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Wrestling

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Wrestling is a sport in which a practitioner attempts to defeat an opponent without the use of striking. Wrestling is amongst the oldest sports in history that, over time, has evolved into many different styles and forms. They range from world-wide, commercialised stadium events to less publicized, local amateur competitions.

The aim

The aim of a wrestling contest depends upon its style, but common aims are

- pinning the shoulders of an opponent to the ground for a defined time,

- gaining a submission by choking, strangling, or locking the limbs of an opponent,

- maneuvering an opponents shoulders toward the ground to earn points,

- raising an opponent over ones head,

- throwing an opponent to the floor, and/or

- gaining control over an opponents body.

Styles

There are almost as many wrestling styles as there are national traditions. Styles include Pehlwani in India, Sumo in Japan and Yağlı güreş which is a type of "oiled" wrestling in Turkey. Wrestling is often categorized as one of the martial arts; its virile image and usefulness as military training helped generate such multi-cultural evolutions. Some evidence suggests that wrestling may be the oldest sport known to man. A large amount of early artwork, for example, depicts matches between two opponents. One of the most famous wresting matches appears in the book of Genesis where Jacob wrestles an angel (sometimes thought of as God himself) and is renamed Israel for his struggle, which translates to "Wrestles with God". In addition to its sporting nature, wrestling has often been utilized as the basis for popular spectacle, or theatrical drama. Circus shows worldwide have historically included sideshow wrestling matches involving monetary wagers and even people competing against animals (particularly bears). Such "show wrestling" has continued to this day in professional wrestling spectaculars – choreographed for maximum auditory and visual effects. Often the winner of commercial contests is determined in advance but some styles such as Sumo,Shoot wrestling (also in Japan) and mixed martial arts remain true sporting contests while still including many commercial aspects.

Show wrestling

Historically, many spectators have been as interested in observing spectacular "fights" or competitions as in finding out who was the better wrestler. This is not unlike the often vulgar gladiatorial "competitions" of ancient Rome which included death at the whim or political mindedness of an emperor and his "thumbs-up". Such theatrical winning often occurs with the full knowledge of the audience. Modern-day professional wrestling has traces back in early traveling carnivals, where showmen would challenge local spectators to compete with them in a ring. They would typically offer prizes to any man (or woman, for that matter) who could beat them. To keep the contests interesting (and possibly to make sure not many prizes were claimed) the carnival director would often place one of his showmen in the audience to pose as a "local" challenger, and the wrestlers would provide an entertaining, if predetermined, show for the spectators. Besides the United States, Mexico (Lucha Libre) and Japan (Puroresu) have garnered the greatest percentage of spectator commercialism under the "professional" label.

Wrestling as military training

The main objectives of wrestling in military training are:

- Superior balance developed from trying to keep one's balance while at the same time trying to upset the opponent's. In war, falling to the ground can quickly make one vulnerable to weapon thrusts, which makes good balance a must for strong soldiers.

- Focused and powerful pushing-power. In wrestling, one must often keep forward pressure on one's opponent, and in combat one must also smash or thrust weapons forward at one's enemies.

- The ability to get up quickly if fallen down, a very important survival skill on the battlefield (see above).

- Improved stamina, endurance, and strength.

- Physical skills to control prisoners or to carry wounded comrades.

- Aggressiveness and improved reaction time.

- Camraderie, diversion and entertainment.

Wrestling is a safe way to achieve these above goals since it does not use dangerous objects or weapons.

Wrestling's contributions to Mixed Martial Arts

Wrestling has gained tremendous respect as a fighting art with the advent of mixed martial arts. Wrestling is amongst the most successful of all fighting arts in mixed martial arts competitions. As of April, 2006 wrestling is listed as the most dominant fighting style of current times on sherdog.com. Wrestling is also listed as the most dominant fighting style of all time on sherdog.com. Also, styles of fighting based on wrestling such as Rings Submission Fighting', Submission wrestling, Greco-Roman Wrestling and Sambo have been listed as dominant fighting styles as well. Wrestling also forms the base of some of the most respected 'self defence/mixed martial arts systems in the world eg. Shootfighting,Shooto,Pancrase and Combat Submission Wrestling.

Major wrestling sub-disciplines

- Amateur Wrestling

- Catch Wrestling

- Collegiate Wrestling

- Freestyle Wrestling

- Greco-Roman wrestling

- Shoot wrestling

- Sumo wrestling

Also See

- Folk wrestling

- Professional wrestling

- Mixed martial arts/Ultimate Fighting

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