WHAT'S HIS NUMBER?

After the recent National Intercollegiate wrestling bouts, the various coaches assembled and passed a recommendation that the point-system of judging matches be adopted as our national standard. The present scoring method, with its lack of definite standards for decisions, can be discarded if the National Wrestling Rules Committee adopts this new point-system, which has enjoyed unqualified success in the Big Ten conference.

There are several weaknesses in the present scoring method. First of all, it gives too much weight to the personal opinion of the referee, who, lacking hard-and-fast rules, usually sends close bouts into an overtime session. Also, under present rules, it is possible for a man to win without displaying any aggressive wrestling. Such a wrestler could gain an early time advantage and then merely stall or hang on for dear life until the end of the bout.

Under the new arrangement, the general doubt as to who is ahead in a close match is remedied by the simple expedient of chalking up the points just as they are won on a scoreboard as is done in a basketball game; and also much more stress is laid in the point scoring to aggressive tactics.