Amateur wrestling

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Amateur wrestling
Sole of a Wrestler (8111420340).jpg
Two wrestlers competing in an amateur wrestling match
Focus Grappling
ParenthoodAncient Greek style of wrestling
Olympic sportIn Freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling styles

Amateur wrestling is a variant of wrestling practiced at Olympic, collegiate, scholastic, or other amateur level competitions. There are two international wrestling styles performed at the Olympic Games: freestyle and Greco-Roman. Both styles are under the supervision of the United World Wrestling (UWW).

Contents

At the middle school and high school levels, wrestlers compete in scholastic wrestling. In collegiate wrestling, there are minor differences in some scholastic wrestling rules.

The rapid rise in the popularity of the combat sport mixed martial arts (MMA) has increased interest in amateur wrestling, due to its effectiveness within the sport and is considered a core discipline. [1]

Scoring

Greco-Roman and freestyle differ in what holds are permitted; in Greco-Roman, the wrestlers are permitted to hold and attack only above the waist. In both Greco-Roman and freestyle, points can be scored in the following ways:

Scores only awarded in collegiate wrestling

As in the international styles, collegiate wrestling awards points for takedowns and reversals. Penalty points are awarded in collegiate wrestling according to the current rules, which penalize moves that would impair the life or limb of the opponent. However, the manner how infractions are penalized and points awarded to the offended wrestler differ in some aspects from the international styles. Collegiate wrestling also awards points for:

Period format

Women's freestyle wrestling Wrestling dsc03566.jpg
Women's freestyle wrestling

In the international styles, the format is now two three-minute periods. A wrestler wins the match when they were able to get more points than their opponent or 10 points lead in two rounds. For example, if one competitor gets a 10–0 lead in first the period, they will win by the superiority of points. Only a fall, injury default, or disqualification terminates the match; all other modes of victory result only in period termination. [3]

This format replaced the old format of three two-minute periods played best two out of three. One side effect of the old format was that the losing wrestler could outscore the winner. For example, periods may be scored 3–2, 0–4, 1–0, leading to a total score of 4–6 but a win for the wrestler scoring fewer points.

In collegiate wrestling, the period structure is different. A college match consists of one three-minute period, followed by two two-minute periods, with an overtime round if necessary. [4] A high school match typically consists of three two-minute periods, with an overtime round if necessary. [5] Under the standard rules for collegiate wrestling, draws are not possible; this rule is sometimes modified for young wrestlers.

Victory conditions in the international styles

Wrestlers competing in a Greco-Roman match WrestlingUSAF Flag.jpg
Wrestlers competing in a Greco-Roman match

A match can be won in the following ways:

Victory conditions in collegiate wrestling

Medals awarded at a wrestling tournament Moe Epsilon's medals.jpg
Medals awarded at a wrestling tournament

While having similar victory conditions with Greco-Roman and freestyle, such as wins by fall, decision, injury, and disqualification, victory conditions in collegiate wrestling differ on some points from the international styles:

Dual meet scoring is very similar on the high school level. [17]

Illegal moves

Two wrestlers grappling for position during the 2001 All-Marine Wrestle Offs 010316-covington-wrestlers.png
Two wrestlers grappling for position during the 2001 All-Marine Wrestle Offs

Amateur wrestling is a positionally-based form of grappling, and thus generally prohibits the following:

Equipment

Collegiate wrestlers with headgear competing in collegiate (folkstyle) wrestling Funky Standing Position.jpg
Collegiate wrestlers with headgear competing in collegiate (folkstyle) wrestling

While there is not much equipment that a wrestler wears, it is still highly specialized. A wrestling singlet is a one-piece, tight-fitting, colored, lycra uniform. The uniform is tight-fitting so as not to get grasped accidentally by the opponent and allows the referee to see each wrestler's body clearly when awarding points or a pin. Women wrestlers wear a higher cut singlet usually with a sports-bra underneath.

Wrestling shoes are light, flexible, thin-soled, ankle-high sneakers that allow maximum speed and traction on the mat without giving up ankle support. The current rules call for laces (if any) to be covered so that they do not come untied during competition.

