$199 iPads

Today we receive a promotional email about $199 iPads from one of our personal favorites — Costco. We wondered if Amazon was fire-selling iPads, too. Sure enough they are.

Both companies (and probably other retailers) are offering the 64 GB 9th gen iPad for $199 + applicable taxes. If you’re looking to expand your inventory of Takedown iPads, this is a great opportunity to get a reasonably new iPad at a good price.

Links:

Amazon $199 iPad
Costco $199 iPad

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Note: we are not affiliates of companies mentioned herein and do not receive any compensation for this post. This is purely a public service announcement.

Summer Update #2

We’re busy! Here’s what we’re doing.

Improving Scoring Interface

Engineering is improving the scoring interface by making the scoring buttons easier to access, surfacing “choice-on-restart” to the score sheet, filling in notational voids in the rules books, preventing a handful of infrequent scoring errors and adding support for non-participant penalties. We’re working closely with a bunch of experienced Takedown users to validate the changes and chase bugs. The group is giving us some great insights and they are expert bug finders.

This work will make the scoring interface even more reliable and easy to use while, at the same time, generating statistical details that aren’t currently available. In addition, architectural changes will make it easier for us to implement a high quality scoring interface for international styles in the future.

The major release with these changes will be available in early September.

High School Rules Changes

On April 23, 2024, the NFHS annouced a slate of wrestling rules changes for the 2024-2025 season. The relevant changes concern point awards for takedowns and near falls. These changes will be in the early September release.

Mat Side Scoreboard — Should we offer?

We’ve dabbled in scoreboards from the beginning. Takedown currently offers a a Scoreboard feature for presenting a professional, real-time, wrestling-specific scoreboard on a digital display.

So far, we haven’t offered for sale a hardware scoreboard though we’ve designed, built and used plenty of them.

We were pleasantly surprised to discover we could deliver a tripod stand-mounted, wireless, dual display scoreboard — pictured above — for about $600.

With enough concrete interest, we’ll likely make this dual display scoreboard available for purchase. Until then, it’ll sit in the lab (all lonely and stuff).

Express your interest to support@levelchanger.com .

Generate Revenue for your Program

We’re adding Advertising to the Scoreboard feature. This capability offers an exciting way to generate revenue for your program by allowing you to display a rotating schedule of advertising or sponsorship images on the Scoreboard. This is an easy way to raise significant funds for your program. Many local advertisers will renew their ads every season, so this new feature offers the potential for a low cost, recurring source of incremental funding.

Impact of NCAA Rule Changes on Scoring

Lastly, we’ve analyzed customer data to assess the impact of last year’s NCAA rules changes on scoring. We’re the first to do this work and it’s garnered some attention in the wrestling world. Read our analysis here.

We’ve had some questions from around the wrestling-verse so this work is ongoing.

Impact of NCAA Rule Changes on Scoring

We just finished the first NCAA wrestling season with revised match point awards for takedowns and near falls.

What impact did those changes have in the first season after the changes?

We dug into our database of college wrestling matches to find out.*

Tech Falls Increased

With respect to match outcomes, decisions declined in favor of a significant increase in technical falls and, to a lesser extent, an increase in major decisions. Pins were unchanged.

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Takedowns Decreased

Average number of takedowns and non-penalty scoring events per match both decreased from the T2 rules in effect prior to Sept 1 2023. Near falls are unchanged.

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Match Scores Didn’t Change

The match scores occurring most frequently are roughly the same when taking into account the higher point values for a takedown. NCAA wrestling matches remain low scoring, tightly contested affairs in the T3 era.

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Takeaways

• The rule changes are shortening match and event durations by making a technical fall easier to achieve prior to regulation time expiration.

• Because technical falls and major decisions are occuring more often, team scores should be higher under the new rules.

• So far, there’s no evidence that increasing the match point values for takedowns and near falls generated any more ‘action’ or scoring activity. Indeed, scoring activity is down slightly with the T3 rules.

