant that Nolf could use those stiff arms as handles with which to push IMAR's shoulders down. Those handles stuck out from IMAR's body which gave Nolf a more convenient place from which to push on IMAR.
I think tikk10 probably got it right when he said that IMAR was "out of gas, energy, options, game plan, ..." Once the roll-through did not work, I think IMAR was too gassed, physically and mentally, to try any kind of Plan B. He could not think of anything else to try in the fog of battle, so he did the next best thing, which was to try the same thing even harder.
BTW, IMAR did bridge a little bit right at the beginning, but he did it just to get enough space, he thought, to power through the Abas roll. Well, now we know he thought wrong. In hindsight, that little bit of space he created wasn't useful for making the roll succeed.
I think if IMAR had limped his arms or tried other different things, it would have bought him at least more time until a pin, or maybe it would have gotten him off his back completely. In 20/20 hindsight, I think IMAR made the pin too easy by sticking with the stiff-armed roll that was not working.
> Didn't appear that Nolf had a tight hold on IMAR.
> Any subtle technique differences being used ...?
I should answer your question more directly.
I see it the same way you did.
It *seems* that IMAR did not have to let himself get pinned.
I think IMAR's reaction to the hold--namely, continue to stiffen his arm, and then both his arms, in trying to roll through--contributed to the pin. In that sense, it was an inadvertently cooperative pin. In other words, I think IMAR did the exact thing Nolf hoped he would do.
The stiff arms meant that Nolf could use those stiff arms as handles with which to push IMAR's shoulders down. Those handles stuck out from IMAR's body which gave Nolf a more convenient place from which to push on IMAR.
I think tikk10 probably got it right when he said that IMAR was "out of gas, energy, options, game plan, ..." Once the roll-through did not work, I think IMAR was too gassed, physically and mentally, to try any kind of Plan B. He could not think of anything else to try in the fog of battle, so he did the next best thing, which was to try the same thing even harder.
BTW, IMAR did bridge a little bit right at the beginning, but he did it just to get enough space, he thought, to power through the Abas roll. Well, now we know he thought wrong. In hindsight, that little bit of space he created wasn't useful for making the roll succeed.
I think if IMAR had limped his arms or tried other different things, it would have bought him at least more time until a pin, or maybe it would have gotten him off his back completely. In 20/20 hindsight, I think IMAR made the pin too easy by sticking with the stiff-armed roll that was not working.
Early in the match Imar tried several times to throw Nolf with no success. I think Jason is much stronger than he looks.
great balance and he moves well for leverage.
Yeah, his defense there didn't have much to do with matching IMar's strength so much as moving to counteract the leverage IMar would need to make that throw. He bends so he doesn't break, which is an intuitive gift not many wrestlers possess. But with Nolf it's even more than that because even fewer have the presence of mind to see that sequence as a scoring opportunity. Most guys are just looking to recover and get back to neutral; Nolf goes behind and gets 2 and has the legs in only 5 seconds after Gibbons and Johnson were giving IMar the 2 on the throw.
Even as a skinny middle school kid, Nolf always seemed to have unusual strength. I think it is more about leverage, position and technique. Combine that with an incredible motor and you have your hands full.
Confidence may be his biggest strength. Willing to let it fly and believes he can overcome any setback.
They tell a story about Nolf out with the team at a restaurant, iirc. Nolf got on himself for taking two extra steps that weren't needed, to get where they were going.
LOL- Seems he has a very keen awareness of the most efficient body movements toward his goals. Perhaps he enhances it even more by training his mind to be calculating quickly all the time, via efficient and effective body movements.
Any updates or modifications are welcome. Believe the basic story was in a recent write-up about him, before or after the I-Mar match.
With or without the story, Nolf seems to have amazing body awareness and an ability to very quickly rotate his body into optimal positions, while applying targeted leverage against his opponents.
Very fun to watch him wrestle.
Some people are born with more leverage in their tendons due to being longer I believe and how they're connected. In any event, some people who do not have excessive muscle mass are still quite stong from tendons - I would say Magic Man, Q and Bo Knows Wrestling fit into this category. Deceptive strength relative to the look of the physique.
