Important Predictor of Match Outcome

Why do coaches care about “short time” performance?

The reason is simple: points scored in short time are difficult for an opponent to make up because of the imminent time-out due to match clock expiration. Short time scoring is similar to edge scoring in this sense.

Many in the wrestling community believe that scoring the first takedown is the best predictor of victory and that might be true. However, short-time scoring may be just as relevant and if you’re looking to goose your winning percentage, short-time scoring merits some practice attention.

Implementation in Takedown Scoring and Stats

This Short Time Scoring report can be found in the Reports section of the app.

Recognizing that ‘short time’ means different things to different coaches, Takedown allows you to set a short time value of 5, 10, 15 or 20 seconds. For each wrestler, the report displays the number of points scored and conceded within this short time ‘bucket’ prior to clock expiration. Use filters to narrow or expand the scope over which short time scoring is calculated.

The report also provides a ratio - Average Point Advantage - that allows you to quickly evaluate a wrestler's short time performance. This statistic is simply short-time points scored minus short time points conceded divided by the total number of periods wrestled.

If the Average Point Advantage is positive, then your wrestler is scoring more short-time points than conceded. If the value negative then the opposite would be true. This wrestler will be far less likely, on average, to win matches.

As a coach that's what you want to know.

The accuracy of the Short Time Report depends on your having scored the match live because the stat requires an accurate match clock. If the match has been marked as “transcribed” then Takedown excludes the match from the short time scoring statistics.