• The NCAA wrestling rules committee hasn’t articulated a measurable goal for the rule changes, so we can’t objectively evaluate the results as desirable or not.
  
  Here is the rationale recorded in the REPORT OF THE NCAA WRESTLING RULES COMMITTEE APRIL 17-19, 2023, ANNUAL MEETING:
  
  ”To better reflect the skill and energy required to secure a takedown.

  Increasing the points awarded will incentivize wrestlers to take additional risk in the

  neutral position, providing increased opportunities for both offensive and defensive

  takedowns.”
  
  Makes sense that three match points could provide more “incentive.” Whether there were more “opportunities for … takedowns” is a matter of opinion.

• NFHS is adopting the NCAA scoring changes. Other than eliminating differences between high school and college rules — generally, a good idea in our view — what is the NFHS trying to accomplish?

• It’s early in the game. We’ll take another look after the 2024-2025 season.

Improvements/Suggestions:

From around the wrestling-verse, we’ve seen some feedback. Here’s a summary:

• Intermat: normalize data to account for matches that don’t last seven minutes such as pins and technical falls. The metric in this case would be scoring events per match clock minute or scoring events per seven match clock minutes (full match). This is possible and we will work on it.

• Intermat: are the differences in the averages statistically significant? Good question. We will investigate.

• Intermat: are takedowns the result of initiating or countering? This statistics isn’t recorded so not possible.

• Facebook: how many are offensive versus defensive takedowns? This statistic isn’t recorded so not possible.

• Facebook: was there an increase or decrease in stalemates? This statistic isn’t recorded so not possible.

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* Roughly 6,700 matches generated by college level users of Takedown Scoring and Stats. Disqualifications, defaults and overtime excluded from analysis.

A Statistical Look at Victory Odds in High School Wrestling

Scoring the first takedown is crucial, significantly enhancing a wrestler's chance of victory.

Taking this to the next level, we explored the probability of winning given the score at any point in the match by analyzing 500,000 high school matches with a detailed statistical model. Here’s what we discovered.

Key Findings

• Four-Point Lead Is Decisive: a four-point lead at any time results in a win 93% of the time.:

• Period Timing Is Irrelevant: The lead's timing does not significantly alter the win chances. Whether you’re up by one point in the first or third period, the chances of winning are roughly equal.

• Scoring Differential Matters: It's the difference in scores, not the absolute scores, that determines the win probability. A 1-0 match and 7-6 match have the same win probability. With one second left in the match, this is obvious. Not as much when mid-way through the second period and the feathers are flying.

• College is Slightly Higher: at all scoring differentials, the victory probability is slightly higher for college matches.

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Click or tap chart to enlarge.

The model is 86% accurate and while that’s commendable as statistical models go it isn’t perfect. Sometimes outcomes are unpredictable! Wrestling would be boring otherwise.

Revisit Tech Falls

At a scoring difference of 10 points, the model calculates a win probability of 99.9%. At 12 points or more, this large sample has no instance of the prevailing wrestler losing; that is, in every single instance where a wrestler is winning by 12 points or more, the wrestler with the lead won the match.

Might make sense to ratchet that down the technical fall threshold from 15 to 12 or even a 10 point advantage. This change would better reflect that realities of competition.

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Why Do This Analysis?

While wrestling currently trails other sports in analytics, we are excited to make a meaningful contribution. Our ongoing efforts in this area aim to improve our products, educate the wrestling community, and elevate the sport's analytics profile.

We hope the folks who conjure up the rules and make changes are listening. With the right tools — like Takedown Scoring and Stats — wrestling can be a analytics rich sport and, perhaps, close the embarrassing data gap between wrestling and other sports that long ago embraced data analytics and statistics.

We will use this model in our products to improve the presentation of match results in Takedown LIVE and, perhaps, X (formerly Twitter). Stay tuned for those enhancements later this year.

