WRESTLING

WRESTLING

sport practiced in various styles by two competitors, involving forcing an opponent to touch the ground with some part of the body other than his feet; forcing him into a certain position, usually supine (on his back); or holding him in that position for a minimum length of time. Wrestling is conducted in various styles with contestants upright or on the ground (or mat).

The three basic types of wrestling contest are the belt-and-jacket, catch-hold, and loose styles, all of which appear to have originated in antiquity. Belt-and-jacket styles of wrestling are those in which the clothing of the wrestlers provides the principal means of taking a grip on the opponent. In many cases this is no more than a special belt worn by both wrestlers, while in others a special belted jacket and special trousers are worn. Catch-hold styles require the contestants to take a prescribed hold before the contest begins; often this grip must be maintained throughout the struggle. Loose styles of wrestling, which are used in modern international competition, commence with the wrestlers separated and free to seize any grip that they choose except such as are explicitly forbidden (e.g., taking hold of an opponent's clothing or using a life-threatening grip, such as a stranglehold).

Wrestling can also be classified in terms of what is required to win. These categories can be graded on an ascending scale of violence as follows: break-stance sports are those that require forcing the opponent to relinquish a certain posture or position; toppling requires that the standing opponent be forced to touch the ground with some part of his body other than his feet; touch-fall wrestling requires that the opponent be forced into a certain position, usually supine, for a brief instant; pin-fall wrestling requires that the opponent be held in such a position for a measurable length of time; and submission wrestling requires the opponent to vocally or visually signal defeat by his own choice.

Middle Ages

When the Islamic rulers of Persia began hiring Turkic mercenaries about 800 CE, the soldiers brought with them a style of loose wrestling called koresh, in which grips may be taken on the long, tight leather pants worn by the wrestlers and the bout ends with a touch fall of the loser briefly on his back. Gradually the Turks took over the entire Muslim dominion, and their wrestling style spread. Later Mongolian invasions in the 13th century introduced Mongolian wrestling, which received royal patronage, and wrestling became the national sport of modern Iran.
Sumo, a Japanese belt-wrestling style, was a popular spectator sport under imperial patronage (710–1185). Originally a submission spectacle, sumo became highly ritualized as a toppling match with victory coming also from the forcing of an opponent out of a 12-foot (4-metre) circle. By the 17th century sumo wrestling had became a professional sport in Japan. From the samurai martial art jujitsu, judo, the other prominent Japanese wrestling style, was derived in the 19th century and became an international sport in the second half of the 20th century.
Wrestling occurred in several styles throughout Europe in the Middle Ages. The first recorded English match was held in London early in the 13th century. In England and Brittany a form of jacket wrestling commonly called Cornwall and Devon (see Cornish wrestling) survives from at least the 4th or 5th century. Wrestling as a martial skill was taught to the knights of the Holy Roman Empire, and wrestling instruction books appeared in manuscript before the introduction of printing and thereafter in print. Mongolian loose wrestling, introduced to India after the Mughal conquest of 1526, has survived in both India and Pakistan. As the modern era began, the English kings Henry VIII and Charles II and the French king Francis I were notable patrons of wrestling.

Modern wrestling

From the 18th century on, a procession of wrestlers or strongmen appeared at fairs, in theatres, and in circuses, challenging all comers, beginning with the Englishman Thomas Topham of London in the 18th century and culminating with Eugene Sandow, the German-born international figure, who continued into the 20th century. Early in the 1800s wrestling became a part of the training regimen of the German turnverein gymnastic movement. In the United States, wrestling was popular as a frontier sport (Abraham Lincoln was a noted local wrestler), bouts usually going until one contestant submitted and with few holds barred.
In the second half of the 19th century, two wrestling styles developed that ultimately dominated international wrestling: Greco-Roman wrestling and catch-as-catch-can, or freestyle wrestling. Greco-Roman wrestling, popularized first in France, was so called because it was thought to be the kind of wrestling done by the ancients. Greco-Roman wrestling involves holds made only above the waist and forbids wrapping the legs about an opponent when the wrestlers go down. Originally it was professional and popularized at international expositions held at Paris, but after its inclusion in the revived Olympic Games in 1896, Greco-Roman wrestling events were held at subsequent Olympic Games except in 1900 and 1904.
The second style, catch-as-catch-can, was popularized mainly in Great Britain and the United States, first as a professional sport and after 1888, when it was recognized by the Amateur Athletic Association, as an amateur sport. It was introduced into the Olympic Games of 1904 and contested thereafter except in 1912. Catch-as-catch-can permits holds above the waist and leg grips and is won by a pin-fall.
Freestyle, or international freestyle, wrestling is a synthetic form of catch-as-catch-can that came to be used in the Olympic Games after it first appeared in Antwerp about 1920. International freestyle is loose wrestling that uses the Greco-Roman touch-fall instead of the pin-fall common to Anglo-American wrestling practice.
Notable professional wrestlers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries included the Russian George Hackenschmidt, originally an amateur Greco-Roman wrestler who turned professional and wrestled catch-as-catch-can from 1900. He was world champion until 1908. The American wrestler Frank Gotch defeated Hackenschmidt in 1908 and again in 1911.
After Gotch's retirement in 1913, professional wrestling, which was already fighting a losing battle in popularity with boxing, came to an end as a serious professional sport. Thereafter, though its audience grew, especially in the United States, through radio broadcasts and later even more so through telecasts, it became pure spectacle. The winners, divided deliberately into “heroes” and “villains,” were determined by promoters' financial requirements, not skill. Wrestling maneuvers became increasingly extravagant and artificial and lost most of their authenticity. Perhaps most theatrical of all is the style of professional wrestling known as lucha libre, a form that is commonly associated with Mexico and is known for its colourfully masked performers and aerial moves.

Principles and practice

Under FILA rules, contests of both international freestyle and Greco-Roman styles of touch-fall wrestling are similar, the object being in each case to throw or press the opponent on his back so that his shoulder blades touch the ground simultaneously. This need occur only for an instant, but a continuous roll across the shoulders is not considered a fall.

The competitors meet on a large padded mat and commence by taking holds from a standing position. Their struggle is observed and controlled by officials, one of whom, the referee, stands on the mat with the wrestlers and signals the award of points for maneuvers leading toward a touch-fall. If no fall occurs before the expiration of the match, these points are used to determine a winner. The actual match is continuous except that it is divided into three periods with a brief rest in between. Ties or draws are common in wrestling.

The competitors make use of techniques that are best learned by practice. While standing, they strive to bring each other to the mat with a series of maneuvers known as takedowns, involving lifting, throwing, twisting, tackling, and tripping. When attacked, a wrestler applies counterattacks to convert the situation to his own advantage. If the wrestlers go down on the mat without a touch-fall, they proceed to grapple, seizing each other with various grips and countergrips to work toward a fall. Great strength, though an asset, is not a prerequisite, since most of the maneuvers employ the principle of leverage; quickness and good physical condition are far more essential. The action in wrestling proceeds at a furious pace and involves all muscles of the body. The use of weight classes prevents the pairing of any two men with more than a few pounds difference between them.
Although the Spartans trained young girls as wrestlers in ancient Greece and an occasional female wrestler, if only legendary, such as Zenobia, has appeared, wrestling by women occurred in the 20th century only as a novelty spectacle.