Wrestling Essay, Research Paper

Wrestling is a sport of many statures. There are many different ways to par take in this

sport, all of which make the sport highly addictive. As said before wrestling is an

addictive sport. It has been played many different ways, from times that date back to

the Egyptians. The variety just makes the sport more addictive. Some of the ways

people par take in the sport would be Freestyle or Greco-Roman , Olympic

Wrestling , and Professional Wrestling.

Wrestling has been popular throughout recorded history. Origins of the sport can

be traced back 15,000 years through depictions in cave drawings in France. Early

Egyptian and Babylonian relieves depict wrestlers using most of the holds known to the

present-day sport. In ancient Greece, wrestling occupied a prominent place in legend

and literature; wrestling competition, brutal in many aspects, was the supreme contest

of the Olympic Games. The ancient Romans borrowed heavily from Greek wrestling,

but eliminated much of its brutality. During the Middle Ages (5th century to 15th

century), wrestling remained popular and enjoyed the patronage of many royal houses,

including those of France, Japan, and England. Early American settlers brought a

strong wrestling tradition with them from England. The colonists also found wrestling to

be popular among Native Americans. Amateur wrestling flourished throughout the early

years of the nation and served as a popular activity at country fairs, holiday

celebrations, and in military exercises. The first organized national wrestling

tournament was held in New York City in 1888, while the first wrestling competition in

the modern Olympic Games was held in 1904 in St. Louis, Missouri. FILA (F d ration

Internationale de la Lutte Amateur1) was founded in 1912, in Antwerp, Belgium. The first

NCAA Wrestling Championships were also held in 1912, in Ames, Iowa. USA

Wrestling, located in Colorado Springs, Colorado, became the national governing body

of amateur wrestling in 1983. It conducts competitions for all age levels.

There are a number of different types of Wrestling and they are all so

addictive. The first type is Freestyle or Greco-Roman. The rules of freestyle

wrestling permit an athlete to use his entire body in competition, allowing a greater

variety of holds. Holds below the waist and the use of the legs are permitted. In the

1990s, the United States became one of the leading freestyle wrestling nations in the

world, winning its first-ever team title at the 1993 Freestyle World Championships.

Previously the sport was dominated for many years by the former Union of Soviet

Socialist Republics (USSR). Freestyle is the most popular style in the world, with

more nations participating in this form of wrestling at the annual world championships

than in Greco-Roman. Women’s freestyle wrestling is a growing sport around the

world. A world championship for women was created in the 1980s, and an increasing

number of nations field women’s wrestling teams each year. Greco-Roman wrestling

is especially popular in Europe, but it is practiced throughout the world. The

distinctive feature of Greco-Roman wrestling is that contestants must apply all holds

above the waist, and the use of the legs in scoring or defending is prohibited.

Tripping, tackling, and using the legs to secure a hold are not permitted.

Greco-Roman wrestlers begin their bout in a standing position, and attempt to either

throw their opponent to the mat or to use holds to drop them to the mat.

The next wrestling style, that makes wrestling so addictive, is Olympic

Wrestling. The basic rules and scoring procedures for Olympic Wrestling are the

same as those of freestyle and Greco-Roman are the same, as determined by the

F d ration Internationale de la Lutte Amateur (FILA), the international wrestling

federation. Olympic-style wrestling bouts consist of a one-period, 5-minute match. A

match is completed if a wrestler scores a fall, or if at the end of regulation, one

wrestler has scored more points. Under current rules, if neither wrestler scores at

least three points in the five minutes allotted, the wrestlers must go into an overtime

period of a maximum of three minutes. If neither wrestler has scored three points at

the end of the overtime, or if the bout is still tied, the officials determine the winner.

The points awarded for the various scoring maneuvers in wrestling (takedown,

reversal, escape, exposure) are the same in both freestyle and Greco-Roman

wrestling.

The last style of wrestling is Professional Wrestling, which seems to be the

most popular of all of the previous ones. Legitimate or genuine professional wrestling

was extremely popular in the United States from 1880 to 1920. The first professional

wrestlers were featured in carnivals, where they attracted large crowds by offering

cash prizes to any local champion who could throw them. Victory went to the wrestler

scoring two falls out of three. Bouts often were contested in a mixed style that is,

one fall was wrestled in the catch-as-catch-can style (which evolved into

collegiate-style), another in Greco-Roman. The style used for the third fall, if any, was

decided by the toss of a coin. No time limit was imposed on matches. Professional

wrestling reached its zenith during the early decades of the 20th century before giving

way to exhibition wrestling. Exhibition wrestling is currently the only popular form of

professional wrestling in the United States. Because the chief purpose of such

wrestling is entertainment, both the action and the outcome of exhibition matches are

carefully rehearsed in advance to be dramatic or humorous. Most states require,

therefore, that professional wrestling matches be advertised as exhibitions rather than

as contests. The action takes place in a roped-off ring about 5.5 m (about 18 ft)

square. One of the contestants, usually assuming a villainous attitude, pretends to

inflict damage on the opponent with simulated eye-gouges, finger-twists, and other

illegal tactics. Meanwhile the opponent wins the sympathy of the spectators by using

orthodox wrestling holds, and in the end, usually triumphs.

Wrestling is a sport of many statures. There are many different ways to par

take in this sport, all of which make the sport very addictive to watch. So as you can

see from those three most popular ways of wrestling that the sport itself can be very

addictive to watch.

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Wrestling,” Microsoft Encarta 98 Encyclopedia. 1993-1997 Microsoft Corporation. All rights

reserved.