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Wrestling Is A Sport For Everyone

In gymnasiums all over the world, athletes of all sizes and abilities are drawn to wrestling for the simple reason that it is fun. It is a sport that tests the strength, stamina, and skill of two opponents. Wrestling is a physical chess match featuring moves and countermoves, endurance, strength, intelligence, and quickness. In wrestling, the opponents are of the same weight, so size is not an element in any wrestler's success.

Children as young as age four can begin to learn wrestling. There is no upper age limit at which an athlete should stop being involved in wrestling. Many people use wrestling as a means of staying physically fit and flexible throughout their lives.

Although it is a physically demanding sport, wrestling is one of the few activities that matches competing athletes according to their weights, which makes it a very safe sport. All wrestling is done on a mat that is cushioned to absorb falls during practice and competition.

Wrestling is one of the oldest competitive sports known to humans. Wrestling became an Olympic sport at the 18th Olympiad in 708 BC in Greece. Many other ancient civilizations left clues that wrestling was a part of their culture, including the Egyptians, Japanese, Chinese, Turks, and peoples of the British Isles. There are drawn images of wrestlers on the walls in the temple tombs of Beni Hasan near the Nile River in Egypt portraying hold and takedown combinations dating back to 2000 BC. Interestingly, these moves are still prevalent in all levels of wrestling today. Caves in France have drawings from 20,000 years ago illustrating wrestlers in competition.

Greek mythology tells of mighty Greek gods wrestling for possession of the Earth on mountain peaks. The Bible recounts disputes that were settled by wrestling matches. Mythic stories tell of an ancient Sumerian ruler named Gilgamesh who used his strength to save the city of Uruk.

For centuries there were many local and regional folkstyles of wrestling. Early in the 19th century, the modern style of Greco-Roman wrestling was developed. Greco-Roman was the only form of wrestling in the modern Olympic Games until 1904, when freestyle was added.

The international governing body that sets standards for wrestling is FILA (Federation Internationale des Luttes Associees), founded in 1912. FILA gave wrestling rules, standards, and organized competitions. Each country has its own national governing body (NGB) as well, within the FILA framework. For the United States the NGB is USA Wrestling. In the UK it's the British Amateur Wrestling Association. In Canada the NGB is the Canadian Amateur Wrestling Association. The NGB is a good source of information about rules and competitions.

Folkstyle wrestling, also called collegiate or scholastic wrestling, is the style used in the United States from elementary school age right up through junior high, high school, and college. Holds below the waist and leg holds are allowed. In folkstyle wrestling you can't throw an opponent directly backward from a back-arch, which is allowed in freestyle. Your opponent must be turned to the side to avoid a slam penalty.

Freestyle is derived from the upright wrestling of the Greeks and Lancashire no-holds-barred regional style. It is very similar to folkstyle. It is used internationally in most parts of the world, and also in the Olympics. Greco-Roman is another form of wrestling used in the Olympics. In Greco-Roman, you are not allowed to use your legs in holds or to attack you opponent's legs, nor are any bolds below the waist allowed.

A high school folkstyle match progresses with 3 periods of 2 minutes each. The time and some details vary for junior high school and college levels. Usually several officials are involved: a referee, who runs the bout on the mat and makes decisions on points; a judge, who keeps score; and a mat chairman, who decides a score if the referee and judge disagree. Hand signals, words, and whistles are used by the referee to communicate with the judge.

The main objective in wrestling is to either pin your opponent or to score more points than your opponent. A pin occurs when an opponent's back is pressed to the mat and both shoulders are held down. For a pin to occur at the high school or younger levels in folkstyle wrestling, the wrestler must hold his opponent's shoulders against the mat for 2 seconds. In freestyle wrestling and Greco-Roman wrestling, the shoulders are held down for one second for a pin.

At a match, the referee wears a red wristband and a green wristband, one on each wrist. Green represents the home team player and red represents the visitor in matches with 2 teams. Each wrestler is given either a red or green ankle band to make the scoring simpler. If the wrestler wearing the green band scores, the referee holds up his hand with the green wristband to signal the scorekeeper how many points to award the wrestler.

If there is no pin during the match, the wrestler with the most points wins. There are four basic ways to score points:

1. A takedown is worth two points. It occurs when you take your opponent down to the mat from a standing neutral position to gain control. When you have control, you are in the top or dominant position.
2. An escape is worth one point. An escape occurs when you get out of your opponent's control from the bottom position and end up standing in a neutral position.
3. A reversal is worth two points. It occurs when you escape from the bottom position and take control from your opponent. In one move you basically go from being the wrestler who was con.trolled to being the one now in control.
4. A nearfall is worth either two or three points. A nearfall occurs when a wrestler is close to getting pinned. If your opponent's shoulders are within 4" of the mat, at an angle of 45 degrees or less, for 2 to 4 seconds, you are awarded two points. A nearfall is worth three points if you hold your opponent's shoulders within 4" of the mat for 5 seconds or more.

