Sunday, November 17, 2013

Different Types Of Wrestling

By Rod Bourgoine


Wrestling is an ancient sport and has been practiced in one form or another for many centuries. The earliest Olympic Games included wrestling as have all the modern Olympics, although the International Olympic Committee did try to eliminate the sport from the 2016 Summer Games. Fortunately, the protest was strong enough that the IOC reinstated wrestling and it will remain for now.

While there are many different types of wrestling, one of the types you see during the Olympics is Greco-Roman wrestling. The other type of wrestling displayed at the Olympic Games is freestyle wrestling. These two types of wrestling have some key differences. Holds below the waist are not allowed in Greco-Roman wrestling, but they are part of freestyle wrestling. Freestyle wrestlers are allowed to use their legs to takedown an opponent, while Greco Roman wrestlers cannot.

Another difference is that freestylers can throw an opponent down and then apply some type of hold, but Greco Roman wrestlers must stay in contact with their opponent during the takedown and then place their opponent in a hold. If they fail to do this, the hold will not count. While it would be wrong to say that freestyle wrestling is easier than Greco-Roman, freestyle wrestlers do tend to have more options available to them while Greco-Roman wrestlers tend to rely more on upper body force and strength.

In 1896, the first Olympic games of the modern era were held. These games included all of the ancient sports as well as some more modern additions such as cycling. However, there was one notable exception. The sport of pankration, which had been a part of the ancient games, was not included. This combat sport, which was no doubt a precursor to mixed martial arts, is a sort of anything-goes type of sport that included many wrestling elements as well as boxing, kickboxing, striking and a variety of chokes. Actually, fighters really could do just about anything they wanted in order to win the fight. You couldn't bite nor could you gouge someone's eyes, but pretty much everything else was fine. While it is not an Olympic sport, the world's main wrestling organization, FILA, recognizes the sport.

FILA grappling is yet another type of wrestling, which is similar in many ways to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Judo. It is basically a hybrid of the two aforementioned martial arts as well as wrestling and sambo. Again, it is quite similar to MMA, but striking is not allowed, nor is kicking and as the name suggests, the emphasis is on grappling skills. There are two styles of FILA wrestling, Gi and No-Gi, which simply means that either the fighters wear the Gi or they don't.

These are just a few of the types of wrestling that you can find around the world. Sambo, a unique Russian martial art, has many similarities to both wrestling and Judo. Oil wrestling is an interesting, albeit messy, type of wrestling and the national sport of Turkey. These fighters slather themselves with olive oil before fighting, as if regular wrestling wasn't difficult enough.




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