It seems ridiculous to adopt the attitude that a man must wrestle badly and beneath his abilities to insure team victory. But that is exactly the position adopted by wrestling coaches, especially throughout New England. For the past several years, one of our fore-most rivals in the sport has each year followed this policy of submerging a man for the sake of a few points. Such a situation is much different from that of a football team, for instance, where one man does the dirty work of blocking and tackling to the exclusion of any spectacular ball-carrying on his part in order to make the team more powerful as a unit. But the blocking back and the unnoticed lineman are expected to do their jobs well, and the tasks they have to handle are just as important in football as that of the pass-catching end. In wrestling, however, one man is asked to go out and try to keep away from his opponent so that a coach may chalk up another victory for the team.

Fablan tactics are often useful in war, but intercollegiate wrestling is not war; it is a sport where each man should be allowed to do his best to beat his opponent. A coach is employed to teach a man how to wrestle, and when he deliberately orders a man to forget all he knows about wrestling and go on the mat and play tag, that coach should be asked to resign. Any coach realizes that great wrestlers cannot be developed by men who have been taught to stall. In the wrestling game, more than any other sport, perhaps, the greatest defense for a smart wrestler is aggressiveness. Olympic wrestlers are of this type, and many potential Olympic stars have been ruined by a point-conscious coach.