Freestyle Wrestling Rules

The two main type of wrestling styles are Freestyle and Greco-Roman Wrestling. With minor exceptions and differences the two styles are considered nearly similar. For example, in Greco-Roman, a wrestler may not attack his opponent's legs, nor use his own legs to trip, lift or execute other moves. Whereas in freestyle wrestling, both the arms and legs may be used to execute holds or to defend against the opponent's attack.

To maintain fair competition among competitors, they are divided in Weight Classes. Hence a person competes within a weight class and age group among other similar athletes. To achieve this athletes are weighed in prior to the competition or even before the seedings, and must be at the weight level or below in order to compete.

Fought on open-air sand-pits earlier, these days professional freestyle wrestling is contested on a mat. Televised competitions are fought on stage, with onlookers around in indoor stadium. At any international event there are three officials, that's a referee (on the mat or the stage), a chairman and a judge. As for the uniform for the competitions, competitors wear singlet (a single torso-to-genitals covering dress). More traditionally some countries do have only the briefs for men. Officials wear full - white formals. Coaches are not allowed to wear full - whites in competition, moreover they are made to sit at a distance from the mat.

Normally freestyle wrestling is fought in bouts of a minute (with breaks) or five-minute bout (without breaks).

Points are decided and awarded on various factors, such as:

        takedown (laying the opponent on back on the ground)
        exposure (just touch-down)
        reversal (reversing an opponent's tactics)
        escape (escaping from the opponent's tactics)
        passivity (simply holding onto the position)

Following are the points mechanism followed for major competitions:

Fall or Pin: when both shoulders are held on the mat, then the match ends
Technical Fall: 10-point margin, match ends or continues depending on superior wrestlers decision

Injury default: when the athlete cannot continue to compete, the match ends. Normally this happens on heavy injuries or cuts during the bout.

Decision taken: The person who makes the most points in a bout and wins is declared the winner

Award of points are simple, though the officials keep a track of the positions:

1 point: Takedown, Reversal, Hand-to-hand Exposure, Escape
1 extra point: High amplitude throw from mat or holding man on back for five seconds. It is to be noted here that before another hold down takes place, yet another scoring move must take place. Moreover during the hold-down, the referee should visibly indicate the count.
2 points: Exposure such as a roll-through or a takedown then exposure
3 points: Takedown to immediate exposure from feet; high amplitude throw without danger
5 points: High amplitude throw to danger. Generally the opponent is thrown above the waist by the wrestler.
Also on a given move sequence only the highest point move is scored, irrespective of the possibility of combination of points.
Penalty Calls are awarded to ensure that there is fair play
Illegal hold without consequence - 1 point plus caution
Illegal hold with consequence - 2 points plus caution
Fleeing the mat - 1 or 2 points plus caution
Fleeing the hold - 1 point plus caution