Timely Information for Takedown Scoring and Stats Users
Emerging from the Darkness: High School Wrestling Participation 2022-2023
NFHS wrestling participation for 2022-2023. Coming out of the COVID darkness and into the light, boys rebounding to 2014-2015 levels. As expected, strong growth in girls programs with one concerning metric.
The NFHS recently released their high school sports participaton data for 2022-2023. Total wrestling participants was 305,593, a record in this millenia, representing 16% growth from the previous survey year. This growth far outpaces the year-year growth in total high school sports participation which was 3.1%.
Overall, boys wrestling rebounded to levels not seen since 2014-2015. While the number of boys teams has remained roughly constant, the number of participants increased by 11% to 256,466.
Girls wrestling continues to grow like a weed with 49,127 participants in 6,381 programs representing year-year growth of 55% and 33%, respectively. One in six high school wrestlers was a girl in 2022-2023. One cloud for girls wrestling is the anemic growth in average team size which was reported at 7.7 wrestlers per team. At historical growth rates, the average girls team won’t be capable of filling a minimum dual meet roster for another 20+ years.
Among high school sports participants, wrestling’s popularity has increased a bit. Wrestling’s share of all high school sports participants edged up slightly from 3.5% to 3.9%, with boys at 5.7% and girls at 1.5%.
Click on any chart to enlarge.
Number of Wrestling Programs
Number of Participants
Wrestlers Per Team
Wrestling Share of High School Sports
Fog in the NCAA Wrestling Rules Committee
We might need to tap the brakes.
Recently, the NCAA wrestling rules committee proposed a slate of rule changes some of which involve scoring. Specifically, the committee proposed (1) increasing the point value for a takedown from two to three and (2) conditioning the riding time advantage point on earning a near fall.
One might reasonably assume the committee knows exactly what they’re trying to accomplish with these fundamental changes, and that they’ve developed some measurable success metrics.
Need for Situational Awareness
Various coaches, including the committee chair, have expressed the goals of the scoring changes as some variation of:
Avoiding undesirable scoring scenarios
Increasing excitement or ‘action’
These are meritorious goals to be sure.
So, let’s do it!
Not so fast.
The issue with proceeding might be twofold:
We don’t know where we are
We don’t know where we want to be
Data Free Decision-Making
Consider the goal of “avoiding undesirable scoring scenarios.“
Three questions should be answered before adopting a scoring change:
Which undesirable scoring scenarios? These scenarios? Any wrestling scoring scenario can be uniquely described as a sequence of scoring activity in specific periods.
How frequently do these scenarios occur now?
How frequently should these scenarios occur in the future?
Same argument goes for “increasing excitement or action.” What exactly does this mean?
Answering these questions revolves around collecting and analyzing data — readily available in Trackwrestling — and setting explicit objectives. For example, the committee might say:
“We want to reduce the occurrence of situations in which (describe scoring sequence here) is sufficient to win the match. Currently, this occurs in X% of all college matches. Our goal is to reduce this by (insert goal here). We are proposing (insert rule change here) to achieve this goal by (insert timeframe here).”
If this work hasn’t been done, then it is a matter of fact that we will never know if the proposed changes, if adopted, are effective.
And, that’s a bad outcome for wrestling.
Takedown v. Matboss
You don’t need another boss. You need help.
We are often asked “How does Takedown compare to Matboss?”
Here’s a comparison.
Version 3.2.5
The newest version of Takedown Scoring and Stats is 3.2.5.
Primarily bug fixes.
Recommended download for all users.
Version 3.2.4
The newest version of Takedown Scoring and Stats is 3.2.4. Bug fixes and two new helpful features.
Recommended download for all users.
Swap Scoring
Sometimes in a tournament, a Takedown operator will inadvertently enter scoring activity for the wrong wrestler, especially if they haven’t assigned the correct color for the wrestlers.
Now there’s an easy fix for this error! The scoring for the match can be swapped like this:
Access this feature via Event>>Matches>select match>>Edit.
Auto Rewind
Sometimes scorers don’t tap a scoring action coincident with the referee signal. They might be distracted or engaged watching the match. Or, it might just be how they roll.
During video review in Takedown, Auto Rewind compensates for this delay by allowing the user to select the the number of seconds to rewind prior to the scoring action. This is a persistent setting — it will remain at the value you choose until changed. The default value is five seconds.
Auto-Rewind is available in any Takedown video review.
Revised Shot Success Rate Statistic
We were doing it wrong. That’s fixed.
You might have noticed that the Shot Success Rate report didn’t jive with the Leaderboard’s display for Shot Success Rate. That was a bug.
In digging deeper, we found a small error in how we were calculating the Shot Success Rate statistic. It’s fixed now.
