How important are takedowns?
We looked at over 2,000 matches for 63 wrestlers from six high school programs spread across the country and found that scoring more takedowns than your opponent is
What Does the Data Say About Short-Time Scoring?
To gauge the relevance of short-time scoring as a predictor of victory, we gathered data from 7,355 matches wrestled by 181 athletes at 13 high schools, all users of Takedown Scoring and Stats.
We filtered the data as follows:
Included varsity competition only
Included wrestlers with greater than 20 periods of short-time scoring data
Excluded exhibitions and forfeits from win-loss record
From this sample, we found the following:
With a negative Short-Time Scoring Average Point Advantage the probability of having a winning season is 41%.
With a zero or positive Average Point Advantage the probability of having a winning season is 82%.
This chart shows win percentage as a function of Average Point Advantage for this sample (each dot is a wrestler):
And, while the relevance of short-time scoring is hard to deny, we wondered if improved short-time scoring performance — a positive and increasing Average Point Advantage — is simply a matter of experience. That is, does advantage increase as a function of cumulative match experience?
Surprisingly, in this sample, the answer is no. There’s no meaningful correlation between experience (measured in matches) and short-time scoring performance.
So, we know (at least in this sample) that short-time scoring proficiency can increase one’s chances of having a winning season. It also appears that short-time scoring performance doesn’t naturally improve with experience. Maybe scoring in short-time is a skill (or perhaps a mindset) requiring focus and practice.
Something to think about for coaches wanting to help wrestlers get to the next level.
If you’re interested in tracking short-time scoring performance, check out Takedown Scoring and Stats.
Emerging from the Darkness: High School Wrestling Participation 2022-2023
NFHS wrestling participation for 2022-2023. Coming out of the COVID darkness and into the light, boys rebounding to 2014-2015 levels. As expected, strong growth in girls programs with one concerning metric.
Revised Shot Success Rate Statistic
Short Time Scoring Report
Important Predictor of Match Outcome
Why do coaches care about “short time” performance?
The reason is simple: points scored in short time are difficult for an opponent to make up because of the imminent time-out due to match clock expiration. Short time scoring is similar to edge scoring in this sense.
Many in the wrestling community believe that scoring the first takedown is the best predictor of victory and that might be true. However, short-time scoring may be just as relevant and if you’re looking to goose your winning percentage, short-time scoring merits some practice attention.
Implementation in Takedown Scoring and Stats
This Short Time Scoring report can be found in the Reports section of the app.
Recognizing that ‘short time’ means different things to different coaches, Takedown allows you to set a short time value of 5, 10, 15 or 20 seconds. For each wrestler, the report displays the number of points scored and conceded within this short time ‘bucket’ prior to clock expiration. Use filters to narrow or expand the scope over which short time scoring is calculated.
The report also provides a ratio - Average Point Advantage - that allows you to quickly evaluate a wrestler's short time performance. This statistic is simply short-time points scored minus short time points conceded divided by the total number of periods wrestled.
If the Average Point Advantage is positive, then your wrestler is scoring more short-time points than conceded. If the value negative then the opposite would be true. This wrestler will be far less likely, on average, to win matches.
As a coach that's what you want to know.
The accuracy of the Short Time Report depends on your having scored the match live because the stat requires an accurate match clock. If the match has been marked as “transcribed” then Takedown excludes the match from the short time scoring statistics.
Update: New Video Features
Last summer we added to video recording, review and sharing to Takedown Scoring and Stats.
During this past high school season (2018-2019), about 40% of Takedown users recorded video in the app and produced more than 17,000 match videos. Of these recordings, roughly 13,000 were uploaded to the cloud (team YouTube accounts). Of the videos uploaded to YouTube, roughly 20% were also posted to Takedown LIVE so that fans can view the scoring transcript and video in a single app. Takedown Scoring and Stats, by virtue of a robust and committed user community, is most likely the leading publisher of scholastic wrestling videos on the Internet.
Top five states for recording video:
Ohio
Pennsylvania
Georgia
Virginia
Tennessee
And the top ten programs:
Tuscaloosa
Glacier
Flathead
Paulding County
Seneca Valley
Collierville
West Branch
Quincy
Riverside
John Overton
Takedown users typically record in high resolution with 82% of all videos recorded in 720P or 1080P.
Video is an important feature for Takedown users and we continue our investment in this area.
More info on Takedown video here:
https://www.levelchanger.com/blog/2018/6/15/faq-video-recording
Video + Stats
Record Video and Score Matches Simultaneously in Takedown
Just because you like sausage doesn’t mean you want to live in a sausage factory. Video is a lot like sausage.
How Fat are High School Wrestlers?
Use Takedown Scoring and Stats and Get These Things for Free
Most of us love "writing the book." When you "write the book" with Takedown, life is better and you'll do less work. Here's why.