2010 World Championships

Coaches Apprentice Program (Day 7)

The Kremlin Revisited

At 7:00 a.m. Cody Bickley led 10 of us on a mission to breech the walls of the Kremlin before wrestling started at 1:00 p.m.

We rode confidently on the metro and again emerged facing the Kremlin.  We walked through Red Square, saw Lenin’s tomb from the outside, took more pictures of St. Basils, and then retraced our steps to arrive at the Alexandrovsky Gardens just in time to see the goose-stepping changing of the guards at the eternal flame of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.  A soldier who died in December 1941 at the spot of the deepest Nazi incursion into Russia is buried there.

Cody shot video of the two replacement guards and their sergeant of the guard making the long solemn march to the tomb.  An officer walked to the right of the guards, the large red urns with soil from the Russian cities that withstood the heaviest fighting during World War II, separating him from his men.  As they came closer to the tomb, Matt Hampton realized that his gear was on the ground, directly in the officer’s path.  He tried to move it but he was too late.  Now not only his gear was between the officer and the tomb, but Matt was as well.  The officer’s eyes flared in disbelief as he sidestepped his American obstacle to keep pace with his men.  Participatory tourism.

We set a rendezvous spot for 11:45 a.m. and the group split for sightseeing. 

Those in our sub-group, Cody, Matt Oney, John Grecco and I, were the only ones to actually get inside the Kremlin walls.  We bought tickets at the Katufiya Tower, stored our bags in the lockers (mandatory), and headed in over the Trinity Bridge.  We walked through the Bell-Tower of Ivan the Great into Cathedral Square around which, not surprisingly, sit 3 cathedrals and a small church, all with golden onion domes:  the Assumption Cathedral, the Church of the Deposition of the Robe of the Holy Virgin, the Annunciation Cathedral, and the Archangel Cathedral.  The churches seem noble and exotic from a distance, somewhat worn from close up, and just plain old inside.  Given the grand exterior scale of the buildings, the cramped interiors came as a surprise.  The dim lighting barely illuminated the relics and the art works that seemed haphazardly displayed.  In several churches metal-reinforcing beams spanned the interior arches and domes.  In most of the cathedrals, the large, stern face of Christ, painted on the inside of the onion domes, looked down on those in the nave.

When we exited, we raced back across Red Square to walk through the jammed halls of St. Basil’s and then quick-timed the square once more to make the rendezvous.  A short metro ride later we were at the venue for the first day of competition exclusively devoted to men’s freestyle.

Freestyle Rules

Crowd.  Sorry Greco.  Sorry ladies.  Men’s freestyle rules in Russia.  Spectators showed up today for the first day when all of the matches were for Men’s Freestyle like voters in Chicago – early and often.  The stands were nearly filled even though the full house-ness of the venue was hard gauge because the place was designed for other sports.  Lots of empty seats can be seen beyond the main body of the crowd even though the functional viewing area is butt-cheek to butt-cheek filled.

And sitting with thousands of knowledgeable fans who ooh and ah at the nuances of the sport is a trip.  A casual fan might not think that anything was going on but the Russian crowd would be buzzing and getting ready to cheer wildly.

Wrestling.  Except for the fact that the USA guys didn’t stick around as long as we’d hoped, watching wrestling at the highest level gives a natural high.  Powerful men solving genius-level kinesthetic problems with grace and brutality.

Mat Girls.  Halfway through the tournament the tournament authorities added local color to the finals.  Two traditionally dressed (and traditionally beautiful) ladies aloofly escort each wrestler to the main mat with a sign that gives the wrestler’s country.  They wear red, spade-shaped kokoshniks, a patterned head-dress that frames the face like a halo, white linen rubashka shirts with poofy sleeves, and red sarafan dresses, embroidered in brocade, and somehow tucked to create curved pleats, like Christmas ribbon candy.  Tradition ends at the thighs because I doubt the dresses of old were hemmed to show off red mesh stockings and high heels (they weren’t allowed to walk on the mat).  Something old, something new . . .

Referees.  Sadly, some of the refs think that the crowd came to the Sport Centre Olimpiskiy to watch them.  Maybe they have relatives in the crowd and are, to a very, very small degree, right.  Those confused refs yell at the hard working wrestlers to pick up the pace, almost always make the clinch a misadventure by trying to over-control the positioning, and routinely throw up a hand showing Red’s move as Blue’s points.  The crowd responds with shrill whistles and a discontented growl.  We had two of those refs in this evening’s three final’s matches.  Goofing it up on the most important matches of the night detracts from the thousands of correct calls made by the refs throughout the day.

Shawarma Revisited

The presence of good food can’t be kept a secret among the hungry.  Steve led a large party of CAP foragers to the take-out place for a second night of spicy chicken shawarmas.  Just as good on day two as on day one.  For only 90 rubles each (@ $3) we ate with smiles on our faces while avoiding the food at the Cosmos that we paid an I-don’t-really-want-to-know-how-bad-I-got-ripped-off amount of money not to enjoy.  What a bargain!

Why We Came to Moscow

Yesterday, Cody placed Jamie Crossno with the Men’s Freestyle team.  Obe Blanc, the USA’s 55kg wrestler, was competing on the same day as Kristie Davis and Stephany Lee.  Jamie would film the match of Obe’s probable next opponent from the stands and then run the camera back to the warm up area for the coaches to view the video if they wanted.  It sounds simple but given the unpredictability of the guards at each entrance/exit – you never knew whether the guard whose door you passed through 4 times in the last 2 hours would allow you to pass through on the 5^th just minutes later – and the shortness of time between matches, the logistics of scouting by video posed a small challenge.

When I walked by the USA men’s warm up area, I saw Jamie holding his camera up and playing the video he just shot while John Smith and Zeke Jones broke down the opponent’s technique from a match less than 5 minutes old.  A prime example of NCEP’s CAP working fine.