Tag Team Wrestling / Thanks Tyler

I know that sometimes people expect me to post something religious or related to my faith. Well the truth is I live in a real world, and while my faith affects everything I do, my life involves other things that may or may not seem to be related to my faith. Today’s blog is such an example of that.

A few years ago I became aware of a young man named Tyler Graebner. Tyler was 8 at the time and had been diagnosed with cancer. Long story made short, I became involved in Tyler’s life and the rest they say is history. Tyler was an example to me, and while many became involved with him from a distance, I became involved with he and his family on a personal level. There were others that also became involved and the truth is that his story became a national story. It always amazed me that the National Press picked up the story and that ESPN even ran a tribute on the day Tyler died. I was fortunate enough to be with Tyler, after having my son make weigh in for a tournament the day he died. I always felt that God gave me those 30 minutes and my family will always be grateful.

Through the process of working with Tyler, I came up with the concept of Tag Team Wrestling. While several had jokingly been a part of the conversations I decided to formulate the concept and idea and lo and behold there were a number of wrestlers who wanted to become a part of the concept. Many of those individuals are now in college and wrestling, while others are still in High School. They were all a part of the tribute that was paid to Tyler for his love and dedication to the sport. This young man always knew about the concept of having fun, and at the same time involving wrestling in that fun.

Many from across the country has contacted me as to the rules of Tag Team Wrestling. They have seen the photo’s and thought it would be something to do. I have recently dreamed that the style will eventually obtain recognition and sanctioning but that is a dream. I will eventually host a national tag team championship tournament but that is down the road. For those who have asked over the years, I am now posting the rules for you to observe and learn from. Use this for practice, for fun, or to teach other concepts of wrestling like mat management, strategy and so forth. I also encourage each of you to go after your own dreams. While it is okay to tag along with a concept, I am grateful that I did more than sit back and talk about this concept. I decided to do something about it. So many people sit back and don’t go after their own dreams, they simply dream about them. I am the one who was blessed for the sacrifices of working with Tyler. My family knew Tyler as more than just a photo, we knew him as a person and young boy. I took him to movies, played video games with him, and much more. Those sacrifices were worth it. I am confident that God will use you in some way, if you will but listen to his gentle whisper. Now on that note, be careful, don’t listen for whispers if you aren’t willing to work on them. There also comes a point in time, that even God gets tired of the foolishness and laziness of people.

Here goes, the rules for tag team wrestling.

You can go 2 or 3 person tag, I prefer 3 people because it allows you to use a tag chain like in the photographs. The tag has to be made when you have a team mate with two feet outside of the wrestling circle. The chain in wrestler can go as far as they can as long as the team mate has control of both feet beyond the tag, you can see that on the photo. On the tag, once the tag is made, the wrestler tagged comes in, if getting position of the top man in a control situation, a 2 point reversal is scored. If a tag is made and the top man gives up control, even if the person tagged comes in on the feet, a 1 point escape is given. Tags can occur at any point and time in the match and can occur on any stoppage, out of bounds, etc… There is also a push out or out of bounds rule, we score it a little differently than the push out in FS/Greco, when the person goes out, 1 point is given to the other team, and action starts back in center, on feet. However, anytime there is an out of bounds, a tag substitution can be made and there is no penalty. Also notice that on the out of bounds, it does not matter if the person is on their feet or knees. Out of bounds, via any body part constitutes a one point penalty, and starting back on feet.The match is 2 periods at 3 minutes each. There is stoppage of the clock on any penalty or any out of bounds. It is not a continuous clock. In the event of a tie, the match goes to sudden death overtime, first point scores, action starts in the center of the mat, on the feet. Points are scored just like regular folkstyle wrestling, 2 points for a takedown, 1 point escape, 2 point reversal etc. Throws are also recorded as in Greco. From feet to danger is 3 points, exposure is 2 points, a high aptitude throw is 5 points. There is no technical fall, the objection is to pin the opponent, but again, there is no technical fall. The wrestlers will wrestle the duration of the match, unless there is a pin. A pin shall be construed as anytime the shoulder touches the mat, it shall be a press fall as opposed to a touch fall, and the shoulder area shall be defined as the same shoulder area used in NFSHAA Rules.

For clarification on any rules, contact me, Mike Furches at mike@thevirtualpew.com or mike@furches.org You can also contact me via mail at P.O. Box 17731, Wichita KS 67217The concept is a lot of fun and beneficial. It forces the wrestler to try to stay in the center, and then think of positioning, and strategy while on the mat. It is also a lot of fun, a blast actually.
Also note that as the originator of the concept, any rules changes for tournament format must be approved in advance. If just having fun, that is okay, just remember the little boy that loved the sport enough that I dedicated the concept to him. Hopefully, at some point I will have a video of the matches that have been done. I was busy working all of those matches and never got a video. Any of those who participated in the first matches, a video would be appreciated at some point.

To become a part of The Virtual Pew, visit, http://www.thevirtualpew.com/ To learn more about me visit http://www.furches.org/ I am also active on MySpace at: http://www.myspace.com/mikefurches I have another blog at http://blog.myspace.com/mikefurches To visit the Hollywood Jesus group at MySpace with membership by numerous Hollywood Jesus reviewers visit: http://groups.myspace.com/hollywoodjesus For a more in depth weekly study and conversation you an visit: http://virtualpewsermon.blogspot.com/ermon.blogspot.com/ where you can access deeper teaching and ultimately videos for viewing and teaching. You can contact me via email at mike@furches.org or mike@thevirtualpew.com For those interested in knowing more about my own story, contact me for a free e-copy of my book The Keystone Kid in pre-edit form.

God Bless the Memory of Tyler Graebner.

Wrestle hard, but don't forget to have fun!