Collegiate Wrestling- the american martial art

[Freestyler777]

I particularly like collegiate wrestling out of all the grappling styles. I like the feeling of shooting doubles and singles, and of pinning and escaping. I tried to do sambo and BJJ but submission just doesn't happen for me.

I also am not crazy about striking, although if I did a striking art, it would be boxing. Muay Thai is a bit extreme.

Any other admirers of this uniquely american sport? American Folkstyle is a great thing, IMO.

 

[jarrod]

i love it, really wish i had trained wrestling more when i had the opportunity. out of the various grappling arts i have trained, i think sambo is the closest to wrestling.

my shots deteriorated rapidly after a certain point; it just always took a lot of effort for me to maintain them. i like wrestling, but i'm a sambo & jujitsu guy at the core.

jf

 

[Freestyler777]

I think all the grappling arts have something to offer. But collegiate wrestling is a uniquely american sport, that's what I like about it. That and the premise of the top guy wanting to ride and pin, and the bottom guy wanting to escape or reverse. It's so simple!

I just don't have the fine motor skills for submissions, and i feel like I can't do anything from the guard except sweep or escape. I am definitely a control grappler not a submission grappler.

 

[jarrod]

i know a guy who won the sambo world championships in i think 2002 or '03; but at any rate he one with just solid wrestling. his whole strategy was control, pin, dominate, & shut down the other guy. almost always won on points, & it all came from wrestling. wrestling+just knowing enough to avoid submissions can make for one dangerous grappler.

i don't know if you're familiar with catch-as-catch can wrestling, or often just catch wrestling. it's the predecessor of folkstyle, & was a very popular american wrestling style through the 1800s.

jf

 

[Freestyler777]

i know that in the pre-UFC days, sambo was kind of like 'the third style of wrestling' and was only widely known by wrestlers. I train freestyle sambo, but that is more like BJJ/submission grappling in that it is guard oriented and allows all submissions (including chokes) except for the heel hook and wrist locks.

Catch-wrestling is great! I think it is the original western version of judo, and the predecessor of freestyle wrestling.

 

[arnisador]

Great takedowns, but the emphasis on the back-pin is less relevant to self-defense than it could be. I like its takedowns/takedown defenses and some of the standing stuff (arm drag, etc.) with BJJ on the actual ground!

 

[Freestyler777]

i know what you are saying, that the shoulder-pin doesn't matter so much. But wrestling is a great thing to begin in. In fact, it is an ideal sport for children, since it is safe, and the takedowns and top-control can be applied to judo or BJJ or even defensively to striking sports/arts.

When I have kids someday, the first sport I will get them involved in is pee-wee wrestling. That and yoga.

 

[arnisador]

i know what you are saying, that the shoulder-pin doesn't matter so much. But wrestling is a great thing to begin in. In fact, it is an ideal sport for children, since it is safe, and the takedowns and top-control can be applied to judo or BJJ or even defensively to striking sports/arts.

Full agreement! I wrestled in high school and it helped not only with techniques and conditioning but also confidence (a resisting opponent).

 

[Tyler1]

Great takedowns, but the emphasis on the back-pin is less relevant to self-defense than it could be. I like its takedowns/takedown defenses and some of the standing stuff (arm drag, etc.) with BJJ on the actual ground!

When I've used wrestling in self defense...not life and death stuff, dumb college stuff...it seems that when you get somebody on their back, tied up and slightly chocked, it's over pretty quick with out any real pain...just domination. I hated to say that a bit but it's true.

In life and death stuff wrestling is a good base skill but lacks the kill aspect unless you can throw...if you know what I mean.

 

[northern tiger]

Great takedowns, but the emphasis on the back-pin is less relevant to self-defense than it could be. I like its takedowns/takedown defenses and some of the standing stuff (arm drag, etc.) with BJJ on the actual ground!

In the only real fight I've ever been involved in my wrestling training came to great use.

Some thugs where pushing around this youngster and me and a friend stepped in between. This guy grabbed my jacket (wearing tie and suit) and I knew he was going to punch me so I clinched him up. We pushed each other around and I managed to body-lock-suplex him. It ended the fight quickly.

 

[skatatika]

By "collegiate wrestling" do you mean greco-roman wrestling or free style wrestling or something else? Excuse me for the dumb question but I'm not american and I don't know if you're refering to the same thing. If it is greco-roman or free style wrestling then indeed it is a great sport that takes a lot of strenght and technique to master.

 

[northern tiger]

By "collegiate wrestling" do you mean greco-roman wrestling or free style wrestling or something else? Excuse me for the dumb question but I'm not american and I don't know if you're refering to the same thing. If it is greco-roman or free style wrestling then indeed it is a great sport that takes a lot of strenght and technique to master.

Collegiate wrestling is different from both greco-roman and freestyle. Throws and takedowns are basically the same as freestyle but collegiate has more emphasis on ground work. The person in the top position accumulates points over time and the one on the bottom tries more actively to neutralize the position or reverse it as opposed to greco and freestyle which have very little ground work.

 

[chav buster]

i have trained a mixture of freestyle and greco for mma which i know isnt the same thing as you yanks do but i think i have probably used more wrestling in real fights then anything else, of course its not really a fight finisher as theres no strikes or locks but for getting you out of the **** on the floor and dominating the clinch its second to none except maybe judo but the difference betwean wrestling and judo is tiny imo

 

[Tyler1]

i have trained a mixture of freestyle and greco for mma which i know isnt the same thing as you yanks do but i think i have probably used more wrestling in real fights then anything else, of course its not really a fight finisher as theres no strikes or locks but for getting you out of the **** on the floor and dominating the clinch its second to none except maybe judo but the difference betwean wrestling and judo is tiny imo

The difference beteween wrestling and judo is huge.

 

[chav buster]

The difference beteween wrestling and judo is huge.

the emphasis may be different but all the throws and takedowns are the same apart from a view minor differences, you have alot of the same pins and scrables on the floor so apart from the subs and gi there more or less the same imo

 

[Unkogami]

Great to see all the wrestling support here!

 

[Pyrock]

This doesn't pertain to collegiate wrestling but my 7 year old son has been training in BJJ for almost a year. He as been to a few tournaments where he is typically matched up with larger kids. Because he is a newbie and that he's relatively small, he lost most of his matches. A few months ago he added wrestling because some of his BJJ friends started middle school wrestling. Since he added wrestling, he took 3rd place at the UFC Expo Grapplers' Quest. I think wrestling added a degree of explosiveness to his game that the typical BJJ kid doesn't have. Also, take-downs helped a lot seeing as how he did hip throws in every match to take down his opponent. It went down hill from there (for the opponent, that is).

 

[Unkogami]

This is a good age for him to start wrestling.

 

[Pyrock]

This is a good age for him to start wrestling.

So far, he finished his first four tournaments and he placed 3rd, 1st, 1st, & 1st respectively! Not bad for his first few tournaments ever in wrestling.

 

[terryl965]

Congrats Pyrock