What Is Freestyle Wrestling?

Grant Conroy, Sports Writer

May 16, 2012

When the winter sports season finally reaches its end, many high school wrestlers transition into a different style of wrestling called freestyle wrestling.

Essentially, freestyle wrestling is a type of olympic style wrestling with the ultimate goal being to throw and pin an opponent to the mat.

Also similar to the Greco-Roman style wrestling, freestyle allows athletes to utilize holds and grapples that are normally illegal, and it is the most complete form of stand up wrestling. Both the arms and legs may be used to execute holds and defend against attack.

In contrast to the traditional style, freestyle enforces little emphasis on control. After fifteen seconds of no scoring or activity, wrestlers are summoned back to their feet and the action is reset to the center. If a ten-point lead is taken, that wrestler is asked to either continue the match or end the bout with technical superiority. Pinfall, injury, disqualification, and forfeit are other methods to victory as well.

Depending on the age group, matches can be from two one-minute periods with a rest to one five-minute period without stoppage.

Another difference between traditional and freestyle is that freestyle does not require wrestlers to wear protective headgear. Headgear is used primarily to prevent the build up of blood sacs in the ear known as “cauliflower ear”.

At Bethel Park High School, there is one athlete who excels in this style of wrestling. A junior at the high school, Dan Sullivan has experienced much success wrestling in the freestyle Junior Olympics and other prestigious tournaments across the country. He recently was a place winner at a state-wide freestyle wrestling tournament in Western Pennsylvania.

Overall, freestyle wrestling gives wrestlers the opportunity to compete on a less restrictive level. It gives wrestlers the freedom to practice and complete any move, hold, or takedown without being penalized for illegal maneuvers.

If you would like to learn more about and practice freestlye wrestling, join us in the wrestling room every Monday and Wednesday from 6:30 PM- 8:00PM.

The team begins pre-season training at the end of June. Stay tuned. Why wrestle? Click here to find out.

About the Contributor

Grant Conroy, Staff/Sports Writer

This is Grant Conroy, a junior at Bethel Park High School who is new to the Hawk Eye staff. This is his first year writing for the newspaper and he is already taking the online writing world by storm. He is an experienced writer due to his previous years spent in honors and advanced English classes. Grant enjoys writing primarily about sports topics and controversies, but he has a wide variety of areas in which he excels as well. While in college, he plans to utilize his 4.2 GPA to major in Journalism/Writing at the university of his choice. A few colleges that he is considering are Northwestern University, Boston University, and the University of Vermont. Outside of the classroom, Grant is a dedicated and hardworking member of the Wrestling team, Yearbook, PACS, and of course, the Hawk Eye. Additional hobbies of his include snowboarding at various mountain resorts, playing with his dog Rosie, and living life like there's no tomorrow. He plans to continue writing for the Hawk Eye during his senior year of High School.