Fraternity Manuals

Amateur wrestling

From Open Encyclopedia

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Amateur wrestling is the most widespread form of sport wrestling. There are two "international" wrestling styles performed in the Olympic Games under the supervision of FILA (Fédération Internationale des Luttes Associées or International Federation of Associated Wrestling Styles): Freestyle and Greco-Roman. Freestyle is possibly derived from the English Lancashire style. A similar style, commonly called Collegiate or Folkstyle, is practiced in secondary schools, colleges, and younger age groups in the United States.

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Scoring

Freestyle and Greco-Roman 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 the following ways, with analogs in folkstyle and collegiate:

  • Takedowns: Gaining control over your opponent from a neutral position.
  • Reversals: Gaining control over your opponent from a defensive position.
  • Escapes: Escaping your opponent's control. (The escape point is no longer awarded in the international styles.)
  • Exposure: Exposing your opponent's back to the mat.
  • Lifting: Successfully lifting an opponent in the defensive position and exposing his back. (The lift point is no longer awarded under the rules changes adopted for the international styles in 2004-2005. Lifting has never been rewarded in folkstyle or collegiate, and rules against locking hands on the mat interfere with its practicality.)
  • Penalty Points: Various infractions (striking your opponent, acting with brutality or intent to injure, using illegal holds, etc). (Under the 2004-2005 changes to the international styles, a wrestler whose opponent takes an injury time-out receives one point unless the injured wrestler is bleeding.)

A match can be won in the following ways:

  • Period Format: In the International styles the format is now 3- 2 minute periods a wrestler winning the match when he has won two out of three periods, for example if one competitor were to win the first period 1-0 and the second period 1-0 the match would be over, however if the other competitor were to win the second period then third and deciding period would result. Only a fall or disqualification terminate the match; all other modes of victory result only in period termination.
  • Win by Fall: A fall, also known as a pin, occurs when one wrestler holds both his opponents' shoulders on the mat simultaneously.
  • Win by Technical Fall: If one wrestler gains a six-point lead over his opponent at any point, the current period is declared over and he is the winner of that period. (In folkstyle and collegiate wrestling, a technical fall occurs when one wrestler gains a fifteen-point lead and in that case the match is over.)
  • Win by Decision: If neither wrestler achieves either type of fall, the one who has gained more points during the match (or period internationally) is declared the winner. If the wrestlers have gained the same number of points, then it is ruled by the judges through certain criteria in the international styles. In folkstyle and collegiate wrestling, an overtime period will result to decide the true victor.
  • Win By Major Decision: In folkstyle and collegiate wrestling, a decision in which the winner outscores his opponent by eight or more points is a "major decision" and is rewarded with an additional team point.
  • Win by TKO: TKO stands for Technical Knock Out; if one wrestler is knocked out and unable to wrestle, the other wrestler is declared the winner. This is officially referred to variously as WBI (win by injury), medical forfeit or injury default in the international styles and folkstyle, in which knockouts are not encouraged and are treated as accidental. The term also encompasses situations where wrestlers become injured, take too many injury time-outs or cannot stop bleeding.
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Illegal moves

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

  • Biting
  • Pinching and poking with the fingers, toes, or nails, including fish-hooking the nose or mouth
  • Gouging or intentionally scratching the opponent – eye-gouges especially are grounds for disqualification and banned status in most amateur wrestling communities
  • Strikes using hands, fists, elbows, feet, knees, or head
  • Joint attacks, including armlocks and other elbow and shoulder attacks, leglocks and other attacks to the knees and hips, wrist and ankle locks, neck cranks, and small joint manipulation (twisting or dislocating fingers and toes)
  • Chokes, strangulations, and suffocating moves, such as covering the opponent's mouth and nose
  • Spiking, or lifting and slamming the opponent head-first into the mat (though other forms of slamming are generally allowed)
  • Grasping or Holding an opponent's genitals
  • Most types of wrestling also discourage or prohibit the use of one's own or the opponent's clothing for grasping or performing any type of hold

No modern sport allows biting, finger-poking, or eye-gouging, but many other grappling-based sports permit some or all of the other tactics listed above, including judo, jujutsu, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, and mixed martial arts.

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World participation

The countries with the leading wrestlers in the Olympic Games are Iran, United States, Russia (and some of the former Soviet Union republics), Bulgaria, Hungary, Sweden, Finland and Turkey.

In the United States currently there is a decline of wrestling programs in colleges and universities that some attribute to Title IX. It is believed by some that when schools cannot add enough opportunities for women they choose to scrap their wrestling programs (other programs that have a primary target of men, such as golf and men's swimming, are believed to be similarly affected.). This has caused controversy in recent years.

In some countries, people engage in simulated wrestling matches as a performance ("sports entertainment"). See professional wrestling.

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See also

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Famous amateur wrestlers

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External links

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