USARugger
John Thornett (49)
I was talking with a friend this morning when he started asking me for any tips I had in regards to forcing turnovers. It got me thinking about some of the stuff I've done on the field and the potential legality of it.
As a kid I played a good amount of sports but Folk-style Wrestling was far and away my strong suit and was a sport I participated in and trained for literally all year. As a result the contact area/breakdown is where I tend to shine and is by far where I am the most comfortable during matches (scoring tries is great but nothing beats laying a dominant tackle on someone or forcing penalties/turnovers, it just gets me off, sorry if that was too much information). Most of what I incorporate from ~15 years of wrestling is largely just body position and different ways to manipulate the COG of myself and my opponent, so generally just bits and pieces of things.
One big exception to this though has to be my love for the Gator Roll. It's a flashy little take-down move that most wrestlers learn after a few years in the sport. In particular I like to use it if I can hold a man up. Watch the clip below and you'll see exactly why, I obviously pull the arm out from behind their head during the roll so I can properly contest the ball. There was a good stretch where I was doing this at least once a match and only got whistled for it probably 10-15% of the time, when I did get whistled it was simply for 'reckless play' or something similar. Here's a clip demonstrating the move:
So my question is, is this legal? The only thing I can think of that would be of issue would be cupping the other players chin as a violation of the shoulders-and-neck rule. When done at full speed you really don't see the hand touching the chin though, it all happens too quickly. So now I'm wondering - was I not getting whistled because the referee(s) weren't seeing me touch the chin or because this isn't explicitly illegal?
As a kid I played a good amount of sports but Folk-style Wrestling was far and away my strong suit and was a sport I participated in and trained for literally all year. As a result the contact area/breakdown is where I tend to shine and is by far where I am the most comfortable during matches (scoring tries is great but nothing beats laying a dominant tackle on someone or forcing penalties/turnovers, it just gets me off, sorry if that was too much information). Most of what I incorporate from ~15 years of wrestling is largely just body position and different ways to manipulate the COG of myself and my opponent, so generally just bits and pieces of things.
One big exception to this though has to be my love for the Gator Roll. It's a flashy little take-down move that most wrestlers learn after a few years in the sport. In particular I like to use it if I can hold a man up. Watch the clip below and you'll see exactly why, I obviously pull the arm out from behind their head during the roll so I can properly contest the ball. There was a good stretch where I was doing this at least once a match and only got whistled for it probably 10-15% of the time, when I did get whistled it was simply for 'reckless play' or something similar. Here's a clip demonstrating the move:
So my question is, is this legal? The only thing I can think of that would be of issue would be cupping the other players chin as a violation of the shoulders-and-neck rule. When done at full speed you really don't see the hand touching the chin though, it all happens too quickly. So now I'm wondering - was I not getting whistled because the referee(s) weren't seeing me touch the chin or because this isn't explicitly illegal?
