All fighting arts reach a same summit , hence the footwork looks similar in wrestling ,boxing ,karate ,taekwondo ,jujustsu etc .
you only got two legs and almost always your opponent is directly facing you, there are only a few ways you can adopt your footwork in the most beneficial way to suit your needs how to distribute your weight on both legs.
CCCP was the dominant country in wrestling but there were a handful of Iranian champions who never lost to any Soviet wrestlers , all due to their own genius and ability as we always lack behind in terms of facilities ,management preparation which the Soviets and other leading nations enjoyed .
we are a nation of natural athletes and can be good in any sport potentially ,what we suffer from is lack of management ,preparations and facilities.
Wrestling is in our genes .
I agree with every thing that you said, except for the footwork in boxing, jiu jitsu, karate, wrestling mauy thai taekwondo are the same.Now lets breakdown the arts, I have a little bit of experience in the arts you mentioned and added Mauy Thai so I can compare and contrast. To the untrained eye, the footwork is similar between say boxing and Mauy Thai or other arts right? WRONG. Each martial art has it's own unique footwork and the main difference is foot placement. In boxing you are more in like a v formation and you are on your toes of course. In Mauy Thai because we use knees and elbows your dominant foot goes back and your weak or check foot goes in first. You want to check the leg kick with your weak leg and throw your leg kicks with your strong leg.Even your hands are placed differently in boxing v MT. IN boxing they are more traditional, when you put up your dukes. In MT, you have one elbow bent and above your head because you need to protect your head from elbows or leg kicks being thrown. In my case it is weird because in punching my right is stronger than the left but with my left foot is stronger than my right. That means I fight a bit unorthadox in Mauy Thai and that throws people off I will have my lead foot or check foot as the right and my left foot will be back. Use anything to your advantage in tournaments/competition. Utilize your strengths and minimalism your weaknesses. As for your opponent it is the opposite, make him utilize his weaknesses and take away his strengths. Now these principals do not change be it BJJ, JUDO, boxing, Wrestling, Mauy Thai, TkD, Karate, Kung Fu whatever. The footwork however does change.
That is just one difference now lets look at TKD/Karate vs BJJ. Why in most UFC fights do you tihnk it is easy for the BJJ practitioner to take down the Karate/TKD guy? It is because their footwork is ore of a wide stance picture a ruler or a straight line going through it. If you are a karate or tkd guy, you are tailor made for me, all I have to do is football tackle you to the ground and it becomes a jiu jitsu match, advantage ME. I will tell you that the footwork with BJJ and Judo is probably the most similar. BJJ is just an extension of Judo.
I remember how the CCCP dominated back in the day. of course when I was a kid, I was born in 82. By the time I was the CCCP fell, I was just eight years old but I would watch all of the old wrestling clips. The CCCP had that excellent program, money and resources. Plus lets be honest I can bet you money that over 1/2 of the CCCP athletes were doped up. That was common in the Iron Curtain or the Eastern Block countries. Remember Heidi Kreiger, a shot putter from DDR? Well today she goes by the name of Andres Kreiger because the DDR doctors pumped her up with so many steroids. They told her that it was a multivitamin pill. Anyways when the DDR fell and Germany was unified, many East German doctors were held responsible and served prison time, rightfully so. Kreiger was not to only athlete they did that to.
Back to the breakdown lets compare Iran v Russia vs USA here is how I see it or countries like them
Russia-Good program, good facilities, good training good athletes, overall just good, even as Russia and not CCCP. Some say they cheat but hey Grozny right by any means necessary. I think that the cheating went down in the CCCP and recently with the Olympics but I bet you the Russian wrestler is scared to take a shit, without asking permission from the doctor first. They are probalby watching Russia like an effing Hawk so the chances of them doping now are SLIM to NONE. Here is the difference between the Americans and the Russians, when they decide to cheat. When the Russians cheat, they CHEAT, I mean go big or go home, the entire team is doped up. Hell I think they were like this close to being entirely banned form the summer Olympics. When the American cheats, it is usually individual, for example Marion Jones and Justin Gatlin. The Americans are just a bit smarter about it or the Russians just do not give a dam eff it Grozny comrades. Oh and do not tell me this is all western propaganda because it was well documented. Just google Heidi Kreiger Here is how I see Iran USA and Russia
Russia-Good athletes, resources, coaching, govt support and facilities
USA-Pretty much same as Russia except more money and better facilities and govt support.
Iran-Relies on gerayat and and athleticism. Well we sure as hell cannot rely on coaching, resources, facilities and government support. We know that is out the effing window.
Seems like back in the day, we did well in the lower weigh divisions and some individual Iranians dominated but not so much in the HW division. In fact, the first Iranian HW I remember was in 94 Olympics Atlanta, I was 12 and Jadidi got gobbed by Kurt Angle(what a shocker I know). BTW Jadidi was fighhting wile injured. O
We have come a long way since those days. I will make a prediction, I think Iran is going to bounce back and have a good summer Olympics. I HOPE that we place first in the team standings but I can bet the house that we will at least finish in the top 3. This will be a bounce back Olympics. I don't know what in the hell happened to them in Brazil, maybe they switched them with different athletes and put on Iran wrestling jerseys on them. Maybe it is because the level of competition at the Olympics is more important than some silly tourney so teams will bring in their A squad. Here are my early favorites to get 1st place.
Now doping or not, from the 1950s-180s, until the fall of the Berlin Wall in 89, nobody dominated for a longer stretch than the CCCP, three decades of domination, that will never be duplicated again The reason why it will never be duplicated again is for starters that kick ass program they had is gone. Back in the day, the Soviet Championships were more competitive than the Olympics. Now that we covered all of the aspects of footwork and different forms of martial arts, broke down the three best teams (Iran, Russia and USA in alphabetical order) I will make a prediction for the next Olympics. I do not know if Iran will get overall team first but they have as good of a shot as any other team. They will not finish lower than a top 3 team ranking. Now I do not know the final standings but it will look something like this. I just gave them all the same ranking because is is really tough to separate those three.
Future Olympic Standings,
1-Iran
1-Russia
1-USA
Those three are the cream of the crop. Everyone says Azer I say bah they are in the same category as say Turkey, HIT AND MISS. They could do well in one toruney and then they will follow it with a dud in the next so there is no consistency. Anyways this is how I see it breaking down and speaking of Azer I have them as my 4th or honorable mention.
I do not care where in the hell you were born or from what region, if you are Iranian then wrestling is in your Iranian Y DNA, it is now called the K DNA aka Koshti DNA.