Near Fall Criteria

An official’s judgment is typically sounder than that of the observers. You can only sympathize with their situation if you are an official yourself. Officiating is like doing complex mathematics in your head with a time delay in which the answer must be established within a mere second or two, all while on your feet moving around trying to protect the wrestlers from each other, the floor, the scorers table, and the chairs.

These are some of the calculation the official has to make in the blink of an eye in a situation where a wrestler gets thrown directly to his back. Does the offensive wrestler have control, when is reaction time over, make sure the take down is secured, was there a slam, the possibility of an illegal head lock, is the defenders pinning area in bounds, is his back at a 45 degree angle with the mat even though he is fighting for his life and flopping around. There are many more factors, but you must get my meaning by now, and this all happens seconds.

I can easily foresee a situation where the official would believe that a wrestler is in near fall criteria, while the crowd (watching with selective vision by the way) disagrees.

You must understand that he back of a wrestler is very flexible between the shoulders; the back can bend and bow quite a bit, and while you are seeing one shoulder up completely off the mat, that does not mean the wrestler in not in near fall criteria.

The pinning area is defined (and I will paraphrase here) as the area running along the top of the shoulders from end to end, horizontally.

Vertically, you draw a line down each side of the back all the way down to the bottom of the scapula.

Then the back is divided into two sides with a line down the center of the spinal column.

I don’t think the Parents, families, fans, or even coaches are able to critically and impartially judge when a wrestler has gone into near fall criteria. It is completely possible, for the wrestlers shoulder to appear to be at a ninety degree angle in relation to the mat, when in fact in the referee’s judgment; the wrestler is in near fall criteria. I will explain to you how this happens.

A wrestlers gets thrown in a head and arm (for example) one shoulder is obviously in contact with the mat, the wrestler fight to turn into his opponent and is side ways making his shoulder appear to be above the 45 degree mark that would put him in criteria. However, what the referee sees is that the wrestlers back in relation to the mid line (the imaginary line that runs down the center of the spine) has crossed into near fall criteria, but because the back is bowed, the shoulder may in fact appear to be well higher than the required 45 degrees.