Keep the fight standing and beat them up on the feet. Keep them against the cage and grind them down. Control where the fight takes place and you control the fight. But where does the art of freestyle wrestling come from? According to United World Wrestling, the international governing body for amateur wrestling, freestyle wrestling originated with the catch-as-catch-can wrestling of Great Britain and Ireland. If the initial takedown did not lead to a fall, the wrestling continued on the ground, and basically every lock and hold was allowed.
This wrestling was popular at village and town fairs across the U. K, and eventually Irish immigrants brought their variation to the United States, where it grew rapidly in popularity — in fact catch-as-catch-can was practiced by at least half a dozen presidents, including Washington, Lincoln and Roosevelt.
Whilst freestyle wrestling grew in popularity in the U. S it struggled to get a foothold in Europe due to the interest in professional Greco-Roman wrestling across the continent during the 19th century. Two men in the U. Freestyle wrestling is a style of amateur wrestling that is practiced throughout the world. Along with Greco-Roman, it is one of the two styles of wrestling contested in the Olympic games.
This freestyle wrestler locks the limbs of his opponent in order to take him down to the mat. Origins of Wrestling Wrestling originated in ancient Greece where it was used to train soldiers and as everyday exercise. Since then, it has changed dramatically. It is the oldest recorded competitive sport in world history, and today there are more than 1, different styles of wrestling.
Greek wrestling was a popular form of martial art, at least in Ancient Greece about to BC. Oil wrestling is the national sport of Turkey and it can be traced back to Central Asia. Wrestling is another ancient sport whose origins are difficult to trace as it is depicted throughout the art of several early civilizations.
These drawings, as well as many other vestiges, witness the existence of corporations of wrestlers in Ancient Egypt, wrestling rules and refereeing codes. For the Greeks , wrestling was a science and a divine art, and it represented the most important training for young men.
Athletes wrestled naked, with their bodies coated with olive oil and covered with a layer of very thin sand to protect the skin from sunlight or from cold during winter. After wrestling, they scraped this layer off with an instrument called strigil and washed themselves with water.
Fights were similar to those of freestyle wrestling, as shown by drawings and inscriptions from that time. The competitor who first threw his opponent or first brought him down - either on his back, hips, chest, knees or elbows - was proclaimed the winner. During the A ncient Olympic Games , from B.
In fact, it was the last discipline to be held — after the discus, the javelin, the long jump and the foot race — and it designated the winner of the Pentathlon, the only crowned athlete of the Games. The most famous of all wrestlers was Milon of Croton student of the philosopher Pythagoras , six times Olympic champion from to B. Legend has it that when he tried to splinter a tree with his own hands, his fingers got stuck in the split tree-trunk and he was devoured by a lion.
Wrestling in Roman Times was developed on the basis of the legacy of the Etruscans and the restoration of the Greek games. Wrestling was the favourite sport of young aristocrats, soldiers and shepherds. According to Classius Dion, the palestra was at the origin of the military success of the Romans. Olympic Values sank into the dark Middle Ages, but they were always latent, without ceasing to exist. During Middle Ages and Renaissance , wrestling was practiced by the social elite, in castles and palaces.
Numerous painters and writers celebrated wrestling and encouraged its practice : Caravaggio, Poussin, Rembrandt, Courbet, Rabelais, Rousseau, Montaigne, Locke, etc. The attempts made to restore the Olympic Games were numerous, but it was not until that they were re-established by Baron Pierre de Coubertin.
After the creation of the International Olympic Committee in , the development of new international sport federations and Olympic committees were accelerated.
The first Olympic Congress took place in at « la Sorbonne » and decided of the ten sports that would be part of the Olympic program : athletics, wrestling, rowing, cycling, fencing, gymnastics, weightlifting, swimming, shooting and tennis see the congress minutes. During the wrestling tournament in Athens , there were no weight categories and all five competitors wrestled under rules similar to those of the professional Greco-Roman wrestling.
The matches lasted until one of the competitors won. It was allowed to interrupt and resume the matches on the following day. The first Olympic champion — the German athlete Schumann — who was not a trained wrestler, was also the winner of horse jumping and parallel bars. Schumann succeeded to beat the English weightlifting champion Launceston Elliot, who was heavier than him, by executing a quick and accurate body lock.
Professional wrestling began in France around Wrestlers who had no access to the wrestling elite, formed troupes that travelled around France showing their talent. He named this new style « flat hand wrestling ». Upon Mr. Rossignol-Rollin attorney from Lyon assumed the direction of this troupe and was soon noticed for his ability to advertise, to « arrange » matches and to reward wrestlers in the name of the audience.
The French influence extended to the Austrian Hungarian Empire, to Italy, to Denmark and to Russia and the new style circulated under the name of Greco-Roman wrestling , classic wrestling or French wrestling. Professional wrestling matches were thus organized everywhere in Europe with variable programs and competition rules according to the taste of wrestlers, of managers and of the audience.
At the end of the 19th century, professional wrestling was the most in vogue sport in Europe, but it started to degrade from because of the pre-arranged matches, the announcement of forgery, false victories and false nationalities of the competitors. The rediscovery of Olympic amateurism encouraged the creation of numerous clubs and schools that finished professional wrestling off.
However, from a historical point of view, professional wrestling has its indisputable merits.
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