Hi guys, The Olympics are right around the corner and wrestling competition is about to get started within the 2 styles of wrestling at the Olympics - Freestyle and Greco Roman. Most people are aware of Freestyle, especially in the US but many are not aware of the specifics and history of Greco Roman wrestling. There are many differences but the main one if the absence of any type of grip or contact below the waist of the opponent. This creates a truly challenging wrestling style that has a great crossover into MMA and self defense (due to the more upright stance, hand fighting and clinch work). The most obvious is the stance as being more upright, it naturally combines with a typical striking stance. Another benefit if Greco for MMA and Self defense is that it develops a lot of emphasis on pushing the opponent and controlling the body. Here is an article I recently wrote on Greco Roman Wrestling, it is a bit long but covers a huge amount of the wrestling style, hope you guys like this and let me know what you think: The Ultimate Guide to Greco Roman Wrestling - Grapplezilla Enjoy and looking forward to your thoughts.
I find wrestling pretty impenetrable. They seem to wrestle for takedowns for a bit and then one person gets on all fours while the other person grabs them round the waist and tries to turn them over? Seems a strange goal. Submission grappling, BJJ and Judo seem much easier to watch and understand. To know what each person is trying to do and why. I find I can't enjoy a sport unless I know what the players are trying to do because without that understanding I can't gauge what is skilled or good play. It's one reason why I can watch and enjoy Rugby highlights of good tries and crunching tackles but can't actually watch a full game because so much of it is "why did that happen?" why's he just done that?" "Why did he boot it up the field but the other guy run with it?
The rules are on the internet, you know, they're not secret... The object is to put your opponent on his back touching both shoulder blades to the mat. If you do that, you win by fall. If you can't do that, you need to score more points than him, decent video explainer on the basics of the points system for freestyle: Greco is similar, except you can't attack the legs or use your legs to attack.
Yep. Read 'em. Watched some Alexander Karelin highlights. Still can't get me head around what they're really doing. The starting on all fours half way through with only a waist hold allowed is really weird. No weirder than starting on the back or with a partial submission in EBI I suppose though.
Think of it like a penalty in football, as a punishment to your opponent for breaking the rules (most commonly by stalling) you get an opportunity to try and score from a very advantageous position. Generally I'd say freestyle is the better spectator sport, Greco at a high level can be pretty dry because of the extreme difficulty of scoring with so many restrictions against very good opposition.