In amateur wrestling, you can lose points for injuring your opponent. Some holds are illegal because injury can easily occur when they are used. Wrestlers are warned once for using an illegal hold. You can also be warned for stalling. Stalling occurs when you delay the match by going out of bounds intentionally or by getting a passivity warning for not putting enough physical effort into wrestling, which delays the action. If a wrestler gets two warnings, he is penalized one point. If the wrestler continues to stall, he is penalized another point. A wrestler is disqualified if he receives two penalty points for stalling. When the match is over, you must shake hands with your opponent and wait for the official decision declaring the winner. After the referee raises the hand of the winner, it is customary to shake the hand of the opponent's coach.

Wrestling Movies

Vision Quest (1985)

Stars: Matthew Modine, Linda Fiorentino, Michael Schoeffling
Director: Harold Becker

Why It's No. 1: If you were a teenager in the '80s, you know why. This story of a high school wrestler who drops weight to challenge the champ in a lower weight class hits all the right notes. And Fiorentino, as the girl who gives him something else to think about, has never been hotter.

Memorable Moment: Louden Swaim (Modine) and his friend Kuch (Michael Schoeffling) are in the kitchen talking when Carla (Fiorentino) saunters in briefly to grab a cup of yogurt. When she returns a moment later to get a spoon she's forgotten, both boys are wearing happy expressions on their faces — largely because she's wearing no pants.

They Said It: "She's got all the best things I like in girls and all the best things I like in guys." — Louden Swain, who up to now has been interested only in wrestling, explaining his feelings for Carla.

Look For: Madonna, in her first film appearance, singing Gambler and Crazy for You in the club scene.

Runner-Up: The One and Only (1977). Carl Reiner's fictional take on the birth of pro wrestling has some funny moments, but not enough to make a movie star out of Henry Winkler.

Contenders:

• Take Down (1979): Edward Herrmann is a high school English teacher cornered into coaching the hapless wrestling team and recruiting an uninterested student (Lorenzo Lamas) for the squad.
• All the Marbles (1981): Harry (Peter Falk) manages The California Dolls, a female wrestling tag team endlessly touring America. He is also romantically involved with one of them.
• No Holds Barred (1989): Rip (Hulk Hogan) is the World Wrestling Federation champion who is faithful to his fans and the network he wrestles for.
• Over the Top (1987) — the best arm wrestling movie ever.

Professional wrestling grew out of the traveling carnival strongman, who would challenge anyone to beat him in the ring, or even to last 10 minutes. Challengers almost never won the prize money, since the strongman had helpers who would cheat to ensure his victory. Eventually, carnies realized they could make more money off the crowd than the entry fees of the fighters. They started accepting wagers on the fights, which were always fixed. Sometimes, the local fighter was even in on the fix, helping to hype the fight. These wrestlers used fake names and played up the animosity of the crowd to encourage betting.

In the late 1800s, promoters put wrestling events in arenas, much like boxing. For a few decades, many different individual promoters held wrestling events. Although there were championship belts in existence, none of them had any real authority. In 1901, promoters got together to form a loose organization called the National Wrestling Association, which awarded a single championship belt.

Professional wrestling has seen thousands of performers step between the ropes, but only a few have left a lasting mark on the industry. Frank Gotch was enerally recognized as the first legitimate champion, Gotch wrestled in the early 1900s. He also took part in one of the first "screwjobs" in pro wrestling history. Challenger George Hackenschmidt had been injured while training (possibly by someone hired by Gotch), but agreed to lose as long as Gotch let him win one of the three falls so he wouldn't look bad. Instead, Gotch trounced Hackenschmidt and won the first two falls.

Lou Thesz was born in St. Louis, where his father - an amateur Greco-Roman wrestler in his native Hungary - ran a shoe shop. He came up during the Depression, when a dollar was hard to come by. Thesz is the greatest wrestler of this century and, in the opinion of many, the finest who ever lived. He was a professional wrestler in the classic tradition. In 1937, a time when wrestling was real, at Kiel Auditorium in St. Louis Thesz became world champion at age 20. Thesz held the world professional wrestling championship for 13 years - longer than any man in history. He regained the title six times. He was the youngest ever to wear the pro championship belt. And he was the oldest to hold the world championship, losing it - at age 64! - to Gene Kiniski, the Canadian football star and pro wrestler.

George Wagner was a competent wrestler in the 1930s and 40s when he came up with an idea that would completely change the face of wrestling. Wagner created the character of Gorgeous George, a blonde haired, furred robe-wearing prima donna that audiences hated - and they poured into arenas to boo him. From the first use of entrance music to a female attendant spraying "disinfectant" around the ring, the Gorgeous One laid the foundations for the theatrics that are the core of modern pro wrestling.

Italian-born Bruno Sammartino is widely regarded as the greatest wrestler of the post-war era. Sammartino relied on athleticism and skill rather than any gimmick, and fans still respect him for his integrity and dedication. Sammartino recently refused a spot in the Wrestling Hall of Fame, saying that pro wrestling had become vulgar and harmful to children.

Thomas Ryan & Julie Sampson. . Sterling Publishing Co., Inc. New York. 2001.

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