In American high school and college wrestling headgear is mandatory to protect the ears from cauliflower ear and other injuries. Headgear is made from molded plastic polymer or vinyl coated energy absorbing foam over a rigid hard liner and strapped to the head tightly. In the international styles headgear is optional. [18]

Wrestling is conducted on a padded mat that must have excellent shock absorption, tear resistance, and compression qualities. Most mats are made of PVC rubber nitrile foam. Recent advances in technology have brought about new mats made using closed cell, cross-linked polyethylene foam covered in vinyl backed with non-woven polyester.

World participation

The countries with the leading wrestlers in the Olympic Games and World Championships are Iran, the United States, Russia (and some of the former Soviet Union republics, especially Armenia, Georgia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, and Kazakhstan), Bulgaria, Turkey, Hungary, Cuba, India, Canada, Japan, Pakistan, South and North Korea, Germany, and historically Sweden and Finland.

Women

Summer Olympics

Because of the successful growth in female participation, the International Olympic Committee announced that women's freestyle wrestling would be added to the Olympic games in the 2004 Summer Olympic Games in Athens, Greece with a total of four different weight classes. [19]

USA

Until the early 1990s, the majority of women who participated in the sport had no other choice but to join the available men's teams. At the high school level, this may still be required in some areas depending on the number of wrestlers. Brookline High School in Brookline, Massachusetts was the first public school in America to create a varsity girls wrestling team. Girls have at times still competed against boys. [20]

University of Minnesota-Morris was the first university to create a varsity women's wrestling team. UMM's head coach, Doug Reese, followed in the footsteps of other schools like Missouri Valley College that pioneered programs for female wrestlers. University of the Cumberlands, Menlo College, Pacific University, and Neosho County CC. Cal-State Bakersfield are other schools that had a number of women competitors that only competed against each other or occasionally against Canadian college teams.

As the sport continued to grow, coaches within women's wrestling formed the Women's Collegiate Wrestling Association (WCWA). This group created rules regarding eligibility, bylaws, and elected leaders for this association. Each year the number of intercollegiate programs continued to prosper with the WCWA now recognizing a total of 28 teams. Within these teams there are several who have National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) affiliation and most of them are allowed to compete in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA).

There is also a national dual meet championship for women's intercollegiate teams that have been sponsored by the National Wrestling Coaches Association for the past 6 years; the world's top 16 teams compete in this event. [21]

In 2004, Missouri Valley College held the first Women's National Wrestling Championships which honored four individual champions. Later, the event would be hosted by the University of the Cumberlands in 2006.

See also

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Collegiate wrestling</span> Wrestling style

Collegiate wrestling, commonly referred to as folkstyle wrestling, is the form of wrestling practiced at the post-secondary level in the United States. This style of wrestling is also practiced at high school, middle school, and elementary levels with some modifications. The rules and style of collegiate/folkstyle wrestling differ from the Olympic styles of freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling. There are collegiate wrestling programs in almost all US states, plus Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wrestling</span> Combat sports

Wrestling is a martial art and combat sport that involves grappling with an opponent and striving to obtain a position of advantage through different throws or techniques, within a given ruleset. Wrestling involves different grappling-type techniques such as clinch fighting, throws and takedowns, joint locks, pins, and other grappling holds. Many different wrestling techniques have been incorporated into martial arts, combat sports, and military systems. Wrestling is genuine competition; professional wrestling is athletic theatre.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Greco-Roman wrestling</span> Style of amateur wrestling

Greco-Roman, Graeco-Roman, classic wrestling is a style of wrestling that is practiced worldwide. Greco-Roman wrestling was included in the first modern Olympic Games in 1896 and has been in every edition of the summer Olympics held since 1904. This style of wrestling forbids holds below the waist, which is the main feature that differentiates it from freestyle wrestling. This restriction results in an emphasis on throws, because a wrestler cannot use trips to bring an opponent to the ground or hook/grab the opponent's leg to avoid being thrown.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Freestyle wrestling</span> Style of Wrestling

Freestyle wrestling is a style of wrestling. Along with Greco-Roman, it is one of the two styles of wrestling contested in the Olympic Games. USA high school wrestling and men's collegiate wrestling are conducted under different rules and termed scholastic and collegiate wrestling. USA collegiate women's wrestling is conducted under freestyle rules.