New Release of Takedown LIVE for Android

Takedown LIVE for Android version 1.2.1 is available for download in the Google Play Store. Recommended download for all Takedown LIVE for Android users.

With this release, Takedown LIVE for Android’s feature set is equivalent to Takedown LIVE for iOS. So whether you’re on an Android or Apple device, you’ll get the same great fan experience!

If you’re a Takedown Scoring and Stats user, turn on and customize Takedown LIVE in Settings.

Takedown LIVE on a Computer

Takedown LIVE is now fully compatible with Chromebook computers. Download Takedown LIVE from the Play Store onto your Chromebook and get the same realtime wrestling results and video access that you’d get on Android or iOS.

LevelChanger’s apps offer the widest range of platform compability in wrestling.

Takedown LIVE Compatibility

• iPhone and iPad

• Macintosh

• Android phone and tablet

• Chromebook

Takedown Scoring and Stats Compatibility

• iPad

• Macintosh

Budgeting for Next Season

With the scholastic season in the rear view mirror, many teams are already planning for next season. Here are some investments to consider.

External Camera

A game-changer for video. Read about our experience here.

Cost: $100 - $500

Camera Mount

Whether you use the iPad or an external camera for video recording, some sort of stablizing mount is very helpful. Choices include a tripod, monopod and/or a table stand. See examples. Good selection on Amazon.

Cost: $50-$100

External Battery

A life-saver when your iPad’s battery is running low. See example. Great selection on Amazon.

Cost: $50+

Apple AV Adapter

Easiest and cheapest way to use Takedown’s Scoreboard feature. Available for Lightning and USB-C iPad connectors. Don’t forget to get an HDMI cable — Amazon is a good source.

Cost: $50 - $70 for adapter, $10-$20 for HDMI cable

iPad

Upgrade or add another iPad to your Takedown deployment. Amazon and eBay are good sources for used iPads.

Cost: $200 +

Protective iPad Cover

If you drop an unprotected iPad from shoulder height onto a solid floor, the screen will likely crack or worse. A folio cover is cheap insurance. Find a new one on Amazon or eBay.

Cost: $20

Video Subscription

Add a video subscription to your Takedown scoring subscription and reap the benefits of an efficient video workflow.

Cost: $150 annually

Digital Display

For Takedown’s Scoreboard feature, you need an HDMI-equipped display. Schools typically have an inventory of these displays and your school’s gym might already have a compatible wall-mounted display.

Cost: $125 and up, depending on display size.

Bluetooth Scale

Use Takedown’s free paperless, wireless weight recording feature to conveniently track athlete progress toward their weight objective. Takedown is compatible with the Befour PS-6615 scale.

Cost: $700 for scale

Teams and States Leading the Digital Revolution -- Final Tally 2023-2024

Top 20 Digitized Wrestling Teams

1. Edwardsville High School Wrestling

2. Hillsborough Wrestling Takedown Club

3. Evanston Township

4. Chief Sealth

5. Jays Wrestling

6. JC Youth Wrestling Club

7. North Knox

8. Big Walnut

9. Wauseon

10. Butler (Vandalia)

11. Liberty High School

12. Shawnee Mission South HS

13. Napoleon

14. Mallard Creek High School

15. Yorkville

16. Lockport Township

17. Hurricane Middle School

18. Langham Creek HS

19. Western Boone Wrestling

20. Hurricane High School

Top 10 Digitized Wrestling States

1. Ohio

2. Illinois

3. Missouri

4. Pennsylvania

5. California

6. Michigan

7. Texas

8. Kansas

9. Indiana

10. Georgia

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One Million

Takedown users have scored over one million matches! Wow. That’s quite an accomplishment!

Congratulations to all of our wonderful customers including these two happy managers.

Onward to two million.

More:

• Here are some of the 18,000 events recently scored by Takedown users.

Version 3.3.11

The newest version of Takedown Scoring and Stats is 3.3.11

This release includes bug fixes.

Highly recommended download for all users.