A guide to wrestling
When people think of school sports, what comes to mind? Football, basketball, maybe even swimming? However, many often overlook the sport of wrestling mostly because they are unsure how the sport works.
In wrestling, wrestlers always start a match by shaking the opponent’s hand, then they get into a wrestling stance, which looks like this:
At the end of the match, the winner is the wrestler who pins the opponents back to the mat, or the one with the most points.
There are three positions, top, bottom and neutral. Each match starts with both wrestlers in a neutral position and depending on how the match goes they will at some point go into a top-bottom position
Normally top position is advantageous for the wrestler, but depending on the person, bottom or neutral positions may be more comfortable.
Some of the basic moves in wrestling consist of knee sliding, a single leg takedown
and ankle pick. Knee slides work by sliding across the mat going from one knee to the next. A single leg is where the player’s knee slides to the other wrestler’s leg, then the player grabs it, lifts it, pulls and throws the opponent down. An ankle pick is when the player’s knee slides or reaches down to the other wrestler’s ankle and the player grabs it and pushes them back. These are all known as Takedowns.
Additionally, there are escapes, which are moves that the wrestler can use to get out of the bottom position. A few commonly used escapes are fat-man rolls, cutting and knee sliding.
Cutting is where the wrestler stands up fast in the bottom position, then the wrestler frees themself to get back to neutral position. Knee slides work in the bottom position too, however the player has to be quick to be able to escape most of the time. A fat-man roll is where a wrestler is in bottom position and the wrestler grabs the opponent’s hand, pulls it under and away from the arm holding the hand and rolls on top. This move can also give the player an advantage if performed successfully.
Points are given by takedowns and escapes. There are three different points: one, two and five. An escape is worth one point and a takedown, depending where the opponent lands, is worth two.
There are also takedowns that are worth five points. The difference between the two is if the opponent lands on their back, it is a five point takedown, but if they land on their knees or side it is a two point move.
Wrestling is a great sport, whether you’re watching, or participating. There’s a lot of different moves to watch and learn and these were only a few of the moves. Hopefully this guide helps you understand the basics of wrestling and gets you excited to watch.
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