In amateur wrestling, a technical fall, or technical superiority, is a victory condition satisfied by outscoring one's opponent by a specified number of points. It is wrestling's version of the mercy rule. It is informally abbreviated to "tech" as both a noun and verb.

Real Pro Wrestling was a professional sports league of wrestling, similar to the amateur wrestling found in the Olympic Games and at the college and high school level. The term "real" was meant to emphasize that it was professional and it was wrestling, but that it was not professional wrestling in the traditional sense; modern professional wrestling features predetermined outcomes and operates under a very different set of rules from amateur wrestling.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scholastic wrestling</span> US high school wrestling

Scholastic wrestling, commonly referred to as folkstyle wrestling or wrestling, is a style of amateur wrestling practiced at the high school and middle school levels in the United States. It has often been referred to as the "toughest sport in the world" because of the extensive physical conditioning, mental preparation, complexity, and intense nature of its one-on-one competition that requires physical power, speed, quick mental processing and reaction, and enormous preparation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wrestling singlet</span> One-piece uniform worn by wrestlers

A wrestling singlet is a one-piece, tight-fitting uniform, usually made of spandex/lycra or nylon, used in wrestling. The uniform is tight-fitting so as not to get grasped accidentally by one's opponent, and allows the referee to see each wrestler's body clearly when awarding points or a pin. Unlike judo, it is illegal to grasp an opponent's clothing in all styles of amateur wrestling.

Cole Konrad is an American retired mixed martial arts fighter. Konrad won a gold medal at the 2005 Pan-American Championships. He won the NCAA wrestling championships in 2006 and 2007 at 285 pounds and finished third at the 2006 World University Championships at 120 kilograms. He was the first Bellator Heavyweight World Champion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United World Wrestling</span> Amateur wrestling governing body

United World Wrestling (UWW) is the international governing body for the sport of amateur wrestling; its duties include overseeing wrestling at the World Championships and Olympics. It presides over international competitions for various forms of wrestling, including Greco-Roman, Freestyle, Grappling, and others. The flagship event of UWW is the World Wrestling Championships.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wrestling headgear</span> Head accessory worn by wrestlers for protection during matches

Wrestling headgear is protection that a person wears over the ears and chin during wrestling matches.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">USA Wrestling</span> Sports governing organization

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of collegiate wrestling</span>

The history of collegiate wrestling can be traced to the many indigenous styles of folk wrestling found in Europe, particularly in Great Britain. Those folk wrestling styles soon gained popularity in what would become the United States, and by the mid-to-late 19th century those styles, especially freestyle wrestling, emerged in gymnasiums and athletic clubs throughout the country. From then on, tournaments were sponsored and a professional circuit of wrestlers helped promote wrestling in the United States and throughout the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pin (sport wrestling)</span> Victory condition in amateur wrestling

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LeRoy Gardner III was an American amateur wrestler.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kyle Snyder (wrestler)</span> American freestyle wrestler (born 1995)

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Wrestling in the United States include the styles of folkstyle, along with the Olympic styles of freestyle and Greco-Roman. These three styles make up the main forms of amateur wrestling that are contested competitively within the country, not to be confused with the sportive entertainment form of professional wrestling. Folkstyle is a form of wrestling that is only contested in the United States at the youth levels through college. Wrestling in the United States is contested and practiced throughout the country, with the sport having a strong regional presence in areas such as the Midwest, Mid-Atlantic, and Southwest.

References

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  17. National Federation of State High School Associations (2008-08-01). 2008–09 NFHS Wrestling Rules Book. NFHS. p. 48.
  18. International Federation of Associated Wrestling Styles (2006-12-01). "International Wrestling Rules: Greco-Roman Wrestling, Freestyle Wrestling, Women's Wrestling" (PDF). FILA. p. 10. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-06-11. Retrieved 2008-10-28.
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  20. "GIRL PINS BOY: Rosie pins David Rientjes (Belmont Wrestling)".
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Notes