For the calculation, a shot is successful if the next scoring action (next scoring tap) is a takedown. Otherwise, the shot is unsuccessful.
So, your Shot Success Rate statistics will change and, now, the Leaderboard and Shot Success Rate reports are consistent.
Also, our resident math wizard is happier so it’s a win all around.
Version 3.2.3
The newest version of Takedown Scoring and Stats is 3.2.3.
Primarily bug fixes. Restored functionality related to roster import from a file.
Recommended download for all users.
New Feature: Handout
Release 3.2 has introduces two new and fantastic features. Here’s one of them: Handout.
Getting expected lineups in the hands of your fans can be a daunting task. Lineups aren’t often known until just prior to a dual meet and that leaves scant time for document creation and distribution.
Takedown’s new Handout feature uses existing Event information to quickly generate a high quality expected lineups document that is easily emailed to your fans and wrestlers using email addresses in Contacts and Rosters. If you’re using Takedown’s features to get maximum value from the app, then emailing the Handout to your fans takes less than five seconds.
Using Handout
Select the Event, then next to Pairings tap Handout:
This is the onscreen display.
Tap Options to change the document content. You can include/exclude wrestler photos and include/exclude the Score columns.
Tap the Sharing icon next to Options to email the Handout in PDF format. Takedown will automatically add email addresses from Roster and Contacts into the highlighted To: field.
Add or delete email addresses, change the Subj: or add some text to the email body as you see fit. Tap the Apple Email send button (up arrow embedded in blue circle) when you’re ready.
Here’s what the Handout looks like in PDF format — this is what you’re sending in the email. Since it’s a PDF file — the most popular document format in the world — it renders perfectly on any device (mobile, desktop, laptop).
Handouts draws on these assets in Takedown:
Pairings for wrestler names
Event for weight classes, starting weight class, Event name and date
Roster for wrestler photo and email address
Contacts for email addresses.*
Opponent Teams for opponent logo
My Team for your logo
You don’t need everything perfectly configured to use Handout. For example, if you haven’t entered the Opponent Team logo into Takedown, that portion of the Handout will be blank. In fact, the only information Handout requires is the required information for the dual meet — weight classes, starting weight class, Event name and date.
Use the Handout to dazzle your fans! They’ll appreciate it and, even better, if you’re using Takedown properly the incremental effort is two taps. High value, nearly zero effort is the best it gets.
* Contacts tagged as Head coach, Assistant coach, Team Manager, Scorer, Videographer, Parent or SID will be automatically added to the email To: field. Remember: all information in the email can be edited, including the To: field.
New Feature: Video Room
Release 3.2 has introduces two new and fantastic features. Here’s one of them: Video Room.
Since we released video support in 2018, Takedown users have had the in-app ability to review video by event. This capability is accessed via the Schedule.
With the new Video Room feature, you can review video by wrestler. This exciting new capability is accessed via the Roster.
In addition, Video Room can filter video by Scoring Actions and Events so that you could, for example, generate a video clip list of all takedowns and escapes (including opponents) for a custom set of Events. Also, similar to Notify Wrestlers in Manage Video, in Video Room you can easily share the video clips with your wrestlers and other interested audiences.
Using Video Room
Access Video Room via Roster. Tap the wrestler of interest.
Filters
The initial view displays all matches for the selected wrestler in the Season.
The initial view displays full matches for the wrestler. Tap Filter for selecting specific Scoring Actions for your wrestler and opponents, and for selecting specific Events. Tap Filter in the upper right to save your selection.
The display updates the results based on Filter selection. Tap the “>” to the right of each row to view the selected video clip.
Video Viewer
The video viewer offers two navigation options. First, we introduce the new ‘Next’ and ‘Previous’ buttons for sequencing to adjacent video clips without exiting the viewer. Note the Scoring Action type and count in the top of the display. Also, Video Room offers the familiar navigable scoring transcript for immediately moving to any Scoring Action in the match.
Sharing Video
Finally, share with your wrestler (or anyone with an email address) the displayed video clips. Tap the sharing icon and, optionally, edit the email message. Add comments if you’d like. Tap the send button (up arrow embedded in blue circle) when you’re ready.
Video Room is an exciting addition to Takedown’s portfolio of video review features. It allows you to easily tailor your review to specific Scoring Actions and Events for each wrestler and share clips and commentary. This is an indispensable tool for developing wrestler-specific training and helping your wrestlers improve their skills.
Take a look at Video Room and let us know your thoughts.
Version 3.2.2
New release available for download.
We inadvertently introduced a serious bug in 3.2.1 that occurs when searching for Opponent Teams. Release 3.2.2 fixes that bug. Apologies. Recommended download for all users.