Timely Information for Takedown Scoring and Stats Users
New Features in Takedown 3.4
Get the lowdown on what’s new in Takedown this season.
If you missed the new features review, here’s what was covered:
3 Ways to Improve Your Team's Takedown LIVE Presentation
Avoid the “—-” and two other items that’ll improve your team’s look on Takedown LIVE.
Takedown LIVE is a great way to communicate with your fans. After setup in Takedown Scoring and Stats the content is automatically generated from the scoring activity so it doesn’t burden on the scorer.
Here are three ways to improve your team’s look on Takedown LIVE.
Add a Logo
If you don’t add a logo for your team in Takedown Scoring and Stats then Takedown LIVE will use a question mark (?) as a placeholder.
Add a logo in My Teams or in the Takedown LIVE section of Social.
Add theRound
In a tournament, Takedown doesn’t know whether a match is in the semis, finals or in round 1. If the round isn’t assigned in Takedown Scoring and Stats, then Takedown LIVE will only display the bracket — Championship or Consolations.
Add the round in Takedown Scoring and Stats in Pairings or in Scoring. This information will appear next to the bracket in Takedown LIVE.
Tutorial: Add Round in Pairings
Tutorial: Add Round in Scoring
Assign a Weight Class
In a tournament, Takedown Scoring and Stats doesn’t know the weight class at which your wrestler is competing. If you don’t enter this information, Takedown LIVE will use a triple dash (“—-”) as a placeholder.
Assign your wrestlers to a weight class and this information will appear to the left of the bracket.
In the Event, Weigh in Wrestlers to assign weight classes. Note that it isn’t required to enter the weigh in information in order to assign the athlete to a weight class.
It’s easy to improve your team’s Takedown LIVE presentation. Try these three items today!
Avoid the Season Start Blues
There’s always a hiccup at season start. Here’s how to smooth it out.
Here are the things that can be frustrating at season start and how to fix them before the referee blows the whistle.
Crash on Launch
For a variety of technical reasons, if the app hasn’t been launched for a few months it will often crash or simply close very quickly after launch. Delete the app, download from the App Store and log in.
YouTube Upload Limit
YouTube temporarily imposes upload limits on new YouTube accounts. You can fix this and it is a very good idea to do this prior to the season. See this support article.
Bad Email Address
Your Takedown login email isn’t accessible and you need it changed. See this support article.
Can’t Find Email Verification Message
Common problem especially if you use a school email address. See this support article.
Subscription Problems
Can be very frustrating for you and us, too. Common causes: (1) invalid payment method on your Apple ID so your purchase didn’t complete; (2) purchased the subscription(s) with an Apple ID that isn’t used on any of your Takedown iPads; and (3) you forgot that you cancelled auto-renewal.
We can’t fix these problems, but we can offer some help:
Make sure at least one of your Takedown iPads is registered to the Apple ID that purchased the subscription.
Use “Check for Active Subscriptions” to force Takedown to get your subscription status (Takedown>Settings>Takedown Store)
Use “Manage Subscriptions” to see if Apple thinks the Apple ID on the iPad has a valid Takedown subscription. (Takedown>Settings>Takedown Store). Again, only one of your Takedown iPads needs to be registered to the Apple ID that purchased the subscription.
These articles from our support site have more details.
Rosters
The process we use to gather rosters from Trackwrestling is very labor intensive and manual. Our database isn’t dynamically synchronized with Track. It can be a day or two out of date.
If you notice a Track roster that’s not in our online database, let us know here. We can fix this same day during the week (but not same minute).
Don’t wait for your hair to catch fire before fixing these typical season startup problems. Reach out to us if we can help.
Fall Training Schedule
Get your operator trained before the season starts.
The current Fall training schedule is available in Takedown Help.
These training sessions are intended for Takedown scoring and stats operators.
Major Fall Release -- Takedown Version 3.4
Major fall release with significant improvements to scoring.
The newest version of Takedown Scoring and Stats is 3.4.
Please download Takedown 3.4 from the App Store on all of your iOS 15+ iPads. Your iPad might require updating to the most recent supported iOS version.
Release 3.4 offers an re-engineered scoring interface with more convenient button placement, support for additional scoring types and improved scoring notation that complies with NFHS notation.
We also revised the scoreboard to be more informative, easier to view and read, and more engaging.
Scoring
Convenience
Scoring buttons are close to the iPad screen edges for convenient access. Thumb scorers will love this change.
Choice on restart is selected in the scoring grid making it obvious which wrestler has choice. It’s also easier to score.
Clocks
A paused match clock has a solid background, replacing the pulsing outline, for quicker detection. Also, we added the ‘Head, Neck and Cervical’ clock with associated scoring notation. Secondary clocks are revealed and hidden by tapping the new clock symbol adjacent to the scoring buttons.
Rules
Takedowns are now three match points in accordance with recent NFHS rules changes.
Added Flagrant Misconduct — Contestant, Illegal Hold and Unnecessary Roughness to the list of penalties. We changed the stalling notation to be consistent with the rules book notation which is Sw and S. Also, we added notation team point deduction (TPD) and blood time (BT).
Sticky Note
Need to take a note during a match? The new Notes feature supports taking notes during or in-between matches which are saved to the Match or Event, respectively. Use this feature to memorialize any information you want attached to the Event or Match. Examples include coaching prompts, the identity of an unknown wrestler at a tournament or the name of the coach assessed an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.
Pairings Selector
Pairings selector is represented by a new icon and moved to the left margin directly above the wrestler selection. This is a scrollable list with exhibitions at the bottom.
Also, in a tournament there’s a new selector for bracket assignment next to the pairing icon.
Scoreboard
The Scoreboard feature is revamped to be more informative, engaging and easier to read.
Pre-Event
Prior to entering Scoring and starting the first match, the scoreboard will display your team name and logo, and then rotate through two screens showing your social media handle (just ‘X’ currently) and Takedown LIVE.*
Match Status
The match status presentation contains all information relevant to the match currently being scored. All of the elements have been redesigned to improve readability and overall fan experience. For table-side scoreboard, all match details included are all clocks, a position indicator, a period indicator, ankle band color assignment, contestant names and, of course, the score.
Inter-Match
Between matches, the scoreboard displays team score (dual meet only), the last match result and upcoming contestants. If enabled and available, of photo of your wrestler is displayed
In addition, Takedown Settings offers some latitude regarding which content is displayed on the various Scoreboard screens. For example, you can suppress the wrestler photo if you’d like..
As before, Scoreboard can be transmitted to any digital display via a hardwired connection or wirelessly using Apple Airplay.
That’s a Wrap
Phew! Lots of fantastic stuff in this release. The engineers have been busy bees this past off-season.
Download Takedown 3.4 from the App Store today and try out some of these new and exciting capabilities!
* The Scoreboard screen content is fictional except for the school and wrestler names which are in the public domain.
NFHS Wrestling Rule Changes
This past spring the National Federation of High Schools announced changes to the high school wrestling rules. Read about those changes here.
These rules changes will be reflected in our major fall release scheduled for App Store availability on September 16th.
$199 iPads
iPads for sale, recent model, good price and specs.
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:
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
Here’s what we’re up to this summer.
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
Wrestlers were rewarded with more points for doing the same things. What else happened?
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.
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.
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.
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.
* 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
A look at win probability given the match score confirms what we know. A few surprises.
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.
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.
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.