Data analysis for wrestling – When it comes to the Muni, the guests have it harder – News

Data proves: Local wrestlers are given preferential treatment in the classification, while guests are left behind. But hardly anyone wants to change that.

The wrestling world wants to know again. At the weekend, the 274 best wrestlers from the five major associations will be sent to the sawdust in Pratteln to celebrate Switzerland’s wrestling king at the Swiss Wrestling and Alpine Festival (ESAF). Those who compete had to prove themselves beforehand at the most important wrestling festivals in the country, the annual canton, sub-association and mountain wreath festivals.

At these festivals, locals meet invited guest wrestlers. Meanwhile, people are sniffing, drinking and arguing in the stands. One of the most controversial questions is as old as the sport itself: Was the classification of the judges fair – or was it a little mixed up?

To answer this question, SRF Data and the Basel online medium “Bajour” undertook an extensive data analysis. The analysis proves for the first time that when a wrestling club of a sub-association organizes a festival, not all wrestlers are treated equally. The wrestlers of the home association have it easier up to the wreath and Muni, the guests systematically more difficult. It is an announcement system. And almost everyone is equally affected.

Bone of contention: the classification

The question of the fair classification causes red heads again and again, most recently on Mountain wreath festival on the Stoos. The reason for this is a peculiarity of wrestling.

In contrast to the transparent game plan rules of many sports, when it comes to wrestling, before each course (fighting round) a committee of three to six so-called one-piece players decides who has to swing against whom next. The majority of the committee consists of men from the association in whose territory the festival takes place. It is your job to form pairings that are as balanced as possible based on the current intermediate ranking list. The decisions take place in a room closed to the public. There is no transparency about how the pairings come about.

Therefore, it is not surprising that there are always discussions about classifications. The accusation is usually that the classification committee puts the wrestlers of the invited guest association at a disadvantage – and imposes a particularly tough program on them with particularly difficult opponents. And by implication: favor the wrestlers of the home association and give them particularly easy opponents. Almost a mixed-up home advantage.

SRF swing commentator Stefan Hofmann is aware of the accusation. He, too, has occasionally experienced wrestling festivals that “have taken on a dynamic” due to the classification. But that is rarely the case.

When it comes to the Muni, the division is unfair

Does this home advantage really exist now? To find out, SRF Data and “Bajour” have analyzed around 40,000 fights from around 150 major wrestling festivals since 2016. A special algorithm was used to measure the current level of a vibrator as precisely as possible during a festival and in each aisle.

It was thus possible to evaluate whether two wrestlers who were divided up are currently fighting at eye level – or whether an opponent is significantly stronger or weaker – and whether the division tends to be unfair.

The result of the analysis shows: guest wrestlers who still have a chance to get to the final round in gears three to five tend to be assigned more difficult opponents than local wrestlers in the same situation. This confirms the unwritten law: When it comes to moving into the final aisle, you put particularly hard chunks in the way of the guests.

The classification committees of all sub-associations seem to make use of this practice. This is also reflected in the program of the wrestlers at the top ranks. The following graphic shows mountain wreath and sub-confederation festivals since 2017 as points and locates them on two axes:

• Top to bottom (Y axis): the average Grade sheet score of guest wrestlers. He adds up the sheet music (ie the program of a wrestler) based on a point system developed by SRF. The higher the score, the more difficult the opponents were.
• Left to Right (X-Axis): the average sheet music score of the wrestlers within the association.
• The linewhich runs from bottom left to top right, marks the eye level. The closer a point is to this line, the more equally internal and external were divided at this festival. The festivals below the line tended to put the best internal wrestlers at a disadvantage on average, while at the festivals above the line the guests were assigned the more difficult opponents on average.

A sport that wants to remain culture

For swing experts, critics and die-hard fans, this is proof of a rumor that is hotly debated again and again and is sometimes referred to as an “unwritten law”.

Many are of the opinion that you should make it a little more difficult for the guests. But how difficult – opinions differ. In fact, there is no rule as to where a difficult program begins and an unreasonably difficult program ends. So it can happen that the local top wrestler is assigned a significantly worse opponent, while the foreign top wrestler is assigned a very good one. It’s a bit like when, in qualifying for the final of the Olympic 100-meter sprint, one runner only had to sprint 95 meters – the other 105 meters.

My suggestion would be that in the future, at these wrestling festivals, especially at the mountain festivals, the same number of people from each sub-association should sit in the division.

Active wrestlers are required to accept the division without grumbling, no matter how fair or unfair it is. At the same time, commercial interests are growing. The most famous faces get lucrative advertising contracts – wrestlers earned more than two million francs in 2021 through advertising and sponsorship – and the pressure on wrestling to become more transparent and thus fairer is increasing.

There will always be discussions about classification, but that is part of wrestling.

The former professional wrestler and SRF commentator Matthias Sempach recently called for the composition of the classification committee to be more balanced – especially at the prestigious mountain festivals.

ESV sees no need for action

Stefan Strebel, the technical director of the Federal Vibration Association (ESV) and thus something of the master of the rules, thinks little of Sempach’s suggestion – and of the SRF data analysis: “The system as we have it is contemporary. The men who sit on the grading committees are trained to treat everyone fairly. I don’t believe that external transducers are treated differently than internal ones. But we will take it up and discuss it.”

Strebel really doesn’t have to worry about the ESAF. Since the ESAF works according to different rules than the divisional and mountain wreath festivals, and since each association is equally represented on the allocation committee, an unfair allocation is rather unlikely. For all other festivals it is now proven: When it comes to the Muni, the guests have a harder time.